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- Influence Weekly #355
Influence Weekly #355
Nii Ahene
September 20, 2024
Spotlight Stories
TikTok's E-commerce Expansion: 12 Industry Experts Weigh In On Opportunities And Strategies
What's Next After The White House Creator Summit? Industry Calls For Policy Support
Beast Games Contestants Sue MrBeast, Amazon Over Alleged Sexual Harassment, Mistreatment
Gen Z Is Ditching Google For ‘Social Searching’ — Here’s Where They’re Going Instead
Great Reads
TikTok's expansion into e-commerce is reshaping the way brands and creators engage with consumers, offering new monetization opportunities. As features like TikTok Shop roll out across Europe, industry leaders share insights on leveraging localized influencers, creating authentic content, optimizing product listings, and integrating TikTok's shopping tools into broader marketing strategies.
They emphasize the importance of using data to identify the right creators, making content that resonates with specific audiences, simplifying purchasing through social commerce, and adapting quickly based on performance insights. With short videos, live events, and seamless purchasing journeys, brands are positioning themselves to thrive in TikTok's evolving e-commerce landscape.
Dentsu, a major advertising agency holding company, introduced a new "House of Creators" program to support the next generation of content creators worldwide, initially focused on the Roblox platform. The four-part initiative aims to identify promising creators, provide financial aid and mentorship, match existing intellectual properties with creators, invest in existing games, and assist creators in expanding their content businesses.
As part of the program, Dentsu is collaborating with publisher Kodansha to hold a manga contest for Roblox creators, with the winner receiving support to develop their work into an off-platform IP. Dentsu cites the democratization of content production and distribution as a driving force behind this move to nurture independent creators. The company plans to support around 30 active Roblox creators by the end of 2024 through financial assistance and creative guidance.
The creator economy is rapidly growing, projected to reach $500 billion by 2026. After the recent White House Creator Summit, industry leaders are calling for stronger policy support from the government to address key challenges faced by creators. These include fair compensation, digital rights management, access to resources, intellectual property protection, transparent platform practices, and online safety measures.
Experts emphasize the need for clear regulations, educational resources, labor protections, and safeguarding creators' interests to foster a sustainable and equitable creator economy. By implementing supportive policies, the government can empower creators, drive innovation, and ensure the continued growth of this influential sector.
Campaign Insights
Expedia Group has launched Travel Shops, a new feature allowing over 100 travel influencers, celebrities, and brand partners to curate shoppable storefronts on the Expedia app. The initial launch includes storefronts from popular travel creators like Brett Conti, Renee Roaming, and Oneika Raymond, as well as curated hotel collections from actors, sports teams, media publishers, and tourism boards.
Travelers can access personalized travel recommendations and seamlessly book through the influencer shops. The move capitalizes on social media's growing influence on travel decisions, meeting consumers where they seek inspiration. Expedia plans to open shop creation to all travelers next year for easy curation and monetization.
In the Spring/Summer 2025 fashion season, brands are taking a more hands-on approach with creators to ensure their content stands out amidst saturation in the influencer space. Rather than just inviting influencers to sit front row, brands are tapping niche creators with specialized content formats and audiences. Tory Burch had creators conduct backstage interviews, generating millions of views.
Carolina Herrera partnered with a creator known for collection reviews on TikTok. This shift allows brands to leverage creators' unique perspectives and reach targeted communities beyond just broad lifestyle audiences. As lifestyle influencer content becomes oversaturated, brands seek creators who promote the actual collections and fashion week experiences in authentic ways tied to their expertise.
The most successful partnerships highlight the creator's specialty content rather than co-opting viral trends. While sales remain the goal, brand experts note creators can drive media impact and longevity beyond last-click metrics. As social platforms elevate more entertaining over lifestyle content, thoughtfully engaging niche creators provides brands a way to cut through the noise at fashion week.
