K-FESTA to Debut in Palm Springs as First U.S. K-Beauty Festival Built Around Creator Partnerships
K‑FESTA, the first U.S. Korean‑beauty festival, launches April 11‑12, 2026 in Palm Springs, timed with Coachella. The two‑day event places global beauty creators at its core, letting them lead live demos, brand activations, and content‑driven storytelling. Twelve Korean brands across skincare, cosmetics, haircare and food will showcase alongside live abstract painting and traditional Samulnori performances. Powered by ADGC Inc., the festival offers a creator‑inquiry portal to streamline brand‑creator partnerships.
How 8 Episodes a Year Built One of Podcasting’s Most Expensive Advertising Inventories
Acquired, the business‑history podcast hosted by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, limits itself to eight deep‑dive episodes a year, a scarcity strategy that has enabled it to command presenting sponsorships up to $6.5 million through Fall 2029. Each episode attracts over one...
Digital Platform Ripe in Town Launches Brand Partnership Program to Connect Advertisers With Australian Travel Audiences
ripe in Town, a digital platform spotlighting regional Australian food, stays and travel, has unveiled a brand partnership program aimed at advertisers targeting regional travel audiences. The offering includes branded guides, integrated campaigns, content series, sponsored features and directory placements...
RHEI Overhauls Made Platform With Proactive AI Agents to Eliminate Creator Blank-Page Problem
RHEI has rolled out a major overhaul of its Made platform, shifting from a prompt‑driven tool to a proactive AI assistant that surfaces personalized content ideas as soon as creators log in. The update introduces five dedicated AI agents—Milo, Zara,...
SAMY & L’Oréal Launched TikTok Shop in Spain Together: Here’s What the First Year Taught Them
When TikTok Shop launched in Spain in late 2024, L’Oréal partnered with influencer agency SAMY to test social commerce. Over the first year, SAMY produced 18 live shopping events—42 hours of content—expanding from L’Oréal Paris to Maybelline, NYX and Garnier....
OWM Founder Jeff Frommer on Why Creators Are Leaving Money on the Table
Jeff Frommer, founder of creator‑ownership platform OWM, argues that creators are missing out on equity in deals that generate billions of brand value. He identifies three structural blockers—lack of standard contracts, limited equity education, and misaligned manager incentives—and shows how...
IShowSpeed Anime Series in Development at Big Shot Pictures, ‘One Piece’ Showrunner Matt Owens to Write
YouTube star iShowSpeed is set to headline an original anime‑style series being developed by Big Shot Pictures, the new production company founded by former Paramount Global co‑CEO Brian Robbins. Veteran writer Matt Owens, who co‑showran Netflix’s One Piece, will write...
Video Startup Livid Raises $10M From StreamYard Founders, Targets Vimeo Users With New Hosting Platform
Livid, an ad‑free video‑hosting platform for creators and small businesses, raised $10 million from StreamYard co‑founders Geige Vandentop and Dan Briggs. The funding follows Bending Spoons' acquisition of Vimeo and subsequent layoffs that left many Vimeo users seeking alternatives. Livid introduced...
Well Spirit Collective Bets That Trust Outlasts Scale in the Wellness Creator Market
Well Spirit Collective, a women‑owned, BIPOC‑led Los Angeles agency, prioritizes selective partnerships over volume, believing trust outweighs scale in the wellness creator market. COO Haley Oberon, who joined in 2021, has grown the firm by refusing misaligned deals, even when...
How Shady Dnaf Turned a Snapchat Bet Into a $23M Creator Economy Exit
Amsterdam entrepreneur Shady Dnaf sold his Snapchat‑focused Sunny State Agency to Bent Pixels for over $23 million. The acquisition merges Bent Pixels' YouTube‑centric brand network with SSA’s short‑form distribution, creating a 850‑creator platform that generates 6 billion monthly views. Post‑deal, Dnaf joins...
From Printing Press to Podcast to Digital Mind: Delphi CEO on the Next Form of Media
Delphi, founded by Dara Ladjevardian and backed by Sequoia, Founders Fund, and Lux Capital, offers creators a platform to build AI-powered digital versions of their minds. By ingesting existing content—videos, podcasts, documents—the system creates a conversational interface that answers questions...
