Creator and influencer trends brand marketers need to know about right now

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. Sign up for our influencer marketing newsletter here. Have tips or news to share about influencer marketing and the creator economy? Email Gillian Follett at gillian.follett@adage.com. New deals Saratoga Spring Water and Luke Weaver, Cam Smith and more: Some social media users have been clamoring for Saratoga Spring Water to partner with fitness influencer Ashton Hall since his Saratoga-centric morning routine went viral last week. While Saratoga has yet to ink a deal with Hall (as of this writing), it did leverage the viral meme spawned by Hall’s video for partnerships with a handful of Major League Baseball players: New York Yankees pitcher Luke Weaver; Cam Smith, a right fielder and third baseman for the Houston Astros; and a few others shared Hall-inspired morning rituals for MLB’s Opening Day last week, each featuring plenty of Saratoga water. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Luke Weaver (@dreamweava7) Topicals and Kenza Boutrif, Dénola Grey, Temitope Ibisanmi and more: Skincare brand Topicals kicked off its latest influencer trip over the weekend, taking more than a dozen influencers on a getaway to the Swiss Alps. Attendees include Kenza Boutrif, a model and influencer; Dénola Grey, an actor, influencer and fashion consultant; and Temitope Ibisanmi, a fashion and lifestyle influencer. Topicals also opened its trip to a few brand community members, including two giveaway winners and a customer in the brand’s group chat on the platform TYB. View this post on Instagram A post shared by TOPICALS (@topicals) UPS and Kareem Rahma: UPS last week launched a new yearlong content series with comedian and creator Kareem Rahma—best known for his viral social media interview series “Subway Takes”—called “Business Trips.” Each episode of the UPS series revolves around Rahma riding along with a UPS driver and interviewing them as they complete their New York City delivery route. The series also highlights several New York-based small businesses, including eyewear brand Indy Sunglasses. “Someone going about their job, dropping off packages every day for 10 years—I think that person has a lot of stories to tell and doesn't necessarily have a platform or opportunity to,” Rahma said in a press release. @kareemrahma On the first episode of @UPS Business Trips, I caught up with Jacek on the way to @Indy Sunglasses ♬ original sound - KAREEM RAHMA Julie and Ciara Miller: Julie, an emergency contraception brand, tapped “Summer House” star Ciara Miller to help promote its limited-edition merch collection with a handful of social posts. Julie timed the launch of the collection—which includes T-shirts, a baseball cap and a pool float—to spring break, a period when sales of emergency contraception typically spike. The brand is donating all proceeds from the collection to student-run sexual health organizations at colleges in states where reproductive rights have been rolled back. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ciara (@ciaramiller___) Reformation and Devon Lee Carlson: Reformation is no stranger to teaming up with celebrities from Kasey Musgraves to Monica Lewinsky to help the brand design clothing collections. For its latest collaboration, however, Reformation instead zeroed in on a digital celebrity: mega-influencer Devon Lee Carlson. Carlson documented the process of creating the collection, which launched at Reformation yesterday, in a vlog on her YouTube channel. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Reformation (@reformation) Social media screenshot Facebook overhauls its “Friends” tab: Like many social platforms, Facebook’s main feed is now dominated by content from random users served up by the platform’s algorithm rather than posts from friends, family or other people who users follow on Facebook. The platform is going back to its roots with a revamped “Friends” tab that expands the section beyond just a compilation of friend requests, suggestions for other Facebook users to follow and other notifications, Meta announced last week. Now, the “Friends” tab includes a content feed that exclusively houses posts shared by a user’s Facebook friends, along with the tab’s existing notifications. Elon Musk merges X and xAI: Musk last week revealed that his AI startup, xAI, has purchased his social media platform, X, for $33 billion in an all-stock deal. In an X post announcing the merger, Musk said, “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined” and that the deal will “combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” of the two companies. The two companies have already been somewhat intertwined for over a year, as X’s AI chatbot, Grok, was developed by xAI. @xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt). Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at…— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2025 Trump teases a forthcoming TikTok sale deal: Ahead of the looming U.S. TikTok ban deadline slated for Saturday, President Donald Trump yesterday announced that a deal to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese buyer will be reached before the April 5 deadline. Trump didn’t elaborate further on the details of the forthcoming sale, only noting that TikTok “[has] a lot of potential buyers” and that “there’s tremendous interest” in the platform. TikTok of the week @pipercassidyphillips Replying to @Anna find the white space that feels genuine to YOU ❤️ #personalbrand #money #finance #transparency #influencermarketing ♬ original sound - Piper Phillips TikTok creator Brandon Edelman (better known by his username @bran_flakezz) inadvertently triggered a wave of discussion about the incomes of creators and influencers when he disclosed his own 2024 gross income—$768,000—last month. Since then, several creators on the platform have also opened up about how much they rake in from brand deals, TikTok’s creator fund and other revenue streams. Creator and entrepreneur Piper Phillips is the latest example in this pay transparency trend. Over the past week, she’s released a series of TikTok videos (including the one above) discussing how she earns between $200,000 and $500,000 annually as a full-time creator. Follow us on social media X Bluesky Instagram LinkedIn YouTube

Creator and influencer trends brand marketers need to know about right now

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