The chief executive, we are told, is now the appropriate person to think about influencers.
This is the message from Accenture Song, which has acquired Whalar, the creator marketing agency, in a deal whose terms were not disclosed but whose ambitions were described at considerable length. The acquisition follows Accenture Song's purchases of Unlimited and Superdigital in 2024 and 2025, respectively, suggesting that the consulting giant's interest in the creator economy has moved well past the exploratory phase.
Brian Yasko, a managing director at Accenture Song, was careful to distinguish this transaction from mere capability-building. "We don't view the creator economy as just another, 'Oh we have this capability,'" Mr. Yasko said. "The creator economy is a CMO conversation, but really it's a CEO conversation."
The argument, rendered plainly, is that creators have become so central to how products are developed, marketed, and sold that responsibility for them must migrate upward from the marketing department to the executive suite. (Whether chief executives were clamoring for this additional responsibility was not addressed.)
Emma Harmon, a co-chief executive of Whalar, said measurement advances from companies like Kantar and Nielsen have made this elevation possible. "CEOs are starting to think, 'How do we make an investment around this? What type of infrastructure do we need to build to be more social first and creative first?'" she said.
What Accenture appears to have purchased is not Whalar's roster of creator relationships but its operational machinery — the sourcing, vetting, and campaign execution that transforms individual personalities into line items a procurement department can process. As creators increasingly seek long-term partnerships rather than one-off sponsorships, this infrastructure becomes the real product.
Mr. Yasko compared the current moment to the heyday of mass-market advertising, before the media landscape splintered. "The creator economy was built on people connecting with people," he said. "You can't forget what the basics are."
Ms. Harmon predicted "a monumental shift in how media is bought, planned, and thought about," driven by creators. The planning, she said, would need to organize around communities rather than demographic segments.
It is a vision of the future in which the creator economy sits at the center of corporate strategy, requiring new infrastructure, new measurement, and new reporting lines. The consultants, at least, seem ready.
Original story published in Digiday: "'It's a CEO conversation,' Accenture and Whalar on their playbook for the creator economy"