A senior marketer at a Sharjah beauty house told us their 2026 plan has zero print spend for the first time in 22 years. The freed budget went two-thirds to creators and one-third to retail media inside Carrefour and Lulu apps.
The three big shifts
Across the brand-side conversations we ran this quarter, the same three movements show up: print and outdoor down sharply, agency retainers compressed, creator and retail media up. The rough mix shift, year on year, looks like 12 to 18 percent of total marketing budget moving across these lines.
- Print and OOH: down an estimated 25 to 35 percent
- Agency retainer fees: down 10 to 15 percent
- Creator direct spend: up 30 to 45 percent
- Retail media networks: up 50 percent plus on a small base
Why direct-to-creator is winning
Procurement teams figured out that paying a creator directly through a platform like Inflink, with a clear deliverable and milestone payment, is administratively cheaper than running everything through an agency that adds 25 to 40 percent on top.
What this means for creators
You will deal with brands directly more often. That means brand briefs land in your inbox without an agency translating them, payment timing depends on you having the right invoicing setup, and the brand contact may not have done a creator deal before.
Tighten your intake form, your rate sheet, and your delivery workflow. The brands moving budget in your direction are not patient with creators who feel disorganized.
The second-order effect
Agencies are pivoting to creator vetting and campaign measurement, abandoning execution work that creators now handle directly. The middle layer is thinning, and the creators who run themselves like small businesses are taking the share.