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- Influence Weekly #441 - General Motors Built Five Hollywood Soundstages To Prove Creator Marketing Can Scale
Influence Weekly #441 - General Motors Built Five Hollywood Soundstages To Prove Creator Marketing Can Scale
TikTok Launches MCP Server To Let AI Agents Run Campaigns
Nii Ahene
May 15, 2026
Spotlight Stories
General Motors Built Five Hollywood Soundstages To Prove Creator Marketing Can Scale
TikTok Launches MCP Server To Let AI Agents Run Campaigns
TikTok GO Launches In U.S. With Booking.com, Expedia, And Four Other Travel Partners
Instagram's New 'Instants' Feature Combines Elements From Snapchat And BeReal
Great Reads
General Motors built five Hollywood-grade soundstages in Los Angeles in March 2026 for GM Creator Lab, a creator marketing competition that generated over 50 million views in its first month. The automaker invested in LED volume wall stages themed around different vehicles including the Silverado, HUMMER EV, Buick Envista, Corvette, and Cadillac Escalade IQ.
The program drew more than 150 submissions from creators competing for a new vehicle grand prize. YouTube creators Adam W and Kinigra Deon hosted the competition. Brittany Rae won with her Corvette Z06 submission, judged on creativity, brand integration, cinematography, storytelling, and impact rather than engagement metrics.
GM partnered with agency Room 1041 on the initiative. The campaign produced 200 pieces of content across GM's portfolio, generating 80,000 shares and 17,000 comments. Lucy Tate, GM's Head of Influencer Marketing and former YouTube executive, led the initiative as a test of scalable creator partnerships beyond traditional sponsored posts.
Newsletter platform Beehiiv hired Ainsley Rossitto as Head of Podcasts to expand beyond its email newsletter business. Rossitto previously managed podcast partnerships at Spotify. The company operates primarily as an email marketing tool for content creators and publishers.
Starbucks posted an opening for a Group Manager of Influencers position in Seattle, offering $130,300 to $217,400 annually. L'Oréal's Dermatological Beauty division sought a Manager of Advocacy and Influencer for CeraVe, paying $98,400 to $140,200. Fetch, which processes over 13 million daily receipt submissions, recruited a Brand and Influencer Partnerships Director for $166,938 to $196,398.
Bubble Skincare, reporting 200,000-plus ambassadors, hired a Director of Influencer Marketing for $110,000 to $150,000. Later, claiming $2.4 billion in verified influencer-driven purchases, recruited an Influencer Marketing Coordinator for $55,000 to $62,000. Multiple agencies and creator-focused platforms filled campaign management and partnership roles across salary ranges from $80,000 to $200,000.
TikTok launched TikTok GO in the United States on May 13, 2026, allowing users to book hotels, attractions, and tours directly within the app. The feature launched with six travel partners: Booking.com, Expedia, Viator, GetYourGuide, Tiqets, and Trip.com.
TikTok GO surfaces travel listings across videos, search, and location pages for users 18 and older. The platform includes a creator monetization program where eligible creators with at least 1,000 followers can earn commissions by featuring travel content that drives bookings.
TikTok first introduced hotel booking through Booking.com integration in August 2025. The company has expanded commerce features across its platform, including previous partnerships with Ticketmaster and Fandango for ticket purchasing. TikTok also operates a Places tab for destination discovery and reviews.
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Campaign Insights
Beast Industries, MrBeast's media company, hosted an invite-only breakfast for brand and advertising executives at Penthouse 45 in Manhattan on May 12, 2026. The event coincided with television upfronts week, when legacy media companies pitch advertisers for spending commitments.
YouTube creator Jimmy Donaldson and Beast Industries CEO Jeffrey Housenbold presented the company's assets and growth plans to brand and agency executives. The timing aligned with upfront presentations from NBCUniversal and Disney.
Beast Industries has expanded its executive team with hires from TikTok and NBCUniversal. Tina Tran joined from TikTok as VP in Brand Partnerships. Kelly Calabrese, who served as VP of Global Media and Brand Partnerships, departed in April after six months. The company is recruiting a VP of agency partnerships and a chief marketing officer.
