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- Influence Weekly #417 - What’s Working In Influencer Discovery Tools? Insights From 28 Industry Professionals
Influence Weekly #417 - What’s Working In Influencer Discovery Tools? Insights From 28 Industry Professionals
How EssentiallySports Built A $25M Sports Media Brand From A College Dorm Room
Nii Ahene
November 28, 2025
Spotlight Stories
What’s Working In Influencer Discovery Tools? Insights From 28 Industry Professionals
How EssentiallySports Built A $25M Sports Media Brand From A College Dorm Room
Twitch Added To Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban List
Instagram Now Reaches Half Of U.S. Adults
Great Reads
Industry professionals identified preferred influencer discovery tools as creator marketing budgets rose 15% to $10.52 billion in 2025. The influencer marketing platform sector projected growth from $16.79 billion to more than $272 billion by 2035, driven by AI and automation advances.
Discovery platforms mentioned most frequently included CreatorIQ, Modash, Famous Birthdays, and TikTok Creator Marketplace. CreatorIQ received praise for content-driven AI search capabilities that surface creators based on actual content rather than audience metrics alone. Modash earned recognition for AI-powered visual searches and rapid brand collaboration identification.
Several executives highlighted direct platform discovery through TikTok and Instagram algorithms over third-party tools. Others emphasized specialized solutions like Viewstats for YouTube analytics and FastMoss for TikTok Shop performance data.
Agency leaders noted the gap between discovery speed and brand safety vetting, with most brands admitting insufficient investment in safety measures while prioritizing performance metrics.
Adrien Vincent launched SocialRama, a Paris-based B2B media platform focusing on France's creator economy, in late 2024. Vincent, who has 25 years of experience in media agencies and data-driven marketing including roles at Redpill Media, Ermes, Fullsix Group and KR Media, created the platform after identifying a gap in professional coverage of influencer marketing.
SocialRama offers analysis of influencer campaigns, data insights, and intelligence reports for marketing professionals. The platform's signature monthly content, "La Courbe de la Hype" (The Hype Curve), tracks trends across France's creator economy using Google Trends and market analytics data.
Vincent noted that France's creator economy operates differently from the U.S. model, remaining fragmented and locally focused due to linguistic barriers. He cited examples of French creators launching consumer brands, including Squeezie's Ciao Kombucha and Mister V's Pizza Delamama. SocialRama will serve as an official media partner for Paris Creator Week in December 2025, which will feature members of MrBeast's team.
EssentiallySports reached $25 million in bootstrapped revenue and 30 million monthly readers, becoming one of the top ten U.S. sports publishers according to Comscore. The platform was founded in 2014 by Suryansh Tibarewal, Harit Pathak, and Jaskirat Arora as a college project with $100 and now operates without outside investment.
The company pivoted in 2023 from scale to engagement, launching sport-specific newsletters that now account for 20% of total traffic. Eight newsletters covering NASCAR, WNBA, track and field, and golf have attracted one million subscribers combined. Tibarewal aims to double this figure by 2027.
EssentiallySports differentiated itself by focusing on underserved sports communities rather than mainstream leagues like NFL or NBA. During COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, the company doubled hiring while competitors reduced staff, growing from one million to 60 million monthly page views in three months. The platform now collaborates with creators including tennis creator Nathan Walroth and WNBA player Natasha Howard for content production.
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Campaign Insights
Taiwan Tourism Administration's Los Angeles office launched "Waves of Wonder" in 2025, partnering with dance influencers Fik-Shun, Vik White, and Lauren Gibson, who have a combined 36 million followers. The campaign generated 200 million digital impressions and 5 million engagements through the #DanceToTaiwan challenge run with China Airlines.
The initiative featured actor Garrett Clayton and his husband Blake Knight creating content across Taiwan destinations. Taiwan became the first foreign tourism board to participate in LA Pride Parade and hosted activations at Westfield Century City.
Partners included China Airlines, STARLUX Airlines, EVA Air, Lion Travel, and King Car Group. The campaign won the MUSE Creative Gold Award for Integrated Marketing. U.S. visitor arrivals to Taiwan reached 650,000 in 2024, with two new direct flight routes from Phoenix and Dallas added in early 2025.
Director Vivian Lin led the campaign strategy, positioning Taiwan as an LGBTQ-friendly destination by highlighting its status as the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage.
Allwyn, a lottery operator, launched a search for an influencer marketing agency to handle social media and creator partnerships across the UK and select European markets. The account holds an estimated value of £750,000, according to Campaign reports.
