#influencer-marketing

#influencer-marketing

Gen Z may not be the AI-native generation, but it's certainly the AI-pioneering one. From studying to shopping, LLMs and other AI-powered tools have transformed how young people navigate the digital (and real) world, and the changes keep emerging. As the Digital 2026: Global Overview Report shows, Gen Z navigates the digital world like no other generation that came before it. Here are three big takeaways from this industry-leading report that every PR professional needs to have a competitive advantage in the AI age.

Why it matters: It's a cliché, but it's still true: People trust people. And employees who perform these jobs day in and day out have the real stories, expertise and insight to make content stand out. Even if your organization isn't quite ready to encourage employees to post on their personal accounts about work, it's still worthwhile to identify a group of workers with winning personalities, interesting jobs and some camera skills to take footage for you to then process and post on your brand pages.

"As the definition of talent continues to evolve, so must the systems that support it," said Andrew Ruf, Managing Partner at Paradigm. "Reign Maker Group has built a scalable process that meets creators where they are, with an eye towards where they're going. By combining our global reach with their innovative infrastructure, we're able to accelerate opportunities for a new generation of talent and the professionals who represent them."

It's a perfect recipe for complacency at a time when luxury brands are laser-focused on appealing to wealthy consumers. But Sarah Ball, who took over as editor-in-chief of WSJ. in the summer of 2023, succeeding longtime editor Kristina O'Neill, said she wants to broaden the definition of who her reader is. The magazine is profiling more Millennial and Gen-Z movers and shakers, like actress Sydney Sweeney, "Call Her Daddy" podcast host Alex Cooper and TikTokker extraordinaire Alix Earle.

But this year, I couldn't help but cringe at the interviews. Stylist Law Roach and fashion journalist Zanna Rassi hosted the pink carpet pre-show. However, their interview techniques and overall questions were markedly different. On one side, you had Rassi, who is an experienced journalist, fashion editor, and entrepreneur, conducting professional interviews that were to the point. On the other hand, you had Law Roach, a celebrity stylist, whose interviews were awkward and difficult to watch.

Influencers now sit at the center of fashion because they translate style into daily life with unusual speed and relatability. People find outfits through try-ons, GRWMs, and street photos that feel instantly wearable rather than waiting for seasonal campaigns. Due to the ease of access to price checks, size notes, and links, the journey from inspiration to purchase is shortened.

Rhode, Hailey Bieber's mega-viral skin care and makeup brand, has been intentional about advertising the "on the go" capabilities of its newest product, and its consumer base has responded in kind. Rhode has over 5 million combined followers across Instagram and TikTok-and a successful marketing strategy that encourages both influencers and niche creators to create content around its products. There are nearly 400,000 videos under #Rhode on TikTok alone.

On this week's episode, co-hosts Gabriela Barkho and Melissa Daniels get into the news of Quince dodging claims from Ugg's parent, Deckers Brands, that it unlawfully copied two of its best-selling styles. Next, they discuss the announcement from cosmetics company E.l.f that it will be offering live shopping on streaming service Twitch, and the implications for the potential resurgence of streaming in social commerce.

Welcome back to another week of The Curvy Fashionista's Plus Influencer Spotlight, our series celebrating the boundary breakers, tastemakers, and changemakers redefining plus size fashion and culture, like Latoya of The Fat Girl of Fashion. Each feature in this series highlights a voice that's helping shape the future of plus size fashion, one unapologetic look, one powerful post, and one bold statement at a time.

When you think of the most basic definition of an influencer - a person whose recommendations and opinions influence other people's behaviors - Morgen Schick DeMann fits the bill. A former makeup artist and Tom Ford model for 30 years, DeMann doesn't have the most followers in the beauty world. Her Instagram has a little over 14,000 subscribers, and her TikTok has about 110,000 subscribers. But the people who follow her listen, and they listen with their wallets.

Rod Wave Elite is a popular high school basketball squad that bounces around the country playing exhibition games to crowds of rabid teens and internet celebrities. They're run by a former college hooper turned influencer, Cam Wilder, and are named after the North Star of Southern pain rap, though the Floridian doesn't seem to have anything to do with the team.

Inside a historic aircraft hangar in Playa Vista, crowds of people gathered on Thursday to browse the latest fashions from handbags to clothing and shoes as they prepared for the holiday shopping season. These weren't shoppers or retailer buyers searching for the latest products. Instead, they were YouTube video creators who were being courted by brands from Lowe's to Shark Beauty to encourage online audiences to buy their products.

As media director at CKE Restaurants, Sutton oversees both Carl's Jr and Hardee's - two brands that, until recently, shared one marketing strategy. "A few years ago, we marketed Carl's and Hardee's together," he says. "It made sense from a media efficiency standpoint. But the personalities of the brands got a little watered down." The fix? Split them apart. "It's created some challenges," he admits.

Select Management Group These three managers have a knack for growing brands: In 2020, Arias orchestrated a partnership between Sarah Cheung and incubator Gloss Ventures to launch SACHEU Beauty. Berger sold TikToker Eli Rallo's fiction debut, I Hope Eden Reads This, which releases next month. Teng signed My Sister's Skin, two sisters who focus on mature skin, when they had just a few thousand followers. They now have over 100,000.

