Influencer Marketing Resources: June 2025

Trends in social media: The Motherhood scours the headlines so you don’t have to. Check back throughout the month for more!

Influencer Marketing Industry Resources

How A Corporate Influencer Program Can Feed Your Thought Leadership – June 28, 2025  

Last year at Europe’s biggest HR conference in Cologne, I spent several days immersing myself in the world of the corporate influencer program. I hung around the so-called corporate influencer stage, listening in on discussions about how companies are equipping employees to build personal brands and become visible ambassadors on LinkedIn. As I soaked it all in, a question began to form: What if we bridged the best of these grassroots influencer programs with the discipline and strategic focus of organizational thought leadership?

Influencer Marketing Can Be Good as Hell – June 28, 2025  

Lizzo is a lot of things—singer, songwriter, classically trained flutist—but a “bookstagrammer” she is not. So how did she end up at the Library of Congress (LC) in 2022? LC staff told the story at “Bookstagrammers are People Too: Boosting Library Engagement with Influencer Marketing,” a June 28 session of the American Library Association’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Building 200-Year-Old Brands in a 24-Hour World: AG1’s Marketing Revolution  – June 27, 2025  

Creative leadership and strategic risk-taking are essential ingredients for building transformative brands in today’s marketing landscape. In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jenny Rooney sits down with Paulie Dery, CMO of AG1 (formerly Athletic Greens), for a masterclass in brand building and creative leadership. Drawing from his impressive journey through R/GA, Uber, and Yeti, Paulie shares invaluable insights on why running toward challenges breeds creativity, how to maintain brand authenticity in a rapidly evolving market, and why great products paired with strong storytelling create a lasting impact.

Influencer marketing gains momentum as trust shifts to creators – June 26, 2025  

Influencer marketing spending is increasing steadily in the US and worldwide, representing a key area of growth as audiences turn to the creators they trust for purchase decisions. In a conversation with EMARKTER, Arthur Leopold, head of creator content ad platform Agentio, discussed why audiences are turning to influencers, how technology is changing the game, and where influencer marketing is heading.

Influencer Marketing in 2025: New Data Reveals What Works, What Costs, and What’s Next – June 25, 2025  

Influencer marketing is in a new era marked by smarter strategies, deeper partnerships, and widespread adoption of AI. In 2025, global spend has surged to $32.55 billion, driven by a measurable shift toward ROI-first strategies, AI integration across workflows and a strong preference for micro and mid-tier creators. New research from Later shows brands are moving beyond vanity metrics, while creators are evolving into multi-platform entrepreneurs.

Crafting an influencer campaign that goes beyond social channels – June 24, 2025  

Crafting a successful influencer campaign requires more than a recognizable face in today’s oversaturated ecosystem of social media. With the right strategy, their success can break free of social media and cross over into other avenues of PR. Influencer campaigns can serve consumers more authentically and reach new audiences. They have the potential for impact that reaches more than a social media audience. Hubspot’s 2024 Social Media Marketing Report showed that 64% of organizations used influencer marketing in the past year and 47% of those said it was their most successful strategy for promotion.

Influencer Marketing Can Cause Headaches With FTC, Creators’ NIL – June 24, 2025  

Love it or hate it, influencer marketing looks like it’s not slowing down any time soon. Influencer Marketing Hub’s Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2025, released in April, indicated that the influencer marketing industry is expected to grow to a whopping $32.55 billion by the end of 2025, up a staggering 1,815% from its $1.7 billion market size in 2016, according to the report.

Olipop turns fans into influencers for pennies with PR boxes on Amazon – June 24, 2025  

• Olipop unveiled its summer campaign, which includes a nostalgia-themed travel experience and influencer-style PR boxes targeted at everyday consumers, per details shared with Marketing Dive.

• The Time Travel Travel Agency activation transforms the Austin Motel in Austin, Texas, to create three suites that bring Olipop flavors to life through the lens of different decades. Consumers can enter to win a stay at the location by calling an official hotline.

• The better-for-you soda brand also partnered with Amazon Ads to drop 5,000 exclusive VIP boxes for 5 cents each on Amazon starting June 30. Each box includes seasonal Olipop flavors and branded merchandise, aiming to flip the typical influencer marketing script.

Thinking small: lessons from the micro-influencer boom – June 23, 2025  

From ROI to authenticity, micro-influencers are delivering where it counts – with tighter communities, higher engagement, and lower-cost campaigns that drive real sales. In this article, Jessica Marshall, influencer partnerships manager at Awin, reveals why brands are rethinking scale, how performance-based partnerships are fueling the shift, and what marketers can learn from the micro-influencer boom.

