A satirical Diet Coke-themed face wash from “Saturday Night Live,” Emma Chamberlain’s Warby Parker collab and the White House’s holiday party for creators are some of this week’s creator economy trends.
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.
Have tips or news to share about influencer marketing and the creator economy? Email Gillian Follett at [email protected].
Also read: Top 5 creator partnerships of 2023
Warby Parker and Emma Chamberlain: Warby Parker has increasingly had its eyes set on its growing Gen Z audience this year—and teaming up with Gen Z queen Emma Chamberlain for its latest influencer campaign was a logical next step in that strategy. The brand last week launched a new glasses collection co-designed with Chamberlain, who has donned Warby Parker eyewear since she was 14. Chamberlain stars in the campaign debuting the collection alongside several members of her favorite animal species: pigeons.
Shopify and MrBeast: The commerce platform’s ongoing relationship with YouTube megastar MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, once again manifested itself in a brand integration into one of Donaldson’s viral videos. But this time, the brand featured in Donaldson’s most recent video—which documents a man attempting to spend as many days in a grocery store as possible for the chance to win $10,000 per day—wasn’t just Shopify, but one of the merchants on its platform: Kanga Coolers. Shopify covered the cost of the ad spot in Donaldson’s video for the small business as part of a giveaway that kicked off in September.
Donaldson’s video has amassed nearly 70 million views since he posted it on Sunday—and Donaldson also promoted Kanga Coolers in a post across Shopify’s Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.
The White House’s creator economy holiday party: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden last week hosted the first White House holiday party. The guest list consisted of creators and other pivotal figures in the creator economy, including social media platform executives such as Jim Shepherd, director of global creator partnerships at Snap, and Emily Keller, strategic manager of civics content partnerships at YouTube, as well as leaders at influencer marketing and talent agencies.
Creators in attendance included YouTuber and author John Green, chronic illness and mental health advocate Gigi Robinson and VidCon CEO Jim Louderback.
“Everyone in this room—all of you—have been a part of changing the way we get news and information,” Jill Biden said in a video clip from the party. “And so we wanted to honor that.”
Instagram shares Gen Z’s 2024 predictions: Instagram yesterday released a report highlighting Gen Z trends that could take off in 2024—as identified by Gen Z themselves. The platform’s “Trend Talk” report summarizes findings from a survey of Gen Z consumers it conducted in partnership with trend forecasting company WGSN. Some key takeaways include Gen Z respondents’ increased focus on sustainable fashion (many respondents said they plan to “buy less new clothes” in 2024); their growing goal of self-employment, which 33% cited as “the best way to achieve wealth” in the survey; and the continued growth of fan culture, with 75% of Gen Z respondents identifying as part of at least one fandom.
TikTok’s Ticketmaster partnership goes global: TikTok yesterday announced it will be expanding its Ticketmaster integration beyond the U.S., which the platform has been piloting with artists such as Niall Horan and Shania Twain since 2022, into 20 new global markets, including the U.K., Mexico, Canada and Australia. The partnership revolves around an in-app ticketing feature that enables users to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster without leaving TikTok and allows artists to embed links to Ticketmaster events within their videos.
The announcement is the latest example of TikTok’s increasing focus on the music industry this year, following its launch of an upcoming music festival (which will take place Dec. 10) and its partnership with Billboard to produce a weekly Top 50 chart of songs circulating on TikTok.
Threads expands its search feature: In September, Threads introduced a highly anticipated search feature to the platform in “most” English- and Spanish-speaking countries, including the U.S. And as of last week, the platform has now expanded that tool to function in “all languages,” according to a post from Instagram head Adam Mosseri. Mosseri also teased upcoming future improvements to Threads’ search feature in his post.
TikTok users are accustomed to encountering ads—and often quickly scrolling past them—while flicking through their “For You” pages. So, many TikTokers assumed a glossy video labeled with Olay’s logo was just a typical ad from the skincare brand. But those who stuck around quickly realized the video was, in fact, a “Saturday Night Live” spoof that swapped face wash for Diet Coke—a popular beverage among Gen Z and millennials, who have driven the hashtag #DietCoke to 1 billion views on TikTok.
“Watched this live and waited for it to be posted so I can share it with everyone I know,” one user joked in the comments.