Creator Television to Launch Pickleball Tour at VidCon Anaheim, Testing Live Event-to-Streaming Format
Creator Television, the creator‑focused streaming network owned by Sabio Holdings, will debut the Creator Pickleball Tour at VidCon Anaheim from June 25‑27. The three‑day activation features a 16‑player creator tournament in front of more than 55,000 attendees and will be...
The 10 Fastest-Growing U.S. Instagram Accounts of March 2026
March 2026 saw a surge of Instagram follower gains among U.S. celebrities and brands, led by Megan Fox’s 2.8 million new followers after a high‑profile comeback. Event‑driven accounts such as Jason Derulo, Alysa Liu, and “The Tonight Show” each added over a million followers,...
Source Media Group Launches YouTube Golf Network With Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat
Source Media Group has launched Source Golf, a YouTube‑based network that bundles existing content from top golf creators such as Bryson DeChambeau (2.6 million subscribers), Grant Horvat (1.6 million), and the Bryan Bros (800 k). The platform sells advertising against these pre‑existing videos, eliminating the...
Instagram Now Lets Creators Tag Affiliate Links Directly in Reels
Instagram is rolling out a new feature that lets creators tag shoppable products directly in Reels, supporting up to 30 items per video. Creators can add products by pasting affiliate URLs or selecting items from a brand’s Meta commerce catalog,...
U.S. Creator Marketing Spending to Surpass $21B as Brands Move Beyond Social
U.S. creator marketing spend is projected to top $21.1 billion in 2026, more than double the 2022 level. Nano and micro‑influencers now command roughly half of that budget as brands chase audience relevance over sheer reach. Companies are repurposing creator assets...
Open Influence Names Julie Levitas Greenhouse VP of Partnerships in New York
Open Influence has appointed Julie Levitas Greenhouse as Vice President of Partnerships in its New York office. Greenhouse brings more than 25 years of digital advertising and sales experience, most recently leading strategic sales for Everyday Health Group’s BabyCenter and...
YouTube to Stream Coachella 2026 Across Seven Stages in 4K
YouTube will livestream both weekends of Coachella 2026, expanding coverage to seven simultaneous stages and delivering 4K resolution for the Coachella Stage, Outdoor Theatre, and Sahara. The platform introduces a 24/7 linear “Coachella TV” channel featuring archival performances, and enhances...
Creator Economy Rocks Announces ‘HollyTube’, a Curated LA Immersion Bridging Hollywood, Creator Industry
Creator Economy Rocks unveiled “HollyTube,” a four‑day immersion in Los Angeles scheduled for May 18‑21. The program brings together ten hand‑picked leaders from Hollywood, the creator economy, and brand marketing for onsite studio, agency, and startup visits, plus private founder sessions....
Kentucky Fanatics Extends Partnership With University of Kentucky, Adds NIL Component for Student-Athletes
The University of Kentucky has extended its partnership with Fanatics for 12 years, adding a Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) component that grants select student‑athletes access to Fanatics’ influencer marketing platform. Through the Fanatics Creator Program, athletes can open affiliate...
Creator Pricing, Rewritten: 50 Industry Professionals on Metrics That Actually Predict Performance
Creator partnerships have become the top ad priority for 57% of U.S. brand and agency buyers in 2026, yet pricing remains anchored to outdated follower counts. A new study of 50 agency, platform and talent‑management professionals reveals a shift toward...
While Brands Chased Celebrities, Trusted Media Brands Bet on the People Next Door
Trusted Media Brands (TMB) is doubling down on community‑driven creators, a strategy validated by Edelman’s trust research. The company runs a four‑layer creator engine that blends licensed viral clips, external specialists, in‑house talent, and network sharers across brands like Reader’s...
WorldBuilder Summit Debuts as First Dedicated Event for UGC Creators Across Roblox, Fortnite, and Beyond
The WorldBuilder Summit will launch its inaugural conference on April 23, 2026, at The London West Hollywood in California, positioning itself as the first in‑person event dedicated to user‑generated‑content (UGC) creators across platforms such as Roblox, Fortnite, Rec Room and others....
The Australian Creator Who Said ‘Yes’ Before She Knew How: Kat Clark Shares Business Blueprint
Australian creator Kat Clark turned a turbulent teen‑mom start into a digital empire, amassing over 10 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat. She leveraged viral recipe videos to launch a $10‑a‑month paid community, then pivoted to product entrepreneurship with...
B2B Has Run Out of Excuses to Avoid Creator Marketing, Says Later CEO Scott Sutton
B2B firms are finally embracing creator marketing as the millennial decision‑maker generation spends its buying power on social platforms. New attribution technology now links creator posts directly to subscription installs, lifetime value and customer acquisition cost, closing the ROI gap...
