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- Influence Weekly #431 - Inside MrBeast’s YouTube Ad Campaign That Helped Him Gain 117M Subscribers In 2025
Influence Weekly #431 - Inside MrBeast’s YouTube Ad Campaign That Helped Him Gain 117M Subscribers In 2025
National Geographic Launches Six-Month Creator Cohort Program With Eight Digital-First Storytellers
Nii Ahene
March 06, 2026
Spotlight Stories
Inside MrBeast’s YouTube Ad Campaign That Helped Him Gain 117M Subscribers In 2025
National Geographic Launches Six-Month Creator Cohort Program With Eight Digital-First Storytellers
Audacy Adds YouTube Video Distribution To Podcast Hosting Platform
Instagram Creators Angered Over Shop The Look AI Program
Great Reads
MrBeast's main YouTube channel gained 117 million subscribers in 2025, the largest single-year gain in YouTube history, according to fan analytics account MrBeast Statistics. The growth outpaced the second-fastest channel, KIMPRO, by 67 million subscribers.
CreatorGlobal, MrBeast's multi-language dubbing company, operated 428 ads throughout 2025 via Google's Ad Transparency Center. India received 40% of ads, while Indonesia and Vietnam together accounted for another 40%. The campaign used 98 unique videos, with 90 being YouTube Shorts.
Key performing ads included "Subscribe For An iPhone," which ran from January through October and consistently generated over 100,000 daily likes. When ads paused briefly in April, daily subscriber growth dropped from 220,000-230,000 to around 120,000. MrBeast gained 47 million Indian subscribers in 2025, exceeding T-Series' best single-year performance. CreatorGlobal delivered localized ads in Hindi, Telugu, Punjabi, Tamil, and Marathi, with 150 ads remaining active into 2026.
Adobe Express surveyed 807 consumers and 200 small business owners in January 2026, finding that 49% of U.S. consumers had used TikTok as a search engine, up from 41% in 2024. The increase marked a 19.5% rise over two years, with adoption varying by generation: 65% of Gen Z users, 55% of millennials, 40% of Gen X, and 12% of baby boomers.
Google maintained its dominant position with 85% of consumers identifying it as most helpful for finding information, followed by Reddit at 29%, ChatGPT at 26%, YouTube at 24%, and TikTok at 16%. Only 4% of Gen Z users preferred TikTok over Google for search, down from 8% in 2024.
Small business owners allocated an average of 16% of their marketing budgets to TikTok content creation and 15% of their SEO budgets toward TikTok search optimization. The share using TikTok influencers for promotions rose to 38% in 2026 from 25% in 2024.
National Geographic launched its inaugural Creator Cohort program in February 2026, partnering with eight digital creators across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for six months. The media brand, which claims over 800 million social media followers, selected creators in conservation, wildlife photography, science, history, and travel verticals.
The cohort includes conservationist Maya Higa, environmental educator Macaila Wagner, science communicator Maynard Okereke, geoscience creator Ethan Penner, travel creators Jordan Kahana, Tanya Badillo, and Paige Tingey, plus archaeologist Dr. Tenninger Kellenbarger. Blue Hour Studios executed the campaign with National Geographic's social media team.
Participants will engage in brand events tied to Earth Month, the documentary "Secrets of the Bees" from James Cameron's franchise, and other programming. The program includes travel opportunities through National Geographic–Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic Journeys partnerships. Upon completion, creators become eligible for ongoing marketing and programming opportunities across platforms. The initiative represents National Geographic's strategy to reach new audiences through creator partnerships.
The Big Three Podcast
In tis Month’s Big Three Ceci Carloni sits down with Nii Ahene, founder of Net Influencer, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: whether brands are moving beyond last-minute cultural moment activations : why measurement in creator campaigns remains structurally difficult to solve : and what it actually takes to scale whitelisting beyond a single boosted post. Tune in for a ground-level read on where the industry is putting its energy and where the gaps remain.
Campaign Insights
Jennifer Brown, SHEIN's U.S. influencer marketing director, discussed the company's celebrity partnership strategy in an interview published March 2026. Brown oversees influencer marketing and talent partnerships for the fast-fashion retailer, managing collaborations with creators including Cardi B, Lele Pons, GloRilla, and Jenni "JWoww" Farley.
