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

Welcome to Ad Age’s influencer marketing news roundup. Each week, we highlight 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 gillian.follett@adage.com. New deals Google Android and Sha’carri Richardson, Haley Kalil and more: Artificial intelligence seems to be top of mind for just about everyone these days, including the athletes and influencers Google recruited to promote the AI-powered search feature on its Android smartphones. In the campaign video shared last week, the group of influencers, including track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson, influencer and model Haley Kalil and Bronny James, the college basketball player and son of LeBron James, leverages Google’s “Circle to Search” tool. They use it for everything from identifying a plant in the background of a photo to shopping for a pair of hot pink boots. Ford Motor Company and Charli D’Amelio: Up until this point, Charli D’Amelio has mostly worked with beauty, fashion and food brands. But over the weekend, D’Amelio revealed she’s breaking into a new and unexpected category with one of her latest brand partners, Ford. About a month ago, D’Amelio shared that she had overcome her fear of learning to drive and secured her driver’s license, posting a Ford-sponsored video of her sitting behind the wheel of one of the automaker’s electric vehicles. And on Saturday, she teased her involvement in an upcoming Ford ad, which could further blur the lines between “traditional” and digital celebrities by having her follow in the footsteps of the plethora of actors and musicians who regularly appear in car commercials. The full spot reflecting the D’Amelio’s connection to Ford was directed by Travis Cloyd. Axe and Brandon Beloti, Shareef O’Neal and more: Bronny James wasn’t the only pro basketball progeny to appear in an influencer campaign in the past week. Axe, like Google, tapped several athletes for a marketing push last week, challenging basketball players Shareef O’Neal (son of Shaquille O’Neal), Brandon Beloti, Chiney Ogwumike and Kris Jenkins to take part in a blind scent test and indicate whether they preferred the smell of the Axe’s new “Black Vanilla” scent or that of a pricier luxury cologne. Spoiler alert: they preferred Axe, despite agreeing at the start of the video that Axe is “the worst part of the locker room.” Thirty-second cuts of the star-studded video are running on linear TV, streaming services and YouTube throughout the March Madness tournament. The campaign also involves partnerships with TikTok influencers around the globe, including John Rusanov and Alex Costa. Social media screenshot TikTok launches a global “Youth Council”: TikTok has been pulling out all the stops in response to the renewed calls for a U.S. ban on the platform, from urging users to appeal to their local representatives to oppose the legislation, to bringing TikTok creators to Capitol Hill. Though it may be a less direct answer to looming threats against the platform, TikTok today announced the launch of its “Youth Council.” The group, consisting of 15 teenagers between 15 and 18 years old, will “focus on teen well-being and inclusion to help ensure TikTok continues to be a safe and accessible space for young people,” according to a TikTok blog post. /1 Today we announced the launch of TikTok’s Youth Council, a group of teens who work with us to share their perspectives on keeping TikTok a creative and safe space for young people everywhere. 🧵— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) March 25, 2024 Threads inches closer to X: Despite launching as a direct competitor to X, formerly Twitter, Threads initially lacked many pivotal features that kept many people from trading X for Threads, such as a hashtag system or a real-time “trending topics” feature. But the platform has been gradually rolling out those highly-requested tools—and last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed Threads’ “trending now” is now available to all U.S. users. Post by @zuck View on Threads A Facebook “poking” renaissance: According to Facebook, “the poke is having a moment.” The platform’s “poke” feature, which allows users to notify others that they’ve given them a virtual nudge and invite them to poke them back, saw a 13-fold surge over the past month, according to Meta data. And, per Meta, about half of those pokes came from Gen Zers, despite Facebook being one of the age cohort’s least-favorite social platforms (minus Facebook Marketplace, the platform’s virtual secondhand store beloved by Gen Z). Post by @facebook View on Threads TikTok of the week @kishapeart @Royal Caribbean has heard the backlash and has stepped in. Thank you @Anthony Antoine for keeping us informed and I truly hope they do the right thing for you guys on board. ❤️ #9monthcruise #serenadeoftheseas #cruisetok #uwc #ultimateworldcruise #cruiseshiplife #cruiseship #royalcarribean #lifeatsea #shiplife #greenscreenvideo ♬ original sound - Kisha Peart When Royal Caribbean’s nine-month “Ultimate World Cruise” set off in mid-December, TikTok users were quickly captivated by the global voyage, which was soon dubbed “the TikTok cruise.” The handful of passengers sharing videos of their time on the ship, such as @little_rat_brain, inadvertently became TikTok micro-influencers, and content creator Marc Sebastian joined the cruise as part of a brand deal. Though the buzz around the cruise had largely died down over the past several weeks, it reentered the TikTok conversation last week after Royal Caribbean posted a brand deal opportunity on the TikTok Creator Marketplace, looking for two new influencers to post several videos aboard the cruise. Several creators, such as Kisha Peart (whose video is above), viewed Royal Caribbean’s job listing as a “slap in the face” to the group of creators who had already been posting videos from aboard the ship for the past four months. But in Peart’s video—a follow-up to a TikTok she made to call out the brand for passing over the creators aboard the cruise—she revealed Royal Caribbean has since “heard the backlash” against its creator marketplace posting and had met with some of the original TikTok cruise creators, such as Anthony Antoine. Threadspotting Post by @zuck View on Threads Along with the rollout of a trending topics page on Threads, Zuckerberg also announced last week that live scores from sports games will soon be available on the platform. Threads teamed up with the NBA to pilot the new feature, and will “add in other leagues soon,” according to Zuckerberg. With the new feature, Threads is looking to attract X users who continue to leverage X to follow sports scores and engage with other fans in real-time during games. 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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