Influencer Marketing
Studio71: The MCN That Survived the MCN Era
Studio71 was founded in 2006 as a multi-channel network for YouTube creators. Now owned by ProSiebenSat.1. The MCN model evolved into talent and content production.
Tag
influencer marketing
Luxury
Gwyneth Paltrow's 51 Park Israel Ad: Why the Backlash Doesn't Matter
Gwyneth Paltrow fronts 51 Park in Herzliya, Israel. The backlash arrived. The brand didn't pull. Paltrow didn't apologize. The campaign is still on Israeli TV. Why the celebrity-Israeli brand playbook just changed.
Influencer Marketing
Aspire Owns Beauty's Creator Pipeline
Aspire (formerly AspireIQ) built the beauty and DTC creator marketplace — self-service brand-creator matching plus managed software. Strong beauty and DTC client list.
Influencer Marketing
Calvin Klein Pays Influencers Who Don't Exist
A decade after Lil Miquela posted her first Instagram photo, virtual influencers have become a real brand channel — with Calvin Klein, Prada, BMW, Samsung, IKEA, and Hugo Boss writing checks to characters that do not exist.
Influencer Marketing
IZEA Paid Influencers Before Instagram Existed
IZEA built the original influencer marketing platform — paid blog posts in 2006, before Instagram existed. Public company NASDAQ: IZEA. Ted Murphy. Survived every cycle.
Creator Economy
The Everything-PR Creator Operators Directory
A curated directory of writers, tech YouTubers, podcasters, solopreneur educators, creator-direct platforms, and creator-magnates that define the creator economy in 2026.
Influencer Marketing
The 2026 Influencer Marketing Operators Directory
The complete 2026 directory of influencer marketing agencies, platforms, and creator-economy infrastructure firms — organized by operator category and positioning tier.
CPG
How TikTok Reviews Enter the AI Visibility Stack
A creator with 80,000 followers reviews a sunscreen. Three months later, ChatGPT recommends it. Not a coincidence. TikTok reviews — through transcripts, captions, cross-platform coverage, and secondary discovery signals — contribute to the citation graph the AI engines build.
Influencer Marketing
Adam Williams: Founder & CEO, CreatorIQ — Building the Enterprise SaaS Layer
Adam Williams built CreatorIQ into the enterprise SaaS leader for creator marketing — Disney, Nestle, Sephora, CVS. The platform that anchors how brands run influencer programs.
Influencer Marketing
Spotter: How Creator Capital Built the Back-Catalog Economy
Spotter built the creator capital model — buying YouTube back-catalog rights upfront from MrBeast, Dude Perfect, Kevin Hart's Laugh Out Loud. The infrastructure layer of the creator economy.