Hollywood remains the world’s entertainment nexus, but many next-gen creators have decided they don’t need a Los Angeles address to make it big.
Miami, Las Vegas, and Seattle all attract more top Instagram influencers per capita than LA, according to new research shared exclusively with Business Insider by Patrick Adler, a professor at the University of Hong Kong.
Adler, who has also conducted research on the closely watched Otis Report on the Creative Economy, ranked metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) by creators in the top 10% in terms of Instagram followers, using data from an influencer marketing firm.
The top two by total creator count were LA (over 12,000) and New York (nearly 11,000), followed by Miami (about 6,000).
Other major creator communities have formed in established film markets, such as Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas, which have emerged due to their lower cost of living and production tax incentives. But other top creator cities — Seattle, Las Vegas, Philadelphia — lie outside those secondary film markets.
The ability to create content for social platforms from anywhere means creators can build a livelihood from just about anywhere. Talent managers say that, apart from when they want a creator to attend an in-person event, brands rarely request a city-specific creator when seeking a partner.
“You do have people in LA and New York making the lion’s share of the dollars. But now they’re increasing everywhere else,” said Kyle Hjelmeseth, CEO of G&B Digital Management. “Eventually, there will be a hot influencer in Idaho.”
Looking at cities by concentration of creators, Miami comes in No. 1, outranking LA and NYC.
Some creators are drawn to places that already have a robust creative community, like Nashville or Las Vegas. Others want to be near fashion and retail, which fuels a lot of the creator economy. LTK, a major e-commerce platform that connects influencers to shoppers, is based in Dallas, as was Neiman Marcus for a long time. Dude Perfect, a superstar creator group known for sports-focused stunt videos, is based in nearby Frisco. Miami, where Alix Earle gained social media fame and often appears, experienced a relocation boom during the COVID-19 pandemic as people, creators included, flocked to South Florida for its warm weather and lack of state or local income taxes.
Creators also move to be near family and for a lower cost of living. It makes sense for people building a brand based on themselves to work in areas that reflect their identity. The biggest YouTuber by subscriber count, Jimmy Donaldson, a.k.a. MrBeast, chose his hometown of Greenville, NC, as his base.
Dude Perfect has recently embarked on a major expansion in Texas. CEO Andrew Yaffe said there’s no need to be in LA with access to top brands and talent there.
“We’ll be here as far in the future as we can see,” he previously told Business Insider. “There’s no shortage of opportunity for us here.”
Becca Bahrke, CEO of Illuminate Social, a creator management firm with about 85 clients, estimated that before 2020, 80% of her clients were in LA and NYC. Since then, the ratio has flipped, and her clients are now sprinkled all around the US, from Hawaii to South Carolina.
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