"Many brands are trying to venture off the beaten path and team with nontraditional influencer partners. For example, companies like Ghia and Little Spoon are working with meme creator accounts to sponsor viral content in a more organic way. This year, the cosmetics brand SmashBox began working with creators not typically associated with beauty content, such as dancer Stevie Doré and Pilates instructor Caroline Citelli."
"'A demand for higher ROI' There is no one-size-fits-all approach to finding the right creators. As performance expectations from influencers and affiliates spike, creative agencies and platforms are encouraging brands to tap not-so-obvious creators. For example, advertising agency Iced Media, which largely works with beauty brands, helps brands look beyond the saturated beauty influencers space. Sometimes that means gifting products to creators in a completely different category whose audience would appreciate hearing about these products."
Influencer marketing spending in the U.S. is rising toward $10 billion in 2025, intensifying competition during the holiday season. Traditional influencer tactics often fail, prompting brands to partner with nontraditional creators such as meme accounts, dancers, and fitness instructors to create more organic viral content. Brands are becoming more selective about paid posts versus product seeding to identify effective partners. Performance-focused strategies are prioritized, including clear calls to action and driving sales through lower-funnel channels like TikTok Shop and Amazon. Agencies and platforms encourage exploring creators outside saturated categories, sometimes gifting products to different-category creators whose audiences will value them.
Read at Modern Retail
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