Fast fashion retailer Fashion Nova's partnership with Fedha Sinon, better known by her TikTok username Pinkydoll, is one of several brand-creator collaborations to emerge this week.
Welcome to Ad Age’s influencer marketing news roundup. Each week, we’ll be highlighting the latest developments at the intersection between brands and the creator economy, including new partnerships between brands and creators, notable new features across social media platforms and the growth of creator-led businesses.
Have tips or news to share about influencer marketing and the creator economy? Email Gillian Follett at [email protected].
Fashion Nova and Pinkydoll: Fast fashion retailer Fashion Nova became the first brand to capitalize on TikTok’s surreal “NPC livestream” trend by teaming up with the creator spearheading the phenomenon: Fedha Sinon, better known as “Pinkydoll.” Sinon was thrust into the internet spotlight last month when clips from her TikTok livestreams—in which she reacts to gifts sent to her by viewers with a set response for each gift option, like a non-playable character in a video game—started going viral. Now, Sinon and Fashion Nova are collaborating to turn what is perhaps Sinon’s most famous canned phrase from her livestreams, “ice cream so good,” into a debut single.
Sinon teased the musical collaboration in a TikTok over the weekend and followed the announcement with a preview of the upcoming ice-cream-themed song.
Too Faced, Drunk Elephant and Alix Earle: Both Too Faced’s “Better Than Sex” mascara and Drunk Elephant’s bronzing drops have been mainstays of TikTok breakout star Alix Earle’s makeup routine across her dozens of “get ready with me” videos. So, it’s only natural that the two brands would look to partner with Earle to help promote their new products—but they likely didn’t anticipate doing so in the same week.
On Tuesday, the creator shared a video of herself trying Too Faced’s new mascara primer product, which has since amassed over 29 million views. And the next day, Earle teamed up with Drunk Elephant to showcase a new shade of the brand’s bronzing drops, receiving more than 300,000 views and 40,000 likes on the sponsored video within an hour of posting it. On both videos, Earle used the hashtags #TooFacedPartner and #DrunkElephantPartner, respectively, likely hinting at a relationship with both brands that will extend beyond a single sponsored post.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Airbnb: Gwyneth Paltrow, actress and founder of lifestyle brand Goop, is partnering with Airbnb to invite two lucky lodgers to stay overnight in the guest house of her home in Montecito, California, for free. The one-night stay is set for Sept. 9, and fans will have the chance to book the “[G]oop-Inspired Stay with Gwyneth Paltrow” when the sweepstakes begin on Aug. 15.
Paltrow’s video features a tour of the luxurious guest house, an appearance from Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, and, of course, a plethora of Goop products.
Tiffany & Co. and Florence Pugh, Park Ji-Min, Roseanne Park and Nancy Ajram: Luxury jewelry brand Tiffany & Co. kicked off a social media campaign this week highlighting four of its newest brand ambassadors: actress Florence Pugh; K-pop stars Park Ji-min, also known as Jimin, and Roseanne Park, aka Rosé, of the groups BTS and Blackpink, respectively; and Lebanese pop singer Nancy Ajram. Tiffany & Co.’s selection of Pugh, Ji-min and Park as ambassadors, in particular, reflects the brand’s ongoing pursuit of Gen Z consumers—as well as a larger trend among luxury brands of partnering with K-pop singers to leverage their massive popularity.
Also read: 20 brands resonating with Gen Z right now
YouTube adds TikTok-inspired features to Shorts: YouTube this week revealed several new tools for Shorts creators designed to help the platform’s short-form content to better compete with rival platform TikTok. These six new features, announced in a Tuesday blog post, include a “Collab” tool, which effectively functions as TikTok’s “Duet” feature and allows users to append their video to another user’s video; interactive Q&A stickers; the ability to livestream in the Shorts feed; and the option for a creator to instantly apply the audio clip or visual effects from another user’s video to their own. In the blog post, YouTube also announced it will be piloting a new tool in the coming weeks that enables users to convert horizontal videos into vertical ones through cropping and zooming in or out.
