A new brand trip controversy, Estée Lauder's pursuit of the NFL’s female viewers and Applebee’s over-the-top creator collaboration 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. Sign up for our influencer marketing newsletter here.
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Estée Lauder and Katie Feeney, Keke Palmer and Kay Adams: Beauty brands including Dove and NYX Professional Makeup capitalized on the so-called “Taylor Swift effect” on female NFL viewership last season with Super Bowl ads. The NFL has maintained much of that female audience this season, and Estée Lauder is embracing the sport’s increased popularity with women with its “Game Day, Your Way” ad running during “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video this fall. The 30-second spot—starring influencer Katie Feeney, actor and entrepreneur Keke Palmer and sports commentator Kay Adams—juxtaposes clips of the three women applying Estée Lauder foundation ahead of a game with scenes of football players preparing for the game by doing warm-up drills and putting on their helmets and other equipment.
In addition to the commercial, Feeney also shared a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the ad on Instagram and TikTok.
Jacquemus and Bemi Orojuogun: Jacquemus tapped Orojuogun, a TikTok creator who films herself standing dangerously close to buses barreling down the streets of London (earning her the nickname “London bus auntie” on TikTok), to help promote the opening of its London storefront last week. The ad closely resembles Orojuogun’s typical content, aside from her inviting viewers to “come have a cup of tea” with her at the store’s opening. Orojuogun is typically silent in her videos as she stands in the middle of the road or on the edge of a curb with large red buses flying past her.
Many of the more than 6,000 commenters on the Jacquemus video praised the luxury brand’s decision to work with Orojuogun and celebrated “auntie getting her bag.”
Also read: Inside creator-brand contracts
Applebee’s and “A Twink and a Redhead”: Applebee’s teamed up with comedy duo Grant Gibbs and Ashley Gill, better known online as “A Twink and a Redhead,” for a campaign around its recently revamped “Big Cluckin’ Chicken Sandwich.” In the satirical ad, Grant picks up Gill in a bright red Applebee’s-branded monster truck for a “date” to try the overhauled menu item. The two aren’t truly dating, however. Their pretend relationship is a running gag across their videos—one that carries over into an ad for Motorola that the duo uploaded just a few days after their Applebee’s collaboration.
Ulta Beauty and Ego Nwodim, Paul Fino, Justine Lupe and more: For its holiday marketing push, Ulta recruited actors Ego Nwodim and Justine Lupe, along with beauty creators Paul Fino, Nicol Concilio and Odette Paulino to staff its “holiday hotline” in a series of social videos. Nwodim serves as the hotline’s hostess across all the episodes, while Lupe, Fino, Concilio and Paulino each appear in one episode to offer holiday gift recommendations tied to their respective areas of expertise. For example, Fino, the hotline’s dedicated “scent specialist,” guides shoppers on different perfumes to purchase.
Smirnoff and Troye Sivan: Smirnoff yesterday inked a multiyear partnership with singer-songwriter Troye Sivan, assigning him the role of global “Chief Vibes Officer.” The partnership will span social media, digital and out-of-home ads, as well as event activations, across more than 20 countries, according to a Smirnoff release. The video unveiling the partnership, revolving around a faux press conference, was created by Dazed Studio, with production support from McCann Worldgroup, alongside director Hannah Lux Davis.
Glow Recipe and Katie Fang, Noriella, Skyelar Chase and more: Like many brands that have hosted pop-ups lately, Korean skincare brand Glow Recipe last week invited dozens of influencers to preview its New York activation ahead of its opening to the public, including beauty influencer Katie Fang; singer-songwriter Noriella; and lifestyle creator Skyelar Chase. The pop-up, inspired by the night markets of Seoul, South Korea, received roughly 1,700 total attendees last Friday and Saturday, according to the brand. Glow Recipe held a similar pop-up in Los Angeles last month attended by influencers such as Leah Kateb and James Charles and approximately 3,400 consumers. For both pop-ups, Glow Recipe collaborated with creative and experiential marketing agency MKG.
Pinterest shares influencers’ gift guides: Pinterest last week shared a slew of shoppable holiday gift guides curated by creators, music artists and other celebrities, including Emma Chamberlain, Molly Baz, Paris Hilton and RuPaul. Several brands, such as Rare Beauty, REI and Savage x Fenty, also partnered with Pinterest to assemble guides for holiday shoppers. Pinterest also rolled out a new “quick save” feature where users can automatically add products from those gift guides to a shoppable wishlist.
Threads prepares to add ads: Meta is planning to introduce ads to Threads in early 2025, according to a report from The Information. The report comes just a few months after an Instagram spokesperson denied the company was testing ads on Threads after developers uncovered a “sponsored” label for Threads posts in the platform’s code. Threads has also been experiencing huge spikes in its user growth—each day for the past three months, over one million people have created a Threads account, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced last week.
YouTube centers creator ads: YouTube last week announced a series of new and updated ad tools tied to creator collaborations and YouTube Shorts. In a blog post outlining the ad tools, Melissa Hsieh Nikolic, the director of product management for YouTube Ads, said the platform’s partnership ads (which allow advertisers to leverage creator videos in their ad campaigns) are now available to all advertisers globally, and creators can contact brands to initiate those partnerships rather than waiting for advertisers to reach out to them. YouTube Select Creator Takeovers, which allow advertisers to temporarily buy out the ad inventory on a creator’s channel, are also now available to all U.S. advertisers.
“Hawk Tuah” girl starts a dating app: Hailey Welch, the originator of the viral “Hawk Tuah” meme, last week unveiled her latest business venture—an AI-powered app offering dating advice for everything from first date outfit suggestions to which zodiac signs a user is most compatible with. The release of the app, called “Pookie Tools,” comes just two months after Welch launched her “Talk Tuah” podcast.
The latest brand trip controversy to rock TikTok revolves around Korean skincare brand d’Alba, which did not include any Black creators in the group of 57 influencers it invited on a “global” brand trip. After beauty creator Eleanor Wood revealed in the above video that she had her invitation for the trip revoked after criticizing the d’Alba team for not having any Black creators on its list of attendees, hundreds of TikTok users rallied around Wood and posted videos condemning d’Alba for exclusion of Black beauty influencers.
The surge of outrage drove d’Alba to issue an apology on its social channels, telling consumers roughly 48 of the creators on the so-called “global” trip were from Korea, Japan and other countries in Southeast Asia, while the remaining nine were from the U.K.
“We had no intention of excluding anyone while understanding that these circumstances are not an excuse,” the brand wrote. “Ultimately, we are responsible for ensuring our event reflects the diverse beauty of our global community.” Additionally, d’Alba said it plans to introduce new policies to establish a “diversity and inclusivity standard” for its future influencer campaigns.
It seems the celebrity look-alike contests are here to stay. Over the weekend, Chicago hosted a Jeremy Allen White look-alike competition, while Brooklyn, New York selected a Zayn Malik doppelgänger.
