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. See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here New deals Taco Bell and Alexis Frost, Louie Castro, Retirement House and more: Taco Bell invited dozens of influencers to its second annual “Live Más Live” event last week, where the fast food chain unveiled a slew of new menu items during an Apple-style keynote presentation. Attendees at the New York event ranged from food reviewers such as Alexis Frost to mega-influencers such as Louie Castro. Actress Ashley Park, who co-hosted “Live Más Live” alongside Taco Bell executives, also shared several social posts from the event. Taco Bell’s influencer partnerships amplifying the event extended beyond New York, too—the brand tapped “granfluencer” group Retirement House for a sponsored video of them streaming the presentation from California. @stephpappas Taco ‘bout a dream day!🌮✨ Come along with me to the @tacobell Live Más Live event! This was the most fun & yummy day!!!😍 I miss the QuesoCrisp taco already…#TacoBellPartner #Obsessed ♬ Party Anthem! Future House♪(1318460) - Ninja Muzik Tokyo SheaMoisture and Kirah Ominique, Simi Muhumuza and more: Unilever-owned hair care brand SheaMoisture hosted more than a dozen Black fashion and beauty creators in Jamaica over the past few days for the brand’s first-ever influencer trip. The so-called “Sheacation,” whose guest list includes Kirah Ominique, Simi Muhumuza and Brianna Jones, helped promote SheaMoisture’s new Curl Stretch product line. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SheaMoisture (@sheamoisture) Garnier, Ilana Glazer and more: Another beauty and hair care brand, Garnier, also leaned into influencers to generate buzz around a new product launch. The L’Oréal-owned brand partnered with comedian Ilana Glazer on a brief social media comedy show poking fun at the viral “glazed donut skin” trend and promoting the brand’s new micellar water with salicylic acid as a skin “de-glazer.” Garnier bolstered its “De-Glaze My Makeup With Me” campaign with partnerships with several beauty influencers and comedians, including Benton McClintock and Arielle Lewis. @ariisaysso How often do you get a free Micellar Water WITH Salicylic Acid from THE @ilana glazer ?😂 @GarnierUSA #GarnierPartner #GarnierSkincare #DGWM #DeGlazeWithME ♬ original sound - ARI 👽 Lush and Dylan Mulvaney: Lush, the beauty brand known for its bath bombs, teamed up with influencer Dylan Mulvaney on a limited-edition bath bomb tied to her newly released memoir “Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer.” The brand will donate 75% of the purchase price of each bath bomb to organizations that support transgender people. @dylanmulvaney I HAVE MY OWN BATH BOMB!! The late bloomer is on sale at lush online and 75% of purchase price goes to orgs supporting trans folks!! 🏳️⚧️🌸 #lush #bath #trans #latebloomer ♬ original sound - Dylan Mulvaney Louis Vuitton and Pat McGrath: Luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton is crossing over into beauty with the help of makeup artist and influencer Pat McGrath. Last week, the brand announced McGrath is joining as the creative director of its La Beauté Louis Vuitton cosmetics collection, which is slated to launch this fall. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Louis Vuitton (@louisvuitton) Social media screenshot YouTube pilots a new subscription tier: YouTube is rolling out a cheaper alternative to its YouTube Premium subscription plan in the U.S. after piloting it internationally last year. The new $7.99-per-month “Premium Lite” ad-free tier eliminates ads from “most videos,” with the caveat that “ads may appear on music content, Shorts and when you search or browse,” according to YouTube. YouTube Premium, meanwhile, which costs $13.99 per month (and has over 125 million subscribers, per YouTube), removes ads from all YouTube videos and the YouTube Music platform. Meta courts TikTok stars: Instagram head Adam Mosseri took a group of TikTok mega-influencers, including Dixie D’Amelio, Bella Poarch, Josh Richards and Quenlin Blackwell, to dinner on Friday. With the extended U.S. TikTok ban deadline of April 5 swiftly approaching, the dinner was likely part of Meta’s overarching efforts to woo over TikTok creators, which have included hefty cash bonuses for TikTok creators who start making Instagram Reels. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) Reddit rolls out new beginner-friendly tools: Reddit, too, seems to be courting new users with several features aimed at those less familiar with the platform. The new tools, unveiled in a Reddit blog post last week, automate processes such as checking whether a user’s post would violate the rules of a subreddit community before they post it and suggesting relevant subreddits for users to share their posts in. Reddit also rolled out a new analytics tool that shows users the reach and engagement on their posts. Creating businesses Alex Cooper partners with the National Women’s Soccer League: Alex Cooper’s electrolyte drink brand Unwell Hydration is an official sponsor of the National Women’s Soccer League’s 2025 season, the league announced on Friday. The partnership includes activations at several NWSL games—including Unwell Hydration pop-ups, co-branded merch products and mid-game appearances by Cooper—and the launch of “Unwell FC,” a group for fans of both Cooper and soccer. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alex Cooper (@alexandracooper) See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here TikTok of the week @yourrichbff Watch the latest episode of @Networth And Chill Podcast with the amazing @bran_flakezz. Whoa! Talk about a major pay raise! From 40k to 786k 🤯 #money #finance #financialfreedom #save #savemoney #learn #lifehack #moneysaver #contentcreation #contentcreator #salary #job #pay #payraise ♬ original sound - Vivian | Your Rich BFF TikTok users are always flabbergasted when influencers reveal how much they’ve earned from content creation and brand deals. So, naturally, when comedian and influencer Brandon Edelman (aka @bran_flakezz) told finance creator Vivan Tu that he grossed $768,000 in 2024 during an episode of Tu’s podcast “Networth and Chill,” the clip quickly began racking up views on TikTok. While paying his talent managers, taxes and other expenses took Edelman’s total earnings down to roughly $300,000, TikTok users were still shocked by the number and applauded Edelman’s pay transparency. Threadspotting View on Threads On Threads, several creators have spent the past few weeks hyping up a different platform: LinkedIn. Colin Rocker’s post above is the latest in a series of recent posts from creators discussing the high levels of reach and engagement and brand deal opportunities they’ve encountered on LinkedIn—some, like Rocker’s, bashing Instagram and other social platforms in the process. 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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