Snapchat incentivizes AR creators: Speaking of platforms emulating TikTok, Snapchat announced a new monetization program for creators who develop AR filters for the platform. The program, called Lens Creator Rewards, will reward creators up to $7,200 per month based on how frequently their AR filters, or “lenses,” are used in the U.S., India and Mexico, according to a Snap blog post. This new payment model resembles TikTok’s Effect Creator Rewards fund, which the platform launched in May and doles out up to $700 for each viral AR filter a creator produces.
X, formerly Twitter, extends revenue sharing program: After piloting its new program of splitting ad revenue with select creators last month, X expanded the program on Friday to apply to all eligible users. In order for creators to earn a cut of the revenue generated from ads in the replies of their X posts, they must be verified; have received at least 15 million impressions across their content from the past three months; and have a minimum of 500 followers, per the X Help Center.
X also introduced the ability for subscribers to X Blue (formerly Twitter Blue) to hide the blue checkmark next to their username. The checkmarks, which were once a symbol of fame and status on Twitter, now simply indicate whether a user pays for a subscription to X Blue. But users who subscribe to Elon Musk's Twitter Blue have been ridiculed by others who do not.
Meta launches AI tool for music and audio: Meta continued its push into generative AI with its new AudioCraft tool. The AI tool, which the company revealed in a Wednesday blog post, enables users to transform a text prompt into either music or a sound effect. For example, a user who inputs text reading “sirens and a humming engine approach and pass” will receive “high-quality, realistic audio” fitting that description, per Meta’s blog post. In the post, Meta specifically points to small businesses looking to add a musical track to an Instagram video ad as a use case for the new AI tool.
James Charles unveils his new makeup line: Beauty influencer James Charles took to YouTube to reveal his new makeup brand called “Painted,” which will launch on Aug. 7 with a line of pigmented creams designed to resemble tubes of paint. Marketing for the brand has included partnerships with the makeup artists for Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé and an interview with Cosmopolitan, where the beauty influencer said launching Painted is part of his efforts to rebuild his reputation after being accused of inappropriate interactions with minors in 2021.
Logan Paul and KSI return to the boxing ring: Logan Paul and Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji, better known as KSI, are set to compete at an October boxing event held by KSI’s boxing promoter Misfits Boxing. “The Prime Card” will take place in Manchester, England and be sponsored by the duo’s beverage brand, Prime, along with Stake.com, an online casino and sports betting platform, and its livestreaming platform Kick.
“We have something special in store too,” the official Prime account commented on the post from KSI and Paul.
MrBeast sues over “inedible” MrBeast Burgers: YouTube phenom MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is suing the company he partnered with to produce his fast food brand MrBeast Burger. In the lawsuit, Donaldson alleges the company, Virtual Dining Concepts, produced “low-quality” and even “inedible” products for Donaldson’s brand, effectively causing “material, irreparable harm to the MrBeast brand and MrBeast’s reputation.” Donaldson has worked with Virtual Dining Concepts since 2020 to run MrBeast Burger as a “ghost kitchen,” or a virtual, delivery-only restaurant that operates out of the kitchen of an existing, brick-and-mortar restaurant and splits profits with that restaurant.
Influencer marketing is entering an “expert era” in which creators will increasingly be expected to offer unique knowledge and expertise to their followers, according to Ali Grant, founder and CEO of influencer marketing agency Be Social. Grant shared the above TikTok highlighting this phenomenon, along with several other trends she’s identified that are currently shaping the creator economy, including the continued importance of micro-influencers in brands’ influencer strategies and a resurgence of long-form content, including blogs, from creators. These insights arose from a panel discussion with Lauren Kim, VP of influencer agency The A List, and creators Caitlyn Chase and Stella Simona.
Since the launch of Threads, one of the platform’s most appealing features for both brands and creators has been its close link to Instagram. Threads even launched with the ability for its users to cross-post one of their Threads posts as an Instagram story, complete with a background of colorful, sloping lines. Abercrombie & Fitch has taken the connection between the sister platforms a bit further and turned one of its interactions on Threads into a post on Instagram, setting the text post against a black-and-white city background that better aligns with the brand’s aesthetic. Brands have long imported text posts from Twitter, now X, onto their Instagram pages, and this Abercrombie & Fitch post could herald a new content format among marketers who have pivoted from X to Threads.
Also read: Social media managers navigate Threads
