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 Victoria’s Secret and Olivia Yang, Priscila Escoto, Kate Bartlett and more: The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show returned last Tuesday after a six-year hiatus amid the lingerie brand’s well-documented attempts to overhaul its image. The brand invited several high-profile influencers to attend the fashion show, including British beauty creator Olivia Yang; Priscila Escoto, a Mexican fashion and lifestyle influencer; and New York-based fashion creator Kate Bartlett. Despite facing some social media criticism, mainly due to the style of the outfits, the fashion show drew significant buzz for Victoria’s Secret, with influencers in the audience contributing to a nearly 5,300% month-over-month increase in online mentions of the brand, according to the influencer marketing platform Traackr. @olafflee screaming, crying, throwing up. @victoriassecret_uk #vsangels #victoriassecret #vs2024 #vsfashionshow #newyork ♬ som original - 𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒆𝒗𝒍'𝒔 - 𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒆𝒗𝒍'𝒔🩴 Gap and Julia Huynh: Fashion and lifestyle influencer Huynh’s yearlong search for the “hoodiest hoodie”—one with a loose fit; thick, cotton material; and a “huge hood to fit [her] big ass head,” among other criteria)—is over, thanks to a new collaboration with Gap. The partnership marks Gap’s first product collaboration with a creator. The $98 price tag on Huynh’s hoodie, however, has generated backlash across both her and Gap’s posts about the new product. @julia.huynh GUESS WE’RE GOING BACK AGAIN 😩😩 #hoodiethathoodies ♬ original sound - Julia Huynh Amazon and Josh Richards, Ellie Zeiler and more: Amazon featured several creators from its influencer program in its holiday catalog targeted at kids and teenagers. A handful of pages in the catalog feature product picks from Amazon influencers such as TikTok star Josh Richards, influencer and entrepreneur Ellie Zeiler, as well as beauty micro-influencer Britney Nnadi, Each page was linked to the creators’ shoppable “next-gen wish lists” on Amazon via a QR code. Read more about the toy catalog here View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ellie Jane Zeiler (@elliezeiler) Paramount and Arianna Hailey, Alex Coleman, Carter Kench and more: To promote the release of its horror film “Smile 2” last Friday, Paramount Pictures partnered with influencer marketing agency QYOU Media on a creepy creator-led TikTok push. The campaign kicked off early last week with lifestyle influencer Arianna Hailey appearing to announce her retirement from social media. Soonafter, creators Alex Coleman, Carter Kench and @horror_chronicles quickly responded with videos pointing out several people with sinister grins in the background of Hailey’s announcement video and other TikTok content. The TikTok saga ended with Hailey telling the worried group of creators her retirement was “just a joke”—but the final video ends on a cliffhanger, as Liv Swearingen, one of the creators who rushed to Hailey’s house to check on her, appears to be gripped by the same “curse” the group had feared was affecting Hailey. @itsari.aleise It was all just a joke... right? 😀 Be sure to watch #Smile2 only in theatres Friday #ParamountPartner #SmileMovie @Carter Kench @AnnaG @Nathan Kessel @L I V @Paramount Pictures ♬ original sound - Arianna Hailey The League and Sophia Amoruso, Brett Wulc and more: The League, a paid membership dating app, is rolling out its first national campaign this month, highlighting over a dozen of its famous members, including Sophia Amoruso, founder of fashion retailer Nasty Gal; artist Brett Wulc; and Olympic fencer Miles Chamley-Watson. Each campaign spot features an influencer cheekily telling viewers they wouldn’t be able to handle them as their partner due to a trait they possess that is typically considered “undesirable” (such as “I’m kind of bossy,” or “I argue for a living”) before daring viewers to become members of The League to prove otherwise. The League worked with creative agency Better Half on the social-first marketing push. @theleagueapp Think you can handle a hands-on kinda guy like @brett wulc? Because honestly if you do… good on you 🥵 And… if you’re on The League and want to get… “hands on,” message #DateB#DateBrettur Concierge and The League will actually show you each other’s profiles #youdontwanttodateme ♬ original sound - The League Social media screenshot Bluesky sees an influx of new users: Over 1.2 million people joined Bluesky—an alternative to X (formerly Twitter) that emerged in the weeks following Elon Musk’s X takeover of the platform—between last Wednesday and Friday, driving Bluesky up the App Store charts. The influx of new Bluesky users seemed to be prompted by a post from X’s engineering team announcing an update to the platform’s block function that would enable X users to view public posts from users who have blocked them. congratulations everyone, we have now passed 12 million people total on bluesky!!! 🦋 over 1.2M new people have joined bluesky in the last two days — welcome!! 💙🕺🪩[image or embed]— Bluesky (@bsky.app) October 18, 2024 at 1:42 PM Instagram brings carousels to the Reels tab: Photo carousel posts on Instagram with a music track accompanying them will now appear alongside videos in the platform’s Reels tab, Instagram announced last week. TikTok has similarly prioritized carousels in its main video feed lately, telling creators in February that photo posts on the platform can receive up to nearly double the amount of likes and almost triple the number of comments compared to videos. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators) YouTube rolls out Shorts and TV updates: YouTube outlined multiple updates in a blog post last week, including collaborative YouTube playlists with customizable thumbnails (which users can produce using YouTube’s generative AI tools) and a new Shorts interface on TVs that allows users to read comments or scroll through a creator’s shop without leaving the video. Agency updates Eva Nosidam Productions searches for a creator collaborator: Eva Nosidam Productions—which is part of VaynerX and behind Duracell’s Ariana Madix partnership and Jimmy John’s “MILF & Cookies” campaign with rapper Yung Gravy—is inviting content creators to apply for a chance to work alongside the production company on an ad for a VaynerX client. The winning creator will be judged and selected by Maya Brewster-Dorian, Eva Nosidam’s chief production officer, and film director and former Bravo star Nema Vand. Whalar Group acquires talent agency Sixteenth: Creator company Whalar Group acquired Sixteenth, a talent management agency based in the U.K., earlier this month. Sixteenth merged with Whalar’s own talent agency, Whalar Talent, with former Whalar Talent President Victoria Bachan helming the newly combined team of over 40 talent managers. TikTok of the week @aritzia Don’t wait. Try on The Super Puff™ Meme Size in select stores. #aritzia #aritziaoutfits ♬ maps - <3 The latest TikTok dance trend revolves around users shimmying to the song “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, pausing each time the singer repeats the word “wait” in the chorus. Clothing brand Aritzia put a clever twist on the trend by having a rendering of one of its puffer jackets perform the viral dance and telling viewers in the caption “don’t wait” to try on one of its jackets in select Aritzia stores. NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today Threadspotting Post by @squishmallows View on Threads Squishmallows alsoleaned into a viral TikTok trend over the weekend, though it opted to share its meme on Threads and Instagram rather than TikTok. The trend stems from an audio clip from the TV series “Broad City,” where one character awkwardly attempts to use slang by saying, “In da clerb, we all fam” (or, in non-slang terms, “In the club, we are all family”). 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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