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- Influence Weekly #375 - The Responsibility Of Content Creators In Crisis Situations - 13 Experts Chime In
Influence Weekly #375 - The Responsibility Of Content Creators In Crisis Situations - 13 Experts Chime In
Over 7,400 Influencers Apply For White House Accreditation
Nii Ahene
February 07, 2025
Spotlight Stories
The Responsibility Of Content Creators In Crisis Situations - 13 Experts Chime In
Over 7,400 Influencers Apply For White House Accreditation
NFL Tap League Legends To Expand Content Program
Most-Followed TikTok Star Khaby Lame Appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
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Strategies for turning seasonal campaigns into viral moments
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Strategies for turning seasonal campaigns into viral moments
Techniques for entering new markets with creator-powered storytelling
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Great Reads
The rise of social media influencers has transformed them from mere entertainers into influential voices shaping public discourse, especially during major events. As their platforms seamlessly integrate into audiences’ daily lives, creators now bear a responsibility to share accurate information and avoid spreading misinformation. While they aren’t journalists, their content appears alongside breaking news, granting them a unique opportunity to provide education, emotional support or mindful distraction.
During crises, the most impactful creators modify their tone, pause promotional posts if needed, amplify credible sources, and foster unity through meaningful engagement. However, this influence comes with accountability - creators must balance authenticity with ethical considerations to ensure their platforms contribute positively to important conversations. As trusted opinion leaders, especially for younger demographics, responsible content creation is crucial for a healthy information ecosystem.
The NFL has announced a flag football match between popular YouTube creators Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed, scheduled to stream on the NFL’s YouTube channel on February 8, 2025 at 9 PM EST. This event is part of a broader collaboration between the NFL and YouTube, which includes making YouTube the official sponsor of the Super Bowl Tailgate Concert and enabling former NFL players and creators to use league footage without demonetization risks.
The matchup aims to leverage the creators’ sports content experience and audience reach to engage younger fans during the high-profile Super Bowl weekend, aligning with the NFL’s strategy to utilize social media and influencers as “conduits” to connect with Gen Z.
Over 7,400 content creators applied for White House press credentials within 24 hours after the new administration announced it would open briefings to non-traditional media like podcasters, bloggers and influencers. The move reflects the administration’s recognition that millions of Americans, especially young people, now consume news from independent digital sources over traditional outlets.
Nearly 40% of adults under 30 rely on influencers as their primary news source, according to Pew Research data. The expanded access allows creators to directly question officials alongside mainstream media and follows increasing engagement between politicians and influencers in recent years for reaching young voters.
Campaign Insights
H&M, the global fashion retailer, is tailoring its marketing strategy in Asia to cater to diverse regional preferences. The company is collaborating with local designers and influencers, launching limited collections inspired by trends like K-pop culture. It aims to innovate through technology for seamless omnichannel experiences and sustainability initiatives like recycling programs. Acknowledging Asia’s uniqueness, H&M sees the region as an inspiration hub to drive its future growth.
The NFL is expanding its content creator program, providing former league players with access to official footage to boost their YouTube channels. The “Access Pass for Legends” initiative builds on an existing program that generated over 200 million views in its first year. Former players like Brandon Marshall are launching channels featuring career highlights and analysis.
The expansion aims to deepen fan connections and help players build media businesses post-career, representing a shift in how athletes engage with media. Brands view creator collaborations as a conduit to reach younger audiences who increasingly consume content on digital platforms.
TikTok’s most popular creator, Khaby Lame, has been appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, leveraging his 162 million followers to promote youth initiatives. The 24-year-old Senegalese-Italian rose to fame creating content after losing his job during COVID-19. His new role aims to inspire Senegal’s large youth population facing challenges like irregular migration by encouraging them to pursue their dreams despite obstacles. Lame’s appointment gives UNICEF access to his massive digital audience while allowing him to contribute to solving global issues affecting young people.