SHEIN recently launched global superstar Normani's first fashion brand exclusively on its platform. Brown cited the collaboration with curve model Phaith Montoya as particularly successful, resulting in SHEIN's most successful curve collection to date. Brown credited Montoya's hands-on involvement in selecting pieces designed specifically for curve bodies
A roundtable featuring 57 creator economy professionals reveals a near-unanimous finding: brands consistently confuse brand safety with brand control. Experts spanning agency CEOs, platform founders, and talent managers argue that over-scripting creators and heavy approval processes strip out the authenticity driving performance, ultimately increasing reputational risk.
The consensus: invest in rigorous upfront vetting and values alignment rather than post-production policing. Linqia's Keith Bendes noted that brands' own internal teams are statistically more likely to cause controversy than creator partners. Multiple respondents urged a shift from "brand safety" to "brand suitability," treating creators as strategic partners rather than managed media placements. The takeaway: protection and performance improve together when alignment replaces restriction.
Dr.Melaxin Global retained the top position among TikTok shops in February 2026 with $14.84 million in revenue, followed closely by medicube US Store at $14.56 million. The $280,000 gap between first and second place represented the smallest margin in the dataset to date. QVC rounded out the top three with $14.35 million after climbing from fifth place in January.
VEVOR Store posted the highest growth rate at 89.9% with $8.63 million in revenue, returning to the top 10 after missing January rankings. The industrial equipment retailer previously held sixth place in October and November 2025. Plain & Printed recorded the only negative growth at -5.9% but maintained its position with the highest average unit price of $155.06.
Tarte Cosmetics held fourth place with $9.67 million and 28.6% growth in its second consecutive month in the rankings. MaryRuth's supplements returned to the list for the first time since August 2025 at tenth place with $5.16 million. Data was provided by Kalodata.
American Eagle launched its revamped AE Creator Community in February, a centralized platform where creators with at least 1,000 followers can earn commission, complete challenges, and collect points redeemable for cash or merchandise. The program, built with brand ambassador platform SocialLadder, attracted 803 signups within 10 days and achieved a 91% engagement rate in member chatrooms.
Gap Inc. introduced a similar creator affiliate hub in October spanning Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta brands. Both programs represent a shift from one-off influencer campaigns toward always-on advocacy systems combining loyalty mechanics with performance-driven marketing.
According to Collabstr's 2026 report, nearly 80% of influencer collaborations now cost under $300, while user-generated content campaigns grew from 15% of total collaborations in 2024 to 35% in 2025. Brands now spread budgets across 15-30 creators rather than concentrating on higher-fee influencers. American Eagle plans to integrate its 16 million loyalty members into the creator community.
Allbirds abandoned earned media value metrics in favor of mixed media modeling to measure influencer marketing ROI, according to Sarah Grosz, Influencer Marketing Lead at Allbirds, speaking at eTail Palm Springs 2026. Grosz scaled Allbirds' influencer program from 1,000 ad hoc affiliate partners to 3,000 affiliates and 600 paid partnerships over two and a half years.
The company replaced EMV with what Grosz called a "universal EMV" that integrates influencer data with paid social, search, email, and SMS to show incremental value across channels. This mixed media approach reveals influencer's total impact on e-commerce revenue beyond direct attribution from discount codes and affiliate links.
Grosz defended discount codes as necessary for attribution tracking, suggesting brands could use two codes per influencer for new customer acquisition and retention. She identified conversion rate and average order value as key proof points, noting influencer traffic converts at higher rates than paid media or organic channels. The measurement shift reflects broader industry movement away from siloed influencer metrics toward full-funnel attribution models.
The Washington Post launched a creator-led newsletter called "Verified" on Beehiiv as part of its new "WP Creator" initiative in February 2026. Former political reporter Dylan Wells will author the newsletter, focusing on the creator economy and industry disruption.
Beehiiv, a newsletter platform, hosts legacy publishers including Time, Newsweek, TechCrunch, the Texas Tribune, the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Magazine, and The Ringer. The platform also features independent journalists and creators like Colin and Samir and Josh Richards.
Time reported a 63.8% increase in open rates since joining Beehiiv with its 15 newsletters. Publishers are shifting toward direct audience relationships as traditional website metrics lose relevance. The Reuters Institute found 76% of 280 surveyed digital leaders plan to encourage journalists to behave more like creators in 2026, while 50% intend to partner with creators for content distribution.
