Creator Economy

If these tests stick, the first thing people see when they open Facebook or Instagram becomes a video feed. Creators who rely on followers seeing their photos, carousels or text posts may lose that default spot. The Verge reports that Instagram users can switch back, and that Meta has hinted at a possible US expansion of the Facebook version in 2027.

There may be an upside. The Verge cites Morning Consult polling in which 81% of US respondents had watched a Reel but only 39% had posted one. Lots of viewers and fewer makers could favor creators willing to make video. Now is a sensible time to test vertical cuts of what you already make, and to track whether reach on your static posts slips. Not every test ships.

That's something you might want to look at carefully. Tubefilter, citing Digiday, reports that the $100 million rests on pledges from CMOs Mann won't name. They aren't signed deals. They could be mates in the pub; they could be anything. So while it's a fantastic headline, and if it's true it bodes well for the creator economy, I'd like to see some of it in writing, or actually happening, before I open the champagne.

Creator City, a four-acre Los Angeles campus with five soundstages due to open in February 2027 according to Tubefilter, could be useful for LA-based teams. The report doesn't say who gets access or what it costs. Ask both before planning around it.

For anyone making health content, the uncomfortable finding is that the outfit does a lot of the work. Tubefilter reports that the Virginia Commonwealth University study found medical attire and clinic backdrops drew significantly more comments than casual clothes and personal settings, and interviewees tended not to question physician-influencers' product recommendations.

I'm not surprised. People consume what's easiest to digest. Most doctors aren't personalities: they're dry, matter-of-fact and, quite literally, clinical. So when a YouTuber or TikToker bounces onto the screen full of personality and tells people what they want to hear, confirmation bias kicks in, and the easy watch wins. Put that personality in a white coat and you have a very persuasive package.

That trust is an asset, and a liability if a sponsored pick turns out to be a dud. The lesson reaches beyond medicine, too: viewers read the look of expertise as proof of it. If you take brand deals in a specialist niche, be extra clear about what's paid, what's evidence and what's opinion. A stethoscope gets attention. It doesn't replace a disclosure.

For creators, the useful part is how much weight these teens put on who fronts a brand. One panelist told the Shoptalk audience, Digiday reports, that if she doesn't trust a brand's representative, she won't trust the brand. AI-made ads were a "huge turnoff" across the panel.

That doesn't surprise me. People simply don't like AI content. It's inhuman; it's dead behind the eyes. Until AI gets so good we can't tell, it's always going to be on the back foot. So the approach has to be human first, creator first: AI tools that boost the creator, not ones that replace them. Then it becomes a symbiotic relationship, and humans get leveled up. I think that's what's showing here.

It was five teenagers on a conference stage, not a survey. Still, if your audience skews young, keep AI visuals out of sponsored work, pitch brands on how closely you match their buyers, and vet your partners: panelists said they look into labor practices and controversies, and a bad sponsor can rub off on you.