Tarte Cosmetics' lavish influencer gifts are causing controversy again. The brand sent Hermès bracelets worth $700 to select influencers, while others received less expensive items like candy and personalized necklaces. This disparate treatment has sparked accusations of "playing favorites," especially with White creators, despite the brand claiming 33% of bracelet recipients were Black and 50% BIPOC.
Tarte has faced previous backlash for lack of diversity on influencer trips. The brand defends its approach as more cost-effective than traditional advertising, but critics see the lavish gifting as tone-deaf. The incident highlights ongoing debates around influencer marketing ethics and equity in the creator economy.
Gen Z is shifting away from traditional search engines like Google and embracing "social searching" on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. A recent study found 45% of Gen Z are more likely to use social media for searches, compared to much lower percentages for older generations.
This trend extends beyond social media, with Gen Z turning to specialized platforms like Amazon for retail searches and ChatGPT for academic assistance. Google is feeling the impact and developing new technologies like AR glasses and an "Ask Photos" function to adapt.
Social media platforms are capitalizing on this shift by building e-commerce capabilities and tailored ads, generating billions in ad revenue. With Gen Z's immense spending power projected to reach $12 trillion by 2023, this behavioral change has significant implications for the broader economy.
The creator economy continues to thrive despite economic uncertainty, driven by factors like the growing desire for authentic content, diversification of revenue streams, and the resilience of the passionate creator community. Experts cite the shift towards mindful consumption, the rise of micro-influencers, and the appeal of entrepreneurship during uncertain times as key reasons for the industry's growth.
While challenges remain, the creator economy's focus on genuine connections and alternative income opportunities positions it for continued success amidst changing consumer behaviors and economic conditions.
The creator economy's potential worth of $480 billion by 2027 is driving viral internet personalities to stretch their 15 minutes of fame. Creators are increasingly trademarking catchphrases, launching product lines, podcasts, and seeking media deals to monetize viral moments.
This allows them to capitalize on their intellectual property before brands co-opt trends. However, experts warn against appearing inauthentic in pursuit of money. Sustainable success requires depth beyond a fleeting viral moment, through storytelling abilities and brand-suitable content. While challenging, savvy creators recognize opportunities to parlay internet fame into lasting careers by quickly adapting to changing viewer interests and revenue streams within the booming creator economy.
Samsonite, a leading luggage brand, has teamed up with influencers to promote its new premium Samsonite X Boss Collection. The campaign features influencers like Anaita Shroff, House of Misu, Rizwan Bachav, Anvit Oberoi, and Dilip Khosla, who showcase the collection through their personal styles and interpretations of leadership, embodying the #BossInYou theme.
Each influencer reveals the collection in an authentic way that aligns with their brand, creating aspirational content. This strategic influencer collaboration aims to connect with the target audience by emphasizing that everyone has an inner boss. The campaign celebrates individuality and leadership through authentic influencer storytelling.
Interesting People
YouTuber MrBeast, Amazon, and associated production companies face legal action from contestants of the upcoming Beast Games series.
According to court documents filed in Los Angeles on September 16, five anonymous participants, representing all 1,000 contestants, allege unsafe conditions, unpaid labor, and sexual harassment during the production of what was billed as the “world’s largest live gameshow.”
The 54-page lawsuit claims contestants were subjected to surveillance, controlled sleep schedules, and restricted privacy. It also alleges insufficient meals, dangerous sets, and inadequate background checks that allowed convicted criminals to participate.
Michael Beckmann, YouTube's Director of Product for Data and Creator Payments, is leading efforts to help creators earn more on the platform. His team focuses on ad revenue sharing, brand deals through BrandConnect, and new products like Jewels for virtual gifting during live streams.
Beckmann aims to make YouTube the best place for creators to build sustainable businesses by lowering barriers and unlocking deeper fan engagement. Drawing from past roles at companies like Uber, he prioritizes creator feedback and lean experimentation to validate ideas.
