The creator, social and performance economy is entering a new phase and buyers are no longer chasing scale alone. In his latest Northern Market Intelligence report, Phil Gripton, Partner at Waypoint, examines why ownership of distribution, data and monetisation infrastructure is becoming the defining factor in Northern agency valuations.
The creator, social and performance ecosystem is entering a different phase of maturity.
What was until recently a fast-growing segment of the agency landscape is now being treated very differently by buyers, investors and platforms. The shift is subtle but significant in its implication. This is no longer about channel growth or capability expansion. It is about ownership of infrastructure within a system that has become integrated, measurable and commercially critical.
That change is now visible in deal behaviour.
READ MORE: What Northern agencies can learn from the influencer marketing M&A boom
Over the past 12–18 months, transaction volume has picked up again across the creator economy, but volume alone doesn’t tell the story. What matters is how those deals are being framed. Recent transactions are not driven by scale or service expansion. They are built around securing positions within a connected ecosystem, where creative output, audience attention and commercial transaction increasingly sit together.
You can see that in a number of recent moves.
PMG’s acquisition of Digital Voices was not about adding influencer capability in isolation, but about integrating it into an existing performance-led ecosystem, linking creator activity directly to measurable commercial outcomes. Similarly, Global’s investment in The Overlap was less about acquiring content production and more about securing a creator-led media brand with its own audience, distribution and monetisation potential. In both cases, the logic is consistent: these are assets that sit inside the system, not alongside it.
In practical terms, this is changing what constitutes “a valuable asset”.
The most immediate shift is the change of what were previously distinct parts of the agency model. Creative, distribution and performance are no longer being bought as separate capabilities. The value now sits in the ability to connect them. Businesses that can demonstrate how creative decisions translate into commercial outcomes not through retrospective reporting, but through embedded capability are being viewed fundamentally differently from those that can’t.
This is not a marginal improvement in reporting or effectiveness. It is a redefinition of what the product actually is.
A similar redefinition is happening around social commerce. The distinction between “content” and “commerce” is quickly disappearing. Attention, engagement and transaction are increasingly happening within the same environment, and that has shifted buyer focus. The emphasis is now on businesses that can operate within that environment with the infrastructure to convert demand into revenue in a repeatable way rather than those focused purely on producing output.
This is also beginning to show up in adjacent deals, where businesses that combine audience engagement with clear monetisation routes whether through affiliate models, platform commerce or direct-to-consumer layers are attracting disproportionate attention. The common thread is not content quality, but commercial integration.
This creates a clear dividing line. One group of agencies is contributing to the system. Another is beginning to operate within it. Only one of those is attracting sustained buyer interest.
At the same time, the role of data has evolved. Access to platform analytics is no longer a differentiator. What matters now is control the ability to interpret, apply and build on data independently of the platforms themselves. As measurement improves and attribution becomes clearer, buyers are placing increasing weight on businesses that own their insight layer, rather than those dependent on third-party tools.
Again, this is visible in how capability is being assembled through M&A. Transactions are increasingly bringing together social execution, data environments and wider growth infrastructure into more unified operating models. The direction of travel is clear: fragmented capability is less valuable than connected systems.
The more subtle change, and arguably the most important, is how value is being assessed.
Earlier cycles in this market rewarded growth through aggregation, adding clients, campaigns or creator networks. That model is now being overtaken by a more commercial view of value creation. Buyers are paying much closer attention to how effectively those assets are monetised. Revenue per audience, per creator or per engagement is becoming a more meaningful indicator than overall scale.
This is reflected in the growing interest in businesses that can drive premium brand partnerships, build recurring revenue streams, and extend monetisation beyond media placement alone. The emphasis has shifted from how much activity a business manages to how efficiently it converts that activity into revenue.
This marks a shift to efficiency and control. The focus is no longer on building reach. It is on extracting value from it.
The timing of this shift is not accidental.
AI is playing a central role, but not in the way it is often discussed. Its primary impact is not creative disruption. It is operational. By scaling production and lowering the cost of content creation, AI is removing one of the traditional points of differentiation. As a result, value is being pushed into areas that are harder to replicate — distribution, insight and monetisation.
At the same time, broader market conditions are supporting increased deal activity. Capital is returning, but it is doing so selectively. Larger players particularly holding companies and PE-backed platforms are not simply rebuilding pipelines of acquisitions. They are assembling capability stacks designed to give them control over how this ecosystem functions end-to-end.
That intent is shaping outcomes.
What we are now seeing is a change in how businesses are being valued. Those that can demonstrate a defined role within this emerging infrastructure are attracting strong interest and competitive tension. Those that can’t, particularly those positioned around more traditional models of delivery are encountering a much tougher market.
This is not about performance in the short term. It is about perceived relevance over the medium term.
For agencies operating in the North, this brings both opportunity and constraint. The underlying fundamentals remain strong. There is deep talent, a competitive operating model and increasing access to capital. There is also clear evidence that agencies can scale from regional bases into national and international businesses.
But the criteria for translating those advantages into value have shifted. Capital is not being deployed against general capability. A well-run agency is no longer enough to command a premium on its own. What matters is whether that business occupies a space that is difficult to replicate and valuable for others to own.
That leads to a more direct strategic question. Not how the agency is performing today, but what role it is building toward.
- Whether it sits at a point where creative, data and commerce intersect in a meaningful way.
- Whether it has control over how value is created, or is reliant on external platforms and client budgets.
- Whether there is a repeatable model that can scale beyond individual relationships.
Where those answers are clear, demand follows quickly.
The creator, social and performance ecosystem is being reshaped into something closer to a connected commercial infrastructure, and value is consolidating accordingly. The opportunity is still there but it is narrowing. The market is no longer deciding who is good. It is deciding what is worth owning, and that is a different decision entirely.