U.S. advertiser spending on creators is projected to reach $44 billion in 2026, up from $37 billion in 2025, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
The Council of the European Union announced plans to launch a pilot program in July granting social media content creators access to EU leaders' summits and ministerial meetings. Up to 10 creators per event will receive invitations to previously restricted areas of the Council's Brussels headquarters, including press rooms and doorstep areas.
Creators will not receive press credentials or question access and must be accompanied at all times. EU member states will determine which creators receive invitations through this program aimed at reaching new audiences about Council activities.
The initiative follows similar outreach by other EU institutions, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has previously met with influencers and invited them to policy addresses. A European Parliament survey found 42% of Europeans aged 16-30 use social media as their primary political news source, surpassing television at 39%.
The proposal drew criticism from the International Press Association, which noted creators won't need to disclose payment sources unlike accredited journalists.
Target launched two creator programs to drive social commerce and reverse declining sales. Club Target offers gamified rewards for emerging creators and superfans through weekly social challenges and gift cards, while Target Ambassadors partners with established creators through LTK, a creator platform, providing higher commission rates and expanded brand access.
Target reported a 2.5% sales decline in its most recent quarter but forecast growth ahead. The retailer claims to be the most-followed big-box retailer on TikTok. Foot traffic data from Placer.ai showed Target's first-quarter visits rose 5.1% year over year, marking the chain's first positive visit growth in more than a year.
LTK provides app-based content creation and monetization tools for creators. Thousands of creators participated in the Club Target pilot program. Target cited data showing nearly 75% of U.S. consumers purchased products because of creator content. The programs aim to create pathways from social media inspiration to purchase for the Minneapolis-based retailer.
Expedia entered a year-long partnership with creator IShowSpeed, who has over 150 million followers across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. The travel company launched the collaboration on April 29 with a sponsored livestream featuring Watkins visiting five Caribbean countries in one day, which took six months to plan.
Industry sources estimated the partnership cost around $250,000, though Expedia declined to confirm specifics. The deal includes an interactive website where visitors vote on Watkins' next destinations and a dedicated TikTok account. Two sponsored livestreams generated 1.9 million and 6.8 million views on his YouTube channel.
Expedia positioned this as a brand awareness campaign targeting Gen Z rather than focusing on immediate bookings or ROI. The company gave Watkins creative freedom without scripts or required brand placements, creating a content team to clip brand-safe moments from his unfiltered streams.
The partnership represents a shift from treating creators as one-off media buys to viewing them as ongoing content channels, according to industry observers.
University of Tennessee student Kaelyn Lunglhofer filed a federal lawsuit on April 28 against social matchmaking app Meete, alleging unauthorized use of her TikTok content in advertising. The complaint targets three companies: British Virgin Islands-based Quantum Communications Development Limited, Starpool Data Limited, and Guangzhou Yuedong Interconnection Technology Co.
Meete allegedly took a 10-second clip from Lunglhofer's May 2025 graduation TikTok video, added company branding and a voiceover promoting casual encounters, then used geotargeting to serve the ad to male users near her location, including dormitory residents. Lunglhofer discovered the misuse when a male student reported repeatedly seeing her in Meete ads on Snapchat.
The lawsuit cites violations of the Lanham Act, Tennessee's ELVIS Act, and state defamation laws. Lunglhofer seeks minimum damages of $750,000 plus revenue disgorgement. Her attorney suggested other creators may have been similarly affected but evidence gathering remains challenging. Snapchat confirmed it was investigating the policy violation.
The Trump administration restructured White House press briefing room access in January 2025, creating a dedicated "new media" seat for podcasters, bloggers, and social media influencers. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the changes, citing declining trust in traditional media and shifting consumption patterns among younger audiences.
More than 7,400 content creators applied for White House press credentials within 24 hours of the announcement. By February 2025, applications exceeded 12,000 through the administration's online portal. The administration also reinstated press passes for 440 journalists whose credentials were previously revoked.