Streaming platform Hulu is promoting its new political thriller “Paradise” through unconventional “stunty” social media campaigns featuring influencers instead of traditional Hollywood trailers. QYOU Media, the firm behind these campaigns, creates skits where influencers are put in scenarios related to the show’s premise, building mystery and intrigue.
Statistics show this approach is effective in driving engagement and viewership, with previous campaigns for films like “Smile 2” and “A Quiet Place” garnering millions of views. QYOU’s strategy aims to forge emotional connections between creators and audiences while offering influencers opportunities to showcase their skills. The firm’s Hollywood-style production values and early involvement of influencers in the creative process are key to the success of these innovative marketing campaigns.
An Italian ski resort was overwhelmed after viral TikTok posts triggered a mass influx of 10,000 budget tourists, highlighting social media’s growing impact on travel destinations. Roccaraso, typically hosting about 35,000 visitors over a regular weekend, faced chaos when influencer Rita De Crescenzo’s posts prompted Naples tour companies to offer $20 day trips, resulting in 220 tour buses descending on the small resort town.
Local authorities report visitors violated ski etiquette, improvised sleds from kitchen items, and left significant trash behind. The resort’s mayor has implemented new crowd control measures and bus restrictions after the incident damaged the destination’s reputation. Tourism officials warn that twice as many day-trip bookings are already confirmed for next weekend, prompting emergency security preparations.
Bestselling author and YouTuber John Green has been financially supporting League Two side AFC Wimbledon since 2014, captivated by their remarkable fan-owned story after being uprooted from their home in 2003. This January, Green’s backing helped fund the signing of free agent Marcus Browne from Oxford United, providing vital funds during Wimbledon’s promotion push. Green live-streamed the call to the club’s director of football, allowing his audience to witness his latest contribution.
While keeping an arms-length from transfers, Green hopes his support can make Wimbledon sustainable in higher leagues and ultimately return them to the Premier League they last graced in 1988 as the original Wimbledon FC before their controversial relocation.
The Ashburton District Council in New Zealand is paying social media influencers around $7,000 to promote tourism in the Mid Canterbury region. Influencers like travel creator Lilia Alexander have shared posts showcasing local experiences, driving visitor interest and revenue for operators. Local businesses report a boost from the influencer marketing, praising the cost-effective strategy.
The council aims to capture an authentic, relatable experience through influencers rather than traditional advertising. With positive feedback from operators, the council is leveraging influencers’ high engagement and targeted audiences to market Mid Canterbury as a travel destination.
As the Super Bowl approaches, creators are expanding their involvement beyond traditional advertising through innovative strategies. Talent management firms are renting “creator houses” in the host city for influencers to stay and produce sponsored content. The NFL is hosting over 150 international creators to generate social media buzz. Brands are launching multi-city fan festivals and exclusive merchandise lines featuring creators.
This broader approach allows marketers to amplify their Super Bowl investments across multiple platforms and channels, engaging fans before, during and after the big game in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. The evolving creator economy is driving more immersive and prolonged brand activations around marquee cultural events.
Interesting People
TikTok creator Emanuel “Big Manny” Wallace, known for his educational science content, gave viewers a royal treat when Prince William joined him as a lab assistant for a DNA extraction experiment video. The unprecedented collaboration, filmed during the Prince’s visit to an environmental tech company, showcased Wallace teaching the future monarch how to extract DNA from a strawberry.
With the UK government looking to engage audiences through influencer partnerships, this marked Prince William’s debut participating in a creator’s educational videos on the platform. The video’s surprise factor and unique nature drew an enthusiastic response, highlighting the royals’ efforts to modernize communications and reach digital-savvy demographics.
The rise of specialized creator economy consulting firms marks a shift from relying on traditional advisory firms that lack direct experience in the dynamic influencer marketing space. Seasoned industry veterans like Saeyoung Cho are leveraging their years of hands-on expertise to provide strategic guidance that traditional consultancies struggle to match. As creator partnerships become more sophisticated, brands increasingly seek specialized insights on building lasting relationships, integrating creators across the customer journey, and navigating complex cultural considerations.
