Dubai played host to some of the most honest conversations in the creator economy this year, as industry leaders, creators, platforms, and brands gathered for the three-day 1B Followers Summit. Across stages, panels, and countless off-stage conversations, one theme surfaced repeatedly: scale in the creator economy is no longer the challenge, alignment is.
For us at AnyMind Group, the summit was not just about visibility. It was about contributing to conversations that the industry often skirts around and listening closely to what creators and brands are really grappling with.
When Creators and Brands Talk Past Each Other
Day 1 opened with a keynote that set the tone for the entire summit.
“Lost in Translation: What Creators and Brands Aren’t Saying to Each Other”, led by Aditya Aima, Managing Director, Growth Markets; Co-MD, India & MENA, and Maha Mahdy, Business Head, Content, Creator & Influencer Marketing Businesses, MENA/India/Emerging Markets, unpacked a reality many in the room recognized immediately.
Creators and brands are collaborating at unprecedented scale, but many partnerships quietly underperform. Not because of weak ideas or limited reach, but because each side is optimizing for fundamentally different outcomes, while assuming they’re aligned.
Drawing on over a decade of experience in the creator economy, the session peeled back what’s usually left unsaid:
How creators are actually evaluated behind closed doors
Why “great content” doesn’t always translate into business impact
And the uncomfortable truths both brands and creators avoid when things don’t work
Rather than pointing fingers, the keynote challenged long-held assumptions on both sides. For creators who feel misunderstood by brands and brands who believe creators “don’t deliver” this was a rare, candid look at why misalignment persists, and what it takes to move forward with clarity instead of compromise.
It was the kind of conversation the industry tends to avoid. Which is exactly why it resonated.
When IP Becomes Bigger Than the Individual
Later that day, Maha Mahdy returned to the stage, this time as moderator for a panel titled “Your IP Works Harder Than You.”
The discussion explored a provocative idea: what if the future of creator success isn’t the creator, but the character they build?
From VTubers to AI-powered personas, the panel broke down how digital-first IPs are scaling faster than traditional creators, unlocking global audiences without the constraints of time, energy, or burnout. The conversation examined how creators are transforming single ideas into expansive animated universes, repurposing existing content, leveraging AI-driven storytelling, and building brands that operate continuously.
The takeaway was clear: creators who think beyond themselves, and invest in scalable IP, are building businesses that last longer than any algorithm cycle.
What Needs to Change and Why It Matters Now
The conversations at 1B Followers Summit, both on stage and in the margins, pointed to an industry at an inflection point. The early-stage playbook of “more reach, more followers, more content” has run its course. What comes next demands structural change.
For brands: Stop treating creator partnerships as marketing tactics and start treating them as strategic investments. This means moving beyond vanity metrics, defining clear success criteria before campaigns launch, and building systems that help creators deliver business impact, not just content. It means transparency about how performance is measured and honesty about constraints and expectations.
For creators: Professionalization isn’t selling out, it’s survival. Building IP, understanding business fundamentals, and developing accountability frameworks will separate sustainable businesses from fleeting influence. The creators who thrive in the next decade won’t just create content, they’ll create systems, own their intellectual property, and operate like the media companies they effectively are.
Where AnyMind Fits In
This is precisely the gap AnyMind Group exists to bridge. We don’t believe in choosing sides between brands and creators, we believe in building the infrastructure that allows both to win.
Our work spans creator representation, brand partnership management, and technology that brings transparency to performance. We’ve built systems that translate creator metrics into business language brands understand, and brand objectives into briefs creators can authentically execute. We help creators structure their IP, diversify revenue, and build businesses that compound over time.
The misalignment between brands and creators isn’t a communication problem, it’s a systems problem. And it requires platforms, agencies, and ecosystem players who are willing to do the unglamorous work of creating frameworks, establishing standards, and facilitating honest dialogue.
The creator economy has matured past the point where inspiration alone drives success. It needs infrastructure. It needs accountability. It needs intermediaries who understand both sides deeply enough to translate between them.
That’s the role we’re committed to playing, and the conversations in Dubai reinforced why this work matters more than ever. The next phase of the creator economy won’t be built on scale alone. It will be built on alignment, clarity, and the courage to have the conversations the industry can’t afford to avoid. Whether you’re a brand building creator partnerships or a creator ready to scale sustainably, connect with AnyMind Group to explore what’s possible.
