Creator marketing, once reliant on intuition and personal networks, is shifting to an official data-based approach. Global e-commerce platform Cafe24 said it has completed an integration of the YouTube Creator Partnerships API, the first in Asia. Based on the integration, it plans to combine official YouTube data across the full process of creator discovery, collaboration and performance analysis to accelerate a shift toward data-driven operations.

The Creator Partnerships API is an official API provided by Google to help agencies and software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms that run creator marketing manage brand collaborations on YouTube efficiently. It provides functions and data needed across campaign operations, from discovery to performance measurement, including creator information searches, creation and management of brand-creator collaborations, and analysis of content and campaign performance.

Cafe24 will use creator data provided by YouTube to comprehensively analyse channel performance, content characteristics and audience interests and further refine creator recommendations tailored to a brand’s product characteristics and campaign goals. For brands, it will support collaboration execution by quickly identifying suitable creators. For creators, it will link brand collaboration opportunities that match their channels and content. Cafe24 already operates 'Cafe24 Creator Marketing', a creator collaboration support service, and 'Matchmaking', a service specialised in content commerce.

Cafe24 plans to apply YouTube’s new metrics to its services in stages, including performance levels versus similar creators, actual reach reflecting co-viewing, and information on brand mentions within content. Brands can assess a content’s relative competitiveness and practical influence beyond simple view counts. They can use this for selecting follow-up collaboration targets and establishing campaign strategies. The analysis results are linked to advertising and sales performance.

Brands can compare organic performance and paid performance together for creator content to identify content and creators that draw strong responses. They can expand proven content through options such as 'Creator Partnership Ads'. Cafe24 plans to connect creator discovery, content production, performance analysis, ad expansion and sales conversion based on YouTube Shopping into a single flow. It aims to build a structure in which creator content leads to tangible business results.

Lee Jae-seok (이재석), chief executive of Cafe24, said, "The competitiveness of creator marketing lies in accurately connecting the right creators and expanding performance." He added, "We will use the Creator Partnerships API as a core data hub to combine official YouTube data with Cafe24’s commerce and marketing capabilities, and build an environment in which brands and creators can generate results faster and more transparently."