Creator marketing news and trends—Paris Hilton teams up with Mschf and Crocs, TikTok launches text posts

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. New deals Mschf, Crocs and Paris Hilton: Brooklyn-based art collective Mschf is following up on its viral, cartoonish big red boots through a collaboration with Crocs that swaps the original’s bright red for fluorescent yellow. The new shoes, which will go on sale on Aug. 9, also feature Crocs’ characteristic pattern of holes and adjustable heel straps. After revealing their upcoming collaboration yesterday, Mschf and Crocs jumped into promoting it, with Paris Hilton as the face of the social media campaign. View this post on Instagram A post shared by MSCHF (@mschf) Karl Jacobs, Vans and Journeys: In more shoe-related news, Karl Jacobs—a gaming YouTuber and Twitch streamer who rose to online fame as part of the wildly-popular “Dream SMP” server in the game Minecraft—is launching a limited-time product line with sneaker and clothing brand Vans. The collection, which will be sold at retailer Journeys, includes two T-shirts and two sneaker styles with designs tied to Jacobs’ upcoming comic series based on his Dream SMP gaming content. Jacobs has served as a creative ambassador for Journeys since March 2022 to help the retailer “create content relevant to the gaming world,” according to a press release. the entire karl jacobs x vans collab looks so sick 💜🌀🛹 pic.twitter.com/vrOb0C8IOs— alex ✨💙💚✨¹¹²⁺¹⁸⁸ (@TacoAmigo777) July 19, 2023 Dylan Mulvaney’s first post-Bud-Light brand deal: On Tuesday, Dylan Mulvaney shared an Instagram post sponsored by London luxury hotel The Dorchester, marking her first brand deal since her disastrous partnership with Bud Light in April. Though the hotel sponsorship is fairly mundane, it could signal Mulvaney is once again open to working with brands after she stopped doing so in the aftermath of the conservative backlash she faced for the sponsored video she shared of her face on a can of Bud Light. Look back: Dylan Mulvaney criticizes Bud Light owner in new video View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dylan Mulvaney (@dylanmulvaney) John Legend and … Neopets?: Over the weekend, John Legend announced he is the new brand ambassador for Neopets, an online game that allows players to collect virtual creatures. Many in the comments on Legend’s posts were surprised to hear the singer-songwriter (and husband of influencer and model Chrissy Teigen) suddenly declare himself an ambassador for the 22-year-old game—but his new role appears to be part of the game’s nostalgia-fueled efforts to usher in a “new era of Neopets.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by John Legend (@johnlegend) Ad Age Small Agency Awards See all of the 2023 winners Click here Social media screenshot TikTok launches text posts: Just days after Elon Musk announced he would be retiring Twitter’s iconic bird logo and renaming the platform to “X”—a move that has baffled marketing analysts and brand agencies—TikTok became the latest social platform to vie for disgruntled Twitter users. On Tuesday, TikTok introduced text posts to the once video-only platform. These text posts function similarly to Instagram stories, enabling users to set text against a colored background and add audio and location tags, according to a TikTok blog post. Users can also duet these text posts as they would videos. Threads unspools a new update: Meta’s own Twitter competitor, Threads, released a new update in response to users’ feedback about the text-based platform. According to a Threads post from Instagram head Adam Mosseri, new features in the update include the option for users to view posts in chronological order and only from people they follow, rather than algorithmically suggested users, and the ability for a user to see an archive of all the posts they’ve liked, among other changes. In a comment on the same post, Mosseri revealed that development of a highly-requested search functionality on Threads will “probably be further out than a few weeks.” Post by @mosseri View on Threads Linktree adds Threads integration: Link in bio tool Linktree announced it has integrated Threads into its social media ecosystem. This new feature means creators can connect directly to their Threads account along with their other social media accounts on Linktree and embed Threads posts themselves among their collection of links. Linktree’s blog post announcing its Threads integration highlights the tumult surrounding Musk’s “X” rebranding, stating, “In light of recent news, such as Twitter’s shift to ‘X,’ using a platform like Linktree to direct audiences to the profiles they value most is incredibly useful.” Short-form surges on Snapchat and YouTube: In quarterly reports from Snap and Alphabet earlier this week, the two companies revealed their social platforms’ respective short-form content hubs—Snapchat’s Spotlight and YouTube’s Shorts—have seen jumps in viewership over the past year. In its investor letter, Snap announced that from April through June, monthly active users of Spotlight averaged around 400 million, more than double usage a year earlier. Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, reported Shorts viewership increased by 500 million logged-in users in the past year, from 1.5 billion to 2 billion. Instagram expands subscriptions worldwide: A year and a half after Instagram rolled out its subscriptions feature for U.S. creators, enabling these creators to lock exclusive content and other benefits behind a paywall, Instagram announced it will be launching subscriptions in 10 additional countries. In a Tuesday blog post, Instagram listed the countries that will soon receive access to the feature, including Canada, Brazil, Australia and the U.K., and shared an “Instagram Subscriptions Playbook” for creators. The platform also plans to continue expanding subscriptions to more countries in the coming months, per its blog post. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators) Creating businesses ConnorTV and The Drip Don open sneaker store: On Saturday, sneaker collectors ConnorTV and The Drip Don—whose real names are Connor Gorman and Hasan Habhab, respectively—opened a brick-and-mortar sneaker retailer. The duo documented the opening of their new store, Shop, in a series of social media posts, after Gorman offered his followers a glimpse of the store in a February YouTube video. View this post on Instagram A post shared by ConnorTV (@connortv) Kylie Jenner teases creator economy platform: On the heels of her sister Kendall becoming the face of L’Oréal Paris, Kylie Jenner seems to be focusing on a different area of the creator economy. In an Instagram story, Kylie Jenner announced to her followers that she’s “launching a new top secret project” and shared a link that takes users to a page to sign up for the Beta version of a new platform called Stanly. Though that page reveals little about Stanly beyond it being “offer[ing] fans a revolutionary new way to build community around their favorite artists,” a LinkedIn page for Stanly describes it as a subscription-based platform for musical artists. The platform will allow users to access exclusive content and merchandise from those artists, and to engage with other fans—and the artists themselves—through community-wide posts, per the LinkedIn page. Kylie Jenner is pivoting into the creator economy 🤯She's launching a digital fan club for artists called Stanly.Here's what you need to know:1. It's a platform for fans to connect with artists, get behind-the-scenes content, and merch2. You can "level up" the more involved… pic.twitter.com/YtaZ97nUFg— walid (@TheWalid) July 18, 2023 Spencer Hoddeson launches Gay Water: Spencer Hoddeson, a queer lifestyle influencer, launched Gay Water, a canned vodka soda company. The company’s name plays off how the term “gay water” is often used as slang for a vodka soda within the LGBTQ+ community, according to a press release. With the new company, Hoddeson, who is its founder and CEO, aims to improve the “distinct lack of LGBTQ+ representation in the alcohol industry” that Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney controversy underscored. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gay Water (@drinkgaywater) Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here Dream announces debut EP: Minecraft YouTuber and Twitch streamer Dream—who actually created the “Dream SMP” server the previously-mentioned Karl Jacobs was a part of—is extending his career into music. In an Instagram post featuring a snippet from a song on his upcoming seven-track EP and photos of Dream in his characteristic white mask, the creator said the album drops on Sept. 1. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dream (@dreamwastaken) TikTok of the week @ussoccer It’s been a long time coming…. #uswnt #FIFAwwc #swifttok ♬ Into - The Eras Tour With the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicking off last week, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team took to TikTok to triumphantly announce their entry into the tournament. The video leverages the opening of Taylor Swift’s ongoing “Eras Tour,” which begins with a haunting version of the line, “It’s been a long time coming” from her song “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince.” Hundreds of TikTok users excitedly rushed to the comment section of the video to write things such as, “Taylor Swift x USWNT best duo ever” and, “This is like an intro and it is everything.” Threadspotting Post by @dunkin View on Threads Some social media managers are expanding on the first-person perspective that several brands embraced with the launch of Threads. Earlier this week, two members of the team behind the Dunkin’ Threads account—Kemma Kefalas and Sarah Schlesinger—replied to a user asking the account “what’s your favorite type of donut?” with their own preferred flavors and signed their answers with their first names. The post highlights the ultra-casual tone and fourth-wall-eroding approach that a number of social media managers are taking toward Threads thus far. Ad Age Gen Z Contributor Column We welcome Gen Zers to submit fresh takes exploring Gen Z within the ad industry Learn more here

Creator marketing news and trends—Paris Hilton teams up with Mschf and Crocs, TikTok launches text posts

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