The new media seat has rotated through 16 occupants, including representatives from Breitbart, The Daily Wire, Townhall.com, Semafor, Axios, Breaking Points, and Ruthless Podcast. Additional reporters without assigned positions now line the briefing room perimeter, representing outlets including The Gateway Pundit, One America News, Turning Point USA, and LindellTV.
The policy follows the Trump campaign's 2024 election strategy, which included podcast appearances with Joe Rogan, Logan Paul, and Theo Von. Pew Research shows nearly 40% of Americans under 30 regularly consume news from social media influencers.
H/L Agency launched a multi-phase influencer campaign for McDonald's McCafé All-New Drinks lineup in May 2026 under the "Flavor, Inspired" banner. The independent advertising agency began with PR boxes sent to creators containing themed tumblers, stickers, and gift cards for unboxing content.
The campaign runs through fall 2026 with distinct phases. June featured local creators generating user-generated content, while summer included a partnership with an unnamed musician combining music with McCafé flavors. Later stages will incorporate regional influencers and McDonald's restaurant employee participation.
The campaign coincided with McDonald's global McCafé brand refresh announced May 1, 2026. The refresh introduced new drink categories including Refreshers, Crafted Sodas, and Energizers launching across the U.S., Canada, Germany, and Australia. McDonald's updated the sub-brand's visual identity with a modernized wordmark and new color palette featuring refined gold and "coffee cherry" to appeal to Gen Z consumers and reflect the expanded beverage portfolio.
TikTok launched its Model Context Protocol server to enable AI agents to run advertising campaigns without manual intervention. The platform announced the TikTok Ads MCP server at TikTok World, its annual advertising summit, allowing marketers to connect AI systems directly to TikTok's ads platform for automated campaign planning, launching and optimization.
The move follows similar developments from other platforms including Google, Meta and Amazon, which have each released their own MCP servers. According to adtech expert Shirley Marschall, platforms are building proprietary MCPs to maintain data sovereignty and visibility into how agents query their systems.
TikTok also unveiled multiple new advertising products including TopReach premium ad placements, Branded Buzz for creator collaborations, Search Hubs for sponsored brand pages, and TikTok Growth Max targeting media companies and game developers. The company integrated ByteDance's Dreamina Seedance 2.0 video generation model into its Symphony AI platform and added new features to TikTok Shop's GMV Max for profit optimization.
The Influencer Marketing Factory released its "Brand Deals Report 2026," finding that one-off creator partnerships dominate across platforms. The report analyzed 3,156 TikTok creators with 90,434 posts, 2,341 Instagram creators with 105,939 posts, and 2,360 YouTube creators with 120,019 posts. One-off relationships accounted for 68.5% of Instagram collaborations, 71.8% on TikTok, and 49.1% on YouTube.
YouTube showed the highest repeat collaboration rate at 50.9% and longest average partnership duration at 13.5 months, compared to 7.7 months on Instagram and 4.9 months on TikTok. Affiliate partnerships represented 52.9% of YouTube brand deals, exceeding paid deals at 41.4%.
Retail dominated collaborations across platforms, with TikTok leading at 41.6%. Fashion Nova topped collaboration counts on TikTok with 1,109 deals and Instagram with 887 deals. Squarespace led YouTube with 6,904 collaborations. TikTok recorded the highest disclosure rate at 52%, compared to 42% on YouTube and 29% on Instagram.
Interesting People
beehiiv hired Ainsley Rossitto as Head of Podcasts to expand the creator media platform beyond its core newsletter business. Rossitto previously served as VP of Digital Strategy and Operations for Podcasts at Paramount and held roles at NPR.
The hire followed beehiiv's April 2026 launch of native podcast hosting, which allows creators to host, distribute, and monetize podcasts at no fee. The service distributes episodes to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms with no download-based pricing, per-episode fees, or storage caps.
beehiiv plans to extend its existing newsletter ad network into podcasting, positioning the company against Patreon and Substack. The platform reported adding $4.5 million in ARR in Q1 2026 and surpassed 50,000 active users. beehiiv now hosts more than 150,000 creators and publishers, has more than 500 enterprise customers including TIME, Newsweek, and The Washington Post, and has paid out more than $50 million to creators since launch.