The company confirmed the review would not affect existing agency relationships. Allwyn currently works with VCCP on creative campaigns after pausing its partnership with Leo Burnett in 2023 to focus on gaming operations.
Hearts & Science handles media planning and buying for Allwyn after winning the account in 2023. M&C Saatchi secured the global integrated communications mandate in January 2025. The National Lottery also maintains an internal social media team.
The company's recent Christmas campaign featured Olympic diver Tom Daley promoting a "scratchcard-igan" through VCCP creative work, with social content produced by Atomized Studios and Freuds showing Daley positioned as a fashion creator speaking directly to viewers.
Beast Philanthropy, the charitable organization founded by YouTube creator Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast), announced a strategic partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation on Monday. The collaboration pairs Donaldson's youth audience reach with the foundation's 112-year history of global problem-solving.
The partnership represents Donaldson's continued business expansion beyond his YouTube channel, which includes an entertainment studio, food brands, a book deal, and a recent theme park in Saudi Arabia. He hired venture capitalist Jeff Housenbold as CEO last year amid controversies surrounding his Amazon Prime reality show.
The organizations have begun working on combating child labor in the cocoa industry through Donaldson's snack company Feastables. They plan to visit Ghana in early 2025 to study development and community-led change initiatives. The exact issues they will tackle together and shared grantmaking details remain undetermined, though both organizations mentioned addressing child hunger as a potential focus area.
A federal judge dismissed affiliate marketers' lawsuit against PayPal over its Honey browser extension on November 21 but granted plaintiffs 45 days to amend their claims. U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman ruled that creators failed to establish they lost commissions entitled to them under merchant contracts.
The lawsuit, filed by affiliate marketers including attorney and YouTuber Devin Stone, alleged Honey diverted affiliate commissions by replacing creators' tracking codes with its own during checkout processes. More than 1,000 creators expressed interest in joining the class action.
The court found the complaint lacked specific contractual allegations, unlike a successful case against Capital One Shopping in Virginia's Eastern District. Judge Freeman noted plaintiffs cannot establish injury without proving commissions were due under merchant contracts rather than industry standards.
PayPal acquired Honey for $4 billion in 2020 and maintains it "follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution." The affiliate marketing industry generates approximately $12 billion in U.S. revenue annually, with over $1 billion going to social media creators.
Cambodia Tourism Board's influencer marketing campaign drove a 44.6 percent surge in Chinese tourist arrivals during the first ten months of 2025, surpassing one million visitors. The board partnered with prominent Chinese content creators to livestream and produce short-form videos across WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, showcasing Angkor Wat and Siem Reap experiences to millions of followers.
The creators documented cultural sites, local cuisine, and community-based tourism activities in real-time, addressing safety concerns and highlighting authentic experiences. The multi-platform strategy forms part of the Cambodia-China Tourism Year 2025 initiative, which aims to attract over one million Chinese tourists next year through continued influencer partnerships, streamlined visa processes, and targeted digital campaigns on major Chinese social platforms.
Pocket.watch, a children's creator media company, expanded its "Toys and Colors" YouTube franchise into premium streaming content with new holiday programming. The company released "Toys and Colors Elf Academy," a 22-minute holiday special, on its Ryan and Friends Plus subscription service November 21 and will launch on Hulu November 27. It also premiered "Toys and Colors Club," a 10-episode series exclusively on Ryan and Friends Plus.
"Toys and Colors" operates one of YouTube's largest children's channels with 136 million subscribers and 149 billion lifetime views. The brand's top three channels generated 11.6 billion minutes of watch time over 90 days, reaching 348 million unique viewers globally.
The expansion includes music distribution across Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music with the "Holiday Hits Snow Day Soundtrack." Pocket.watch distributes content across 43 platforms and operates what it calls the largest independent children's subscription video service in the United States. TIME named the company among its 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025.
Interesting People
Twin Atlas, one of the largest Roblox game development studios, formed in 2022 through a merger between RedManta and Sonar Studios. The company employs more than 100 staff members and operates games that have generated over 1.5 billion visits, including "Creatures of Sonaria" and "Drive World."
Twin Atlas generates revenue through in-game purchases, premium payouts, merchandise via Shopify integrations, and brand collaborations with companies including LEGO Group, Capri Sun, MrBeast, and Twenty One Pilots. The studio created brand integration experiences such as a "Transformers" world where players could unlock characters like Megatron and Optimus Prime.
