Ä¢¹½AV

Tech giants are restructuring to pour resources into AI, signaling leaner ad budgets and a growing reliance on automation-driven customer engagement

Contrary to popular belief, not every creator has a podcast. But those who do are a driving force behind the roughly $1.50 billion US creators will generate from digital audio distribution channels this year.

±õ²Ô´Ú±ô³Ü±ð²Ô³¦±ð°ù²õ’ sway over retail sales grew. Several TikTok influencers are fueling a pre-tariff spending frenzy by urging viewers to bulk-buy their favorite products now before prices rise, per The Wall Street Journal. That type of content helped drive up influencers' share of revenues to retail sales on Cyber Monday to 20.3%, up 6.8% YoY, per Adobe. Shoppers were barraged with marketing messages.

Nearly half (45%) of 13- to 39-year-olds had asked an influencer or regular person where a product in their content is from via a comment, according to a February 2024 survey conducted by YPulse. And 75% of those between the ages of 18 and 24 said the comments section on social media posts had the best recommendations. Social marketers are crafting entire strategies around comments.

Regular social media users have a greater impact on Gen Zers than official influencers do. At least once a month, 32% of US Gen Zers engage with influencer marketing/brand collaborations on social media, according to a November 2023 Nfinite report.

Team up with YouTube influencers to create branded videos. Where regulations allow, banks can collaborate with influencers who are Gen Alphas: Toy reviewer Ryan Kaji has over 36 million YouTube subscribers, while 10-year-old personality Like Nastya boasts over 100 million, per Forbes. Leverage product placement in shows and films most popular with Gen Alpha.

Thoroughly vet influencers and creators. Consider working only with influencers who are subject matter experts and have built followings based on financial education content. Caution is especially important this year: Marketers should monitor partners’ content leading up to the election and break off collaborations if their views become controversial.

But now because so much of that comes from influencer marketing and comes from kind of following your favorite creators, just going to the mall as a social activity simply to shop and leverage the opinions of your friends, I think is redundant now with so much social shopping. Rachel Wolff (05:11):.

TikTok returns to US app stores, hinting at a secure future: Regulators and storefronts say they want to keep the app around, putting it on much stronger footing.

YouTube is the preferred platform for podcasts, and Netflix wants in: Marketers must recognize podcasts aren’t audio-only to effectively reach consumers.

Mobile ad fraud is evolving: A new scheme exploited bid requests and fake installs, highlighting why marketers must invest in fraud detection to protect ad spend.

TikTok is a top influencer marketing platform. Over half (54.0%) of US marketers will use TikTok for influencer marketing this year, according to our forecast. If a ban were enacted, TikTok influencer budgets would likely be reallocated to other major creator platforms, mainly Instagram and YouTube.

Cash stuffing, wasn't that a trend on TikTok that a influencer started? Lauren Ashcraft (04:45):. It was. Yeah. Rob Rubin (04:50):. I absolutely never heard of this. Lauren Ashcraft (04:50):. Exactly. Rob Rubin (04:52):. Is it like stuffing cash in a mattress? Like literally old-fashioned? Lauren Ashcraft (04:55):. Yeah, except it's like envelopes that say like for food or going out. Yeah.

As access to young consumers’ information becomes increasingly hard for brands and marketers to collect and access, spending could shift away from platforms like Instagram or TikTok toward channels with less stringent privacy measures, like connected TVs or influencer marketing. That’s a sign that marketers should diversify their ad budgets now rather than waiting for the shoe to drop.

Young US adults increasingly consume news from influencers, many of whom lean right politically, creating opportunities for conservative content creators to shape narratives. Twenty-seven percent of these influencers identify as Republican, outpacing their Democrat counterparts at 21%. Yes, but: Not everyone has figured out how to successfully monetize political loyalty.

This year's Sundance Film Festival featured Creator Day, a full day of programming dedicated to the creator economy and innovations in branded content. The unique event, crafted by Sundance's BrandStorytelling and sponsored by YouTube, aimed to highlight the creator industry’s development beyond sales-driven social posts into long-term brand partnerships.

Black users comprise smaller shares of these platforms, so it's crucial for advertisers to be knowledgeable of current trends, major influencers, and pop culture references to avoid misstepping and accidentally alienating an important audience. Collaborating with Black micro-influencers, Black consultants, and multicultural agencies can help fill this knowledge gap. Sources. Deloitte.