TikTok sponsored content volume increased 16.8% in the US four weeks after ByteDance completed a deal in January to create a majority American-owned joint venture for the platform. Active influencers posting sponsored content rose 16.1% over the same period, according to data from Billion Dollar Boy, which analyzed over 100,000 posts from more than 10,000 creators.
The recovery followed a decline during months of uncertainty over TikTok's US future. US sponsored posts dropped from 1,403 to 1,339 in the two weeks before the deal, then climbed to 1,564 by week four after completion. Active US influencers fell from 1,120 to 1,075 pre-deal before rebounding to 1,248 post-deal.
EMARKETER forecast TikTok's US ad revenues will grow 27.9% in 2026, up from 16.1% in 2025. The research firm projected influencer marketing spending on TikTok will reach $2.9 billion this year. UK sponsored content showed similar patterns with 14.6% volume growth and 17.9% influencer increases.
Motion, an advertising analytics platform, analyzed $1.29 billion in Meta ad spend across 600,000 ads from 6,015 advertisers between September 2025 and January 2026. The study found that winning ads accounted for only 4% to 8% of total creative output, depending on advertiser size.
Motion defined winning ads as those spending at least 10 times the account's median spend with a $500 minimum threshold. Approximately 55% of total ad budgets went to these winning creatives, while roughly half of all ads were discontinued before reaching 28 days of active spend.
The research revealed that advertisers producing more creatives generated more winners regardless of budget size. Among mid-tier advertisers spending $200,000 to $1 million monthly, top performers launched 31.11 creatives per week versus an 11.24 median, generating 5.99 winners monthly compared to 1.75 for the broader group.
Coach launched its spring 2026 "Explore Your Story" campaign this week, featuring brand ambassadors Elle Fanning, Storm Reid, Korean musician Soyeon, Japanese singer-songwriter Lilas, WNBA star Paige Bueckers and Chinese singer Shan Yichun. The campaign supports Coach's Tabby bag and twelve new miniature readable book charms based on titles including Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" and Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."
Coach cocreated the campaign with Gen Z communities globally, partnering with Sunnie (Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Gen Z arm), China Youth Daily, Penguin Random House, independent publishers in China, Japan and Korea, the WNBA, and Bilibili. The luxury brand's Q2 2026 revenue increased 25% while parent company Tapestry raised marketing spend by approximately 40% versus the prior year.
Travel media publisher LOST iN partnered with Andrew Zimmern's Intuitive Content to co-produce "Subway Food Tour," a creator-led series featuring food creator Jeremy Jacobowitz. The show follows Jacobowitz as he rides individual subway lines, discovering restaurants at each stop in New York City.
LOST iN CEO Jonathan Skogmo, who previously founded Jukin Media and scaled it to nearly 300 employees before its 2021 acquisition, positioned the series as scalable intellectual property designed for multi-city expansion. The format tests his thesis that travel media requires production infrastructure beyond typical creator-brand collaborations.
Urban Outfitters launched its "Add a Story" campaign in March 2026, bringing 100 community members with fewer than 10,000 followers on a brand trip to Joshua Tree. The company capped follower counts to focus on engagement over reach, with head of brand marketing Cyntia Leo stating the brand prioritizes "resonance, not scale."
Pop star Zara Larsson serves as celebrity ambassador for the broader user-generated content campaign. Urban Outfitters also featured established creators like Erica Ha and Sienna Beats on product pages, though they remain ineligible for the trip due to follower counts exceeding the limit.
The initiative functions as a content engine, granting Urban Outfitters rights to use participant-generated content across social media, website, and email marketing with creator attribution. Only 24% of marketers consider influencer trips effective for driving creator marketing ROI, according to a July 2025 CreatorIQ survey.
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Interesting People
London-based creator agency NewGen signed Twitch streamer xQc, real name Félix Lengyel, to a social publishing services deal. The partnership, brokered with Evolved Agency, focuses on syndicating content from xQc's streams and YouTube output to grow his audience across new platforms and create additional revenue streams.
Lengyel has 12.2 million Twitch followers and emerged as the platform's most-watched streamer in December 2019 with nearly eight million hours of watch time that month. In June 2023, he signed a $70 million two-year non-exclusive deal with streaming platform Kick.
The xQc signing follows NewGen's January announcement that it retained creator KSI for social publishing services for a fourth consecutive year. Since their 2022 partnership began, KSI generated more than 983 million organic video views on Facebook, grew his Facebook following to 1.8 million, and reached 32.8 million unique viewers on Snapchat. NewGen describes itself as a social-first creative and creator agency.
