Advertising Week Briefing: Creators emerge as the industry's new power brokers

"Creators are everywhere at Advertising Week 2025 - from a range of creator-led sessions culminating with an onstage live taping of "Hot Ones," to an Adobe-sponsored $25,000 creator pitch contest, to a session that featured YouTuber Dhar Mann creating a brand campaign for Gap Inc. in real time. This year, Advertising Week has four content tracks dedicated to creators - its highest number of creator tracks ever, per Advertising Week global president Ruth Mortimer - and a creator lounge sponsored by Meta."

"Advertising Week has had creator-focused content tracks in past years, but the rising presence of content creators at this year's event represents an evolution in how creators are engaging with advertisers. Instead of simply attending or participating in panels as invited speakers, creators are hosting brand activations and directly paying Advertising Week to put on sessions that they led and organized."

""Lots of creators don't actually often work directly with brands; quite often, they will be part of a campaign, but once you've chosen your creative direction, eventually you'll end up choosing a creator to promote your product," Mortimer said. "What creators were saying to us was, 'we want to be at the top of the funnel, helping companies co-collaborate and co-create the campaigns.' So, that was really the inspiration for us leaning into it like this.""

Advertising Week 2025 highlights the expanding role of content creators within the advertising industry and wider culture. Creator-led programming includes high-profile sessions such as a live taping of "Hot Ones," an Adobe-sponsored $25,000 creator pitch contest, and a YouTuber building a real-time brand campaign for Gap Inc. The event features four dedicated creator content tracks and a creator lounge sponsored by Meta. Creators are moving beyond participation to organizing and funding brand activations, seeking top-of-funnel positions to co-collaborate and co-create campaigns and position themselves as essential players in advertising's future.

Read at Digiday