In the next decade, Beckmann hopes the creator economy flourishes with more monetization avenues, allowing more creators to succeed through passionate communities on YouTube.
MrBeast, Logan Paul, and KSI are launching a new packaged lunch product called Lunchly to compete with brands like Lunchables. Lunchly aims to offer a "better-for-you" grab-and-go lunch option with three varieties - Turkey Stack 'Ems, Pizza, and Fiesta Nachos. Each box includes the creators' existing Feastables chocolate bar and Prime beverage products.
The creators cited concerns over heavy metals and highly processed ingredients in traditional packaged lunches as motivation to provide a healthier alternative targeted at children. While collaborating on Lunchly, MrBeast's separate ambitious expansion plans into beverages and mobile gaming were revealed, potentially positioning the creators as future rivals in the influencer product market.
Humanz, a creator economy platform, aims to disrupt the influencer marketing industry by introducing transparency and data-driven approaches. The company's U.S. CEO, Roee Zelcer, envisions a future where influencer impact is valued and traded like stocks, with real-time pricing based on performance data. Humanz's multi-segment platform connects brands and influencers, providing equal access to campaign insights and enabling efficient collaborations at scale.
With a focus on transparency, the company hopes to build trust and facilitate accurate pricing in the industry. As Humanz expands in the U.S., it is adapting to market dynamics while educating brands on the benefits of performance-based compensation and data sharing with creators. Zelcer predicts a shift towards working with numerous micro-influencers, leveraging Humanz's technology to optimize campaigns and drive growth in the sector.
Former YouTube star Caspar Lee, who amassed over 6 million subscribers before stepping away in 2019, has transitioned into a successful entrepreneur and investor in the creator economy. Lee co-founded Influencer.com, an agency connecting brands with creators, and MVE Management, which manages about 50 creators' careers.
He's also a partner in Creator Ventures, a $20 million fund investing in technology behind internet culture. Lee notes the dramatic evolution of the creator business model since 2010. Today, top creators can earn tens of millions annually, with even mid-sized influencers making substantial incomes through brand collaborations.
Looking ahead, Lee sees AI as a valuable tool for content creation but believes human interactions remain crucial. He's investing in AI technologies like voice conversion and lip-syncing for avatars, while also backing platforms that give creators more control over their audience relationships.
The creator economy continues to thrive despite economic headwinds, with influencer marketing proving resilient and effective for driving consumer engagement and spending. New research predicts the sector will reach $41 billion by 2030, as consumers prioritize their relationships with influencers over paid subscriptions during tough times.
Major brands like Shein are finding success through strategic influencer campaigns tailored to address consumer concerns. With high user engagement on platforms like TikTok, 90% of marketers view influencer marketing as an impactful way to boost sales. As the digital landscape evolves, the creator economy remains a powerful marketing channel thanks to the enduring influence of creator-audience connections.
Industry News
YouTube has introduced a new feature called Hype, designed to help emerging creators grow their channels by connecting them with new audiences.
The feature allows users to “hype” videos from creators with fewer than 500,000 subscribers within seven days of the video’s release.
Hype places videos on a weekly leaderboard of the top 100 hyped videos, potentially exposing creators to broader audiences. Users can hype up to three times per week, and additional paid hypes will be allowed in the future.
The feature includes a “small creator bonus” that applies a point multiplier to channels with fewer subscribers, aiming to level the playing field. Hyped videos receive a special badge indicating their popularity among fans.
LinkedIn, the professional networking platform, is experiencing a surge in short-form video content, mirroring the success of TikTok. As TikTok faces legal challenges in the U.S., creators are flocking to LinkedIn's new video feature, which has been gradually rolled out since March.
According to Microsoft's Q4 2024 earnings call, video uploads on LinkedIn have increased by 34% year-over-year, making it the fastest-growing content type on the platform. This shift is attracting a younger demographic and transforming LinkedIn's traditionally formal image.
