Social media platforms are looking to woo creators as brands start thinking about the holidays. Both Pinterest and Snapchat today announced new features that build on creators, and give brands the ability to utilize that creator content as part of their marketing. 

Pinterest’s two new ad products are aimed at making more pins shoppable and helping creators monetize their content. The first format, called slideshow for collections, will pull products from brand’s catalogues to automatically create a four-image ad. The ads will be dynamic, rotating through the four images. Slideshow ads are aimed at increasing basket sizes. For example, a Pinterest user might be looking for new throw pillows, and see a slideshow ad that shows the matching blanket.

The second format is idea ads, which is a partnership between Pinterest creators and advertisers. The new format builds on idea pins, which came out May 2021 and became shoppable in July. They have a similar format to Instagram Stories; idea ads are made when a creator makes an idea pin and then tags a brand partner. The advertiser can promote the idea pin and the pin will include a “paid partnership” label. The format is currently being tested with a select group of creators and brands in 15 countries. 

With influencers becoming a core part of advertising, social media platforms are beefing up their creator offerings. The new ad formats are geared towards giving creators another way to make money, while also making more features in the apps shoppable as the holiday shopping season starts sooner due to supply chain bottlenecks. Pinterest and Snap aren’t the only ones - recently TikTok announced its own shoppable features.

For its part, Snapchat is giving creators two new ways to monetize through Spotlight Challenges and sponsored tags. 

Spotlight, the user-generated content section of the app, will start hosting Spotlight Challenges. The challenges will be focused around lenses, sounds or hashtags, and give Snapchat users the chance to win cash prizes for making the best-performing short videos. Challenges include “best trick shot,” “impressions challenge,” and “10-second talent,” to name a few. 

Spotlight Challenges will be available on the app’s trending page. Users will be able to click on a challenge’s description to learn more about details and submission deadlines. The minimum prize a submission can win in a Spotlight Challenge is $250, with the total prize amount for challenges ranging from $1,000 to $25,0000, though Snapchat might make more funds available for a particular challenge.

Typically, each challenge will have three to five winners (who will need to be over 16 years old). The top 50 eligible submissions for each challenge will be judged on creativity and originality, use of Snap tools, unique point of view, and entertainment value.

Spotlight Challenges are in the testing phase now and will be rolling out next month to users on Android and iOS in the U.S., with more markets coming in the following months. 

The move comes as a way to attract more creators after Snap ended its $1 million-a-day creator fund. Spotlight launched last year in the app’s bid to attract creators to compete with TikTok.

Another new feature will be a “sponsored by” tag to show collaborations between Snap creators and a brand. Since sponsored posts will link back to the brand’s profile, brands will have the ability to approve sponsored videos before they are posted by the creator. Creators will get 100% of these sponsored tag transactions, according to Snap.

The sponsor tag builds on the Creator Marketplace Snap launched in May 2021, which integrates creators directly into the app's advertising ecosystem. The marketplace allows businesses to connect with lens creators, developers and partners.

Snapchat is also rolling out a new creator hub, meant for aspiring and professional creators. The hub will have tips on camera and editing tools, and how to do well in Spotlight. It’s also expanding its tipping feature, called Gifting, globally.