YouTube creator Mike Boyd built a business around documenting himself learning new skills quickly on camera over the past decade. Boyd, a former mechanical engineer, launched his channel with his wife Kim as creative partner after his first video about learning to kickflip a skateboard gained immediate traction.
The couple operates a lean two-person team that generates revenue through sponsorships and YouTube monetization. Boyd focuses on "high production value for low-quality skill" content, targeting viewers in their 30s seeking self-improvement content. Three years ago, they launched a second channel called "Mike Boyd Climbs" focused on climbing content.
Net Influencer released rankings of TikTok Shop's top-earning independent creators for February 2026, based on data from Kalodata. Hannah Bentley led with $1.37 million in sales despite having just 44,900 followers, generating 71 million views at a $60.81 average unit price. The bedding-focused creator debuted in January 2025 and previously ranked first in December 2025.
Five creators on February's list did not appear in January's rankings. January's top earner, @anniedanner, dropped to tenth place with $868,540 in sales from 43,000 followers. The rankings showed creators with smaller audiences outperforming those with larger followings.
Bryan Smiley, former President and Chief Content Officer of Kevin Hart's Hartbeat, launched Hard Carry Media in February 2026, a Los Angeles-based digital-first media company targeting Gen Z men. Hard Carry Gaming, Inc., a privately held entertainment company, backed the venture. Smiley previously oversaw more than $500 million in production at Hartbeat, where he helped build projects for Netflix, Peacock, Audible, and SiriusXM.
The company acquired "Full Squad" as its flagship brand, a variety and social entertainment channel with more than 11 million YouTube followers and 260 million monthly views. The channel generates more than 450,000 daily engagements across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, with branded partnerships including Ford, Rockstar Energy, Samsung, and Energizer.
Kalshi, a prediction market exchange, suspended and fined a MrBeast employee for insider trading in event contract markets tied to the YouTube creator's channel. Artem Kaptur, employed as an editor for MrBeast's show, traded on material non-public information during August and September 2025. Kalshi identified Kaptur through surveillance systems that flagged statistically anomalous trading patterns and user-submitted tips.
Kaptur received a penalty totaling $20,397.58, comprising $5,397.58 in profit disgorgement and a $15,000 fine, plus a two-year platform suspension. Kalshi surveillance systems detected his near-perfect trading success on markets with low odds.
Beauty brand Tarte eliminated sponsored content from its influencer marketing strategy, instead focusing on luxury influencer trips and product gifting without posting requirements. The company takes creators to destinations like Bora Bora and Dubai, providing Tarte products plus additional gifts from brands like Revolve and Dyson. Tarte created custom product bundles with creators including Tana Mongeau and Vidya Gopalan.
The shift reflects broader industry movement away from traditional #ad posts as creators demand more creative freedom. Crown Affair conducts briefing calls asking creators what they want to say rather than providing scripts. For its Air Dry Smoothing Cream launch, the brand only required creators mention frizz reduction while allowing creative control over content format.
Industry News
Fixated, a creator management company and content studio, acquired Elevate, a creator monetization platform focused on subscription-led businesses and direct-to-fan revenue models. The deal represents Fixated's second acquisition in two months, following its January purchase of gaming-focused creator company Ellify.
The acquisition comes after Eldridge Industries invested $50 million in Fixated in December, with funds earmarked for mergers and acquisitions. Elevate, founded by Kai Plunk, specializes in brand-safe subscription businesses for lifestyle creators and manages clients including CrazyJamJam (581,000 Instagram followers) and MaisieLynnie (782,000 Instagram followers).
Plunk will co-lead Fixated's Community division alongside Chris Michael, who previously worked at Jellysmack and Hearst Studios West. Elevate's creator clients will gain access to Fixated's talent management, brand partnerships, content services, and distribution platform following the deal's completion.
Creators launched specialized livestream talk shows targeting niche professional audiences as broadcast TV morning show viewership dropped nearly 50 percent over 15 years. Malcolm Harris began hosting "What The Truck?!?" in September, a three-times-weekly logistics industry show for FreightWaves that discusses adding more live programming.