Roblox creators collectively earned over $1 billion through the platform's Developer Exchange program in the first nine months of 2025. The platform recently increased DevEx rates by 8.5%, providing higher payouts for converting virtual currency to real money. Chief Design Officer Alexander Hicks said the rate increase could translate to additional hires for larger studios like Twin Atlas.
YouTuber Eric Decker, known as Airrack, signed with Creative Artists Agency for brand partnership representation, according to The Hollywood Reporter on November 26, 2025. Decker has accumulated 17.5 million YouTube subscribers creating challenge and prank content.
CAA will represent Decker for brand collaborations after his successful partnerships with Pizza Hut, Crocs, SoFi, Pepsi, and Shopify. In January 2023, he collaborated with Pizza Hut to set a Guinness World Record for the largest pizza ever at 13,990 square feet at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The project earned a Cannes Lion nomination and appeared in a Pizza Hut Super Bowl commercial.
Decker surpassed 10 million YouTube subscribers in 2022 after three years on the platform. He won the 2022 Streamy Award for best first-person content creator and hosted that year's ceremony. He has collaborated with creators including MrBeast, Will Smith, Logan Paul, and Kai Cenat. Decker co-founded educational platform Creator Now, which VidIQ acquired in 2024.
Emily Blair Media, a communications agency founded in 2019 by former Us Weekly writer Emily Blair Marcus, operates as a full-service PR firm specializing in creator economy clients. The Los Angeles-based company has expanded to 25 employees across New York and London offices.
The agency received recognition from Forbes for PR services, appeared twice on Inc. Magazine's "Best in Business" list, and earned honors from The PR Net's "Next Gen" awards. Business Insider named Marcus among top PR professionals for creators and influencers in two separate years.
EBM operates four divisions covering talent, brands, events, and social media management. The company works with reality stars, athletes, podcasters, and direct-to-consumer brand founders. Each client receives detailed tracking reports showing outreach metrics, impressions, and audience reach data.
The agency plans expansion into Australia, which Marcus described as a dynamic market with creators positioned for global reach. EBM also developed a specialized athlete division after working with professional athletes' partners, expanding beyond traditional sports coverage.
YouTube creator Rowan Ellis, who produces long-form video essays on queer topics and social issues, signed with talent management firm Ziggurat XYZ and expanded her creator ecosystem through multiple revenue streams. Ellis built her YouTube channel around 45-minute research-heavy videos covering topics from queer history to diet culture politics.
Ellis left her social media role at Penguin Books to focus full-time on YouTube creation after initially starting the channel as a creative outlet while working in traditional media roles at London Film School and The Pool. She now collaborates with researchers including Dr. Emilie Maine and Isabel Moncloa Daly to produce her content.
The creator generates revenue through YouTube AdSense, Patreon subscriptions, and brand partnerships managed by Ziggurat XYZ. Her Patreon community grew after she posted a video about creator economics, providing both financial support and audience engagement through Discord discussions. Ellis noted that UK creators face funding challenges as the Arts Council, National Lottery, and British Film Institute exclude online video from their programs, unlike Canada's Media Fund.
Los Angeles actress Hannah Marie Hines began content creation in 2021 during the pandemic as an experiment while the entertainment industry was shut down. Her millennial-focused comedy content resonated with audiences, leading to viral videos including a series of herself crying in cars to nostalgic club music.
Hines leveraged her decade of acting experience to transition into social media, initially intimidated by technical aspects but finding success once she developed simple video formats. Her content strategy focuses on relatability, asking herself whether videos would be worth sharing with her husband or generating comments from viewers.
The content creation work expanded her traditional entertainment career. Both of her screenwriting partners and her literary representative discovered her through social media. Casting directors have cited her sketches as matching tones they sought for comedy projects, though she has not disclosed specific financial figures from brand collaborations.
Hines maintains strict privacy boundaries, deliberately keeping her child and spouse out of content despite early videos featuring motherhood moments. She continues acting and screenwriting alongside content creation, recently co-writing and co-producing a project she co-stars in.
Content creator Kevin Ferman and his dog Bowie built "The Uber Dog" into a sustainable business by filming passenger interactions during Uber rides in Boulder, Colorado. Ferman began bringing Bowie on rides to address the dog's separation anxiety, then started recording content that went viral across social platforms.
The duo gained over 1 million Instagram followers, 200,000 TikTok followers, and secured media appearances on Good Morning America, CNN, and Inside Edition after one video generated 50 million views. Uber contacted Ferman following his Good Morning America appearance and offered him a partnership through their influencer program, granting him the "Uber Dog" trademark.
