Some brands struggle to convey goals to influencers. The “Creator Rosetta Stone” offers a translation.

The Creator Rosetta Stone is here to simplify communications in the field of influencer marketing. That’s the name of “a new tool” that delivers insights to creators and brands based on findings from an industry-wide survey.

The findings that inform the Creator Rosetta Stone come from research conducted by the Harris Poll and the consulting service Creator Vision. Those firms sourced additional data from Pearpop‘s roster of verified creators. In total, the research collected results from 603 creators of various sizes (including nano-, micro-, and macroinfluencers) who work across “a robust mix of content types and/or areas of focus,” according to the report.

The goal of all that data gathering was to identify communication breakdowns in influencer marketing. The Creator Rosetta Stone aims to teach brands and creators to speak the same “language,” thus leading to more fruitful collaborations on both sides.

As explained on the Creator Rosetta Stone landing page, confused interactions can occur when creators and brands come into partnerships with separate goals and different words to describe those goals. For example, a brand may hone in on “trends” while a creator seeks “relevance.” 84% of surveyed creators believe that long-form content is increasingly important, and 88% of them 

said they have the skills to help brands capitalize on that opportunity. The Creator Rosetta Stone therefore cautions brands against putting too much emphasis on trends over formats.

“Just because a trend is relevant to the world, it may not matter for a brand,” reads the report. “Instead, brands should focus on finding the format that fits their message.

Informing influencers about desired campaign outcomes can help clear up confusion, but many creators feel that they don’t receive enough constructive feedback from their partners. 85% of respondents claimed that their sponsors don’t provide details about the metrics they use to evaluate content. Instead, that information is filtered through layers like creative agencies and management firms, further muddling the process.

The bottom line of the Creator Rosetta Stone research is clear: 89% of surveyed creators believe they have access to analytics and audience insights that brands fail to access. As the creator economy continues to professionalize operations on major social platforms, potential sponsors should be paying attention to the things their influencer sponsors have to say.