Kim Tipton, Senior Social Media Manager at Kimberly-Clark, outlined the consumer packaged goods company's social media strategy priorities in a MediaPost interview. Tipton said creator-led content outperformed celebrity endorsements because creators provided authentic human elements that consumers valued more than celebrity access.
The Kimberly-Clark executive advocated for platform-native content over cross-platform repurposing, stating that brands should create content specifically for individual platforms rather than recycling the same material across channels. Tipton recommended adapting successful content from one platform to others rather than using identical posts everywhere.
Tipton emphasized building cultural fluency over participating in fleeting trends, arguing that brands needed long-term cultural presence rather than quick trend participation. She described trend-chasing as parasitic behavior that failed to build lasting consumer connections. The strategy focused on creating original content that aligned with brand objectives rather than following viral moments that might not fit the company's messaging or target audience.
Beauty and lifestyle creator Golloria George signed with United Talent Agency for global representation across all areas. UTA will secure opportunities for George in digital media, brand partnerships, and strategic business ventures. George was not previously signed with a talent agency but continues with UTA-owned management firm Digital Brand Architects and ICON PR.
George built an audience of 3.3 million TikTok followers, 1.1 million on Instagram, and 500,000 on YouTube. She was named to TikTok's 2026 Discover List of creators to watch. George began creating content while balancing college and two full-time jobs, posting makeup tutorials and product reviews focused on deeper skin tones.
In April 2024, George's TikTok video criticized cosmetics brand Youthforia's darkest foundation shade. The video went viral, prompting the company to drop the product and issue an apology before closing in 2025. The signing followed George's recent campaign with Summer Fridays promoting new lip combo kits.
Former OnlyFans creator Win White posted on X in April asking his 65,000 followers to stop sharing his old adult content after clips resurfaced. White, 29, deleted his OnlyFans account in 2023 after creating approximately 40 videos between September 2022 and August 2023, during a period when the platform grew to over 3 million creators.
The request sparked debate about consent and digital permanence, with reactions ranging from supportive to hostile. Several other creators have recently announced exits from OnlyFans, including Camilla Araujo who claimed $20 million in earnings over five years, Autumn Renea who reported $10 million in earnings, and Fitness Papi who cited burnout.
White relocated to Washington DC in 2025 and is studying to become an EMT. OnlyFans creators retain copyright ownership of their content, allowing them to issue takedown requests under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. However, enforcement remains challenging, particularly as US law lacks the broad "right to be forgotten" protections available in Europe that help former sex workers transition to new careers.
CYLNDR Studios, part of the Cheil Agency Network, appointed Leah Chaney as Director of Influencer in May 2026. The role focuses on integrating creators into campaign development from the initial stages rather than bringing them in during execution.
Chaney joined from Wasserman, where she served as Director of Creator Partnerships managing global accounts for Meta, Clorox, and Google. Her background includes branded content work with Netflix, Paramount, NBC, and Hulu.
The hire reflects CYLNDR Studios' restructuring to address what Managing Director Sylvain Tron called "the handoff tax" - friction between creative development and production teams. Earlier in 2026, the studio made four additional senior hires across film craft, motion innovation, AI, and growth.
CYLNDR Studios operates with brands including Samsung, Little Caesars, Almond Breeze, Ross Dress for Less, and Meta. The studio provides both in-house creative team extensions and production partnership services for agency clients.
Vox Media launched "Create or Destroy: Reimagining Marketing," a new podcast hosted by marketing executive Seth Matlins through his venture The Wisdomous Company. The show features conversations with CMOs, CEOs, and founders including Gary Vaynerchuk, LVMH brand advisor Mathilde Delhoume, and political strategist David Axelrod.
The partnership extends beyond podcasting into live events, with a CMO summit planned for London in September and a Napa retreat in October. Canva signed as a franchise partner, while Gale and LiveNation sponsor the Napa event and ROKT partners on both locations.
