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Creator Economy Scoop: Creator likeness and partnership faux pas

Here's this week's roundup of industry news
Olivia Harris
&
February 26, 2024

The Creator Economy Scoop is a roundup of the weekly news, data and trends that are defining the industry. (graphic by Lindsay Hill)

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Female creators lead the influencer marketing industry, WeightWatchers launched its own Ozempic hype house and images from social media aren't fair game for brands. Here’s the rest of this week’s scoop: 

Quick numbers 💯
  • 59% of brands plan to increase their spending on influencer marketing [1]
  • 93% - The number of UGC creators is up 93% year over year [2]
  • 70% of the influencer marketing market share is dominated by women [3]
  • 2.2 - The average number of platforms that an influencer is monetizing [4]
  • 14 days - The average time to complete an influencer collaboration [5]
What you should know  ☕

Why you shouldn’t use a creator’s likeness without their permission

  • Brittney Xavier sues a beauty brand, brand settles for undisclosed amount

How U.S. adults use TikTok

  • The top 25% of US adults on TikTok by posting volume produce 98% of all publicly accessible videos from this group
  • Around half (52%) of U.S. adults on TikTok have ever posted a video on the platform
  • 56% of all US adults ages 18 to 34 say they use the platform

Female creators and UGC content dominate the influencer marketing industry

  • UGC platforms generated $4.7 billion in 2022 and are anticipated to generate $71.3 billion by 2032
  • Top 5 cities for influencers in the USA: LA, New York, Miami, Atlanta, and Tampa
  • Top 5 cities for influencers in Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton
  • The 10 most popular influencer niches: Lifestyle, Fashion, Beauty, Travel, Health & Fitness, Food & Drink, Art & Photography, Comedy & Entertainment, Modeling, Music & Dance
  • 70% of the influencer marketing market share is dominated by women
Social platforms 📲

Meta 📸

  • Instagram expands its Creator Marketplace making it easier for brands to discover and collaborate with creators (now available in Canada)

TikTok ⏰

  • Tiktok is promising more reach for posting photo carousels versus video. This promotion claims that people can get 2.9x more comments, 1.9x more likes, and 2.6x more shares
  • TikTok is testing Sub Space, exclusive conversation threads for LIVE creators to interact with their subscribers

YouTube 📹

  • At the platform level, YouTube marked its 12th consecutive month as the top streaming service
  • YouTube is rolling out new creator channel pages on the YouTube App for TV with a more immersive layout

Pinterest 🎨

  • Pinterest is launching its first-ever streaming and fully shoppable show called “Deliciously Entertaining”
  • 22-minute long episode will include on-screen QR codes linking to shoppable Pins
  • the final episode will debut on Amazon Live for a special "shop the show" companion episode
Updates in tech 💻

More generative AI coming to social apps

Notable partnerships 📓

Ozempic influencer hype house sponsored by WeightWatchers backfires

  • WeightWatchers has been enlisting influencers to “help bust the misconceptions and stigma around GLP-1 medications”
  • WeightWatchers offered her $750 to post about the GLP-1 Program. “They asked me to promote a product I’d never tried,” Alexis Clingenpeel said.
Creator spotlight 🔦
  • TikToker Reesa Teesa uploaded a 52-part, 7-hour miniseries detailing the breakdown of her marriage
  • It was a trending series after she pivoted to original audio following the UMG music ban and TikTok’s emphasis on long-form
  • YouTuber Marques Brownlee is joining the brand, Ridge, as Executive Board Member and Chief Creative Partner

‍

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Home
Creator Marketing

Creator Economy Scoop: Creator likeness and partnership faux pas

Olivia Harris
February 2024

Female creators lead the influencer marketing industry, WeightWatchers launched its own Ozempic hype house and images from social media aren't fair game for brands. Here’s the rest of this week’s scoop: 

Quick numbers 💯
  • 59% of brands plan to increase their spending on influencer marketing [1]
  • 93% - The number of UGC creators is up 93% year over year [2]
  • 70% of the influencer marketing market share is dominated by women [3]
  • 2.2 - The average number of platforms that an influencer is monetizing [4]
  • 14 days - The average time to complete an influencer collaboration [5]
What you should know  ☕

Why you shouldn’t use a creator’s likeness without their permission

  • Brittney Xavier sues a beauty brand, brand settles for undisclosed amount

How U.S. adults use TikTok

  • The top 25% of US adults on TikTok by posting volume produce 98% of all publicly accessible videos from this group
  • Around half (52%) of U.S. adults on TikTok have ever posted a video on the platform
  • 56% of all US adults ages 18 to 34 say they use the platform

Female creators and UGC content dominate the influencer marketing industry

  • UGC platforms generated $4.7 billion in 2022 and are anticipated to generate $71.3 billion by 2032
  • Top 5 cities for influencers in the USA: LA, New York, Miami, Atlanta, and Tampa
  • Top 5 cities for influencers in Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton
  • The 10 most popular influencer niches: Lifestyle, Fashion, Beauty, Travel, Health & Fitness, Food & Drink, Art & Photography, Comedy & Entertainment, Modeling, Music & Dance
  • 70% of the influencer marketing market share is dominated by women
Social platforms 📲

Meta 📸

  • Instagram expands its Creator Marketplace making it easier for brands to discover and collaborate with creators (now available in Canada)

TikTok ⏰

  • Tiktok is promising more reach for posting photo carousels versus video. This promotion claims that people can get 2.9x more comments, 1.9x more likes, and 2.6x more shares
  • TikTok is testing Sub Space, exclusive conversation threads for LIVE creators to interact with their subscribers

YouTube 📹

  • At the platform level, YouTube marked its 12th consecutive month as the top streaming service
  • YouTube is rolling out new creator channel pages on the YouTube App for TV with a more immersive layout

