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. Have tips or news to share about influencer marketing and the creator economy? Email Gillian Follett at gillian.follett@adage.com. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs New deals NYX Cosmetics, Lauren Speed-Hamilton and Cameron Hamilton: With Netflix’s reality dating show “Love is Blind” in the midst of its fifth season, NYX Cosmetics launched its own spoof on the genre with TikTok series “Blind to Brows.” The L’Oreal-owned brand tapped Lauren Speed-Hamilton and Cameron Hamilton, who got engaged during the first season of “Love is Blind,” to host its TikTok series, which challenges contestants to “find love without seeing each other’s eyebrows.” @nyxcosmetics the journey to find [brow] love starts rn 💘💍 #BlindToBrows @Lauren Speed @Cameron Hamilton ♬ Blind to Brows EP 1 - NYX Cosmetics Also read: Why BeReal is launching its first marketing campaign Crocs and aespa: Crocs is the latest brand to capitalize on K-pop’s massive global popularity, teaming up with girl group aespa to launch a new pastel purple, fuzz-lined shoe. This collaboration follows Crocs’ previous partnership with the K-pop group for the brand’s “Croc Day” event in Roblox last October, where aespa performed a virtual musical performance. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Crocs Shoes (@crocs) Paid Leave for All, Katie Sturino, Rachael Shepard-Ohta and Eva Chen: While perhaps not a “brand deal” in the traditional sense, national advocacy group Paid Leave for All is tapping a number of creators to help publicize its push for paid leave legislation in the U.S. The group, along with Glamour Magazine, kicked off an influencer campaign with a slew of Instagram stories shared by creators Katie Sturino, Rachael Shepard-Ohta and Eva Chen—and it will team up with additional creators in the coming weeks. Influencer agency Billion Dollar Boy connected Paid Leave for All with the creators, whose content collectively generated over 2,600 new petition signatures for the group in the span of two weeks. Social media screenshot X inks a deal with Paris Hilton: X, formerly Twitter, is partnering with Paris Hilton and her media company 11:11 to develop “new initiatives in video and live video, live commerce, Spaces, and so much more,” CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a Monday post. Under the two-year deal, Hilton will help pioneer a new live shopping feature on X along with producing several platform-exclusive video programs. The queen of pop culture, music, business, and TV is #Sliving on X. @ParisHilton welcome to the @X family, we're excited to launch an official partnership with you and your next-gen media company 11:11. Together we're going to create a launchpad for new initiatives in video and… pic.twitter.com/7ctohyn3Nb— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) October 2, 2023 Meta unveils new AI advertiser tools: Meta is leaning into generative AI with a set of new AI-powered features within the company’s Ad Manager network. These tools, announced Wednesday, include Background Generation—which, as the name suggests, produces backgrounds to plug in behind products being advertised—and a Text Variation feature that tweaks a given piece of ad copy to appeal to different audiences. Read more about Meta here LTK introduces two features for creators: Influencer-oriented shopping platform LTK unveiled two new updates to its platform during its annual LTK Con event earlier this week. The platform is introducing a comments section to creators’ LTK shops for the first time and is launching the “LTK Marketplace,” which subverts “the one-sided, dating-app-type model” of brand deals by enabling creators to directly contact brands about partnership opportunities. View this post on Instagram A post shared by LTK.HQ (@ltk.hq) Creating businesses MrBeast’s Feastables sponsors pro basketball: YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson—better known as MrBeast—this week struck a first-of-its-kind sponsorship deal with the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. The logo of Donaldson’s snack brand, Feastables, will adorn the team’s jerseys throughout the 2023-2024 basketball season, and Feastables will “collaborate on digital media, content and marketing opportunities” with the team, the NBA announced. The sponsorship is the first instance of a creator-led brand partnering with the NBA. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) Two creators expand from social media to TV: YouTuber Eric “Airrack” Decker signed with talent agency UTA for representation in all areas as he looks to extend his content into TV, live events and other verticals, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Decker also hired a chief operating officer, John Mattingly, to oversee this shift into new content mediums. Similarly, influencer Serena Kerrigan on Sunday debuted her new subscription-based platform for exclusive long-form content, SFKTV. In an interview with Variety, Kerrigan called the platform “the future of television.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by serena kerrigan (@serenakerrigan) TikTok of the week @cocomocoe My bet is that she hits 1m followers by the end of 2023! Who found her before this video? ❤️✨ @DJ Mandy #marketing #djmandy #influencers #trendpredictions ♬ original sound - Coco Mocoe TikTok creator Amanda Shultz, or “DJ Mandy,” is quickly gaining fame on the platform for videos of her learning how to DJ, often including purposely clunky or strange song transitions. In the above video, podcaster Coco Mocoe outlines Shultz’s ongoing climb to virality and why she thinks Shultz is a creator for brands to keep an eye on. 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Creator and influencer trends brand marketers need to know about right now

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