Ferman monetizes through sponsorships with brands including Get Joy dog food, Pet Releaf supplements, and camera companies, supported by management agency G&B Digital Management. He publishes 10-20 minute YouTube episodes weekly featuring multiple rides, then repurposes content for shorter clips on TikTok and Instagram. Ferman drives Thursday nights near University of Colorado Boulder, where college students provide consistent content material for the show.
Industry News
Australia's eSafety Commissioner added Twitch to the country's under-16 social media ban list, effective December 10, 2025. The livestreaming platform will prevent users under 16 from creating accounts and will deactivate existing underage accounts on January 9, 2026.
Pinterest received exemption from the restrictions because regulators determined social interaction was not the platform's primary purpose. The watchdog said Pinterest functioned more as an image curation service for inspiration rather than social engagement.
Ten platforms now face restrictions requiring "reasonable steps" to prevent underage accounts: Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Twitch. YouTube Kids and Google Classroom remain exempt. Meta identified 450,000 underage users across Instagram and Facebook, while TikTok counted 200,000 and Snap reported 440,000 affected Australian accounts.
Platforms face fines up to AU$49.5 million for non-compliance with the Social Media Minimum Age legislation.
Social-first agency SAMY appointed Anabela Bonuccelli as Managing Director for U.S. operations, bringing over 30 years of agency experience to oversee the company's expansion. Bonuccelli spent 25 years at Havas, where she opened the Miami office and led expansion into Central America and Puerto Rico.
SAMY forecasts 70% net revenue growth in the U.S. for 2025, with additional growth projected for 2026. The agency operates 20 offices across 55 markets with over 900 employees globally. Bonuccelli will manage a client portfolio including Maybelline, Microsoft, Popular Bank, RoC Skincare, and BHG Financial from her Miami base.
The agency recently added AB InBev and The Magnum Ice Cream Company to its U.S. roster. SAMY's broader client base includes L'Oréal, The North Face, Diageo, and Samsung. The appointment supports the agency's positioning as a social-first operation integrating intelligence, creativity, and technology across social media platforms during a period of rapid U.S. market expansion.
Sprinklr expanded its global strategic partnership with SAMY, a social-first agency with over 1,000 employees across 20 offices in 55 markets. The collaboration combines Sprinklr's customer experience management platform with SAMY's marketing expertise to deliver integrated solutions for brands.
The partnership evolved from project-based support to strategic integration, according to Nathan Townsend, SAMY's Chief Partnership Officer. SAMY's platform-certified team provides Sprinklr ecosystem expertise through joint go-to-market strategy and integrated delivery models.
The companies demonstrated their collaboration through work with Diageo, developing a Foresight System that converts social conversations into business insights. Using Sprinklr's social listening capabilities, the system surfaces cultural shifts and guides innovation from flavor development to communication strategy.
Sprinklr serves 1,900 enterprises including Microsoft, P&G, Samsung, and 60% of Fortune 100 companies. The platform provides social media management, marketing, advertising, customer feedback, and contact center management solutions across multiple channels.
The Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AiMCO) and the UK's Influencer Marketing Trade Body (IMTB) announced a strategic alliance in November 2025 to advance global creator economy standards. The partnership provides members with cross-market case studies, joint professional development opportunities, and shared benchmarking data between the two markets.
IMTB, which launched in October 2021, represents influencer marketing on the UK's Committee of Advertising Practice and co-founded the European Influencer Marketing Alliance in 2024. The European alliance represents 300 agencies and 8,000 creators across seven European countries.
The organizations collaborated informally since IMTB's launch but formalized their partnership to enhance trust in influencer marketing through shared advocacy and education initiatives. Both bodies focus on elevating industry standards, promoting ethical conduct, and supporting professional growth in their respective markets through combined expertise and resources.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Meta does not hold a monopoly in social media, allowing the company to retain ownership of Instagram and WhatsApp. The decision marked the first victory for a major tech company against federal antitrust enforcement that began during Trump's first administration.
The Federal Trade Commission sued Meta in 2020, seeking to unwind the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions completed in 2012 and 2014 respectively. The FTC argued Meta held a monopoly on platforms used for sharing content with friends and family, identifying competitors as Snap's Snapchat and privacy-focused app MeWe.
Judge Boasberg ruled the FTC incorrectly excluded TikTok and YouTube from the relevant market definition. He noted TikTok forced Meta to invest $4 billion in its Reels feature, demonstrating competitive pressure. The judge cited trial evidence showing users substitute YouTube and TikTok for Meta's apps during outages. The FTC expressed disappointment and is reviewing appeal options.
