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. New deals Sephora and Winnie Harlow, Mario Dedivanovic, Jackie Aina and more: Sephora held its sixth annual “Sephoria” beauty convention over the weekend, bringing the event to Atlanta for the first time. Several big names in the beauty influencer space—many of them who have launched their own cosmetics or skincare brands—hosted masterclass sessions at the two-day event, including model and activist Winnie Harlow, founder of sunscreen brand Cay Skin; Makeup by Mario CEO and Founder Mario Dedivanovic; and influencer Jackie Aina, Co-Founder and co-CEO of fragrance brand Forvr Mood. A slew of nano- and micro-influencers also flocked to Sephoria, including dozens of members of the beauty retailer’s “Sephora Squad” influencer program. Creators at the event filmed themselves interacting with pop-ups from brands such as Rare Beauty, Glow Recipe and Sol de Janeiro, and stocking up on products for massive post-convention haul videos. @sephora Now this is journalism. ♬ original sound - sephora Levi’s and Beyoncé: When Beyoncé included “Levii’s Jeans” on her country album “Cowboy Carter” in March, Beyoncé fans and marketers alike knew it was only a matter of time before the denim brand would capitalize on its organic mention in her song. And yesterday, roughly six months after the release of “Cowboy Carter,” Levi’s revealed that the inevitable partnership had finally come to fruition. As the first phase of an overarching collaboration between Beyoncé and the denim brand, Levi’s recreated its iconic 1985 Laundrette ad with Beyoncé in the lead role. Also read: Read more about the campaign here WeTransfer and India Rose Crawford: A tiny knitted frog probably isn’t the first spokesperson that springs to mind for a file-sharing service. But WeTransfer selected “Frog,” the creation of knitter and stop-motion animator India Rose Crawford, as the face of its latest sponsored TikTok video tackling the topic of artist’s block. Viewers can also download the miniature painting Frog creates in the ad from WeTransfer. @indiarosecrawford AD| Frog faces a creative block 🎨 Go to @WeTransfer ♬ ANBR Little Things Artlist.io - India Rose Crawford H&M and SubwayTakes: Over the past week, H&M has sponsored two episodes of the social media series “SubwayTakes,” in which comedian and content creator Kareem Rahma asks New York subway riders to share a polarizing opinion. Interestingly, the brand isn’t directly mentioned in either video aside from an “#ad” sponsorship disclosure in their captions. H&M did not respond in time for publication to a request for comment on whether the clothes worn by Rahma and his guests in the two videos are from the brand. @subwaytakes Episode 189: It’s not embarrassing to ask for a fork at Chinese restaurants! 🥢 feat @Michelle ☆ﾐ 🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋 @H&M #ad Hosted by @KAREEM RAHMA Shot by @Willem Holzer @Ramy Edited by Tyler Christie #podcast #subway #hottakes #subwaytakes #interview #nyc #chinesefood #chopsticks #foodie #chineserestaurant ♬ original sound - Subway Takes Hinge and Brynta Ponn, @8illy and more: Dating app Hinge enlisted several creators across a range of TikTok niches to promote the launch of its new “turn limits” feature, which requires Hinge users to respond to unanswered messages in their inbox or close out a stale conversation before they can initiate new ones. Lifestyle and fashion creator Brynta Ponn promoted the feature as part of a “get ready with me” video, while comedy creator @8billy (who simply goes by “Billy” online) shared a surreal commercial spoof that explains the “turn limits” tool. Creators including Kaki Kirk and Elle-Louise Wilmot also shared Hinge-sponsored videos as part of the campaign. @8illy i love hinge and this amazing feature #hingepartner ♬ original sound - 8illy A few days later, Hinge shipped out an anthology of stories of real couples who met on Hinge, titled “No Ordinary Love,” to a group of BookTok influencers. @larryreads lets read these love stories almost never told together ❤️🩹 make sure to join my bookclub if u haven’t already! @Fable @Hinge 🖤 #ad #hingepartner ♬ original sound - larry Social media screenshot Meta unveils AI-generated influencer avatars: At its Meta Connect developers conference last week, the tech company offered a live demo of a new tool allowing influencers to create AI-powered digital avatars of themselves that can speak in their voice. The demo, captured in a clip from the Verge, mirrors the one shared by TikTok at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in June showing off its own digital avatar AI technology. Also read: Meta bets on AI at developers conference TikTok revamps its search ads offering: Speaking of TikTok, the platform made an announcement of its own last week, rolling out keyword-based targeting tools for its search ads. Previously, TikTok’s search ads were automated and advertisers couldn’t control which queries their ads appeared in. Read more about the revamped TikTok search platform Pinterest enhances its collage tool: Pinterest last week announced two updates to its collage feature, a favorite among Gen Z users. One of the new tools allows users to collaborate on collages, while the other streamlines the process of converting them into a video and sharing them to another social platform. The number of collage posts on Pinterest has increased by 418% since the start of 2024, according to a Pinterest blog post. TikTok of the week @cmcoving autumn outfits > everything #autumnvibes #autumnaesthetic #fallseason #fallaesthetic #falltrip #fallfoliage ♬ Diet Pepsi - Addison Rae Fashion influencer Caitlin Covington—the face of the “Christian Girl Autumn” meme that pokes fun at the oversized scarves and brown boots often donned by white millennial fashion bloggers such as Covington—has made her seasonal return with a slew of fall-themed social posts. Some have dubbed Covington “the Mariah Carey of fall” due to her so-called “defrosting” for autumn in the same way Carey does for the holiday season each year. NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today Threadspotting Post by @ryanair View on Threads Influencers and brands have posted pictures of shoes, jewelry, headphones and other items artfully arranged in their security trays at the airport over the past few months. Plenty of people have mocked influencers for the trend and begged them to stop slowing down the security line by pausing to carefully arrange their belongings for aesthetically pleasing photos. Now, airlines such as Ryanair are even getting involved, too, albeit jokingly. 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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