Influencers Step Onto Center Stage at Cannes – June 21, 2025  

Dhar Mann, the creator of a YouTube channel with more than 25 million followers, first heard about the Cannes Lions advertising festival last year from a couple of friends. “It was incredible — the amount of brands they met, the amount of opportunities that they walked out getting,” Mr. Mann, 41, said. So this year, he and his wife and the chief executive of his 200-person company, Dhar Mann Studios, flew themselves to the south of France for dozens of meetings with marketers and agencies.

‘Not just transactional’: Dove on the value of treating influencers as ‘strategic partners’ – June 20, 2025  

It’s been hard to miss the cheers for Unilever since March, when the FMCG giant identified influencer marketing as a “key pillar” of its strategy and pledged to work with 20 times more content creators through a “4V model of social media”. Dove is one of Unilever’s brands taking the investment in its stride, having launched its first end-to-end creator campaign across 64 digital placements in March amid continued creator investment.

How influencer marketing lost its edge – June 19, 2025  

Scroll through a TikTok feed, and you’ll eventually come across someone—usually incredibly photogenic, with perfect teeth and flawless skin—extolling the virtues of some product or another, or a restaurant, or a destination. And then another. And another. Influencer marketing is an unintended consequence of the social media revolution. Platforms like YouTube and TikTok allowed ordinary people to build followings—and, in a way, become celebrities. Brands and businesses soon latched onto these influencers, leveraging the trust they had with their audiences to advertise products.

AI Marketing Meets Influence: The Creator Economy OS – June 18, 2025  

Brands are investing heavily in influencer partnerships. The global creator economy is projected to grow from $203 billion in 2025 to $848 billion by 2032. But too often, marketers are flying blind. Data is siloed. Campaigns are run on spreadsheets. And marketers are forced to guess which creators truly align with their brand.

Influencer Marketing Class Actions on the Rise: Common Themes & Key Takeaways – June 17, 2025  

A wave of class action lawsuits targeting influencer marketing practices has emerged in the first half of 2025, signaling what could be a popular trend in consumer class action litigation. With demands for substantial monetary and injunctive relief and significant brand damage at stake, influencer marketing lawsuits can be detrimental for brands and influencers alike. Companies, influencers, and other influencer marketing stakeholders would be wise to take note of the recent lawsuits and their striking similarities, which suggest a potential new formula for plaintiffs’ attorneys to replicate on a wider scale.

Creator marketing trends to watch at Cannes Lions 2025 – June 16, 2025  

At Cannes Lions, the drinks are flowing and the creator presence keeps growing. During this year’s festival, which kicks off Monday, creators like Kai Cenat, Amelia Dimoldenberg, and Alix Earle are set to make appearances. The Publicis-owned influencer marketing platform Influential is returning for the third year and hosting Influential Beach, which promises to be “bigger than ever.” (Publicis is also, apparently, trying to make a lion—which happens to be the festival’s mascot—an influencer.) Beyond that, creator programming and discussions at this week’s festival are going to be more integrated than in years past, Becky Owen, global CMO of influencer marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy, told us.

Influencers are taking over the marketing industry – June 16, 2025  

For the first time, ad revenue from user-generated content and platforms will exceed the amount earned from professionally produced content this year, according to WPP Media’s global president of business intelligence.

How B2B food brands can leverage influencer marketing – June 16, 2025  

Whether you’re selling pepperoni or POS systems, the same principle holds: People trust people. That’s why foodservice brands — from equipment manufacturers to ingredient suppliers — are turning to trusted social media voices to connect with buyers in a more human, high-impact way. B2B marketers are getting creative, working with social media influencers to co-create new recipes, showcase equipment in action, promote honest reviews, run contests, and host events.

Influencers are taking over the marketing industry – June 16, 2025  

For the first time, ad revenue from user-generated content and platforms will exceed the amount earned from professionally produced content this year, according to WPP Media’s global president of business intelligence.

Big Brands Are Spending More on Influencer Marketing – June 15, 2025  

Influencer marketing budgets are growing, as more and more brands look to tap into the popularity of online creators to boost their branding efforts. Because these days, big-name YouTubers and TikTok stars are just as recognizable as TV and film actors, while there are also many niche-specific influencers offering more specialized reach, as well as platform-specific creative nous, which can help to drive your messaging with just the right audience.

Big Brands Are Spending More on Influencer Marketing – June 15, 2025  

Influencer marketing budgets are growing, as more and more brands look to tap into the popularity of online creators to boost their branding efforts. Because these days, big-name YouTubers and TikTok stars are just as recognizable as TV and film actors, while there are also many niche-specific influencers offering more specialized reach, as well as platform-specific creative nous, which can help to drive your messaging with just the right audience.

