With ad clutter doubling in the past 15 years, attention is fleeting, and building trust with today’s consumer isn’t easy. An ad campaign might drive temporary visibility, but the conversation almost flatlines after the campaign, which is why this Christmas, brands should be turning to creator partnerships to build long-term brand advocacy that lasts beyond a one-off holiday activation.

As the busy festive period approaches, many brands will be partnering with creators to put their products on customers’ Christmas lists. But beyond boosting visibility and sales, these partnerships can be leveraged to build lasting trust and advocacy. However, our recent research has found that only 10% of marketers place advocacy as a core part of their overall strategy, highlighting that this is a space that brands are still figuring out. And with 81% of marketers looking to increase their investment in brand advocacy over the next year, they need to understand how to do this effectively.

As a starting point, marketers need to define what they mean by advocacy – how does this resonate among consumers, and what does it mean for your brand? In our research, we defined this term as the proactive and voluntary willingness to champion and defend a brand, signifying a deep level of emotional investment and loyalty. These advocates can show up in different ways, from loyal customers and employees to influential figures, yet have one thing in common – they naturally amplify a brand’s message through various channels.

Brands also need to understand the why – what are they trying to achieve when building advocacy? This explosion of options in today’s landscape has also forged a powerful defence mechanism: sophisticated scepticism. Today’s consumer is adept at tuning out overly promotional content, is increasingly ad-resistant and very conscious of the cost of living squeeze, so building advocacy has become a crucial element for any successful brand.

While advocacy is multi-faceted, social media is a primary growth engine. It’s where brands can own the conversation, capture consumer attention, and drive product discovery. Christmas ad spend is expected to increase by 7.3% this year, to £12bn, which means more noise, clutter and competition. And in an era of infinite choice, trust and advocacy are powerful tools. True advocacy enables brands to build sustainable marketing ecosystems that fuel peer-to-peer discovery and stay relevant. While peer-to-peer has always been the norm, the scale and medium through which this takes place has now evolved. Back in 2012,

Nielsen reported that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising. This remains unchanged, and creators have the credibility and platform to scale word of mouth exponentially, and brands should take note.

Building advocacy between brand and creator

Despite the value in creating authentic brand ambassadors, nearly half of marketers are failing to build lasting creator partnerships. For many, these are simply transactional, short-term collaborations. However, a shift needs to take place where partnerships are seen as the beginning of a long and successful friendship – something that has been maintained and nurtured over many years.

Brief collaborations may drive short-term wins, which look tempting during the busy festive period, but they fail to create any long-term impact. Ultimately, brands that don’t identify and cultivate authentic, aligned advocates are simply adding to the noise. Putting investment and resources into content that gets lost in a sea of sponsored posts and fleeting trends. This revolving door of advocates is a symptom of treating creators as disposable assets rather than long-term partners.

Creators need to be a genuine advocate for the brand, and product, they’re partnering with. This means finding creators who are essentially a personification of the brand – whether this be their beliefs, values and passion points – they need to be perfectly aligned. When done well, this creates an authentic and effective approach which amplifies reach, without forcing it.

In 2013, YouTuber Zoe Sugg shared her love of Collection Cosmetics’ Lasting Perfection Concealer. With her make-up tutorials being one of her most popular genres of content among her millions of followers at the time, this collaboration felt like an authentic partnership. Now, over a decade on, Collection Cosmetics continues to partner with Sugg to champion their products in what is a natural extension of an existing relationship, rather than a rented moment of influence.

How advocacy takes shape between brand and customer

There is a growing recognition of leveraging advocacy to break through a crowded digital landscape; however, this disconnect between intent and actual strategy suggests that marketers are likely falling short in demonstrating brand advocacy in action.

Brands are increasing their investment but doing so without a clear blueprint, which will quickly prove to be a costly mistake. The overall result will be hollowed-out, ad-hoc activity that sacrifices long-term influence over fleeting buzz. Establishing advocacy between your brand and creators, and your brand and customer, should go hand in hand. By partnering with creators who are an authentic extension of a brand, customers are more likely to feel aligned with, and ultimately trust, the brand.

Brands have an opportunity to address a profound, human need. In a world where the loneliness epidemic is very present among younger generations, and a desire for genuine connection is growing, people are actively looking for spaces where they can belong and engage with others who have similar interests and values. This creates an imperative for brands to earn their place, not by shouting, but by evoking the emotion that builds lasting advocacy.

However, until the fundamental conflict of confusing paid media with earned trust and short-term visibility with lasting influence is resolved, brands will continue to be trapped in a costly loop. But this Christmas season is the time to get out of this cycle. Rather than shouting the loudest or partnering with the biggest creators, it is the brands that establish true advocacy who will end up on the Nice List this Christmas.