Instagram reached 50% of U.S. adults for the first time, joining YouTube and Facebook as the only social media platforms to achieve majority adoption among Americans, according to Pew Research Center. The milestone came from a survey of 5,022 U.S. adults conducted between February and June 2025.
Instagram's user base grew from 40% in 2021 to the current 50% threshold. YouTube leads all platforms at 84% adoption, while Facebook follows at 71%. No other platform reaches majority adoption, with TikTok at 37%, WhatsApp at 32%, Reddit at 26%, and X at 21%.
Adults under 30 show the highest Instagram adoption at 80%, creating a 61 percentage point gap with adults 65 and older at 19%. Women use Instagram more than men, with 55% of women compared to 44% of men. Hispanic adults lead demographic adoption at 62%, followed by Asian adults at 58% and Black adults at 54%.
Prime Video announced that "Beast Games" season two will premiere January 7, 2026, with three episodes launching simultaneously and weekly releases through February 25. The competition series, hosted by YouTuber MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), will feature 200 contestants competing for a $5 million prize, down from 1,000 participants and a $10 million prize in season one.
The new season introduces a "Strong vs. Smart" format, dividing competitors between 100 athletes and 100 intellectuals. Sean Klitzner and Matt Apps return as showrunners, with Tyler Conklin directing.
Season one became Prime Video's most-watched unscripted series, attracting 50 million viewers within 25 days of its December 19, 2024 debut. The show reached number one in over 50 countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and India.
Amazon renewed the series for two additional seasons following the first season's performance, announcing the decision at its May 12, 2025 upfront presentation.
Publicis Creative U.S. appointed Charlotte Tansill as President of Social, Creator and Earned in a newly created role. Tansill joins from Ogilvy, where she worked for 17 years and served as North America president of PR, social and influence since 2023.
Ogilvy redistributed Tansill's responsibilities among three executives: Drew Warren as head of PR, Christine Cotter as head of social, and Ansley Williams as head of influence. Julianna Richter remains global CEO of Ogilvy PR and chief communications officer of WPP Open X.
Tansill co-led Ogilvy's Michael CeraVe Super Bowl campaign, which won Campaign of the Year at the PRWeek US Awards 2025 and nine Lions at Cannes in 2024, including the Grand Prix in Social & Influencer. The campaign featured Michael Cera and drew inspiration from Reddit threads for L'Oréal's CeraVe brand.
Tansill starts December 4 and reports to Carla Serrano, Publicis Groupe's global chief strategy officer. She joins Publicis Groupe's U.S. leadership group to design integrated offerings for client leaders in media.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau reported US creator ad spend reached $37 billion in 2025, more than doubling since 2021 and growing four times faster than other media sectors. Nearly half of advertisers now consider creators a top-three media buy alongside paid search and social advertising.
The IAB study found that only 25 percent of creator spending goes to direct sponsored posts, while 75 percent funds amplification and adjacency programs. Forty percent of buyers named ROI as their primary success metric, with online sales ranking as the fourth most common campaign objective after awareness and reach goals.
Industry executives identified three operational challenges slowing growth. One-third of buyers cited creator discovery as their primary obstacle, while fragmented measurement systems and complex approval processes created additional friction. The IAB estimated that some creator campaigns require more than 60 people from brief to publication.
The trade group launched a cross-industry task force to develop standards for discovery, reporting, measurement and deal structures. Initial recommendations are expected by September 2026.
TikTok expanded its LIVE Operations team, posting a Creator Manager position in Los Angeles with salaries ranging from $83,600 to $143,556 annually. The role focuses on growing mid-tier creators through profile-based operational systems and co-production initiatives.
ShopMy, following its $77 million Series B funding, hired its first Creator Growth Lead in London to establish UK market expansion. The position involves creator outreach, pipeline management, and developing market-specific strategies for the creator monetization platform.
ElevenLabs, the audio AI company valued at $6.6 billion with $200 million in annual recurring revenue, recruited an Affiliate & Influencer Marketing Manager. The remote role involves building global creator programs and implementing AI workflows to reach partners at scale.
Agentio, the creator-led advertising platform with a $340 million valuation after raising $56 million, added a fifth member to its Creator Partnerships team. The New York-based position pays $100,000-$130,000 plus equity, requiring 25+ weekly creator meetings and full lifecycle relationship management across YouTube and Instagram ecosystems.