Warner Bailey will launch a weekly Hollywood business morning show on March 8, expanding his Assistants vs. Agents meme page that recently livestreamed an awards show from El Rey Theatre. TBPN (Technology Business Programming Network) hosts three-hour daily shows for Silicon Valley executives.
Geno Schellenberger and Jack Westerkamp, who run Breaking and Entering advertising industry content, plan to launch three-times-weekly livestreaming shows covering Madison Avenue. Harris reported 40 percent of his audience watches live, with remaining viewers consuming recorded content. The shows generate revenue through advertising that targets specialized professional communities, similar to sporting events' targeted advertising model.
These productions function as modern trade magazines, with creators prioritizing production quality over simple smartphone streaming.
Creator talent agencies evolved beyond traditional deal brokering into multi-platform business operators as the industry pursued sustainability over volume. Night Media Inc. raised $70 million in February to fund acquisitions in music and gaming, while creator economy M&A deal volume grew 17.4 percent in 2025 to 81 deals.
Agencies like Reign Maker Group and Underscore Talent now offer comprehensive services including production, data analysis, and affiliate program development. Reign Maker Group formed a strategic partnership with Paradigm Talent Agency in October and operates multiple specialized businesses under its umbrella.
Underscore Talent helped children's channel Genevieve's Playhouse, which has nearly 50 million subscribers, expand beyond YouTube to streaming platforms like Amazon and Apple. The agency facilitated a toy line launch at Walmart and Target through Bonkers Toys. Health creator Nick Norwitz reported 442% view growth and over 650,000 new subscribers after working with Shorthand Studios for one year across YouTube and Substack platforms.
Audacy, an audio entertainment company operating more than 220 radio stations and reaching 200 million monthly listeners, added YouTube video distribution to its Creator Lab podcast hosting platform in March 2026. The integration allows creators using Creator Lab, Audacy's free hosting service that pays podcasters for dynamic ads, to publish long-form video episodes to YouTube while maintaining audio monetization across Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms.
Creators can now distribute and monetize audio and video content simultaneously through a single workflow. Audacy Head of Podcasts Leah Reis-Dennis described the YouTube feature as the first step in video distribution for Creator Lab, with additional monetization opportunities planned for coming months.
The move addresses growing demand for video content among podcast creators. A Sounds Profitable and Signal Hill Insights study of more than 5,000 podcast creators found that 71% now incorporate video into their workflow, with video producers outnumbering audio-only creators by a 2.4 to 1 ratio.
Later, a social media management and influencer marketing company serving Fortune 5000 brands, launched Later 360, a unified measurement platform for creator marketing campaigns. The product consolidates organic content, paid amplification, and commerce data into single reporting dashboards for enterprise clients.
Later operates an ecosystem of 16 million creators and tracks over $2 billion in verified influencer-driven purchases annually. The company built Later 360 using data from acquisitions including Mavrck and Mavely, which expanded its capabilities beyond its original 2014 launch as a social media scheduling platform.
CEO Scott Sutton said the platform addresses measurement fragmentation that limits brand investment in creator marketing. Later 360 tracks individual product sales by creator, post, and SKU while integrating with major retailers and brands. The system allows custom reporting aligned to enterprise workflows and supports segmentation across creator tiers.
Statusphere, a micro-influencer marketing platform, raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Volition Capital in January, bringing total funding to $27 million. The Florida-based company, founded in 2018 by CEO Kristen Wiley, automates micro-influencer campaigns for enterprise brands.
The platform reported powering over 50,000 creator collaborations and generating more than half a billion engagements and video views in the past year. Statusphere handles creator sourcing, fulfillment logistics, compliance review, and rights management to enable brands to scale from 20 creators to over 1,000 with similar setup time.
Wiley positioned the funding as validation that micro-influencer marketing has shifted from tactical campaigns to operational infrastructure. The company plans to invest in social SEO and generative engine optimization capabilities. Statusphere targets enterprise brands with dedicated influencer budgets reaching hundreds of millions of dollars, treating micro-influencers as distributed word-of-mouth marketing rather than awareness-driving content.
Acast CEO Greg Glenday argued that 2026 could mark a breakthrough year for podcast advertising among Fortune 500 brands, despite most top advertisers still avoiding the medium after two decades. Acast operates as a publicly traded podcast company with 16 offices and 500 employees.