Creators like finance expert Austin Hankwitz are finding success on LinkedIn, noting higher engagement and more thoughtful comments compared to other social media platforms. The move towards video content is seen as a strategic play to appeal to Gen Z users and position LinkedIn as a hub for influencer marketing.
Meta, Snap, and TikTok have joined forces in a new initiative called Thrive to combat the spread of harmful content like suicide and self-harm across their platforms. Thrive operates through a shared database that allows the companies to exchange signals about violating content and swiftly remove it.
The initiative aims to facilitate data sharing to identify and take down such content quickly. While collaborative efforts are being made, some experts question whether Thrive will significantly impact online harms without proper regulations. Social media's potential mental health impacts, especially on young users, have been an ongoing concern amid criticism over content moderation practices.
Snapchat is undergoing its biggest redesign in years, simplifying the app from five to three tabs: messaging/Stories, camera, and a TikTok-like feed of full-screen videos. The goal is to make Snapchat more accessible, appealing for video consumption, and better for creators to monetize content. CEO Evan Spiegel says the new "Simple Snapchat" brings Stories closer to conversations, streamlines content discovery, and focuses on the camera for self-expression.
The messaging tab now includes the Snap Map and friends' Stories, while a new For You feed combines Spotlight and publisher content like Wall Street Journal into a unified video stream. Snap hopes this redesign will drive more creator revenue sharing as their billion monthly Story posts become seamlessly viewable alongside the new video feed.
DELLI, an online platform for independent food and drink products, raised $6 million in seed funding. The startup, founded by former Depop employees, aims to leverage strategies from the fashion industry like influencer collaborations to market small-batch food makers.
DELLI has partnered with culinary influencers and plans to introduce more convenient delivery options, exclusive product drops, and fashion/music crossovers. The funding will also help expand DELLI's regional presence across the UK as it looks to give independent food producers an alternative to supermarket dominance in a rapidly growing sector where food content now outperforms fashion on social media.
Influencer marketing company Linqia is transforming the creator-brand relationship with its new Creator Council initiative. Led by COO Daniel Schotland, the program elevates influencers from content producers to strategic partners for brands. The Creator Council operates on three levels: basic market research, campaign development involvement, and long-term product development partnerships.
This approach allows brands to leverage creators' deep understanding of audience preferences and market trends. Linqia's data-driven strategy balances creative autonomy with brand alignment, advocating for a "content-to-feed match" approach that enhances authenticity and performance.
The company uses its proprietary platform, Resonate, to ensure brand affinity and audience alignment when selecting creators. Schotland predicts this model will become the industry standard within five years, with creators involved in all aspects of marketing across multiple channels. Linqia is also developing new tools to address key challenges in creator valuation and sourcing.
COY Creator is a new "business-in-a-box" platform helping content creators gain independence from major platforms by providing tools to consolidate content, live events, merchandise sales and multiple revenue streams on custom websites they fully own and control. The platform offers brand sponsorships, creator collaborations, e-commerce, financial services and more for creators to build their own direct-to-fan businesses without relinquishing data or being beholden to third-party shareholders.
Initial partners include influencers like YouTuber Ed Bassmaster and celebrity creators. COY aims to give creators an alternative to relying solely on major social platforms by developing a comprehensive toolkit for building an owned creator business and diversifying revenue sources while still benefiting from traffic on established platforms.
United Talent Agency has signed KreekCraft, the top Roblox livestreamer and YouTube content creator with over 10 million subscribers and an average of 100 million monthly views. This acquisition adds to UTA's robust gaming and esports division, representing over 140 streamers, creators, esports athletes, and brands with a collective 500 million followers.
KreekCraft's signing underscores Roblox's growing prominence in live streaming, generating an estimated $1.2 billion in GDP and over 17,000 full-time jobs in the U.S. through its Developer Exchange Program between 2017 and 2023. The agency continues to expand its digital talent roster, recently signing beauty influencer Lavishly Jackie with over 10 million followers across platforms.
