Poppi’s influencer-heavy new product launch party, CeraVe's Michael Cera-themed PR packages and BeReal’s launch of official brand and celebrity accounts are some of this week’s creator economy headlines.
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].
Poppi and Paris Hilton, Brittany Xavier, Jodie Woods and more: Gut health soda brand Poppi turned its launch of a new flavor over the weekend into a star-studded celebration. The brand invited dozens of celebrities and influencers to its Los Angeles pop-up store, Poppi Mart, to browse shelves stocked with its sodas and colorful merch and dance to a DJ performance by Paris Hilton. Other notable guests include fashion and travel creator Brittany Xavier, lifestyle influencer Jodie Woods and reality TV stars such as Lisa Barlow of “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” and Harry Jowsey of “Too Hot to Handle.”
CeraVe, Haley Kalil and Girlbosstown: Images of Michael Cera lugging bags full of CeraVe products around Brooklyn began circulating on social media last week—and rumors of a potential collaboration between the actor and the similarly-named skincare brand were only further stoked when several creators started posting CeraVe-sponsored content featuring Cera. Model Haley Kalil, who is a CeraVe brand ambassador, documented her sighting of Cera scrawling his first name on CeraVe bottles at a Brooklyn pharmacy, while brand consultant Robyn DelMonte (aka Girlbosstown) recorded herself opening a CeraVe PR package filled with moisturizers and merch labeled “Michael CeraVe.” It appears it may be part of a Super Bowl ad stunt, though details are under wraps for now.
Evolved Chocolate and Tinx: Back in September 2022, Tinx (whose real name is Christina Najjar) shared a photo to her Instagram story of her holding a chocolate bar from Evolved Chocolate and on-screen text reading, “I am obsessed.” Now, the New York-based brand has teamed up with Najjar to launch a limited-edition pink chocolate bar. The partnership, which first came together in Instagram DMs between Najjar and Evolved Chocolate, has been months in the making, said Co-Founders Christine Cusano and Rick Gusmano in a press release.
Duolingo, Jonathan Van Ness and Amanda Cooper (@bakingthursdays): The language learning app teamed up with “Queer Eye” star and hair stylist Jonathan Van Ness to throw a surprise party for Livy Harp, a Duolingo user who had recently achieved a 1,400-day Japanese learning streak. The party aligned with Duolingo’s “unhinged” online presence, featuring a twerking cake of brand mascot Duo (made by baker Amanda Cooper), Duo, clad in a pink bikini, and several Duolingo employees bowing down to the owl mascot while wearing Duo masks.
BeReal brings on brands and celebs: The French social media app last week announced plans to launch official accounts for brands and celebrities, called “RealBrands” and “RealPeople,” respectively. Beginning on Feb. 6, BeReal users will be able to follow these official accounts, engage with their daily snapshots and even tag those brands and celebrities in their own photos, according to a BeReal blog post. BeReal preempted some of the criticism it might receive for inviting brands to its previously anti-advertising platform in the blog post, writing, “We believe that by showing that notable people and brands are actually people just like us–equally boring and interesting at different times–we help reset and improve some of the negativity that has come from modern social platforms.”
Instagram pilots a new private account feature: Instagram appears to be moving in the opposite direction of BeReal and continuing its efforts to give the social platform a more intimate feel with its test of a new feature called “Flipside.” Flipside would allow users to create a private photo and video feed within their account that can only be viewed by other users they invite, effectively allowing Instagrammers to build a “finsta” account (typically a more private account for unfiltered and candid content) into their existing profile. Social media consultant Matt Navarra recently shared a video of the feature on Threads, and Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed the existence of Flipside in his own Threads post, writing, “We’re not even sure we’ll launch it on Instagram … We’ll see how people respond in the test.”
TikTok tests 30-minute videos: TikTok also began piloting a new feature this week—the ability to create 30-minute videos, double its current maximum video length of 15 minutes, as shown in a screenshot from Navarra. The platform has been steadily increasing its video length limit over the past two years, upping it to 10 minutes for all users in 2022 and expanding the maximum length to 15 minutes for select users at the end of 2023.
Along with unboxing Cera-themed PR packages, Robyn DelMonte has also spent the past week sharing various ideas for Super Bowl TV spots in hopes that one of the brands she features in these campaign concepts will send her to the Big Game. She’s already uploaded ad ideas for brands such as Duolingo, Raising Cane’s and Hyundai, and has several other brands in her comments asking for their turn to be featured in one of DelMonte’s campaign mockups.
Converse yesterday used its Threads account to announce the launch of a new shoe collaboration, inserting the new product into a meme template and sharing a link to purchase the shoes on the brand’s website. Notably, Converse did not promote the shoe collaboration on X, formerly Twitter, and used separate video content to advertise the crystal-studded sneakers on Instagram and TikTok.