Glenday told Net Influencer that most of the top 250 advertisers don't buy podcast inventory, while direct response companies like Athletic Greens, BetterHelp, and Stamps.com have used podcasts for years because they measure every ad. He challenges major brand CMOs by asking if smaller companies are "smarter than you" for building businesses through podcast advertising.
The company reported a shift in revenue distribution from approximately 200 shows five years ago to a broader range of mid-sized podcasts. Acast now sells both individual shows and demographic-based audience packages across multiple programs. The company acquired Podchaser to provide transcription data for content discovery and recently partnered with Barometer for episode-level brand safety ratings. Acast's fastest-growing product is its self-serve platform for brands to build media plans without sales support.
LTK launched LTK AI, a conversational chatbot integrated into its consumer app that delivers product recommendations sourced from verified creator content. The creator commerce platform launched the AI tool on February 27, 2026, drawing from over a decade of creator posts, outfits, routines, recipes, and reviews from hundreds of thousands of verified creators.
LTK AI responds to contextual queries like trip packing suggestions or running gear recommendations within the existing app environment. The company cited internal data showing trust in creators increased 21% year-over-year and that 86% of Gen Z rely on creator recommendations for purchase decisions.
LTK operates a creator commerce platform with 44 million monthly users and reports powering $6 billion in annual retail sales. The company facilitates 60,000 creator-brand collaborations annually and works with 8,000 retailers. LTK AI became available to users who download or update the LTK app through the App Store.
Pro League Network, a creator-driven sports media company, launched a free 24/7 streaming channel on Prime Video in the United States and on LG platforms in select international markets in February 2026. The channel features PLN's live events and content library, including Putt Tour, SlapFIGHT Championship, and Ultimate Tire Wrestling.
The launch followed PLN's November 2025 announcement of a FAST channel on Amazon Prime's platform ecosystem. Co-founders Bill Yucatonis and Mike Salvaris said the channel expansion moves the company from social media distribution into full network operations. PLN currently produces 15 hours of sports programming monthly and generates 30 million impressions weekly.
The channel premiered with the Nissan Magnite CarJitsu Showdown on February 27. PLN integrates creators through competition participation and co-streaming partnerships, including past collaborations with Kai Cenat, T-Pain, and streaming collective AMP. The company is backed by KB Partners, EBerg Capital, and Kevin Garnett's Big Ticket Sports.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau reported that 50% of U.S. media buyers now consider creator partnerships essential for social media campaigns, according to Zoe Soon, vice president of experience at IAB. Soon spoke at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting, noting that brands shifted from adding creators as afterthoughts to building campaigns with influencers at the center.
Brands developed more strategic approaches to creator selection, using celebrity and mega-creators for upper-funnel reach goals while deploying micro-influencers for conversion-focused campaigns. Companies also moved toward longer-term creator partnerships rather than one-off activations.
IAB announced it will launch Creator Upfront on September 15, positioning the event as the creator economy's equivalent to traditional media upfronts. The organization also plans to release measurement standards for creator marketing and examine supply chain transparency from brand briefs through campaign execution. Soon noted that rapid brand investment growth in creator marketing has outpaced infrastructure development, creating organizational gaps and metric fragmentation across platforms.
A new wave of influencer-founded beauty brands launched in 2025 and early 2026, marking the most pronounced influx since the 2010s beauty-guru era. Mikayla Nogueira's POV Beauty generated $1 million in direct-to-consumer sales in eight minutes at launch and earned more than $4.3 million on TikTok Shop since July, according to Charm.io.
Brooke Monk's false eyelash brand Doting Beauty netted more than $175,000 in its first month after launching January 23. The brand targets $2 million to $3 million in first-year sales with products priced at $10.99 per reusable pair. Other notable launches include 16-year-old Salish Matter's Sincerely Yours, which became the number-two mist at Sephora, and streaming group AMP's Tone fragrance brand, which reached $1 million in sales three days after debut.
These creator brands differ from predecessors by building operations that can transcend their founders' social media influence. Adobe data showed 20.4 percent of holiday online sales were driven by social media and affiliate links, up 16 percent from 2024.
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UTA's Creators division, led by Ali Berman and Raina Penchansky, now represents roughly 1,000 clients with deals ranging from five figures to nine figures. The Wall Street Journal profiles the pair as emblematic of how talent representation has evolved alongside the creator economy, which Goldman Sachs sized at $250 billion in 2023. Global influencer marketing alone grew from $1.7 billion in 2015 to over $32 billion by 2025.
