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

Welcome to Ad Age’s influencer marketing news roundup. Each week, we highlight the latest developments at the intersection of 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. New deals Rare Beauty and Lisa Joy, Vidya Gopalan, Daus Mendoza and more: Although Rare Beauty’s products have appeared in countless “get ready with me” makeup routines and have been unboxed on camera by a slew of influencers, the brand never ran a formal influencer marketing campaign until last week, when it partnered with six beauty influencers to promote its newly launched liquid contour product line. The influencers, who included Lisa Joy, Vidya Gopalan and Daus Mendoza, starred in a campaign photoshoot with Rare Beauty founder Selena Gomez and showed off different shades of the liquid contour in sponsored social videos. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Vidya Gopalan (@queencitytrends) Uber Eats and Charli XCX and Martha Stewart: Uber Eats yesterday started teasing its star-studded Super Bowl TV spot—which will feature Charli XCX, Martha Stewart and Matthew McConaughey—with a series of social videos focused on Charli XCX and Stewart. Several of these videos embrace popular TikTok trends, such as the “we listen and we don’t judge” trend, where two people (often couples) divulge things they dislike or find strange about one another or admit to their own wrongdoings. CeraVe and Kareem Rahma, Audrey Trullinger, Mohamet Mbaye and more: For its latest influencer push, CeraVe transformed a memeable voice-over from one of its TV ads (“Hey, it’s me, your dry skin”) into a catchy jingle for social media. The skincare brand had DJ Casa Di Music remix the voiceover and got a slew of creators and dermatologist influencers to star in social content set to the song, including comedy and lifestyle influencer Audrey Trullinger, model and influencer Mohamet Mbaye and Kareem Rahma, a comedian and host of social media series “Subway Takes.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by CeraVe Skincare (@cerave) TurboTax and Zach King, Jay & Sharon and more: Tax season may have officially kicked off only yesterday, but TurboTax has been collaborating with creators to promote its software for almost the entire month of January. Magician Zach King and creator couple Jay and Sharon Wey are among the group of creators partnering with TurboTax, along with several nano-influencers and micro-influencers. @zachking Less stress, more refunds! 🤑 Download the @Intuit TurboTax app to get started. #TurboTaxPartner ♬ original sound - Zach King Emergen-C and Anna Sitar: Nearly two-thirds of millennials and Gen Z adults plan to drink less alcohol this year, according to a new report from dietary supplement brand Emergen-C and The Harris Poll. To help young consumers stick to that goal, Emergen-C partnered with influencer Anna Sitar to host a “Happier Hour” event in New York, where the brand served mocktails infused with Emergen-C supplements.Also read: Generational marketing—what brands should know View this post on Instagram A post shared by anna x sitar (@annaxsitar) Loewe and “Gamechanger Dad”: TikTok creator “Gamechanger Dad” is steadily building an audience on the platform with his reviews of various TikTok Shop products, where he calls every product he approves of “a game changer.” Luxury fashion brand Loewe sponsored “Gamechanger Dad” (who, as of this writing, has more than 28,000 followers) to determine whether he considers one of the brand’s handbags to be a “game changer.” Spoiler alert—he declared the bag, which he stocked with power tools, to be “the ultimate gamechanger.” @loewe You heard him, we’ve been doing it right since 1846. @Grace Williams #LOEWE ♬ original sound - LOEWE Social media screenshot Meta courts TikTok creators: Meta capitalized on the chaos surrounding TikTok’s temporary shutdown earlier this month to roll out a slew of new features and monetization opportunities aimed at creators seeking alternatives to TikTok. Some of these initiatives effectively replicate TikTok features, such as Meta’s launch of Edits, a video editing app resembling TikTok’s sibling app CapCut. Meta also extended the maximum length of videos shown in Instagram’s Reels tab from 90 seconds to three minutes and unveiled a “Breakthrough bonus program” offering creators up to $5,000 if they meet a monthly video quota. The company is also reportedly attempting to woo popular TikTok creators with bonuses of up to $50,000 per month in exchange for Reels content. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators) Threads unspools ads: Meta isn’t pursuing only creators. Last week, the company began testing ads on its text-based platform, Threads, with a select group of brands, including Louis Vuitton. The timing of the announcement is significant, as many advertisers gearing up for the Super Bowl are still searching for a viable alternative to X (formerly Twitter) for real-time posting during the Big Game. Also read: Meta begins first Threads ad test YouTube Shorts get longer: YouTube Shorts is also making it easier for creators to post three-minute videos, updating its filming and editing tools to allow creators to produce three-minute Shorts in the YouTube app earlier this month. Agency updates Day One Agency releases Gen Z study: Contrary to popular belief, Gen Z isn’t a monolith. A new report from creative agency Day One Agency and the University of Southern California identified three key cohorts within Gen Z, including a growing group of so-called “Neo-Traditionalists” with conservative social values and political beliefs. The report’s findings stem from a survey of more than 1,000 Gen Zers between 18 and 25 conducted by Day One Agency and USC’s Center for Public Relations. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Day One Agency (@d1a) TikTok of the week @gabschase Ummm ♬ The Last Opera - Saint-Preux In what many believed to be TikTok’s final hours ahead of its scheduled Jan. 19 ban, a last-minute trend emerged on the platform—influencers admitting to staging their content or otherwise misleading their viewers. Dozens of creators participated in the trend (which was set to an audio clip from “Family Guy”), including Tram Tran (aka @babydumplingg), Kaelie Mae and Carter Kench. While these confessions were largely harmless (Kaelie Mae, for instance, revealed she doesn’t use all of the gourmet ice cubes she creates in her videos), some TikTok users felt betrayed by their favorite creators upon their return to the platform following its brief shutdown. NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today Threadspotting View on Threads Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the “small test” of ads on Threads in—where else—a Threads post last Friday. The responses in the comments section of his post were largely negative, with some users threatening to leave Threads if the platform continues rolling out ads. Loading…

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

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