U.S. advertising investment in the creator economy is expected to climb to $37 billion in 2025, marking a 26% increase year over year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. While brands have long worked with influencers and creators, they are now increasingly embracing fully social-first strategies and appointing specialized social agencies of record. At the same time, a growing share of viewers are watching YouTube on connected TV screens, intensifying competition with traditional television and streaming platforms.
WPP Media is now seizing that opportunity to spotlight The Goat Agency, its influencer-focused unit acquired in 2023. Goat is among the first global partners to integrate a new YouTube API designed to streamline brand–creator dealmaking. The tool evaluates both paid and organic performance metrics to support more effective matching and campaign delivery.
Through this integration, Goat aims to elevate the accuracy of creator-led campaigns by offering what Global President Alex Burgess describes as a “single, transparent view of performance.” For WPP Media, the partnership also unlocks direct access to non-public YouTube creator data at a time when influencer marketing continues to accelerate. Ultimately, the collaboration is intended to cut through the fragmentation of the creator economy, helping brands identify the right talent while equipping teams with deeper insight into emerging trends.
At the same time, the agreement adds a new data source to WPP Open, the AI-powered operating system used across WPP’s global agency network. WPP has positioned Open as a strategic priority as AI-first capabilities become an increasingly important competitive differentiator and as the holding company seeks to regain momentum after a period of financial underperformance. This year, WPP anticipates a 5.5% to 6% decline in like-for-like revenue growth excluding pass-through costs, its key measure of organic agency performance.
Against this backdrop, WPP Media has been expanding its social media capabilities for clients. Earlier in December, the media investment arm announced a partnership with Pinterest that integrates the platform’s trends data into Open. With this move, WPP became the first agency group to launch a custom Pinterest Trends API integration.
“Until now, brands lacked the tools to scale creator-led marketing with precision. By integrating exclusive YouTube data into our proprietary tech stack, we’re giving our clients the confidence to invest boldly, knowing every partnership is measurable, scalable, and aligned with their media strategy,” said Brian Lesser, CEO of WPP Media, in a press statement.