Inside Mom 2.0 Summit 2026: Ownership, AI, and the Creator Economy’s Next Phase
The Mom 2.0 Summit returns to Austin April 16‑18, 2026, spotlighting parenting creators’ transition from content‑centric influencers to owners, founders, and executives. Four agenda‑shaping forces—shifting from sharing to building, sustainability, privacy/consent, and AI—drive a program that blends keynote insights from Dr. Becky...
TikToker Khaby Lame Named Ambassador for Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games
TikTok star Khaby Lame has been named an official ambassador for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, the first Olympic event to be held on African soil. The Games, scheduled for Oct. 31‑Nov. 13, will host roughly 2,700 athletes aged 17 or...
Owl & Co. To Host Vertical Media Summit in Los Angeles This June
Owl & Co. will host the Vertical Media Summit on June 3, 2026, at W Hollywood in Los Angeles, gathering senior operators, investors, and technology builders for a half‑day, ticketed event. The summit follows a December 2025 invitation‑only Short Drama...
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Lifts Government TikTok Ban, Citing Need to Reach New Yorkers on Social Media
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has lifted the 2023 ban on TikTok for government use, allowing agencies to operate on the platform under strict guidelines. The new policy requires dedicated government devices, designated staff, and agency‑managed credentials to address...
UK MPs Urge Government to Formally Recognize Creator Economy Through Industrial Classification Update
A cross‑party group of UK MPs, backed by YouTube, has urged Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to add the creator economy to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2026 framework. The sector generated about $2.8 billion (≈£2.2 bn) in 2024 and supports 45,000 jobs,...
Billion Dollar Boy Partners With Lumanu to Launch ‘Creator Payments’ in Its Companion Platform
Billion Dollar Boy’s AI‑driven platform Companion now includes a Creator Payments feature, built with Lumanu’s financial infrastructure. The tool consolidates onboarding, tax compliance and payout distribution into a single dashboard, handling up to 14 administrative actions per creator. An accompanying...
TikTok Shop Partners With Singapore Retail Groups to Build Social Commerce Workforce
TikTok Shop announced a memorandum of understanding with the Singapore Retailers Association and Workforce Singapore to launch social commerce training and supporting infrastructure. The initiative defines three core roles—Social Commerce Hosts, Leads, and Engineers—to reskill workers for live‑stream shopping. Singapore’s...
California Bill Targets Family Vloggers, Giving Children the Right to Erase Monetized Content at 18
California Senator Steve Padilla introduced Senate Bill 1247, mandating social‑media platforms to let adult children request removal or editing of monetized content that features them as minors. The bill gives creators three business days to acknowledge a request and ten...
Influur Is Building a Creator-Powered Campaign Layer Around the 2026 FIFA World Cup
Miami-based creator marketplace Influur announced a multi‑city, creator‑led initiative to help brands engage audiences around the 2026 FIFA World Cup across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Rather than seeking official tournament sponsorship, Influur will build an independent, creator‑powered cultural...
Glystn Just Landed Stagwell, Influential, Weber Shandwick – CEO Ethan Fassett Says the Agency Intelligence Race Is On
Glystn, the San‑Francisco AI social‑intelligence platform, has inked enterprise partnerships with three of the five largest public agency holding companies—Stagwell Marketing Cloud, Influential and Weber Shandwick. The integrations embed Glystn’s app and its Model Context Protocol directly into agency workflows, turning...
TikTok Canada Reaches Agreement With Federal Government, Securing Local Operations, Creator Programs
TikTok Canada avoided a forced shutdown after reaching a settlement with the federal government, allowing its local operations to continue. The agreement introduces legally binding undertakings, including upgraded data‑security measures and an independent monitor to audit Canadian user data access....
TikTok Spotlights Savannah Space Founder Cherie Kihato in African All-Stars Series
TikTok featured Cherie Kihato, founder of Kenya’s Savannah Space, in its African All-Stars Series. Kihato detailed a disciplined content schedule, allocating an hour each morning to create TikTok videos while running her furniture and home‑decor brand. She measures success through...
Creative Network Residence Reshapes Leadership With Dual Appointments
Residence, the global network of creative agencies, announced two senior leadership changes. Ben Langsfeld was named Chief Creative Officer, taking charge of client‑facing strategy and day‑to‑day creative execution. Co‑founder Orion Tait moved into the newly created Creative Chair role, concentrating...