Slow Ventures invested $1.1 million in Tayla Cannon, a fitness creator with over 130,000 Instagram followers, to develop her rehabilitation platform Rebuildr. The investment represented one of the first deployments from Slow Ventures' $60 million Creator Fund established in February 2025.
Cannon moved from Australia to the United States in 2023 to work in physiotherapy before transitioning to interventional cardiology. She launched Athletic Rebuild, a rehab and performance coaching company for athletes, while building her social media presence in 2024.
Rebuildr will be a HIPAA-compliant mentorship and business management platform for rehabilitation professionals to run online practices. The platform competes with existing personal trainer software including TrainHeroic, Trainerize, and Everfit. Rebuildr is scheduled to launch in early 2026.
Cannon connected with Slow Ventures partner Megan Lightcap at a firm event in Austin. The Creator Fund previously made its first investment of $2 million in woodworking creator Jonathan Katz-Moses after evaluating 700 applicants.
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Nara Smith is leveraging her 17 million follower base to launch her first culinary product, a $28 garlic oil developed with Algae Cooking Club. The TikTok influencer spent a year developing the algae-based oil infused with garlic, yuzu, and miso, partnering with Eleven Madison Park chef Daniel Humm's company. Smith is actively pursuing retail partnerships, including discussions with Sweetgreen to integrate the product into their menu offerings.
The move represents a strategic pivot from content creator to business owner, with Smith stating she intends to build a longstanding empire. She recently released a capsule collection with Reformation and plans to launch a cookbook and standalone brand. The model-turned-influencer built her audience through elaborate from-scratch cooking videos that showcase high-fashion looks while preparing meals for her family.
Jay Neo, a 21-year-old former MrBeast employee, launched AI startup Palo with $3.8 million in funding from PeakXV, NFX, EdgeCase Capital, and angel investors including ex-MrBeast executive Rohan Kumar. The company emerged from stealth mode after 18 months of development.
Palo provides AI-powered content analysis tools for creators, examining elements like video hooks and retention patterns from uploaded content catalogs. The platform uses OpenAI and Google Gemini models to help creators write scripts, create storyboards, and identify viral content formulas.
The startup operates from Palo Alto with eight employees and targets creators with over 100,000 followers. Palo plans to charge $250 monthly for its subscription service. Neo previously worked on MrBeast's short-form content strategy at age 18, contributing to videos including "Would You Fly To Paris For A Baguette?" which exceeded 1 billion views. The platform also features creator networking tools and plans to connect creators with advertising partners.
Deja Foxx is monetizing her congressional campaign loss by training political organizations on social media fundraising strategies. The 25-year-old digital strategist lost Arizona's Seventh Congressional District Democratic primary in July but generated 100 million impressions and raised over one million dollars through a digital-first, small-donor approach.
Starting with just 140 dollars per day in online donations, Foxx scaled her campaign entirely through social media without traditional donor networks. She now works with communication professionals and content creators, teaching them to use digital platforms for fundraising, narrative control, and volunteer mobilization. With 700,000 followers across platforms, Foxx previously served as the youngest staffer on Kamala Harris's 2020 presidential campaign at age 19, working as an influencer and digital strategist.
The Creator Economy in the U.S. has evolved rapidly from a niche content movement into a central force shaping how brands connect with consumers. According to IAB’s 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report, U.S. creator ad spend is projected to reach $37 billion in 2025, up 26% year-over-year and nearly 4x faster than the media industry’s overall growth. Over the past three years, creator advertising has more than doubled—from $13.9B in 2021 to $29.5B in 2024—as brands increasingly treat creators not just as social media partners but as a full-fledged channel.
Advertiser spending on creators reached $37 billion in 2025, up 26% year-over-year, according to a new Interactive Advertising Bureau report. The creator economy grew four times faster than the overall media industry, with spending nearly tripling since 2021 when it stood at approximately $12.3 billion.
The IAB surveyed roughly 450 US ad spending decision-makers between July and August. More marketers now consider creators a "must-buy" compared to other emerging categories like connected TV, which the IAB projected would reach $26.6 billion in 2025, and commerce media.
Mid-tier creators with 50,000 to 500,000 followers proved most popular, hired by 61% of respondents. Macro influencers and micro creators each attracted 55% of advertisers, while celebrities and VIPs were least popular at 30%.
Three-quarters of brands reported either using or planning to use AI tools for content editing, creator partnership briefs, and A/B testing. The growth comes as legacy formats like linear TV continue losing audience share to digital platforms.