Kyra Platform Aims to Bring More Performance-based Models to TikTok’s Creators

In order to bring more numbers-led performance-based objectives to how creators work with brands, creator economy company Kyra has launched Kyra Platform. With the app, creators submit content for brands and can get paid per view. The ethos is similar to how performance marketing models pay media companies for clicks and conversions. At launch, the app is focused exclusively on content for TikTok. “What we are really trying to do here on the brand side is create programmatic, but for creator content,” said Kyra CEO Devran Amaratunga Karaca. Here’s how it works: A brand posts a brief to the platform's marketplace, a creator picks it up and creates the content that goes live once Kyra approves it (the brand doesn’t need to). The creator is paid on a per-view basis based on a cost-per-impression. The exact rate is determined by the app’s algorithms, partly based on the creator and how well their posts have historically performed, Karaca said. Creators can expect the CPM to be higher than $4, the average on YouTube, he added. All campaigns have a maximum payout that a creator can hit no matter how many views their content gets, usually a proportion of the total budget. The Kyra Platform app also includes an option where brands can connect with hand-selected top creators, who are paid by retainer rather than performance. So far, Kyra has 200 creators on the platform and has over 5,000 on the waitlist. The first brand campaign, with beauty brand ColourPop, is set to launch in November, and Karaca said there will be new brands coming onto the platform weekly, though wouldn't share specifics. Aiding the launch, Kyra—which already has lines of business as a social publisher, branded content studio and a talent management service—closed a $15 million venture capital funding round earlier this month. The idea has promise as some marketers are looking to pull back spending in an uncertain economic environment and are emphasizing lower-funnel approaches, research has found. But there’s competition in the space; creator economy startup Pearpop offers a similar tool, and this month, TikTok launched a self-serve platform for creators, Open Application, in its creator marketplace, (though it doesn’t pay on a performance model). And some creators question whether the performance marketing model is transferrable to the creator space, arguing the power of association can be diluted by dollars and cents. As the Creator Economy Booms, Adjacent Ad-Tech Firms Struggle to Stand Out Solving for scale and supporting the long tail Kyra’s platform might be more well suited for an entertainment brand drumming up awareness for a movie than a consumer-packaged goods brand marketing to kids, as the lack of a brand vetting the creator content could raise brand safety concerns, said Ryan Detert, CEO of influencer marketing firm Influential. “It solves for the scale,” Detert said of the tool's utility. “If I’m a brand and I want a lot of mentions in the market, it checks a box.” Detert also questioned the type of creators the platform would attract. Kyra already manages a number of creators through its Kyra Profile line of business. “It’s inherently going to attract those who haven’t proven to get consistent pay,” he said, noting top creators making hundreds of thousands per year are unlikely to be on the platform. “Why would they give away their inventory for free?” Content creator and strategist Abraxas Higgins said he typically rejects pay-per-post type deals, let alone pay-per-view. “I look for long-term relationships,” with brands, he said, noting just five long-term deals could net a six-figure salary for a creator. “The price goes up way more and [for the brand], it seems to be more organic." Sweetening the deal for creators, Kyra is offering quick payouts to creators from brands, in contrast to waiting for weeks for a company to fill an invoice, as can sometimes be the case, Karaca said. Karaca said that the platform vets both the content and the creators to make sure they are aligned with a brand's purpose. "Our strict vetting allows for more creative freedom while keeping brands at ease about their respective creators," he said. As it stands, the creator economy mostly caters to, and highly rewards, only the limited few at the very top. "Kyra Platform is here to support the long tail of creators, too." Abraxas Higgins is a member of Adweek's Creator Network.

Influencers & Creators

Kyra Platform Aims to Bring More Performance-based Models to TikTok’s Creators

The new app pays creators per view, a performance marketing tactic

Catherine Perloff

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Catherine Perloff