Creator marketing news and trends—L’Oréal partners with Kendall Jenner, TikTok’s latest music updates

Welcome to the first installment of 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. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here New deals L’Oréal Paris and Kendall Jenner: The cosmetics giant revealed Kendall Jenner as its newest global ambassador. The model and member of the extended Kardashian clan will be the face of L’Oréal Paris makeup campaigns beginning in September, according to the brand’s announcement. The brand selected Jenner as an ambassador due to her “embodiment of everything Gen Z stands for,” Delphine Viguier-Hovasse, L’Oréal Paris global president, said in the statement. Flyana Boss, Google and Chipotle: For weeks, rap duo Folayan Kunerede and Bobbi Tyler—known professionally as Flyana Boss—have raced across TikTok users’ For You pages with a series of videos of themselves running toward the camera while singing along to their now-viral song “You Wish.” Brands including Google and Chipotle have gotten in on the popularity of the song by inviting Kunerede and Tyler to sprint through their office and restaurant, respectively. Google extended the partnership by adding two woman emojis gliding across the screen when “Flyana Boss” is typed into the search bar. @flyanaboss Replying to @Google Wow!! We got to run through @Google #flyanaboss #evanblummadeit ♬ You Wish - Flyana Boss Glad and Ariana Madix: First batteries, now bags. Food storage and trash bag brand Glad is the latest household products brand to partner with “Vanderpump Rules” star Ariana Madix, who rose to online prominence after her long-time partner, Tom Sandoval, cheated on her with a castmate. The partnership between Glad and Madix, executed by MullenLowe PR, reflects Madix’s stated desire to move on from Sandoval, as referenced in Madix’s caption on an Instagram post holding up a hot pink Glad trash bag: “Out with the old and in with the new!” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Glad (@gladproducts) Also see: Ariana Madix skewers Tom Sandoval for Duracell Cartier and BTS’ Kim Taehyung: The French luxury goods brand announced Kim Taehyung, of the wildly popular K-pop group BTS, as its new global brand ambassador. Cartier is centering Taehyung, also known as “V,” in a new campaign for its Panthère watch and jewelry collection. Leveraging the soaring popularity of K-pop isn’t a new strategy for Cartier—the brand named Kim Ji-soo of girl group Blackpink as a global ambassador in May of last year. A social media screenshot TikTok scales up its music strategy: TikTok this week announced a series of updates tied to artists and music licensing on the platform, including a multi-year licensing deal with Warner Music Group; the launch of “TikTok Elevate,” a program to identify and support the careers of emerging artists; and the expansion of its new music streaming service, TikTok Music, to Australia, Mexico and Singapore after launching in Brazil and Indonesia two weeks ago. @tiktokmusic There’s something big on the way. Stay tuned for a whole new way to experience the TikTok music you love—now open to beta users in Singapore, Australia and Mexico! @TikTok Music Singapore @TikTok Music Australia @TikTokMusicLat #TikTokMusic ♬ Shake DOUDOU - Official Sound Studio Instagram Reels take on TikTok: Instagram has expanded its Reels templates feature, which enables users to plug videos or photos into a pre-existing video framework. In a blog post, the platform announced users can now search for both trending and recommended Reels templates with its updated “Template Browser” feature. Users can also now instantly access a template used in a given video by tapping the new “use template” button at the bottom of said video. These new features are strikingly similar to TikTok’s integration with its sister video editing app, CapCut, which for months has allowed users to harness CapCut video templates within the TikTok app. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here Twitter starts paying top creators: Just days after the launch of Meta’s Twitter rival, Threads, Twitter announced it would begin sharing the platform’s ad revenue with qualifying creators—those who amassed at least 5 million impressions across their posts in each of the last three months, and are, of course, subscribed to Twitter Blue. A handful of creators revealed they earned thousands of dollars from the initial payout of the new Creator Ads Revenue Sharing program. Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, shared he received more than $25,000 through the program; and several far-right influencers, including Andrew Tate and Benny Johnson, reported earning roughly $20,000 and $9,500, respectively. Threads’ iOS update: In a post on the two-week-old app, an Instagram software engineer revealed that Threads’ first update includes new features such as a tab showing a user’s new followers and the ability to translate Threads posts into other languages. This post comes on the heels of Instagram head Adam Mosseri’s post listing absent features that he plans to implement on Threads, such as a search function and hashtags. Pinterest adds mobile deep links: In an effort to streamline its in-app shopping experience, Pinterest has introduced mobile deep links to its shopping ads, which directly connect Pinterest users to a specific product or page when clicking on a shopping ad on Pinterest rather than just the main page of a brand’s website. Creating businesses Jeffree Star opens a brick-and-mortar store: Beauty influencer Jeffree Star opened his first retail store on Friday in Casper, Wyoming, an event that led hundreds of Star’s fans to flock to the small city. The eye-catching, pink store sells both Star’s makeup line—Jeffree Star Cosmetics—along with meat products from Star’s yak ranch located just a few miles away. Star has lived in Wyoming since 2020, following a string of accusations of racism and misogyny. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jeffree Star (@jeffreestar) The Sidemen’s merch store goes offline: Like Star, YouTube group The Sidemen brought their merchandise into the brick-and-mortar realm over the weekend. The seven British YouTubers opened the first physical store for their Sidemen Clothing products in a 6,000-square-foot space in the Bluewater Shopping Center in the U.K. On the day of the store’s opening, thousands of The Sidemen’s fans swarmed the shopping center, as shown in a video shared to the group's Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sidemen Clothing (@sidemenclothing) Shay Mitchell’s Beis Travel embraces “Barbiecore”: The marketing mania surrounding the “Barbie” movie has extended into even the creator-owned business space. Actress and model Shay Mitchell revealed a line of hot pink luggage stemming from a collaboration between her brand Beis Travel and the buzzy new film after teasing the product launch in a series of posts over the past week. Mitchell also attended the movie’s Los Angeles premiere last week, alongside dozens of other influencers including Chris Olsen and Alix Earle. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shay Mitchell (@shaymitchell) TikTok of the week @toysruscanada No I'm not refunding the tickets 🦒 #vtuber #trend #concert #vtuberconcert #anime ♬ vtuber dude moving around like a lego on a screen - cheesecake Someone behind the Toys R Us Canada TikTok account is “extremely online,” because there are layers to this video. It references two separate social media controversies: claims that people paid $300 for tickets to a concert starring V-Tuber, or “virtual YouTuber,” Dacapo; and a video from YouTuber Colleen Ballinger, also known as “Miranda Sings,” in which Ballinger responded to accusations of inappropriate behavior toward underage fans via a ukulele performance. Threadspotting Cristina Najjar, also known as “Tinx,” bantered with SiriusXM in a subtle promotion of her podcast and weekly live radio show, “It's Me, Tinx,” which airs on SiriusXM. Earlier this year, Najjar—who rose to fame on TikTok—told Glossy that she considers her podcast the focal point of her career this year. Ad Age Marketer’s Brief podcast Listen here or subscribe via Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or Audible Click here

Creator marketing news and trends—L’Oréal partners with Kendall Jenner, TikTok’s latest music updates

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