Why Kerrygold’s Butter-Themed Influencer Trip Went Viral on TikTok  – June 13, 2025  

Kerrygold’s recent brand trip proves influencer trips are still a way to generate positive buzz. In the past couple of years, influencer brand trips have seemingly fallen out of favor with consumers. If a brand trip stirs negative conversation across social media, marketers face backlash for being out of touch and showing a gross display of wealth. But Kerrygold’s latest brand trip is evidence that doesn’t have to be the case. 

Move over, Becks. It’s time to make room for the nano-influencers – June 13, 2025  

Celebrity endorsements from the likes of David Beckham used to be the holy grail of marketing. Not anymore, says Annie Johnson at Cygnus – authenticity is now king. Once upon a time, influencer marketing was all about star power. From David Beckham sipping soft drinks (Becks loves a brand deal) to supermodels fronting luxury perfume ads. Brands turned to celebrity clout to sell products. The formula was simple: big names + big budgets = big impact. But the world has changed – and so has the way we connect with brands. In 2025, fame is no longer the golden ticket. Trust is.

The ultimate guide to Instagram influencer marketing in 2025 – June 12, 2025  

Instagram is one of the original social media networks for influencer marketing, and it’s still a highly impactful platform for marketers today. With uncertainty surrounding other networks and saturated feeds, partnering with creators is no longer optional—it’s how brands break through the noise and authentically tap into trends.

The Rise of B2B Influencers on LinkedIn – June 12, 2025  

Influencer marketing has made its way into the B2B playbook, transforming how brands build trust and connect with buyers. Brands are increasingly relying on creator-led content to leverage trust and credibility with buyers. As a result, B2B buyers are turning to digital communities for clarity, credibility and insights that speak directly to their industry concerns. In a professional context, 59% of B2B buyers saying they consume creator content on LinkedIn— more than on any other platform.

Always-On Influencer Programs: Rolling Brief Framework for 12-Month Partnerships – June 10, 2025  

Many creators lament overly prescriptive briefs that stifle their unique voice, yet brands worry that too little direction risks off-brand content. A clear pattern emerges: rigid, short-term campaigns struggle to keep pace with shifting platform trends and audience expectations. Brand-influencer collaboration insights reveal that when influencers “follow a brief word for word,” engagement plummets, whereas long-term collaborations empower creators to iterate and build trust.

Starbucks is hiring full-time content creators to travel the world and post on social media – June 10, 2025  

Here’s a dream job for chronically online coffee lovers: Starbucks is hiring two full-time content creators for a 12-month gig posting content at Starbucks locations around the world. The role, aptly titled “global coffee creator,” involves traveling to between 10 and 15 Starbucks locations, from Milan to Costa Rica, and capturing “the local culture, community, and atmosphere surrounding each Starbucks location,” according to the job description.

Avoiding Creative Bottlenecks in Influencer Collabs: 10 Mistakes Brands Make – June 10, 2025  

Are you still asking influencers for long “About Me” decks instead of watching their latest TikToks? Do you find yourself scrambling to answer last-minute edits and chasing late payments? Nowadays, brands and agencies repeatedly fall into the same traps: neglecting real-time content audits, burying pricing in dense text, and treating video creation as a one-off task rather than a structured process.

B2B marketing, effectiveness, influencers: 5 interesting stats to start your week – June 9, 2025  

Almost two-thirds of B2B marketers say their marketing strategy is “incomplete” without influencers. While B2B marketers may have been slower to embrace influencer marketing than their B2C counterparts, working with creators is now a core element of their marketing plans. According to new data from LinkedIn, 94% of the 3,000 B2B marketers it surveyed globally say influencer marketing is among their most effective strategies to achieve direct sales.

How To Avoid The Seven Deadly Sins Of Influencer Marketing – June 9, 2025  

You’ve heard of the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth. It’s easy for both influencers and brands to fall prey to them because of the nature of social media, where instant gratification is prized and comparison is frequent. For influencers, giving in to the seven deadly sins can mean cutting into their livelihood because it impacts their audience relationships and brands’ desire to work with them. Brands can also be tempted, which can impact their following and credibility. My agency has advised content creators and brand representatives on avoiding these pitfalls and making the most of their influencer marketing efforts.

Five Shifts In Influencer Marketing Reshaping Business Strategy – June 9, 2025  

Once a space dominated by bloggers, influencer marketing has evolved into a multi-billion-dollar industry that dictates how brands connect with consumers across global markets. While Millennials and Gen Z have been the driving force behind this shift, the impact now extends beyond younger demographics, influencing purchasing decisions across all age groups.