The launch comes as Vox Media fields competing bids for its podcast network. James Murdoch's Lupa Systems submitted a $300 million bid for both the podcast network and New York Magazine, competing against Versant, a Comcast spinoff that had been the frontrunner. Revenue will come from advertising, sponsorship, and event ticketing.
Industry News
Digital media company NowThis, led by CEO Sharon Mussalli, grew from 90 million followers to 100 million across platforms since Editor-in-Chief Michael Vito Valentino joined in July 2024. The company produces serialized shows for Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok including "Are You Okay?", "Judgy," and "Stand Up Desk," which added 200,000 followers in one month.
NowThis developed 20 shows last year to produce three hits, evaluating each format over eight episodes before deciding to continue or cancel. The company sold out live events at Laugh Factory locations and Second City Williamsburg, extending its shows beyond digital platforms. TikTok represents 11% of NowThis's distribution, reducing platform dependency concerns.
The company shifted its advertising strategy from integration to what Valentino calls "elevation," where brands enhance content rather than simply place messaging. NowThis partnered with Audible to create original series "Eligible" and worked with brands including Subway and Got Milk on campaigns designed for social platforms rather than traditional television.
Former BBC News head Deborah Turness warned traditional broadcasters face an existential threat from "creator journalism" during a memorial lecture in London in May 2026. Turness, who resigned from the BBC in 2025 alongside director general Tim Davie, cited audience data showing 4 million fewer people sourced news from TV over five years, while YouTube news consumption tripled and TikTok increased tenfold.
Turness highlighted subscriber numbers for creator journalists including Joe Rogan with 20.9 million YouTube subscribers, Tucker Carlson with 5.6 million, Megyn Kelly with 4.2 million, and Mehdi Hasan with 1.95 million. She argued audiences prefer personality-led journalism on platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Substack over traditional broadcast formats.
Sky News responded by launching a strategy promoting individual journalists through podcasts and exclusive content from specialists with large followings. Turness endorsed this approach while acknowledging tensions between creator opinions and broadcast impartiality requirements. She urged news organizations to restructure away from broadcast-first decision making.
MrBeast's Beast Industries announced plans to build a creator marketplace connecting Global 1000 brands with creators during its first public advertiser presentation on May 12, 2026. The company confirmed development of an AI-powered creator platform designed to function as a two-sided marketplace, moving beyond its YouTube origins.
Beast Industries highlighted Vyro, its creator distribution engine launched in October that scales branded content through more than 100,000 vetted microcreators across TikTok, Reels and Shorts. The company claims to reach 1.3 billion people over an average 90-day period. CEO Jeff Housenbold positioned the company as "a next-generation media platform in the age of AI."
The marketplace represents a shift toward programmatic advertising in the creator economy. Industry experts noted that Beast Industries appears to be building infrastructure similar to traditional media companies, with standardized inventory that can be bought and sold like digital advertising. The platform aims to solve attribution, predictability, and scalability challenges in creator partnerships while maintaining creator trust and authenticity.
Instagram launched "Instants," a new feature for sharing disappearing photos that borrowed elements from Snapchat and BeReal. The feature allows users to share unedited photos with close friends or mutual followers that can be viewed once and remain available for 24 hours.
Users capture photos through Instagram's in-app camera without editing capabilities or camera roll uploads. Recipients can react with emojis and reply but cannot screenshot or record the content. Instagram stores shared Instants in a private archive accessible for one year, which users can compile into recaps for Instagram Stories.
Meta is also testing Instants as a standalone app in Spain and Italy. The feature represents Instagram's attempt to return to casual photo sharing among friends, moving away from its current focus on influencer content and advertisements.
The launch follows declining popularity of BeReal, the authentic photo-sharing app that previously captured similar market interest. Instagram users already utilize Instagram Stories for informal updates, potentially limiting demand for the new feature.
Creator agency No Logo launched Lola, an AI-powered talent agent designed to help independent creators secure brand partnerships without traditional representation. The platform learns about creators and their content, monitors brand activity daily, surfaces relevant opportunities, drafts pitches, finds brand contacts, and tracks deals automatically.
