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Marketing Brew

Ryan Barwick

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 X ad costs, engagement continue to fall, per report 

Data from Tracer provided a snapshot of the ad platform ecosystem.

 X ad costs and engagement continue to fall, per report 

Katie Hicks

Influencer at the center of a ring light being scanned

Deepfakes are spreading, putting creator and brand safety at risk

Michel Janse, who said her likeness was recently used without her consent, told Marketing Brew the experience was “violating.” 

How brands are thinking about a possible TikTok ban

Duolingo, Osea Malibu, and Truff are among the brands that tell us they’d turn to alternative short-form video platforms, like Instagram Shorts and YouTube Reels.

An @ symbol denoting social media and influencers

Social & Influencers

Jasmine Sheena

This fall, digital creators are officially getting a seat at the table in Washington.

The Congressional Creators Caucus, a group dedicated to giving creators space to discuss public policy, was first announced in June, and is expected to roll out full-steam ahead when lawmakers return to Washington in September.

The caucus was initially facilitated by YouTube creators Matthew and Stephanie Patrick, who are behind the YouTube channel The Game Theorists, as a way to raise issues creators face as small-business operators. The organization, which has support from 

, has bipartisan support: the caucus is headed by Republican US Rep. Beth Van Duyne and Democratic US Rep. Yvette Clarke.

The caucus comes as the creator economy is projected to grow to $480 billion by 2027, according to creator platform Kajabi. Even as the industry grows and adapts, creators, some of whom generate 

 individually, face a number of business challenges, Van Duyne said.

“When you look at these content creators, the majority of them are small businesses,” she said. “They’re not really treated like small businesses. I don’t think a lot of people think of content creators as revenue generators.”

Van Duyne, who sits on the House Committee on Small Business, recalls visiting a $5 million, 80,000-square-foot production facility in February that the YouTuber account Dude Perfect erected in Frisco, Texas, the state she reps. There, she said, she spoke with Dude Perfect employees about the struggles creators face—one of which is the lack of recognition as small businesses.

During the visit, YouTube’s team pitched her on the idea for the caucus, she told us.

 posted to X, Matthew Patrick (who goes by MatPat online) said that the caucus will focus on educating lawmakers on specific issues affecting creators such as responsible use of AI and clearer tax codes for classifying creators, and Van Duyne said the caucus will work on policies ensuring that the US stays ahead in the international AI race while putting “guardrails on without stifling that progress.”

To that end, the caucus will support tax legislation that is representative of creators’ unique financial circumstances, Van Duyne said.

“The income that they’re making ebbs and flows: They can make a ton of money one day, and then they can make nothing for weeks,” Van Duyne said. The caucus “needs to hear these stories…as we are creating laws around this industry.”

The caucus is looking to intake with creators whose perspectives stand to inform its discussions and policies, and Van Duyne said the group is sourcing them through YouTube, as well as through an intake form on Clarke’s site. To evaluate and vet the creators they work with, Van Duyne’s own team considers criteria like subscriber-base size and the amount of time a creator has been active, according to the lawmaker.

She has ambitions for the caucus to be a lively and active group and plans to hold meetings once the session begins.

“A lot of caucuses that we’ve got in Congress, some are very active, and some of them barely ever meet,” she said. “I would like this to be an active caucus, and I want to give content creators a platform directly to lawmakers.”

The Congressional Creators Caucus is taking on Washington this fall

The bipartisan group, backed by YouTube and Patreon, is dedicated to giving creators space to discuss public policy.

As if streaming wasn’t fragmented enough, audiences now have plenty of social media series to tune into, too.

, which portrays a fictional restaurant with all characters played by creator Drew Talbert, are 

 online, and brands seem eager to get in on the action.

 wrapped Season 2 of its weekly TikTok series 

 released Season 4 of its social soap opera 

 to make a sketch comedy series about blush called 

Brands have tried to re-create TV magic before. More than a decade ago, Chipotle released a four-part, 30-minute satirical web series called 

 have attempted to produce their own TV shows (while Zillow is getting front-row treatment in HGTV’s social media-to-TV show 

.) But with minutes-long shows geared toward today’s quick scrollers and vertical screens, this seems to be a new era for organic content, where the lines of advertising and entertainment continue to blur.

Bilt, Pretzelized, and Oatly are among the brands experimenting with the format, and we spoke to marketing execs from each one about what they’ve learned from investing in highly produced, sometimes unbranded social content.

Whether you know it or not, you may have recently watched content from payments and commerce network Bilt. In June, the brand posted the first episode of its series 

, an ultra-short sitcom about young people living in New York that Cyrus Ferguson, senior director of content at Bilt, told us was inspired by 

. The show lives on TikTok and Instagram and has since amassed more than 130,000 followers combined.