From big brand launches to shifting perceptions and from riding fast trends to driving footfall, Influencer builds ideas with impact to deliver outcomes that drive your business forward via an unmatched client experience. Campaigns are underpinned by Influencer's game-changing proprietary technologies, which are supercharged by official partnerships and data integrations with the world's leading social platforms for real-time and accurate reporting. Influencer is an Official Global Marketing Partner of both TikTok and Meta.

E.l.f. Cosmetics wants to bring shopping to Twitch. The beauty brand has teamed with Amazon Ads to trial a live shopping element on the streaming platform that would allow viewers to purchase E.l.f. products directly through a Twitch stream, without interrupting their viewing experience. The launch is the first of its kind for Amazon-owned Twitch, which has been around for more than a decade but gained prominence during the COVID-19 streaming boom.

A single-second pause over a social video can dismantle your algorithm. Even at my best, I can still hesitate over a poorly shot video demonstrating the "latest tech" that I simply "can't live without" and later learn I really could have lived without it. However, by then my feed is already filled with duplicate videos trying to push the same product.

"It occurred to me that we could build a database where PRs could find blogs like ours and others. We would charge them a license to use this database. And then we noticed that YouTube was on the rise and it wasn't just bloggers, but YouTubers. And it's not just YouTubers, it's also Instagrammers. And it was becoming clear to us that this new economy was being created,"

When the federal government declared the COVID-19 public health emergency over, eligibility requirements for various benefits including Medicaid and the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program were tightened, and many recipients were forced to reapply. That left many states in a quandary as they sought to quickly educate residents that their benefits would not auto-renew. Traditionally, state and local governments might put public service announcements in newspapers, on television and on the radio.

As part of her announcement last week, Kai attached 10 photos of her posing in different variations of the sweater throughout the grounds of the White House. In two of the photos, she can be seen holding a golf club, in a subtle nod to her other primary focus in life. With the photo shoot, however, she has been able to combine her passion for golf with her role as an influencer.

Newly filed records with the Department of Justice show that Israel's government has quietly launched a two-track influence operation in the United States, blending big-budget political advertising with grassroots-style influencer campaigns. The filings reveal that a firm called Bridges Partners LLC has been hired to manage an influencer network under a project code-named the "Esther Project." It is unclear if there is any link to Project Esther, a plan to combat antisemitism published by the Heritage Foundation, an American right-wing think tank.

"I myself am from, like, the smallest town in Ohio, and I had no idea what sorority recruitment was until I went to Bama Bound," Darnell recently told Fox & Friends Weekend.

Bose's latest portable speaker isn't just a tech gadget; it arrives in a package that looks like a stick of butter. The design, created by the creative agency Coffee 'n Clothes (CNC), wraps the SoundLink Plus in a soft cream‑colored foil with blue gradient accents that mimic the familiar butter wrapper you'd find in a kitchen pantry. The concept was unveiled alongside the speaker's new "Citrus Yellow" colorway, a shade that has become one of 2025's hottest trends in fashion and tech.

Motto by Hilton's "Guest Quests" series seeks to imbue travelers with a feeling of "main character energy," a bit of internet slang that refers to people seeing themselves as the protagonist in a larger story. To that end, the effort takes a page from video games while leveraging influencers to highlight hotel experiences that Gen Z and millennial consumers may value. Motto by Hilton developed "Guest Quests" with Movers+Shakers, an agency that focuses on social-first marketing.

When we accept that our role in building brands is more stewardship rather than control. I had to learn this idea,

Who are the celebrities who have the biggest sway with young audiences, based on their Instagram following? According to this new listing from Visual Capitalist, Kylie Jenner tops the list, with 393 million IG followers, followed by soccer star Kylian Mbappe (126m), singer Billie Eilish (125m), and Lalisa Manoba from K-pop girl group Blackpink (105m). And while audience size along doesn't necessarily relate to influence,

One of my best investments this year will undoubtedly be e.l.f. Beauty . A big reason for this is that I was buying the stock this year on its dip into the $60s. At the time, investors were panicking after the company issued weak fiscal Q4 sales guidance. The cosmetics industry as a whole was feeling some pressure, while uncertainty over TikTok, where the company has a huge marketing presence, caused some headwinds.

To promote the return of its apple-flavored LTO, Bubly is reaching back to a couple of 2000s pop culture icons: Apple Bottoms, the jeans brand founded by Nelly in 2003, and Flo Rida's 2008 hit "Low," which nodded to the label in lyrics ("Shawty had them apple bottom jeans / Boots with the fur / The whole club was lookin' at her") that are insistently recognizable to consumers who came of age during the era.

Then you should take this business-development course, which will help you take your idea - no worries if it doesn't exist yet, you'll manifest it later! - and spin it into a multimillion-dollar company that you can scale within mere months. Behold this lady, a graduate of said course, who turned her ceramics hobby into a $5,000,000 juggernaut in three years and now lives in Italy with her family, dog, and a bunch of olive trees! This could be you!

Michael Kuzminov is the CEO of HypeFactory, a global AI-powered influencer marketing agency. Marketing is undergoing a profound transformation, with artificial intelligence at the forefront of this process. Traditional search and advertising methods still matter, but brands can no longer depend solely on organic rankings or conventional campaigns to maintain their presence. AI-powered search engines and digital assistants have completely changed the way consumers interact with brands. To ensure they remain visible, marketing specialists must fully understand and embrace the rise of AI search.