Experienced consultants offer a holistic approach combining strategic vision with practical knowledge of the right technologies, partners, and measurement tactics for impactful creator campaigns. With the creator economy’s continued growth, the value of specialized, experience-driven consulting rises as brands require expert support to navigate this complex ecosystem effectively.
Social media influencer Emma Chamberlain expanded her coffee brand with the opening of her first permanent cafe location in Los Angeles. Chamberlain Coffee, launched in 2019, now offers whole beans, matcha, canned drinks and accessories through retailers like Whole Foods.
The new cafe in Westfield Century City Mall serves signature beverages like an espresso with almond milk, as well as pastries and branded merchandise. With over 12,000 storefronts, the brand reportedly generated $20 million in revenue last year. The cafe opening represents Chamberlain Coffee’s move into brick-and-mortar retail to create an interactive community space around the brand.
The Paul brothers, Jake and Logan, have announced their first reality TV series “Paul American” on HBO Max. The eight-episode series, premiering March 27, promises an unfiltered look into their personal lives beyond their public personas as influencers and boxers. Key family members like their parents, Logan’s fiancée and daughter, and Jake’s girlfriend will make appearances. The brothers emphasize the show’s authentic nature, saying it reveals the truth about their journey. While active in boxing, this marks a new venture showcasing their lives off the ring for HBO’s audience.
MrBeast, the YouTuber with the most-subscribed channel, revealed he would have pursued acquiring the “Hot Ones” show if approached, despite the $82.5 million price tag paid by host Sean Evans. MrBeast cited his experience in consumer packaged goods as a potential advantage for the hot sauce business, but a simple lack of communication prevented any deal discussions.
Though never appearing on “Hot Ones” himself, MrBeast expressed interest in expanding his media portfolio through such acquisitions beyond his current YouTube presence and Amazon Prime show “Beast Games.” The viral “Hot Ones” interview series continues under Evans’ ownership following his high-profile purchase in December 2024.
In the creator economy, a YouTuber has developed an innovative approach to combat AI-powered content theft. The technique involves using an obsolete subtitle format to insert hidden junk data that confounds AI summarization tools attempting to repurpose transcripts. While showing promise, the method faces technical limitations like compatibility issues across platforms and varying effectiveness against advanced AI models.
This emergence responds to increasing challenges faced by creators, as major tech companies have utilized YouTube content to train AI without consent, sparking concerns over exploitation. The development highlights the ongoing battle between protecting original content and the capabilities of AI automation in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Industry News
YouTube’s advertising revenue surged past $10.5 billion in Q4 2024, driven by strong U.S. election ad spending and growth in podcasters publishing video versions of shows on the platform. The Google-owned video giant reported over 30% year-over-year increase in creators earning a majority of revenue from TV screens.
YouTube remains the dominant leader in ad-supported streaming, comprising over 11% of all TV viewing. Its subscription services like YouTube TV also grew, with YouTube and Google Cloud exiting 2024 at $110 billion annual revenue run rate. Despite economic headwinds, Alphabet plans aggressive $75 billion capital expenditure in 2025 to accelerate AI innovation across products.
The creator economy is rapidly transforming the entertainment industry, with individual creators eclipsing traditional networks and studios. According to Alon Shtruzman, Co-CEO of 5X Media, we are witnessing the “fourth revolution” in television history driven by influencers and short-form content. Major factors fueling this shift include the $250 billion influencer market’s scale rivaling traditional TV/film spending, younger audiences’ preference for short videos, and social media’s rising role in celebrity creation.
5X Media’s strategy focuses on building a roster of niche influencers as “cable channels” and investing in professional content development alongside talent management. Shtruzman foresees increasing convergence between online creators and traditional media productions, with higher production values and creator content transitioning to television. However, standardized analytics akin to Nielsen ratings are still needed for better measurement in this rapidly evolving landscape.