Ferguson said the series was created to build brand goodwill and awareness as a purely organic social play. “We had this idea bubbling around more serial, narrative-driven, character-driven content, and how that felt like a really cool opportunity that not a lot of brands were doing,” he said.

The series focuses on renting, which ties to Bilt’s company purpose, but Ferguson said it isn’t meant to promote any specific offering. Rather, 

is aimed at entertaining viewers while complementing Bilt’s “very robust” paid ad strategy, he said. So far, the only mention of Bilt is in the account bio.

Zoe Oz, CMO of Bilt, told us that putting out largely unbranded, humorous organic content is how Bilt aims to catch the attention of savvy, fast-moving TikTok and Reels viewers, many of whom, like Oz, may be ad-avoidant.

“If I see ads, I scroll as fast as I possibly can, because the UIs of these platforms make it very obvious [that] something’s an ad,” she said, noting that “if you can crack that nut and you can really create content people want to see and will go out of their way to watch, they’ll build a much stronger brand affinity.”

How, though, does a brand build affinity if it’s largely hidden? Ferguson said viewers often mention Bilt in the comments and educate each other on what the platform is. Subtle character mentions of the brand and its rewards program are also not off-limits in scripting, Oz said, so long as it’s not “in your face.”

and Ferguson said he and his team are coming up with ideas and shooting episodes every week. They’re thinking through what a season finale and second season might look like, he said, and have begun fielding requests from creators and actors hoping to get involved in future episodes.

“It’s fun to now see that there’s enough appetite from the audience to really treat this like a show,” he said.

This spring, snack brand Pretzelized put out a four-part, vertical-video series, its first digital campaign, called 

 in which two comedians debate the brand’s chip categorization as part pita and part pretzel. The aim of the series, according to Blair Hirak, Pretzelized’s head of digital and social content development, was to help build brand recall.

, and I was like, ‘Well, why don’t we lean into this sketch-comedy approach?’” Hirak told us.

Hirak said she was inspired to make the content episodic after seeing Tower 28’s 

, which was released around the same time. Alex Kalatzis, Tower 28’s director of marketing, told the newsletter Link in Bio that the brand had similarly ventured into scripted comedy as part of a “test and learn” approach.

For Pretzelized, the test paid off. Hirak said the brand, which put about $125,000 in paid behind its series and gained more than 17,000 followers on TikTok, in addition to reaching 9.4 million unique accounts and getting more than 22 million impressions across platforms. Based on the results, she said, the brand is going to continue leaning into comedy, possibly developing a new season of 

or even bringing back the comedians featured as brand ambassadors.

The experience ultimately showed Hirak the importance of not taking social too seriously.

“It’s time to go back to the roots and what social used to be when it first started becoming a thing, which is fun and just throwing stuff against the wall,” she said, adding that it’s important to “[make] sure that that’s entertainment first.”

Dairy-alternative brand Oatly has also recently ventured into the short-series space with 

, a nine-episode series in which Jeremy Mercado, one of the brand’s employees, brings his grandfather Luis to Chicago coffee shops to try drinks he’s never tasted before, like matcha lattes and espresso tonics, and get his unfiltered reaction.

Kevin Warwick, creative producer of Oatly’s global content studio, told us that including Mercado’s grandfather added a naturally comedic element to the series through his banter and outsider perspective. Oatly serves as a “supporting character” in the series, and the oat milk is occasionally used in the drinks or appears in the background, but Warwick said the series isn’t designed to be seen as a commercial. Instead, the spotlight is on the coffee shops featured in the series.

“We’re always looking to show off our expertise in coffee and establish our reverence for the coffee community,” Warwick said.

While the series was mostly unscripted and filmed horizontally for YouTube, Warwick said his team has vertical cuts for TikTok that it’s begun rolling out. If Oatly sees engagement with the series in the Chicago market, he said the brand might film in other cities and continue to build brand reverence by showcasing Oatly’s own employees.

“Within your own walls, there are some real talented personalities that can be in front of a camera and—this sounds incredibly wack—sparkle,” he said. “Giving that talent its own platform can be awesome…and strengthen the brand in the long run.”

A collage of stills from content series from Bilt, Pretzelized, and Oatly

Brands are producing original series for social. Here’s why

From “Alwayz Bratz” to “Roomies,” brands are seeking to entertain viewers in hopes of building brand affinity and reaching savvy, ad-averse audiences. 

Sylvanian Drama, the social media account beloved by brands and 3.5 million followers on TikTok and Instagram, could soon be back with a different name after its latest brand-deal related lawsuit was settled.

Since its inception, the account, which is run by creator Thea von Engelbrechten, has featured “Calico Critters” (known as “Sylvanian Family” dolls outside the US and Canada) in R-rated situations. The account recently went dark after the Calico Critter toymaker Epoch filed a 

 alleging copyright and trademark infringement and accusing von Engelbrechten of profiting off Epoch’s intellectual property without its permission.