No Logo, which describes itself as a creator agency and technology company, positioned Lola as serving the "99% of creators" who manage brand partnerships themselves in a creator economy that has scaled to over 200 million people globally. The company said traditional talent representation remains concentrated among top-tier creators.
The platform draws on No Logo's experience delivering over 3,000 campaigns for brands including Google, IKEA, Meta, REI, and the United Nations, plus handling over 40,000 brand requests. Founder and CEO Nicholas Guy said the company had previously turned away talented creators because the traditional model couldn't serve them.
The launch followed Antenna Group's May 2025 investment for a minority stake in No Logo.
Linqia, an independent influencer marketing agency founded in 2012, launched an automated comment tool that converts creator post interactions into direct commerce opportunities. The feature integrates with chat platforms including Manychat and Stampede Social to automatically respond to comments, Story replies, and direct messages with brand-approved links and product pages.
The tool operates across Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and TikTok. When viewers engage with creator posts, the creator's handle automatically follows up with personalized offers, captures first-party data, and handles basic customer support inquiries through automated conversation flows designed by brands.
Buffer research found that Instagram posts where creators reply to comments generate 21% more engagement. Linqia has worked with over 650 national brands including McDonald's, Anheuser-Busch, GM, and Bayer. The company positioned the tool as addressing the gap between creator conversation-starting abilities and brands' need for scalable audience engagement that drives measurable ROI from influencer campaigns.
TikTok launched an ad-free subscription tier for UK users aged 18 and over, priced at £3.99 per month. The service, called TikTok Ad-Free, will roll out gradually over the coming months while non-subscribers continue accessing the platform under its existing ad-supported model.
Both subscriber and non-subscriber users retain full access to the same features, content, and creator access. TikTok emphasized the dual-tier structure supports UK advertisers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.
The company cited a 2022 estimate showing UK SMEs generated approximately £1.2 billion in revenue through platform advertising, with food and beverage sectors recording the highest impact. A separate 2023 Oxford Economics report found SME activity on TikTok contributed £1.6 billion to UK GDP in 2022 and supported 32,000 jobs.
TikTok UK Managing Director Kris Boger stated the ad-free option gives users greater control over their experience while advertising continues helping British businesses reach customers and create jobs.
Ogilvy took a minority stake in athlete talent agency Article 41 and appointed co-founder Vickie Segar as its global sports and entertainment officer. The investment brings athlete talent acquisition closer to Ogilvy's advertising teams and follows Publicis Groupe's acquisition of sports agency 160over90 last month.
Article 41, founded by Segar, focuses on connecting brands with college athletes beyond traditional endorsement deals. The agency targets partnerships with athletes across various sports rather than only high-profile players from football or basketball programs. Over 40% of college sports fans consider sponsored brands in their purchase decisions, according to a February Big Chalk survey.
Segar previously founded influencer agency Village Marketing, which WPP acquired in 2022. She emphasized that athletes require different support than traditional creators, with Article 41 producing content for athletes who became creators through their sport rather than social media expertise. EMARKETER forecasts that 48.5% of the US population will watch live sports this year, driving advertiser interest in sports marketing partnerships.
Byron Allen acquired a majority stake in BuzzFeed for $120 million and assumed the roles of chairman and CEO, the company announced on May 11, 2026. Allen Family Digital, an affiliate of Allen's family office, purchased 40 million shares at $3 per share, giving it approximately 52% ownership upon closing.
The deal was structured with $20 million in cash at closing and a $100 million promissory note due in five years at 5% annual interest. BuzzFeed co-founder and former CEO Jonah Peretti transitioned to president of BuzzFeed AI to focus on product and technology development.
Allen outlined plans to expand BuzzFeed and HuffPost into free streaming video, audio, and user-generated content to compete with YouTube. The company plans to establish BuzzFeed Studios for vertical micro-dramas, animation, digital video, and feature films, while setting up Tasty as an independent entity. Allen owns Allen Media Group, which operates 13 broadcast television stations and 10 HD networks reaching 275 million subscribers.