TikTok has launched a new content series called "Behind the Breakthrough" to spotlight artists who gained initial success on the platform before achieving broader commercial success. The series features documentary-style films with artist interviews and an in-app hub showcasing featured artists, trending tracks, collaborators, and top-performing content. The inaugural artist is Gigi Perez, whose song "Sailor Song" generated over 22 billion views from 8.3 million video creations on TikTok.
The initiative aims to examine how artists leverage TikTok's community engagement to transition from the platform to mainstream industry recognition. This reflects a broader trend where many new music creators, particularly those with less experience, are prioritizing social media platforms over traditional streaming services for music distribution and fan interaction due to the ability to build more valuable fan relationships.
Social media platforms have overtaken Google as the primary product discovery channel for Gen Z, with Instagram (30.4%) and TikTok (23.2%) now leading the way in shopping journey initiation. GRIN’s latest research reveals a significant generational divide in shopping behaviors, with 72% of Gen Z making social commerce purchases compared to 46% of Boomers.
The shift has prompted Google to integrate more social content into search results, while platforms expand their commerce capabilities. Short-form video dominates user preferences, with nearly 40% of consumers favoring 1-3 minute content formats. U.S. social commerce sales are projected to surpass $100 billion in 2025, marking 22.4% year-over-year growth as platforms continue developing features like interactive shopping tags and direct checkout capabilities.
Spotify has launched its first Creator Milestone Awards program, recognizing top podcasts that reach global streaming thresholds of 100 million (bronze), 250 million (silver), and 500 million (gold) streams. The awards aim to celebrate the success of popular shows like “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “Crime Junkie” which earned gold status.
As platforms compete for video podcast creators, Spotify is embracing a broad strategy to help podcasters expand reach across rival platforms like YouTube. The program highlights Spotify’s efforts to empower creators and find the right audiences, even if it means driving listeners to competitors, viewing it as a non-zero-sum game with incremental audiences across multiple platforms.
While some predict TikTok will continue thriving under American ownership or partnership, addressing data privacy concerns, others suggest creators should prioritize building sustainable businesses across multiple platforms. The key takeaways are: TikTok’s immense cultural and economic influence makes finding a resolution essential, though the specifics remain uncertain.
Experts advise creators to diversify and focus on adaptability, prioritizing community connections over reliance on a single platform. Regardless of TikTok’s outcome, transparency in the digital landscape is increasing, fostering a deeper understanding of platform dynamics among creators and consumers.
Linqia has unveiled Creator Intelligence, a scoring system integrated into its Resonate platform that allows brands to measure influencer marketing performance based on customizable metrics and weighted KPIs. During beta testing with CPG, retail, and pharma brands, the tool demonstrated 25% improvement in creator selection efficiency by providing an objective comparison aligning with each brand’s specific goals. Creator Intelligence consolidates quantitative stats like engagement rates with qualitative factors like collaboration ease into unified scores.
Brands can adjust metric weightings to match campaign objectives, revealing creators thought to be top performers based on vanity metrics may rank differently. The feature aims to help brands optimize influencer campaigns and better determine ROI, key challenges cited in Linqia’s research. Creator Intelligence is included in existing Linqia packages at no additional cost.
Snap reported better-than-expected Q4 2024 results with revenue growing 14% year-over-year to $1.56 billion. However, the company issued a disappointing Q1 2025 forecast, projecting revenue of $1.325-$1.36 billion, below analyst estimates of $1.33 billion. Despite user growth and strong subscription revenue, Snap expects higher operating expenses due to hiring, legal costs, and marketing spend.
The company reiterated plans to invest heavily in AI and focus on profitability amid intensifying competition. Key challenges include a lawsuit from New Mexico alleging facilitation of child exploitation and an FTC complaint regarding its AI chatbot referred to the DOJ.
