Snaxshot #54: Creator Packaged Goods

the new CPG

Snaxshot is a newsletter on upcoming food and beverage trends that offers a curation of brands and aesthetics written by Andrea Hernández

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Creator Economy

Probably one of the most overused terms in the past couple of years —creator economy describes those who have been able to capitalize from their output by leveraging digital platforms such as IG, TikTok, Twich, Youtube etc, mostly through content creation. Whether amassing audiences that span millions, or opting for niche, creator economy describes the leveling of the playing field when it comes to creating a “brand” that holds the potential of being developed into multi-million if not billion dollar powerhouses in the same way CPG giants have been able to. The creator economy is estimated to be worth $100 billion with almost 50 million “creators” as of 2022 —vastly newbies or amateurs, not everyone has what it takes to transcend beyond their digital platforms, and at a time where platforms are also shaping and dictating what content garners coveted virality and who gets to capitalize on it (see Instagram’s many updates and algorithm changes) this ability has become highly sought after.

It’s been a decade since the blog-era led into the rise of Youtube, Twitch, Instagram, and TikTok influencers from Ninja (gaming) to the MUA-teratti (makeup artists stars like James Charles, Jeffree Star) to the D’Amelios empire being built on appropriated dance moves, the past decade saw social clout compounded yield insanely great monetary gains —views, likes, shares, and most importantly following. What was once reserved for celebrities, became an open field day post influencer era, from makeup empires, to book deals, to … checks notes … becoming WWE wrestlers, there’s nothing that garnering enough attention could not manifest. Another important factor to note would be the pivotal generational shifts, that are the mobile-first generation, where. as Millenials grew up with the internet as a novelty, our lives fragmented between IRL and URL, yes you could browse Perez Hilton for celebrity gossip but you were also familiar enough with tabloid magazines, the separation between online and offline existed. GenZ and Gen Alpha, have grown up completely online, being brought up by online platforms from Club Penguin to Minecraft and Fortnite, Youtube, TiktTok as their own version of TV/Film, therefore celebrities as they know them, are strictly native to these platforms.

Tech and a generational shift has brewed the perfect storm that has upended media and in a way almost invert the power dynamics —presenting many an opportunity to capitalize on what BigCPG cannot innovate fast enough, or be culturally relevant on. Almost every industry has seen this, and food and beverage is no outlier here, we are not talking licensing deals a la D’Amelio and Dunkin Donuts or Sabra, we are talking about brand universes built online permeating into F&B to compete with established brands—we’ve talked about brand creation before, how once your core is established, your universe can continue to expand (whether product, partnerships, media) and the gravitational pull remains all the same—how does this look like from a ceator perspective? The two most successful examples at the moment are Mr. Beast’s Feastables noveau Wonka factory and Emma Chamberlain’s chaotic coffee empire.