Dhar Mann Studios announced the launch of its first original podcast, "What Happens Next," set to premiere May 18 on YouTube and major podcast platforms. The weekly series hosted by Mann will feature celebrity interviews including Jameela Jamil, Anderson .Paak, Derek Hough, Allyson Felix, Jordan Matter, and Roy Wood Jr., with new episodes publishing each Monday.
The podcast expands Mann's existing Studio71 partnership, originally signed in 2024 for content distribution and advertising sales. Studio71, a global media company that generates over 10 billion monthly views across its publisher network, will oversee audio and video distribution, ad sales, and promotional support for the podcast.
Dhar Mann Studios reports 296 million weekly views across its content library, which has accumulated more than 60 billion lifetime views. Mann holds more than 160 million followers across platforms and was named Forbes' #2 Top Creator of 2025. The podcast announcement follows multi-year deals with Fox Entertainment for 40 vertical video titles and Samsung TV Plus for connected TV content distribution.
Social commerce agencies Orca and Sapphire Studios merged in March 2026 to form "third," a Los Angeles-based agency focused on TikTok Shop commerce. Chad Hetherington, who previously sold The Stable to Accenture in 2022, leads the combined entity as CEO. The merged company employs nearly 100 people across offices in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Chicago, Minneapolis, and London.
Third operates 14 livestreaming studios, eight in Los Angeles and six in Mexico City, producing daily live commerce broadcasts for brands on TikTok. The company provides platform strategy, creator partnerships, performance creative, and back-end commerce operations including inventory management and reporting.
Hetherington cited TikTok Shop's growth from under $1 billion four years ago to an estimated $64 billion in global GMV in 2025 as evidence of the platform's trajectory. He estimated that roughly 10% of brands have fully activated TikTok Shop while 90% remain on the sidelines, uncertain about channel ROI versus existing sales streams.
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YouTube is shifting strategy to directly connect creators with advertisers, moving beyond its traditional revenue-share model to help fund creator projects before they premiere. The push comes as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and TikTok aggressively court top YouTube talent, with Amazon recently signing MrBeast and Netflix landing Ms. Rachel and Mark Rober.
At this week's Brandcast showcase at Lincoln Center, YouTube will feature more than two dozen series, including projects from Trevor Noah and Alex Cooper, that advertisers can directly invest in. Creators like Kareem Rahma of "Subway Takes" will pitch upcoming shows to major marketers.
YouTube is also building an online hub to broker sponsor deals for hundreds of additional creators, plus investing in premiere events and Emmy campaigns to retain talent as competitors offer upfront fees and traditional licensing deals.
A weak youth job market is driving more Gen Z to pursue content creation as a primary career, not a side hustle. The pitch is flexible work and high earnings, but the economics tell a different story. Most aspiring creators operate as freelancers in a saturated market with no benefits, no guaranteed income, and algorithm risk that can wipe out reach overnight.
Only a small share reach top earnings, typically through diversified revenue across brand deals, UGC, affiliate links, coaching, and products. Platforms and brands benefit from oversupply, which keeps rates depressed for the majority.
A professionalized tier, including the growing B2B and corporate creator class, is building real businesses. But the broader trend signals deeper youth underemployment, with companies likely to face retention pressure as platforms compete with traditional career paths.
Penguin Random House's Taste is on track to generate seven figures in annual revenue by 2027, proving that in-house content marketing can evolve into a standalone media business. The food-focused brand, housed inside Crown Publishing, started as cookbook promotion but now operates as an independent vertical with its own newsletter, website, and podcast called "This Is Taste."
The model centers on a tight niche, lean staffing of essentially one dedicated lead, and revenue streams beyond book attribution, including advertising, sponsorships, and brand partnerships. Recurring formats like newsletters and podcasts give sponsors predictable inventory.
For legacy publishers, Taste offers a template. Pick a single high-intent adjacency, staff it like a startup with clear audience and revenue OKRs, and treat the vertical as both a profit center and an IP incubator feeding future books, audio, and licensing opportunities.
Social First, Commerce Second: Chad Hetherington’s Bet That TikTok Shop Is This Decade's Amazon