Pinterest 🎨

  • Pinterest is launching its first-ever streaming and fully shoppable show called “Deliciously Entertaining”
  • 22-minute long episode will include on-screen QR codes linking to shoppable Pins
  • the final episode will debut on Amazon Live for a special "shop the show" companion episode
Updates in tech 💻

More generative AI coming to social apps

Notable partnerships 📓

Ozempic influencer hype house sponsored by WeightWatchers backfires

  • WeightWatchers has been enlisting influencers to “help bust the misconceptions and stigma around GLP-1 medications”
  • WeightWatchers offered her $750 to post about the GLP-1 Program. “They asked me to promote a product I’d never tried,” Alexis Clingenpeel said.
Creator spotlight 🔦
  • TikToker Reesa Teesa uploaded a 52-part, 7-hour miniseries detailing the breakdown of her marriage
  • It was a trending series after she pivoted to original audio following the UMG music ban and TikTok’s emphasis on long-form
  • YouTuber Marques Brownlee is joining the brand, Ridge, as Executive Board Member and Chief Creative Partner

‍

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Creator economy scoop: Pinterest and luxury brands

In this edition, we explore Pinterest as the go-to platform for luxury brands, the disparity in pay between BIPOC and non-BIPOC creators, and the relationship between fans and creators. We also explore some influencer trends to look out for in 2024, and share a creator spotlight about an inspiring adventurous creator.

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Welcome to this week's BANKNOTES newsletter.Before you slip into a tryptophan-induced slumber, we wanted to stuff (see what we did there) your inbox with some insights from this week in eCommerce and creator marketing.

Erica Werber, CEO of Literie Candles, on the explosion of the candle industry

Literie was originally launched as a pandemic hobby and love letter to NYC. With help sampling scent profiles with her kids as they were learning remotely and with an order of 2000 candles, founder Erica Werber thought she would just sell the candles mostly to friends, and then return to her normal career.

INFINITI launches marketing campaign driven by creators

INFINITI, the luxury division of Nissan, has launched a new creator-powered campaign called Capture INFINITI. According to the agency leading the campaign, INFINITI is looking for ways to differentiate itself within the growing competitive luxury vehicle space, which is why it teamed up with seven creators to launch a one-of-a-kind creator-led campaign. The campaign showcases INFINITI’s QX series. 

Nibble brings an AI-powered negotiator bot to eCommerce

Nibble is a new eCommerce technology company that’s trying to disrupt eCommerce product pricing. The technology brings customer and merchant negotiation into the online shopping experience for Shopify stores. 

TikTok is paving a new path for online search: Are you ready?

Is TikTok going head-to-head with Google search? According to a recent writeup from Ashley Cummings for BANKNOTES this isn't too far fetched. 😲 In fact, 40% of young people say they go directly to TikTok or Instagram now instead of Google. 😲

Options for paying creators: Affiliate commissions vs. contracts vs. full-time

The question isn’t whether or not there’s value in hiring creators—even over celebrities—to promote your brand. There is. The question is: what’s the best way to compensate creators so you can secure more mutually-beneficial partnerships and grow your brand?

Tuft and Paw's Jackson Cunningham on developing thoughtful furniture for cats

From a cat tree that looks like it should be in a museum, to the perfect litter box: Tuft and Paw's Jackson Cunningham on developing thoughtful furniture for cats

Bolt one-click checkout sustains another round of layoffs

So-called one-click checkout company Bolt underwent another round of sweeping layoffs this week, according to posts from several former employees across Linkedin.

Death to DTC Twitter? Elon Musk’s direction causes fight or flight response amongst community

While it’s still early on in the acquisition, folks are complaining on Twitter about Musk, his “sh*tposting” (for a lack of a better term), and these new changes (mostly the pay-for-verification issue.) One community that’s specifically concerned is the Direct-to-Consumer one—a small subset of Twitter where founders, marketers, and operators of eCommerce technology and brands came together and built strong connections over the past several years.

Banknotes’ 2022 holiday DTC gift guide (and giveaway)

Check out the coolest DTC gifts and enter for a chance to win $500 to spend on yourself and some friends

Nisha Godfrey: The woman behind TikTok’s viral chicken salad sound

“It’s a chicken salad.”If this phrase sounds familiar, it’s likely because you’ve heard it used as a trending sound in thousands of videos on TikTok and Instagram over the past several weeks. The entire sound features an exchange between frequent deli goer Nisha Godfrey and owner Wael Herbawi at East 81st Street Deli in Cleveland, Ohio.

FlavorCloud's Mike Sanchez on the business of leading

As the Chief Revenue Officer at FlavorCloud, Mike Sanchez has had 17 years of experience driving partner, sales, and customer success.

Not all creators need to foster community

Building audiences has always been a lucrative endeavor. It’s the reason why the amount brands spend on influencer marketing keeps rising. Community is powerful on its own, too. Conferences and online memberships are thriving businesses. This begs the question, do all creators need to build community? 

Hollister uses Share2Pay to help young shoppers share their carts with guardians

After an internal study of sales data, executives at Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch found that brands targeted toward teens were losing sales. Part of this was due to inflation and the rising cost of living, but they found the key pain point was an age-old reality: most teens simply don’t have much purchasing power. After researching today’s Gen Alpha (teen) consumers, Hollister created the Share2Pay app to tackle this problem.

#paid named an official TikTok marketing partner

#paid, a multi-channel creator marketing platform that empowers creators to partner with brands and build their businesses, today announced that it has become an official TikTok Marketing Partner. As a badged partner, #paid will bring more great opportunities to their engaged network of content creators and marketers. 

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