Instacart's social-first holiday push, Skims' flagship store opening and the ongoing legal battle around the U.S. TikTok ban 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].
MGA Entertainment and “the Rizzler”: Beneath all his online fame, Christian Joseph—better known by his social media persona of “The Rizzler”—is still an eight-year-old kid who wants to see toys under the tree on Christmas morning. His collaboration with toymaker MGA Entertainment leans into that concept with a “holiday diss track” titled “Diss-mas,” in which Joseph raps about wanting MGA toys for the holidays, not gift cards. Viewers of the two-minute music video for the track on MGA’s YouTube channel can also buy the products on Joseph’s wishlist directly through the video description.
See also: The Rizzler and toymaker MGA throw down in an instant classic diss track ripping gift cards
Instacart and Chloe Fineman, Olivia Maher, Eric King and more: Instacart also kicked off a social-first holiday campaign last week—but rather than the joy of Christmas morning, it centers on the stress of preparing a large holiday meal. Instacart’s “Yule Be Fine” campaign includes a social video series starring actress and “Saturday Night Live” cast member Chloe Fineman, who plays a passive-aggressive holiday hostess, and collaborations with several culinary influencers. Olivia Maher, the originator of the “girl dinner” trend (and sister of U.S. Olympian Ilona Maher) and Eric King, aka @easygayoven, both shared TikTok videos showing how they’re using the grocery delivery service for their holiday parties.
Sonic Drive-In and Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie: “Dirty sodas,” or soft drinks mixed with cream, fruit juice and/or flavored syrups, have taken social media by storm this year. Sonic Drive-In is jumping on the trend with the launch of two new limited-edition drinks created in collaboration with digital celebrities Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. The “Iconic Drinks by Paris and Nicole” menu includes two brightly colored beverages, one inspired by Hilton and one by Richie. Hilton’s 11:11 Media produced the video spot promoting the collaboration.
Also read: Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie unveil Sonic drinks in colorful spot
Chime and Mikey Angelo: Angelo has garnered millions of followers for his monthly and annual pop culture trend recaps delivered in the form of catchy rhyming raps. With the end of 2024 swiftly approaching, banking app Chime tasked Angelo with rounding up several of the year’s biggest “FinTok” (financial TikTok) trends, including “loud budgeting” and “underconsumption.”
Milk Makeup, Sephora, Laneige, Dove (and more) and Abdullah Zaidi: Last month, Zaidi, a TikTok comedy creator, announced his desire to become a beauty influencer: “I wanna just put on makeup and yap for a living. I want companies to send me random stuff to my New York penthouse.” Although his initial video was largely a joke, Zaidi’s wish has become a reality in the weeks since, with beauty brands such as Milk Makeup, Sephora, Laneige and Dove (among several others) all mailing him PR packages—often including products containing niacinamide, nodding to Zaidi shouting the ingredient’s name in his first few “trying to be beauty influencer TikTok videos.
TikTok’s time is running out: On Friday, a federal appeals court denied TikTok’s request to put the impending U.S. ban on the platform on hold until the Supreme Court has an opportunity to review the ban. That means the TikTok ban is still set to take effect on Jan. 19, 2025, unless TikTok’s Chinese partent company, ByteDance, sells the platform. TikTok yesterday took its emergency request for a pause on the ban directly to the Supreme Court, and president-elect Donald Trump could potentially reverse the ban. During a Monday press conference, when a reporter asked him about the ban, Trump said he “will take a look at TikTok” and has “a warm spot in his heart” for the platform.
Creators, for their part, seem to be taking the looming ban more seriously this time around than any of the previous attempts to ban the app (including one by Trump himself).
Instagram introduces “trial reels”: Instagram last week launched a new “trial reels” feature that allows users to share videos with non-followers before uploading them to the user’s account or rolling them out in the feeds or reels tabs of their followers. Within 24 hours, users can see several of the engagement metrics (such as likes, comments and views) on the trial reel; and within 72 hours, Instagram will determine whether the trial reel is performing well enough for the user to share it with their followers, according to a post on Instagram’s official @creators account.
The main purpose of trial reels is to test how new types of video content might perform with the user’s existing audience based on its reception among a broader set of users, Instagram’s post explains.
Skims opens a New York flagship store: Kim Kardashian’s underwear and loungewear brand Skims on Friday celebrated the opening of its new flagship location on New York’s Fifth Avenue with a glitzy party packed with celebrities. Attendees included Paris Hilton; rapper Ice Spice; model and entrepreneur Winnie Harlow; fashion creator Remi Bader; and Kristen Noel Crawley, an influencer and founder of KNC beauty, among dozens of other stars.
Skincare brand Rhode and Boys Lie, an apparel brand, have both recently launched product collaborations with influencers who were caught up in controversies last week—meaning the brand partnerships managers at the two brands likely had “a bad week at work,” as the above TikTok user succinctly put it. Rhode last week teamed up with influencer Matilda Djerf, who on Friday was accused of bulllying and body-shaming employees of her clothing brand Djerf Avenue. And influencer Briana LaPaglia, better known as “Brianna Chickenfry,” has been accused of mistreating her friend and former podcast co-host Grace O’Malley. “If any team member has felt mistreated in their role because of my actions, I am deeply sorry, and I want to sincerely apologize,” Djerf said in a statement to BBC.
The panic over the U.S. TikTok ban hasn’t been limited to TikTok itself. Dozens of Threads users have shared advice for how creators should prepare for the ban or have begun to lament the impending loss of the platform.