The creator economy platform LuxyList is changing how fans support content creators through private gifting. Founded by former rocket launcher Shantel Evans, LuxyList allows fans to purchase gifts from any website for their favorite creators, with the company handling logistics while keeping personal information private. With an average gift value of $250 and some exceeding $25,000, LuxyList caters to micro-influencers to major personalities across diverse communities.
As it launches a crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine, LuxyList aims to scale through brand partnerships, integrate with live streaming platforms, and explore AI features to enhance the gifting experience and deepen creator-fan connections securely. Evans sees LuxyList democratizing not just creator monetization but also startup investing by engaging its user base.
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Humanz, an Israeli influencer marketing platform, is actively pursuing a Series B funding round of $15-20 million by year-end. The funds will fuel U.S. expansion and growth of its sales, marketing, and creator onboarding teams. Humanz recently entered the U.S. market, establishing headquarters in Miami and an office in New York.
The platform, offering tools for brands, influencers and talent managers, has over 300,000 creators and clients like Google, L'Oréal, and P&G. Its revenue model charges brands a monthly SaaS fee and campaign commissions. The fundraising effort comes amid the influencer marketing industry's projected 16% growth to $8.14 billion in 2024, fueling competition among platforms vying for market share through funding or acquisitions. Humanz has raised $17 million to date, including a $5 million Series A last year.
Instagram is introducing new "Teen Accounts" with enhanced privacy and safety features for users under 18. All new and existing teen accounts will be defaulted to private, limiting who can view their content. The app will also restrict notifications between 10pm-7am, limit sensitive content exposure, and prevent messaging from unknown users.
These changes aim to create more age-appropriate experiences addressing concerns around social media's impact on youth. However, the restrictions may frustrate some teen influencers invested in public profiles. The updates reflect Instagram's effort to balance product safety with preserving teen engagement on the platform.
The UK's Labour Party is considering inviting social media influencers to its upcoming conference in Liverpool, mirroring a strategy used by the U.S. Democratic Party. This move aims to engage younger voters and expand digital campaigning efforts. Inspired by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where 200 influencers were given top billing, Labour is exploring partnerships with micro-influencers who have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.
The party has already appointed a dedicated staff member to work with TikTok and Instagram creators. Potential collaborations could include pairing influencers with MPs for digital surgeries or discussing policy areas like childcare, personal finance, and homeownership. While some view this as a smart move to reach new audiences, critics argue that young voters seek substantial policy changes rather than superficial engagement through influencer partnerships.
A growing number of professionals are leading double lives as social media influencers, creating unique workplace dynamics. Many try to keep their online personas separate from their day jobs, but inevitably, these worlds collide. Some influencers, like former Citigroup analyst DeAndre Brown, have quit their traditional jobs to pursue content creation full-time.
Others, like physiotherapist Nathaniel James, successfully balance both careers. The trend reflects the rising allure of the creator economy, with 57% of Gen Z expressing interest in becoming influencers. However, only 4% of the estimated 50 million content creators globally earn over $100,000 annually. For businesses, this trend presents both challenges and opportunities. Companies may need to adapt policies to address employees' online activities, while also potentially leveraging their workers' social media expertise for marketing purposes.
Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign has successfully leveraged TikTok and other social media platforms to engage younger voters, outpacing former President Trump's online presence. The campaign's "digital rapid response" team, comprised of Gen Z staffers, creates viral content that mimics internet culture and trends. This strategy has resulted in higher engagement rates and more views than Trump's social media efforts, despite having fewer followers.
The team operates with minimal oversight, allowing for quick responses to current events and trending topics. The approach has helped Harris circumvent traditional media channels and reach millions of voters who primarily consume news through social media. While some critics view the strategy as juvenile, supporters see it as an effective way to humanize the candidates and appeal to younger demographics.