Influencer marketing has evolved far beyond social media-savvy brands sponsoring the occasional Instagram post. Now, creators are an essential marketing channel for any brand looking to appeal to Gen Z or millennial consumers—on social media and, increasingly, in offline mediums such as connected TV and out-of-home displays. 

Brands are accordingly setting aside increasingly larger portions of their marketing budgets for influencer campaigns and creator partnerships, propelling influencer marketing from a $16.4 billion industry in 2022 to one valued at just over $21 billion as of Nov. 6, according to Influencer Marketing Hub. With Goldman Sachs projecting the creator economy will swell from its current value of $250 billion to roughly $480 billion by 2027, and 92% of marketing leaders surveyed by LTK and Northwestern University’s Retail Analytics Council saying influencer marketing “will have a higher budget or play an increased role in [their brand’s] strategy in 2024,” it’s unlikely that marketers’ surging investment in influencers will pivot anytime soon. 

As influencer marketing has evolved, so, too, has the creativity and scale involved in brands’ partnerships with creators, as well as creators’ level of involvement in shaping the campaigns they’re brought on to be the face of. Here are Ad Age's picks for the top five brand-creator partnerships of 2023:

5. Alix Earle and Airbnb

Alix Earle is undeniably one of the biggest social media stars of the year and a plethora of brands—from Tarte and L’Oréal Paris to Bumble and Grubhub—have capitalized on her online fame by sponsoring Earle’s TikTok posts. But it was Airbnb’s impromptu partnership with Earle in May that perhaps generated the most internet buzz. Within about 24 hours after Earle posted several TikTok videos describing how she and her friends had been “stranded” in Italy when the rental house they had planned to stay in turned out to be a scam, Airbnb reached out to her and set up Earle and her travel companions in a luxurious waterfront villa. Earle’s video thanking Airbnb for “coming to the rescue” and touring the home has so far garnered more than 4 million views and more than 642,000 likes, and Airbnb’s swift response to Earle’s TikTok generated dozens of articles and social media posts highlighting the partnership.

Also read: Airbnb is Interbrand’s fastest-growing brand of 2023

4. Airrack and Pizza Hut

To promote the return of its “Big New Yorker” pizza in February, Pizza Hut decided to go big—literally. The restaurant chain teamed up with YouTuber Eric “Airrack” Decker—whose content revolves around the types of over-the-top stunts popularized by fellow YouTube creator MrBeast—to assemble a nearly 14,000-square-foot pizza. Decker documented the culinary undertaking—which broke the Guinness World Record for the “World’s Largest Pizza”—in a YouTube video that has since attracted 20 million views. The partnership generated an earned media value of $6.9 million and nearly 129 million impressions for Pizza Hut, said Elyse Slayton, Pizza Hut’s director of advertising, in a June webinar hosted by creator marketing platform CreatorIQ.

Read more about how brands are capitalizing on viral YouTube stunts

3. Keith Lee and Chipotle

Food critic Keith Lee, who has more than 15 million followers on TikTok, holds undeniable sway over the menu items his fans order at small, family-run eateries and national chain restaurants alike. So, when Lee shared a glowing review of a viral fajita quesadilla menu hack at Chipotle, the restaurant quickly teamed up with the creator to turn his order into an official, limited-time menu item: the “Keithadilla.” To promote the launch of the new item, Chipotle replaced the sign on one of its Las Vegas restaurants to read “Chipotlee” (and another to read “Chipotlex” in honor of creator Alexis Frost, who initially popularized the fajita quesadilla menu hack). The chain also tapped Lee to serve as a judge for its #ChipotleTasteTest contest, which invited TikTok users to share their own menu hacks for a chance to have them temporarily added to the Chipotle menu. The brand amassed nearly 29 million views across its series of TikTok videos tied to its partnership with Lee and the #ChipotleTasteTest contest.

Also read: Chipotle adopts TikTok menu hacks into its long-term strategy

2. Hilton and Chris Olsen, Boman Martinez-Reid and more

When Hilton set out to create a 10-minute TikTok—something no brand had ever attempted on the platform—the company teamed up with a slew of TikTok creators to keep viewers engaged throughout the lengthy ad. Along with Paris Hilton, the viral video (which currently sits at 35 million views, nearly 4 million of which came in the 48 hours following its launch) also stars Chris Olsen, Kelz Wright, Baron Ryan, Robyn DelMonte (aka GirlBossTown), Boman Martinez-Reid, Samyra and The Gregory Brothers, the creators of last year’s viral hit “It’s Corn.” The self-deprecating humor Hilton leveraged throughout the video, along with the creative freedom the company extended to its cast of creators to lean into their characteristic content styles, kept TikTok users from scrolling past the video and spurred thousands of comments remarking on how much they enjoyed the ad.

Read more: Inside Hilton’s 10-minute TikTok

1. Khaby Lame and State Farm

Although State Farm opted to not air a TV ad during the 2023 Super Bowl, the company’s TikTok campaign in partnership with comedian Khaby Lame arguably attracted more attention for State Farm than a traditional commercial—especially among the younger consumers it sought to reach. State Farm teamed up with Lame—who specializes in wordless humor and reigns as the most-followed TikTok user with an audience of more than 162 million—to hold a contest for a chance to appear in one of Lame’s TikTok videos. Lame announced the contest in a February video alongside company spokesperson Jake from State Farm that has garnered 224 million views and 1.5 million likes, and in September uploaded the promised video featuring the contest winner (and Jake) that racked up an additional 6.5 million views.