Webby Awards Taps Comedian & Content Creator Josh Johnson to Host 30th Annual Ceremony
The Webby Awards will celebrate their 30th anniversary on May 11 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, with Emmy‑nominated comedian and creator Josh Johnson as host. Johnson, known for his work on The Tonight Show and The Daily...
RACER Announces Creator Summit in Long Beach to Connect Motorsport Industry With Digital Creators
RACER, the North American motorsports media platform, will host its inaugural Creator Summit on April 16 in downtown Long Beach, California, ahead of the Acura Grand Prix weekend. The invitation‑only event will bring together digital creators, brands, racing teams and...
Stamp’s Lucy Magri-Overend on Building a Certification System That Puts Creators in Control of Their Credibility
Stamp, a London‑based startup launched in November 2024, is creating an ethical certification system that puts creators in control of their credibility. Co‑founder Lucy Magri‑Overend explains the platform evaluates creators on three pillars—regulatory compliance, audience care, and personal values—through a self‑reflection...
Clios Expand Into Creator Economy With New Awards Program Backed by YouTube, Influential
The Clios have launched Clio Creators, a new awards program in partnership with YouTube and Influential, to honor excellence in digital creator content. The initiative features two tracks—Brand, which celebrates brand‑creator collaborations, and Creator, which highlights individual creator storytelling. Submissions...
From Followers to Shelf Space: Bonkers Toys’ Lisa Berlin Wright on What Creator Licensing Actually Requires
Bonkers Toys, led by licensing chief Lisa Berlin Wright, is turning digital creators into toy franchise powerhouses. The company’s early wins with slither.io and Ryan’s World proved that viral online audiences can be translated into retail‑ready product lines. Wright stresses...
Popular, Not Famous: How Tiltify’s $100M Fundraising Year Redefines Creator Philanthropy
Tiltify reported that creators donated more than $100 million in 2025, roughly double its 2024 total, cementing creator‑led philanthropy as a major growth engine. The platform’s tools—especially creator‑designed incentives, auctions and matching challenges—accounted for 40% of the funds raised, up from...
Launchd Acquires New Zealand Talent Agency WeAreTENZING to Expand ANZ Creator Network
Launchd has acquired Auckland‑based talent agency WeAreTENZING, adding more than 100 athletes, creators and artists to its Australia‑New Zealand network. The deal expands Launchd's portfolio, which already includes creator representation, speaker management and booking technology, to over 5,000 talent across...
Open Sauce Returns to San Francisco in July 2026 With Creator Lineup and Industry Day Summit
Open Sauce, the creator‑focused technology festival, will return to the San Francisco Bay Area from July 17‑19, 2026. The three‑day event showcases more than 100 creators—including Mark Rober, Hank Green, and Michael Reeves—alongside a 500‑project expo and a dedicated Game Expo. A Creator...
Sports Media Company Snapback Sports Signs With Excel Sports Management to Drive Sponsorship Growth, Event Access
Snapback Sports, a digital sports media firm, has signed with Excel Sports Management to accelerate sponsorship revenue and gain event access. The company posted $2.2 million in 2025 revenue and aims for $3 million in 2026. Excel will handle sponsorship sales across...
LinkedIn Deploys LLM-Based Feed Ranking System to Surface Content Beyond Members’ Networks
LinkedIn has replaced its fragmented feed ranking pipeline with a single, LLM‑driven retrieval system that generates embeddings for every post. The new architecture uses GPU‑accelerated transformers and a generative recommender that treats a member’s history as a sequential narrative. By...
AnyMind Group Launches AI-Powered Tool to Help Advertisers Scale UGC Campaigns
AnyMind Group unveiled AnyDigital Max, an AI‑driven platform that helps advertisers analyze, optimize, and scale user‑generated content (UGC) campaigns across social media. The company’s internal data shows UGC ads deliver 2.4 times higher click‑through rates, 3.7 times higher view rates, and roughly...
Amaze to Launch Live Shopping Tools Enabling In-Stream Purchasing for Creators, Brands
Amaze, the creator‑powered commerce platform, announced new live‑shopping capabilities that let creators and brands sell products directly within live streams. The tools include instant in‑stream purchasing, real‑time audience interaction such as comments, polls, dynamic product highlights, and time‑limited promo codes....
