Creator and influencer trends brand marketers need to know about right now

Welcome to Ad Age’s influencer marketing news roundup. Each week, we’ll be highlighting the latest developments at the intersection between brands and the creator economy, including new partnerships between brands and creators, notable new features across social media platforms and the growth of creator-led businesses. Sign up for our influencer marketing newsletter here. Have tips or news to share about influencer marketing and the creator economy? Email Gillian Follett at gillian.follett@adage.com. Also read: TikTok creators call out shady brands New deals Eos, Anayka She, Carly Joy and Audrey Trullinger: Eos is taking consumers to summer school with its “Shave 101” campaign, a YouTube-exclusive series of shaving tutorials and hair removal myth-busting, among other topics. The 20-episode series, launched last week, stars content creators Anayka She, Carly Joy and Audrey Trullinger. Shein and Lele Pons: Mega-influencer and actress Lele Pons has found herself mired in controversy several times in her decade-long career—so, perhaps it’s fitting that her latest brand collab is with a controversial brand, the fast fashion giant Shein. The partnership’s marks the brand’s first creator collaboration on a swimwear line, specifically, according to a press release. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lele Pons (@lelepons) Read about Ad Age’s 2024 Leading Women here Also read: What Shein’s influencer trip teaches brands about hosting creators Supercell and Bella Poarch, Gabriela Moura and more: Game development company Supercell blurred Hollywood actors with online celebrities in a star-studded campaign for its new mobile game, “Squad Busters.” The five-minute trailer promoting the game stars both high-profile actors such as Chris Hemsworth, Ken Jeong and Auli’i Cravalho, as well as influencers with online audiences in the tens of millions, including Bella Poarch, Gabriela Moura and Seth Phillips of “Dude With Sign” fame. Supercell isn’t new to partnering with online celebrities—in 2021, the company promoted another of its mobile games by sponsoring MrBeast’s YouTube reimagining of Netflix series “Squid Game.” @bellapoarch Life’s more fun when you Squad Up!☺️ #ad @Squad Busters ♬ original sound - Bella Poarch See also: Supercell launches ‘Squad Busters’ with epic trailer MAC Cosmetics, Kim Petras and Danna Paola: MAC last week launched its annual Pride Month campaign tied to its “Viva Glam” fundraising program for LGBTQ+ organizations. The cosmetics brand named transgender pop star Kim Petras and singer-songwriter, actress and producer Danna Paola—who has openly supported the LGBTQ+ community throughout her career—as ambassadors for this year’s iteration of MAC’s Viva Glam program. Also read: Pride Month brand marketing is quieter in 2024 View this post on Instagram A post shared by M·A·C Cosmetics (@maccosmetics) Social media screenshot Snap expands its “Less Social Media, More Snapchat” campaign: Snap yesterday rolled out the next stage of its campaign to distance Snapchat from social media with a new ad called “Less Likes. More Love.” In addition to running on digital platforms, the campaign will also include Snap’s first audio-streaming ads on Spotify in both the U.S. and the U.K., out-of-home displays in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and a sponsorship of Nascar driver Ryan Ellis during the Xfinity Chicago Street Race on July 1, where Ellis’ suit and car will feature designs tied to the “More Love” campaign. TikTok and Instagram test mid-roll ads: TikTok appears to be introducing mid-roll ads within longer videos to several users, as indicated by a recent wave of TikTokers sharing videos complaining about encountering the new feature while scrolling in the past couple of weeks. Some TikTok users began seeing (or at least posting about) mid-roll ads on videos as far back as November of last year. And over the weekend, several Instagram users, too, started noticing mid-roll ads popping up in their feeds, as noted by Lindsey Gamble, associate director of influencer innovation at Later Influence, an influencer marketing platform, in a Threads post. Post by @lindseygamble_ View on Threads X green lights adult content: Since the day Elon Musk changed Twitter’s name to X, people have mocked its URL, x.com, for its resemblance to those of pornography platforms—and now, stumbling across pornography on X is entirely possible. The platform updated its adult content guidelines over the weekend to allow “consensually produced” pornographic content, which also includes AI-generated pornography. Instagram offers conflicting advice on longer Reels: Last week, Instagram’s @Creators account shared a tutorial advising creators on how to make 90-second Reels. But the video’s caption included a pretty significant caveat: “Just remember that any video over 90 seconds won’t be eligible to be recommended in [the] Explore or Reels Tab.” The conflicting guidance, further complicated by Instagram head Adam Mosseri’s previous statements about longer Reels being a “much worse ads business,” confused several creators and marketers, including social media consultant Lia Haberman. The @Creators Threads account responded to a post from Haberman about the conflicting advice, writing that its Instagram account posted the video because it had “heard from some creators that they’d like an option to post videos longer than 90 seconds”—but reiterated that those longer videos won’t be recommended on the Explore or Reels tabs on Instagram. Post by @creators View on Threads TikTok of the week @bethennyfrankel She is nothing if not committed #tattoo #chanel #bigmistakehuge #committothebit #papsmear #lurch #yourang @ChanelOfficial @Vibes Ink Tattoos ♬ original sound - Bethenny Frankel Bethenny Frankel, the “Real Housewives” star, social media influencer and entrepreneur, has been locked in a one-sided online battle with Chanel since May 21 after she was turned away from one of the luxury brand’s stores for appearing underdressed. She dedicated herself even further to that social media clash last week by posting a video of herself getting a tattoo of the Chanel logo, captioning the video “She is nothing if not committed.” As of writing, Chanel has yet to respond to Frankel’s plethora of videos across TikTok and Instagram calling out the brand. See also: Bethenny Frankel on her Chanel controversy Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Threadspotting Post by @cinnabon View on Threads Though Cinnabon’s above post is obviously a joke, it also raises a fair point. Are marketing and social media teams truly weaving Threads into their broader social strategies, or do they still consider the platform to be largely experimental, as they did when it launched last July? Follow us on social media X Bluesky Instagram LinkedIn YouTube

Creator and influencer trends brand marketers need to know about right now

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