Modern Retail+ Research: Brands are expanding their creator marketing strategies

As brands expand their creator marketing strategies, they are increasingly tapping influencers for more than just awareness campaigns. Many are partnering with creators to help drive seasonal campaigns, support product launches and, in some cases, even help develop products — indicating the continued role creators play as trusted experts and advisors.

The majority of survey respondents (88%) said they work with influencers for seasonal campaigns, while more than three-quarters of respondents (78%) said they work with influencers for product launches.

Retailers like Best Buy are putting these strategies into practice. In September 2025, Best Buy partnered with sports and entertainment creator group Dude Perfect to give brands the opportunity to be showcased on Dude Perfect’s YouTube channel during seasonal events, including the NFL season and the holidays.

In the same month, Albertsons Media Collective, the retail media arm of major grocery retailer Albertsons, partnered with influencer marketing agency Linqia on a campaign that spotlighted Lunar New Year traditions using Linqia’s content creators. The campaign saw three times more engagement on Instagram and four times more engagement on Facebook compared to benchmarks, according to Albertsons.

Beyond seasonal campaigns, brands are increasingly bringing influencers into their product-launch efforts. Some marketers are even co-developing product lines with creators.

Home goods brand Ruggable partnered with online chef and influencer Dan Pelosi on a co-created product collection after noting strong performance on his ShopMy page. The ShopMy platform allows consumers to purchase products specifically curated by creators, stylists, brand founders and celebrities, and it connects creators with brands so they can monetize product recommendations through affiliate links and partnerships. 

“What ShopMy has allowed us to do is scale our influencer program by 20 times,” said Lauren Sherman-Kaoud, Chief Marketing and Creative Officer at Ruggable. “On top of that, we’re using that data to do deeper collaborations with creators. … This is specifically a micro influencer product collaboration strategy.”

As creator marketing matures, brands are also becoming more sophisticated about how they categorize and partner with creators based on campaign goals. Milani Cosmetics’ Chief Marketing Officer Jeremy Lowenstein said he groups creators into three buckets. “The first group consists of creators who help shape brand perception and communicate brand values. The second includes creators who educate consumers about products, such as makeup artists,” Lowenstein said. “The final category is affiliate-focused creators whose primary role is driving sales through livestream shopping and other commerce-focused formats.”

Brands experiment with creator programs and in-house influencers

External influencers remain advertisers’ primary collaborators, but a growing number of brands are relying on a mix of external and in-house creators to create content. Sixty-nine percent of survey respondents said their company works with external influencers, while nearly one-third of respondents (29%) said their company works with both in-house and external influencers.

In an effort to grow their external influencer partnerships, some marketers are establishing creator programs. Unlike one-off influencer campaigns, these programs are intended to build long-term creator-brand relationships by providing creators with incentives such as product education, commissions and early access to promotions. In exchange, creators are expected to produce content, drive engagement, influence purchases and build community. 

Fitness app Strava’s creator program has specific requirements about who can participate. “Everybody that we work with has to authentically use Strava,” said Louisa Wee, Chief Marketing Officer at Strava. “Oftentimes, we are pulling from a network that either has a pro designation — an Olympian, for example — or a verification process to be part of our network. There’s a stringent standard.” 

Strava typically partners with creators for product activations, according to Wee. “They authentically use different features, experiencing new sports or features that would help them be better at their sport of choice,” she explained. “If they can authentically tell a story, we are open to using them, not just to leverage their own social media following, but to create the content that we can then use across multiple channels.” 

YouTube has more than 3 million creators in its YouTube Partner Program, according to the platform. YouTube’s managing director of U.S. video deals and creative works Brian Albert said in an email that viewers can tell when content has been overly produced and that genuine videos perform best. “When brands micromanage a creator’s script, the audience smells the ‘ad’ and moves along,” he said. “The challenge for marketers today is learning to brief goals, not words, and trust the creator to translate the brand’s DNA into their own unique dialect.”

Ulta Beauty has creator programs for both external and in-house influencers. The content appeals to consumers in different ways, according to Kelly Mahoney, CMO at Ulta Beauty. “Our associates are already trusted creators, experts and storytellers whose authentic content and personal connections resonate deeply with beauty lovers,” Mahoney said in an email. “The Ulta Beauty Collective [for external influencers], meanwhile, brings together creators who help us show up authentically across culture, trends and beauty conversations happening across social.”

Relying on employees to act as creators reflects a broader shift toward expertise-driven content. “There are brands that use in-house employees as content creators through their channels, whether it’s chemists [or another type of expert]. I’ve had my product development people doing product education,” Milani Cosmetics’ Lowenstein said. “The influencer world has helped, organically, and sometimes not organically, to amplify the brand message. As an industry, we’ve leaned into cultural conversations because algorithmically, that is what has resonated on those platforms.”

While not a human influencer, language learning app Duolingo’s Duo owl character has resonated with audiences since its debut in 2011. According to Duolingo Chief Marketing Officer Manu Orssaud, the well-known company mascot has also become an influencer in its own right. 

“We have our own influencer. It’s the owl,” Orssaud said. “Often, the reason creators want to work with us is because they don’t necessarily see us as a brand here to make money or sell a product, but they see us as a brand that is actually famous for being a good content creator. It changes the game because it becomes more like two creators collaborating versus a creator and a brand collaborating.”