How do influencers create profit?

Person-brands tend to capture value in three main ways:

Advertisers capture value by monetizing attention, through brand deals, affiliate links, and platform payouts.

Entrepreneurs capture value by turning audience insight into products, services, and ventures.

Professionals capture value by selling expertise, through coaching, consulting, speaking, or employment.

The paper also shows how creators increase the value they capture:

• Concentration: doing more within the same model (e.g., charging higher rates for sponsorships).

• Mode-spanning: adding another model (e.g., a creator launching their own brand).

• Field-bridging: expanding into new domains (e.g., fitness creators moving into nutrition).

One of the useful things marketing science does is to give us useful mental models for how markets work.

Reference:

Dolbec, P. Y., & Smith, A. N. (2025). From fame and followers to fortune: How person-brands capture value in the creator economy. International Journal of Research in Marketing.