Earned by CreatorIQ Podcast | Featuring Damon Berger, SVP of Shared Marketing Services at Gap Inc.
What does it take for a heritage brand to stay culturally relevant in a world where attention is fragmented, audiences are platform-native, and creators influence everything from trends to purchasing decisions?
On this episode of Earned, host Tim Sovay sits down with Damon Berger, SVP of Shared Marketing Services at Gap Inc., to explore the evolution of digital storytelling, from the earliest days of online video at Disney to scaling creator programs across one of America's most iconic retail portfolios.
With a career spanning Disney, What's Trending, Fullscreen, Mattel, and now Gap Inc., Berger has had a front-row seat to nearly every major shift in the creator economy. His perspective is clear: creators are culture makers.
In this conversation, Berger shares lessons from the early days of YouTube, how creator partnerships helped reshape brands like Barbie and Gap, and why the future belongs to marketers who understand creators as both storytellers and business drivers.
Check out highlights from the episode below, or or tune into the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!
For most of his career, Damon Berger has been ahead of where culture was headed.
From Disney's early experiments with online video to helping build one of the first media properties dedicated to internet culture, Berger has spent two decades watching audiences shift away from traditional media and toward creators.
Today, as SVP of Shared Marketing Services at Gap Inc., he sees that evolution reaching its logical conclusion. Creators have become the people driving cultural conversations.
"Creators now are the conduit to culture in this new environment."
For brands that want to remain culturally relevant, that distinction matters. The goal has expanded beyond reaching audiences to becoming part of the conversations creators are already driving.
For marketers thinking about how creator programs influence broader brand strategy, many of these ideas align with CreatorIQ's research on how creator marketing has evolved from experimentation to a core business function.
One of the recurring themes throughout the conversation was the importance of meeting audiences where they already are.
When Berger joined Mattel, he saw a disconnect between how children were spending time and where brands were investing their media budgets. Kids were increasingly consuming content on YouTube, yet much of the marketing strategy remained focused on traditional children's television.
Mattel leaned into that behavior instead of trying to change it. That shift led to deeper investment in creators and digital-first content, including initiatives like Barbie Vlogs, which transformed Barbie from a toy into a creator-like personality with her own voice and perspective.
The lesson extends far beyond toy brands. Consumer behavior almost always changes before marketing strategy does, and the brands that gain an advantage are often the ones willing to acknowledge that shift early.
One of Berger's strongest opinions centered on a challenge many marketers still face. Authenticity and control rarely coexist.
Brands naturally want consistency. Creators succeed because they have individuality. The most successful creator programs recognize that tension and create room for creators to communicate in ways that feel native to their audiences.
The better approach is to set clear objectives, guardrails, and trust, then let creators handle the talking points themselves.
"Brands always want to control the messages that go out, and that's fundamentally at odds with what works for creators."
The creators audiences trust most are the ones who sound like themselves. The more a partnership feels like an advertisement, the less effective it becomes.
This is one reason many brands are shifting toward longer-term creator relationships instead of one-off sponsorships. Over time, creators develop a genuine familiarity with products, stories, and audiences that cannot be manufactured in a single campaign.
For more on building sustainable creator partnerships, see the Creator Marketing Strategy Guide.
Over the last several years, Gap Inc. has dramatically expanded its creator efforts. What matters more is how those relationships are managed.
Berger describes a strategy built around audience understanding, data, and business outcomes rather than treating creator marketing as a standalone initiative. The work begins by identifying the outcome the brand is trying to achieve, before any creators are selected.
Is the goal awareness? Conversation? Sales? Demand generation?
Once those objectives are defined, creator strategy becomes significantly more effective. This reflects a broader shift happening across the industry as creator programs move from experimental budgets into larger business and marketing planning.
When discussing some of Gap's most successful campaigns, Berger repeatedly returned to the idea of conversation.
The strongest campaigns don't stop when the sponsored content is published. They create momentum that audiences carry forward themselves.
Whether through dance trends, comments, remixes, or user-generated content, successful creator programs generate earned attention that extends beyond paid distribution. That amplification creates a halo effect that traditional media often struggles to replicate.
The content spreads because people want to participate, rather than because they were targeted.
For brands, that's where creator marketing becomes especially powerful. The real value often comes from what happens after the campaign launches.
Despite years of growth, Berger believes YouTube remains underutilized by many marketers.
Short-form content dominates much of the industry conversation, but long-form attention remains one of the internet's most valuable assets.
"If you're trying to build lasting value, long-form."
For Berger, YouTube offers something increasingly rare: sustained engagement. While many brands think about creators primarily through sponsorships or integrations, he sees a larger opportunity around always-on programming and community building.
Brands can build long-term relationships with audiences through consistent storytelling and ongoing participation, rather than treating creator content as a series of isolated campaigns. That approach requires patience, and it creates deeper brand affinity than short-term attention spikes alone.
Brands exploring always-on creator strategies may find useful examples in CreatorIQ's coverage of long-form creator content and community-driven marketing.
Looking ahead, Berger believes creators will continue moving beyond content into business ownership.
The success of creator-founded companies like Feastables, Prime, and Chamberlain Coffee has demonstrated that audience trust can become a foundation for entirely new brands.
Not every creator-built business will succeed, but the trend is clear. Creators increasingly control attention, distribution, and community, all of which are valuable business assets. As a result, the distinction between creator, entrepreneur, and brand builder continues to blur.
For marketers, that shift creates both opportunity and competition. Many creators are becoming businesses in their own right, well beyond their role as promotional partners.
If there was one idea that connected Berger's entire career, from Disney to Fullscreen to Mattel to Gap, it was this:
Culture has always followed attention. Today, attention increasingly belongs to creators.
The brands that thrive won't simply sponsor creators or run influencer campaigns. They'll understand creators as cultural participants, storytellers, and community builders.
Because in today's media landscape, creators aren't sitting on the sidelines of culture. They're helping create it.
And explore more conversations with the leaders shaping creator marketing on the Earned podcast hub.
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