Registration Required
Meta’s pivot toward a more permissive content policy is creating tension with advertisers concerned about brand safety. The tech giant’s decision to eliminate U.S.-based fact-checkers in favor of community-sourced content notes, similar to X’s system, marks a significant shift in its approach to content moderation. While Meta maintains its $130 billion advertising business is secure through millions of small business advertisers, major brands are reassessing their relationship with social platforms amid growing political pressure.
The shift comes as Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk’s X pursue legal action against advertisers over alleged antitrust violations in withholding ad spending from conservative media. Meta aims to reassure advertisers by preserving brand safety tools, but concerns persist about broader platform reputation impacts..
The creator economy has seen a surge of influencers and YouTubers leveraging podcasts to reinvent their brands, engage audiences in new ways, and unlock additional revenue streams. Once audio-only, video podcasts now resemble talk shows, allowing creators to build communities through live interactions and shared viewing experiences, even on TV screens.
Podcasting opens doors for memberships, merchandise, touring, and more lucrative brand deals than traditional YouTube videos permit. While highly successful creators like Alex Cooper are building podcast empires, the format provides opportunities for growth across varying audience sizes. As podcasting evolves, YouTube is positioning itself as a major platform by fostering community tools and new genres like kids’ shows.
A surge of recent deals and investments signals that performance advertising firms are leading the next wave of influencer marketing. Established companies like ShopMy, Later, and Agentio have raised significant funding rounds, while Later acquired Mavely for $250 million to enhance tracking of influencer sales. The driving force is that influencer marketing is now viewed as a performance ad channel focused on conversions rather than just brand awareness.
Performance ad dollars are shifting towards creators, benefitting companies that can link influencer content to sales data. Investors are optimistic about later-stage influencer marketing firms that offer specialized products and services beyond just access to creators’ followings on social platforms. Traditional ad tech and retail media companies are also acquiring influencer marketing expertise to capitalize on this lucrative performance-focused market.
Meta has hired former TikTok executive Shadi Nayyer for a new role focused on building relationships with creators and developers for its metaverse initiatives within the Reality Labs division. Nayyer will oversee a team responsible for growing Meta’s creator and developer ecosystem through programs like hackathons, events, and competitions.
Her role falls under Reality Labs’ content organization and will initially concentrate on creators building for the Horizon Worlds virtual reality platform before expanding to other metaverse apps and augmented reality. Nayyer previously led TikTok’s global creator programs. Her hiring underscores Meta’s emphasis on 2025 as a pivotal year for making progress with metaverse adoption and engagement, especially for the Horizon Worlds platform which a Meta executive said needs to “break out” for long-term metaverse plans to succeed.
Social media platforms are reviving creator funds as a strategy to attract TikTok talent amid uncertainty over the app’s U.S. future. Meta, Flip, and Substack have launched new cash incentive programs this month, reminiscent of 2021's competitive creator fund landscape when TikTok pledged $2 billion to content creators. However, industry veterans remain skeptical of the approach’s sustainability.
Snapchat is ending its Spotlight Rewards program on Friday in favor of revenue-sharing, while YouTube has already transitioned from its $100 million Shorts fund to a similar model. Marketing experts warn that temporary funds may not build lasting creator loyalty, as creators typically prefer consistent income streams over one-time bonuses.
Hollywood studios and streaming platforms are rapidly seeking partnerships with popular online creators to develop new unscripted reality shows, game shows, and live entertainment offerings. The massive success of MrBeast’s “Beast Games” on Amazon Prime Video, attracting 50 million viewers in 25 days, has accelerated this trend.
Agents, producers, and creator executives report a surge in interest from buyers like Netflix, Amazon, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max. While most pitches involve unscripted formats, there is also growing interest in having creators host shows, provide behind-the-scenes content, or produce animated series. However, challenges remain in aligning the creative freedoms and data-driven approach of creators with the traditional production processes of Hollywood.