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 T-Mobile and Snoop Dogg, Kai Cenat and Patrick Mahomes: T-Mobile’s latest commercial brings Snoop Dogg’s sports commentary from the Paris Olympics to the NFL—sort of. In the TV spot, he, along with Gen Alpha’s favorite streamer Kai Cenat, critique Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ “top three plays of the day” in a SportsCenter-esque studio. But, rather than analyzing the plays Mahomes is executing on the football field, Snoop Dogg and Cenat are reviewing the quarterback’s maneuver through a T-Mobile store to get a new iPhone 16 Pro. The duo also appear in two videos across T-Mobile’s social channels—one showing their first meeting, and another in which they open a metal briefcase containing the new iPhone model. @tmobile @Kai Cenat @Snoop Dogg ♬ original sound - T-Mobile Doritos and Dude With Sign: Doritos last week announced the return of its “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, which invites consumers to submit ads to run as its TV spot during Super Bowl LIX. To drum up excitement around its revival of the contest, Doritos partnered with influencer “Dude With Sign” (real name Seth Phillips) for a handful of posts on both the brand’s social channels and Phillips’ own. In the social posts, Phillips appropriately swaps his typical rectangular signs for ones shaped like Doritos’ trianglular chips. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Doritos® (@doritos) More: Doritos brings back ‘Crash the Super Bowl’ contest Reese’s Puffs and Angel Reese: When fans of WNBA star Angel Reese dubbed themselves “Reese’s Pieces,” it was all but inevitable the chocolate and peanut butter candy brand would collaborate with her. In late August, Hershey Co. (the parent company of Reese’s) did exactly that, naming Reese an ambassador for Reese’s and dropping multiple merch collections in partnership with Reese. And last week, Reese leaned further into her shared name with the brand and inked a deal with Reese’s Puffs, the cereal brand owned by General Mills. Reese, in a statement, said the limited-edition Reese’s Puffs boxes she will appear on as part of the partnership “fulfill[s] [her] childhood dream of being on a cereal box.” Read more about Angel Reese’s brand deals and the WNBA’s surging ad rates View this post on Instagram A post shared by @reeses The Kentucky Bourbon Trail and Nadia Jackson, Art Smith and more: Hundreds of people joined a 24-hour livestream hosted by the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a tourism program to promote the state’s bourbon whiskey distilleries, last week. The YouTube livestream included hourly toasts from a slew of special guests, such as Oprah’s former private chef Art Smith and Australian micro-influencer Nadia Jackson, whose Instagram content revolves around whiskey. Creative agency Lewis led the effort. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kentucky Bourbon Trail (@kentuckybourbontrail) Jimmy Dean and Joe Ando: In just a few days, influencer and fashion designer Joe Ando went from designing a dress for skincare brand eos to partnering with Jimmy Dean to create a limited-edition “Griddle Bag” featuring two different western-inspired prints. Because the collab is tied to the launch of Jimmy Dean’s “Griddle Cake Breakfast Sandwiches,” each bag includes a pouch to keep the sandwiches warm while on the go. The limited-edition bags sold out days after their Sept. 19 release. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jimmy Dean (@jimmydean) Reformation and Kacey Musgraves: Reformation, too, released a limited-edition product collaboration last week, teaming up with country singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves on a “cottagecore”-inspired clothing line described as “made for frolicking.” In the caption of an Instagram post showing off the 17 pieces in the collection, Musgraves bucks the negative connotations the internet has given to the term “horse girl,” proudly calling herself “an admitted horse girl.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kacey Musgraves (@spaceykacey) Social media screenshot YouTube reveals new generative AI tools: At its third annual “Made on YouTube” event last week, YouTube unveiled a slew of AI-powered features and other tools for creators. Most notably, CEO Neal Mohan announced YouTube will begin integrating Google DeepMind’s video generation model, Veo, into YouTube Shorts later this year, allowing creators to produce six-second AI-generated video clips. Creators will also be able to use generative AI behind the scenes in YouTube Studio with new tools to help them generate titles, thumbnails, video ideas and possible replies to comments on their videos. Additionally, with more people watching YouTube on their TV screens, a new format for how video series are displayed on TVs will enable creators to sort their content into “seasons” and “episodes” à la streaming platforms such as Netflix. And, speaking of YouTube taking a page out of the streaming playbook, the platform also revealed to The Verge that pause ads—a staple of multiple streaming services—are now available to all advertisers on YouTube after the platform began testing them with a small group of advertisers in 2023. View this post on Instagram A post shared by YouTube Creators (@youtubecreators) Snap announces AI features and creator updates: At Snap’s annual “Snap Partner Summit” last week, it, too, unveiled several new AI-powered features. Snap announced it overhauled its Lens Studio AR software and integrated a new “Easy Lens” tool that allows creators to develop AR filters using generative AI and prompting. The company also revealed the latest version of its “Spectacles” AR glasses, featuring a new “Snap OS” operating system. Snapchatters will also be able to harness generative AI in new ways, including an enhanced version of Snap’s “My AI” chatbot that can identify plants and translate text written in other languages, among other functions. Snap now allows creators to quickly toggle between their public and personal accounts and share metrics such as engagement and their audience’s demographic data with brands in the Snap Star Collab Studio. TikTok updates its subscription feature: TikTok creators can now hide content, group chats or other exclusive perks behind paywalls through the platform’s “Subscription” feature. The feature, announced in a TikTok blog post yesterday, builds on the platform’s monthly subscription tool for TikTok Live creators by expanding it to all eligible TikTok creators—those who are 18 or older, have at least 10,000 followers and accrued at least 100,000 views across their videos in the past month. TikTok of the week @dumbrblnd Oh so theyre picking favorites 😪 ♬ original sound - Ken Tarte Cosmetics set off a fresh round of TikTok drama last week after several influencers shared videos of themselves unboxing PR packages from the brand containing $700 Hermès bracelets, while others unwrapped much cheaper necklaces and earrings. In the above video, comedy creator and vlogger Ken Eurich showed off a $30 Evry Jewels necklace she received from Tarte; beauty influencer Paloma Sanchez posted a video of herself discovering a few pairs of earrings priced at around $10 each in her PR package. Influencers such as Halley Kate, Alexis Oakley and Aditya Madiraju, meanwhile, opened packages containing Hermès bracelets along with several Tarte products. A Tarte representative said in an email that the brand sent Hermès bracelets to 100 influencers as part of a holiday gifting campaign. The representative declined to comment on how the brand selected which influencers would get the bracelets but told Ad Age, “we rotate who receives our mailers to ensure inclusivity across our creator community” and that “we plan our product mailers to connect product launches with creators’ preferences.” NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today Threadspotting Post by @drinkolipop View on Threads The memes surrounding viral sensation Moo Deng, a two-month-old pygmy hippo in a Thailand zoo, are holding strong on Threads (along with other social platforms) nearly two weeks after Moo Deng entered into the pop culture spotlight. Olipop, above, photoshopped the adorable hippo onto a can of its prebiotic soda to promote the return of its “Crisp Apple” flavor. Follow us on social media X Bluesky Instagram LinkedIn YouTube

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

Featured Stories