Berman steered client Alix Earle toward an equity deal with Poppi before PepsiCo acquired the brand for $1.95 billion. The division operates from a 60,000-square-foot Beverly Hills campus with nearly 200 employees. Both executives say follower count matters less than a unique point of view when signing talent, and they plan in 18-month cycles given the pace of platform change.
Instagram is facing creator backlash over a new AI feature called "Shop the Look" that overlays a button on Reels videos, surfacing low-cost duplicates of clothing creators are wearing.
The tool launched without creator consent or notification, and creators cannot see the button on their own posts. Fashion influencer Julia Berolzheimer, who has over 1.3 million followers, discovered the feature secondhand and says thousands of creators and followers have since raised concerns.
Critics argue the tool exploits creator-audience trust and diverts revenue from influencers who depend on authentic product endorsements. Meta called it a "limited test" and said it will gather feedback before expanding. The company has not confirmed whether creators will receive commissions from sales generated through the feature.
Platform-agnostic user-generated content accounted for 35% of influencer marketing campaigns worldwide in 2025, surpassing TikTok at 21% and trailing only Instagram at 40%, according to Collabstr's January 2026 report. The data analyzed 21,000 brand collaborations among more than 200,000 creators during 2025.
TikTok-led campaigns dropped 48% year over year as brands shifted toward flexible, reusable content formats. UGC campaigns generated 29% higher conversions than non-UGC formats, according to AdWeek data cited in the report.
Consumer trust metrics explain the conversion advantage. Authenticity ranked as the top factor for 35% of US adults when choosing which online product reviewers to trust, followed by track record at 32%, based on Ipsos research. Collabstr operates an influencer marketing marketplace and compiled the data from its platform transactions.
YouTuber KSI has agreed to acquire a 20 percent minority stake in English sixth-tier club Dagenham & Redbridge, pending National League approval. The deal marks a full-circle moment for the 32-year-old creator, who built his YouTube career playing FIFA and ranks second on Forbes' 2023 Top Creators list.
KSI announced plans to eventually guide the east London club to the Premier League. The move follows last month's purchase of the club by U.S.-based investment group Happy Fan Group. Former AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes is also in discussions for a separate minority stake. KSI joins a growing wave of creators converting digital influence into sports ownership, bridging content audiences with traditional club fanbases.
Unilever CEO Fernando Fernandez is doubling down on the company's "influencer first" strategy, telling investors that "the times of big corporate big brand messages are gone." The consumer goods giant allocated roughly $9 billion to brand and marketing investment in FY2025, with half directed toward social media. US influencer marketing spending is forecast to reach $12.42 billion this year, up 16.5%, with nearly 89% of marketers using the channel.
However, EMARKETER notes Unilever's 2025 results were modest, with underlying sales growing just 3.5% and volume up only 1.5%, suggesting the strategy has yet to deliver significant lift. Analysts argue a social-first approach across all 400 Unilever brands is unlikely to work uniformly, recommending creators serve as amplification rather than a full substitute for mass-reach campaigns.
Major sports leagues are aggressively courting content creators to reach younger audiences who prefer YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch over traditional TV. The NFL's pre-Super Bowl flag football game featuring creators like Jesser and Druski drew over 14 million live YouTube viewers, outperforming the Pro Bowl with actual NFL players.
The NBA used AI tools to identify over 300,000 creators organically discussing the league, then featured more than 200 at this year's All-Star festivities. Both leagues are experimenting with creator-led alternative broadcasts, letting fans watch games through their favorite personalities instead of traditional commentators. Kenny Beecham, a basketball content creator without a broadcasting degree, recently signed a deal with NBC for his podcasts, signaling a growing path from creator platforms to mainstream media.
A Bloomberg Businessweek investigation found that Drake and other influencers experience statistically improbable win rates when playing slot games owned by crypto casino Stake's parent company, Easygo Entertainment. Analysis of 500 hours of livestream footage showed Drake hit big wins on Easygo slots four times more frequently than average, yet posted normal rates on third-party games.
Stake, which processes an estimated 10 billion monthly bets, pays influencers multimillion-dollar contracts to stream gameplay on its affiliated platform Kick, where clips of massive jackpots spread across social media. At least 11 US class-action lawsuits now target Stake and affiliated influencers, alleging deceptive practices. The investigation also documented minors and problem gamblers drawn to the platform through influencer content.