Verizon’s collab with Jools Lebron, Alex Cooper’s sponsored 30th birthday party and a SoHo pop-up shop for Dairy Boy, influencer Paige Lorenze’s fashion brand, are some of this week’s creator economy headlines.
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 [email protected].
Flamingo, NYX, K18 Hair, Bloom Nutrition and Logan Moffitt: Sometimes, you need to eat an entire cucumber—and sometimes, if you’re a brand looking to capitalize on the cucumber salad craze sweeping across TikTok, you need to partner with the creator fueling it. Food content creator Logan Moffitt, now often referred to simply as “cucumber guy,” has amassed tens of millions of views over the past month across his viral recipes that transform “an entire cucumber” into gourmet cucumber salads. Moffitt’s TikTok audience has nearly doubled from roughly 3 million followers in early July to 5.7 million as of this writing, and marketers are scrambling to get their brands in front of his rapidly growing follower base.
Chipotle was the first to collaborate with Moffitt earlier this month. A slew of other brands have teamed up with Moffitt in the past week to weave their products into his recipes, including women’s hair removal brand Flamingo, K18 Hai, NYX Professional Makeup and Bloom Nutrition. But cucumbers aren’t the only ingredient Moffitt can shape recipes around—the latter two brands instead tasked Moffitt with using “an entire onion” and “an entire block of tofu,” respectively.
The recipes are so popular that Iceland faces a cucumber shortage—“A TikTok Cucumber Craze Has Icland in a Pickle,” as The New York Times wrote.
Verizon, Zillow, Lyft, Netflix and Jools Lebron: Lebron, the beauty creator who introduced the now-inescapable “very demure” trend, is attracting a swarm of brand partners eager to participate in the ongoing reframing of “demureness.” Over the past week, major brands such as Verizon, Zillow, Lyft and Netflix have all collaborated with Lebron to have her describe them and their products or services as “demure,” “mindful” or “cutesy” (or as customized adjectives such as “Lyftsey”) in videos across TikTok and Instagram.
More: Inside ‘demure’ collaborations with the trend’s creator
Cheez-It and Kordell Beckham: Just a few weeks after “Love Island USA” contestants Beckham and Serena Page were crowned the winners of the reality dating show’s latest season, Beckham has now achieved one of his self-proclaimed long-term goals—a collaboration with Cheez-It. He and the Kellanova-owned brand unveiled their limited-edition “Kordeezy Cheezy Couple” product bundle combining Beckham’s two favorite Cheez-It flavors.
“WEEEEE DIIID IIIIIIT!!!!!!!!!🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽,” Beckham commented on the Instagram collab post revealing his partnership with Cheez-It.
Pizza Hut and Daria Kateb, Cameron Jerrad, Michael Pavano and Oz Lane: Cheez-It isn’t the only brand leaning into the pop culture buzz around “Love Island USA.” Pizza Hut recruited several influencers to bolster a broader marketing push tied to the show’s reunion special last Monday that also included a TV spot and extensive on-set product placement (which led to a slew of snarky social media posts from viewers calling the entire reunion episode an extended Pizza Hut commercial).
The brand and its influencer agency RQ partnered with four creators on TikTok videos tied to the episode—Daria Kateb, the sister of “Love Island USA” contestant Leah Kateb; TikTok creator and TV show commentator Cameron Jerrard; Michael Pavano, an actor and comedian known for celebrity impersonations; and “Love Island” superfan Oz Lane. The four sponsored videos collectively racked up 1.4 million views, per RQ Agency.
Burt’s Bees, Bondi Sands, Sun Cruiser and Alex Cooper: Cooper, host of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast and founder of podcast network The Unwell Network, celebrated her 30th birthday in Montauk, New York over the weekend with the help of three sponsors—Burt’s Bees; Bondi Sands, a self-tan and skincare brand; and vodka iced tea brand Sun Cruiser.
Instagram announces a “Music on Profile” feature: Instagram took a page out of the MySpace playbook with its new feature that allows users to add a background track to their Instagram profile. Users can include a song clip of up to 30 seconds on their Instagram account, which appears beneath the user’s bio. Instagram launched the feature in partnership with Sabrina Carpenter on the eve of the release of her newest album, “Short n’ Sweet.”
Pinterest predicts fall trends: It may technically still be summer, but Pinterest users are already gearing up for fall activities and fashion and beauty trends. Pinterest’s Fall 2024 Trend Report spotlighted several of the trends taking off on the platform, including camouflage print (searches for which have surged 2,295% since this time last year), manicures with bow designs (up 2,220%) and “experimental layering,” with increases in searches for unconventional clothing combinations from “skirt over jeans outfit” to “sweater with jorts.”
TikTok partners with the International Paralympic Committee: TikTok drove much of the pop culture conversation around the Paris Olympics as dozens of athletes emerged as a new class of influencers on the platform. Now, TikTok is teaming up with the International Paralympic Committee to host exclusive livestreams of key moments from the Paris Paralympic Games, including the opening and closing ceremonies and interviews with Paralympians. Several Paralympic athletes and creators, including Arthur Baucheron and Jessica-Jane Applegate, will also be hosting TikTok livestreams from Paris.
Friends in Reality formally launches: Devain Doolaramani has been consistently managing TikTok creators since the platform began to take off in the U.S.—first as the founder and CEO of talent management firm The Fuel Injector, and now as the founder and CEO of Friends in Reality, his new digital entertainment management firm. Doolaramani is launching Friends in Reality with an initial roster of over 30 creator clients (many of whom he has repped for over three years), including lifestyle creator Brooke Monk and Zaina Hadad, a beauty and fashion influencer. The agency plans to unveil several new creators in its talent lineup and new brand partnerships in the coming weeks, according to a press release.
New York’s SoHo neighborhood has been a hub for influencer brand pop-ups over the past several months, from Matilda Djerf’s clothing and beauty brand Djerf Avenue to Rhode, Hailey Beiber’s skincare brand. The latest was Dairy Boy, a fashion brand founded by influencer and YouTuber Paige Lorenze. Like Rhode’s SoHo shop earlier this summer, Dairy Boy’s three-day “Country Mart” pop-up attracted a massive line that wound around the block. Lorenze helped pass the time for those standing in line by posing for selfies and chatting with several of her fans.
Speaking of influencer-related events, fashion and lifestyle influencer Phaith Montoya leveraged Threads to share a series of photos from a summer cookout event hosted by clothing brand PrettyLittleThing. She’s previously uploaded photos from other events and campaigns to her Threads account, too, including a recent photoshoot she did with loungewear and swimwear brand Voight.
