#creator-brand-partnerships

#creator-brand-partnerships

At the start of the year, we asked 11 experts to share their social media predictions for 2025. They pointed to big shifts - world-building, private communities, AI in everything and everywhere, LinkedIn's rise, and a creator economy moving toward more sustainable businesses. Now that the year is behind us, it's a good moment to pause and check the tape. Some predictions held up almost perfectly. Others played out more slowly or looked different than expected.

The AI-powered wearable space is set to get crowded in the new year with a wave of new competitors. Meta currently leads the category with millions sold across the Ray-Ban Metas, recently expanding its lineup with new models that combine everyday style with hands-free content capture. Meta has been heavily promoting its wearables through creator partnerships and celebrity campaigns, prominently surfacing content made with them across Instagram.

YouTube added a feature for creators to tag brand partners during video uploads or when editing existing videos. Through a Paid Promotion and Brands option, creators can indicate that a video includes paid promotion and add the relevant brand. This allows the brand to view organic performance metrics and promote the content as Partnership Ads. Partnership Ads are now co-branded, displaying both the creator's and brand's avatars with a subscribe button option for viewers.