Danone Is Redefining the Influencer Marketing Playbook  – June 6, 2025  

At a time when culture moves quickly and content is ubiquitous, Danone is redefining the marketing playbook along with Linqia, its agency of record and one of the largest influencer agencies in the world. Linqia’s chief strategy officer, Keith Bendes, sat down with Danone’s chief marketing officer, Linda Bethea, and executive creative director, Eric Flinn, at ADWEEK’s 2025 Social Media Week in May to discuss their ever-evolving marketing strategy and philosophy.

Most Influencers Use AI to Create Content but Consumers Are Skeptical  – June 5, 2025  

The vast majority of influencers are using artificial intelligence but consumers want influencers to be transparent about how the technology is being used, according to new research commissioned by survey company Typeform.

What to know before you start your B2B influencer campaign – June 5, 2025  

If you think about B2B influencers at all, you might think of large-scale accounts with crossover appeal like Corporate Natalie. But in the emerging world of content creators who specialize in appealing to white collar professionals, small accounts can pay big dividends – especially for those just getting involved in the space.

Google Tests AI Versions of High-Profile Influencers – June 5, 2025  

The implementation of gen AI seems to get weirder and weirder, while we’re continually told about how valuable and useful such experiences will become.

Most B2B marketers say influencer marketing one of ‘most effective strategies’   – June 4, 2025  

While B2B marketers may have been slower to embrace influencer marketing than their consumer-focused counterparts, working with creators is now a core element of their marketing plans. According to new data from LinkedIn, 94% of 3,000 B2B marketers globally say influencer marketing is among their most effective strategies to achieve direct sales.   

How Dove’s first creator-led campaign paves way forward for Unilever – June 4, 2025  

Just days after becoming CEO of Unilever in March, Fernando Fernandez made waves by discussing plans to move to a social-first advertising strategy, shifting 50% of ad spend to the channel and looking to work with 20 times as many influencers. Even as social media remains one of the fastest growing marketing channels across the industry this year, it was a bold statement. 

How Influencer Marketing Is Rewiring The Consumer Journey – June 4, 2025  

The way consumers shop today looks nothing like it did a decade ago. Gone are the days when a flashy TV commercial or a celebrity endorsement could drive meaningful sales. Now, purchasing decisions happen in comment sections, Instagram DMs, YouTube reviews and, increasingly, at immersive brand experiences. Influencer marketing isn’t just a trend; it’s fundamentally reshaping the path from discovery to purchase, creating a new, symbiotic relationship between digital content and real-world connection.

​​16 Strategies For Boosting Company Marketing With Influencers – June 4, 2025  

No marketing strategy today is complete without a social media component. As social media continues to be a major way companies reach their target audiences, influencer-infused marketing campaigns for new products and services will become much more common. However, companies would be remiss to assume that simply partnering with a popular influencer is enough to sway consumers to purchase. Below, 16 Forbes Business Council members share how companies can effectively leverage influencers in their marketing while ensuring it feels genuine and natural to their customers.

How This Influencer Strategy Drove Growth in a Down Market – June 3, 2025  

There comes a time in every company’s existence when “a board asks the brand marketer to validate their existence,” Matt Kerbel, Turo’s global brand strategy director, says. At the San Francisco-based car rental service, that time came last year. According to Kerbel, most marketers in this position argue that their work is hard—or even impossible—to measure. But in his opinion, that’s a myth.

The secret to brand-safe virality? Trendy, licensed music – June 3, 2025  

Remember that one song that goes “doo ba doo ba doo ba doo, ba doo ba doo ba doo ba doo”? Okay, probably not from that description. But if it played out of a phone speaker right now, chances are that anyone who has been on TikTok in the last year or two would recognize it—but still might not be able to name it.

Creative Freedom vs Brand Guardrails: Finding the Sweet Spot in Your Influencer Brief – June 2, 2025  

How much freedom should influencers really have—and where should brands draw the line? That’s the recurring tension in today’s brand collaborations. Creators want to “just do you,” but they also recognize that ignoring a brief can cost them future deals.

Social News

X Hires New Head of Product To Reignite Growth – June 30, 2025  

This could be a significant hiring for X, and the future development of the app. Today, app designer Nikita Bier has announced that he is joining X as head of product, which will see Bier bring his expertise to the app, and could spark all-new growth opportunities.

X Will Soon Charge for Ads Based on the Size of Visuals – June 29, 2025  

After announcing that hashtags would be banned from all Promoted Posts on X last week, X owner Elon Musk also flagged another coming to change to X’s ad process, with bigger ads to soon cost more per placement.

TikTok Launches Bulletin Boards for Broadcast Messaging From Creator and Brand Profiles – June 27, 2025 

TikTok’s experimenting with its own variation of broadcast channels, which enables brands and creators to share message updates with their audience in the app.

Snapchat Shares Insight Into How It Influences Consumer Electronics Purchases – June 27, 2025 

Snapchat has published a new report into the role it plays in the purchase cycle for consumer electronics, based on a study of 3,000 electronics shoppers across five markets. And as you might expect (given the report was published by Snap), the data shows that Snapchat drives significant interest in electronics discovery.

LinkedIn Adds Video Covers for Articles and Newsletters – June 26, 2025 

LinkedIn’s rolling out a new option to make your articles stand out in-stream, which also aligns with its broader push on video content. Soon, all LinkedIn members will be able to add a video in the header image slot on a LinkedIn article.

Meta Says It Fixed an Issue That Led To Erroneous Facebook Group Suspensions – June 25, 2025 

If you manage a Facebook group that’s been inexplicably banned over the last week or so, you’re not alone. As reported by TechCrunch, thousands of Facebook groups have been suspended of late, with many pointing the finger at faulty AI-detection for incorrectly tagging them as violating the platform’s rules.

Social Platforms Explore Age Verification Options to Comply With Teen Access Regulations – June 20, 2025  

While many regions are pushing for new age limits on social media access, the key challenge remains that there’s currently no universal technology that enables platforms to verify user ages, nor a process in place that would definitively stop youngsters from accessing social apps. Over the last year, several European nations, including France, Greece and Denmark, have put their support behind a proposal to restrict social media access to users aged under 15, while Spain has proposed a 16 year-old access restriction.

How TikTok Shop’s New Badges Will Drive In-App Sales – June 20, 2025  

TikTok Shop has rapidly established itself as a major player in social commerce. While its U.S. market share remains modest compared to global benchmarks, recent data reveals that over 11% of American households have already made at least one TikTok Shop purchase since its launch in the U.S.

TikTok Launches New AI-Powered Ad Creation Tools, Integrations With Adobe and WPP – June 16, 2025  

TikTok’s announced some new AI-powered elements for its TikTok Symphony brand creation platform, including updated text-to-video creation, image-to-video animation, and more. First off, TikTok’s rolling out its own version of text-to-video, which will generate AI video using TikTok’s own AI tools.

TikTok Says In-Stream Shopping Has Increased 120% This Year – June 15, 2025  

TikTok has shared some new stats on in-stream shopping engagement in the app, which it says has seen a big rise over the past year. According to TikTok, Americans, in particular, are warming to its TikTok Shop offerings, as it continues to promote its in-app buying options to its billion-plus users.

YouTube Offers Expanded Monetization Avenues for Educational Content – June 15, 2025  

YouTube’s added another revenue opportunity for creators, with its “Player for Education” program giving creators a share of any revenue earned when their content is embedded as part of a schools initiative. That could be a big boost for certain creators who make videos that include an educational element, and could lead to more educational content creators coming to the app.

Snapchat Adds New Creator Tools, Updated Analytics Elements – June 12, 2025  

Snapchat’s rolling out some new ways to make more use of your Snap content, along with some additional analytics elements to help creators improve their in-app performance.

Meta Says Link Posts on Threads Are Seeing Better Performance – June 8, 2025  

According to Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, the Threads team has been working to improve the reach of links in the app, with a view to encouraging more publishers and creators to post to the app.

Instagram Says Trial Reels Have Helped Creators Significantly Increase Reach – June 8, 2025  

Instagram’s trial Reels have been available for just on six months now, and IG is keen to get more creators trying out its audience sampling feature, in order to help boost content performance.

LinkedIn Shares Video Posting Best Practices – June 5, 2025  

Video view time in the app has increased by 36% year-over-year, while video content now generates 1.4x more engagement than other post types. 

Instagram Announces Latest Updates for Edits App, Including More Transition Effects – June 3, 2025  

Instagram continues to roll out more updates for its new Edits app, with another set of new creative tools now available in the video customization platform.

Organic posts and brand-voice tests: how advertisers are approaching Threads – June 2, 2025  

In April, Meta’s Threads, which counts over 350 million monthly active users, opened up to all advertisers. Less than two months in, many advertisers are still in wait-and-see mode, media buyers told Marketing Brew, but some agencies are pitching spending on Threads as a “low risk, high learning opportunity,” Anna Hofer, group director of integrated media at Stagwell’s Assembly, said. As more advertisers test out the platform, it could open the doors to continued investment from more cautious brands.

 

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