That suit has now been resolved through a confidential settlement, according to a 

 from Epoch. The company did not respond to Marketing Brew’s request for comment.

It wasn’t the first time Epoch had tried (and backed down from) legal action against von Engelbrechten. In 2023, the company filed a a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice with TikTok, 

 that von Engelbrechten violated fair use laws, which led to a brief shutdown of the Sylvanian Drama TikTok account in 2024 before the platform reinstated it as a parody account, much to fans’ delight.

In the most recent suit, initially filed in April, Epoch focused on Sylvanian Drama’s deeper venture into brand deals, which Joe Lawlor, advertising and IP lawyer at law firm Haynes Boone, told us can strengthen these kinds of cases. According to court documents, Epoch sought up to $150,000 in damages per work infringed, including for sponsored content with brands like Sephora, Away, Marc Jacobs, Kate Spade, Burberry, Netflix, Supergoop, and Taco Bell. (In the lawsuit, Epoch also cited von Engelbrechten’s interview with 

 last year, in which she stated that she had always wanted to work in advertising.)

“What [Epoch was] going for is that this account was really a marketing/advertising device,” Lawlor said. “It’s all about these brand partnerships [and] trying to paint this account as one that’s not really a creative outlet or parody, but instead one to market products.”

Lawlor, who has no connection to the Epoch lawsuit, said he doesn’t think the trademark claims on the dolls’ likeness were based on a particularly strong argument, but it’s possible that a court could have found merit in the claims that von Engelbrechten used Epoch’s IP to generate profit, rather than simply parodying the brand, he said. Von Engelbrechten indicated in a 

 that the Sylvanian Drama name and profile picture will be replaced.

While Epoch’s suit is wrapped, there could still be risks for brands that choose to partner with parody creators.

While there can be reputational risks that come with being named in lawsuits, Lawlor noted that there didn’t appear to be any blowback on Sylvanian Drama or the brands that partnered with the account, but rather on Epoch, at least based on online chatter.

“People [were] just upset that they [were] not seeing the content that they love on TikTok and that all [seemed] to be directed at Epoch and Calico Critters,” he said.

 to have used Calico Critters toys in parody content, and fans of her page 

) for generating renewed interest in the toys, which first debuted in 1985.

While Lawlor said he understood Epoch’s potential concerns around the use of Calico Critters in brand partnerships and ad content outside of its control, he noted that the toymaker placed itself in a sticky situation by suing an account with a strong fanbase.

Brand partners seem to have been spared in Epoch’s lawsuit, both in reputation and legal risk. While none of the brands were named as co-defendents in the suit, Lawlor said it’s not out of the realm of possibility for brand partners of parody accounts, and that marketers should be aware of certain nuances.

“If you’re looking at the engagement agreement between the brand and the influencer, it might not be clear to someone in legal, who maybe isn’t a prolific TikTok user, what these videos are actually going to end up looking like,” he said.

Lawlor advised brand marketers to consider reviewing any intellectual property being used by creator partners. “When you’re engaging a content creator, think about whether or not they’re using a third party's IP not just because you want to protect the content creator, but because you also want to protect yourself and your brand from potential reputational damage,” he said.

He recommends that brands always review content before it’s posted and to ensure that marketing and legal teams are always talking to limit any possibility of liability that could come with a partner account posting third-party IP.

“Oftentimes, issues like this arrive from a breakdown in that line of communication,” he said.

With the suit now settled, it’s possible that Sylvanian Drama, or its next iteration, could soon return to people’s FYPs (although whether von Engelbrechten will continue to work with brands remains to be seen.) Lawlor said he thinks Epoch would be smart to try to utilize the following that von Engelbrechten has built through some form of mutual agreement or collab—something that von Engelbrechten herself previously told us she’d consider.

Overall, Lawlor said he wouldn’t want the threat of a lawsuit to dissuade creators from making parody content moving forward.

“I hope that this lawsuit doesn’t stop people from doing creative things on the internet,” he said. “I really don’t think it will.”

Photo collage of Calico Critters dolls and a close up of a gavel within shaped containers.

Looking to partner with a brand parody account? Proceed carefully

As the Sylvanian Drama lawsuit wraps up, there are lessons marketers can take away when working with similar accounts.

Jennimai Nguyen

Hunter Ellenbarger didn’t teach Logan Lerman how to talk like an internet girlie—but when Lerman uttered the words, “Girlie, that’s a hard no. Mama, no,” during a video shoot to promote the movie 

Ellenbarger knew he had social marketing gold on his hands.

Ellenbarger is the founder of Star Quality, the design practice and consultancy behind some of the social assets in the online campaign for the Sony Pictures Classics film, a romantic comedy starring Lerman alongside Molly Gordon that premiered in late July. Working alongside Sony’s in-house marketing team, Ellenbarger and his team handled creator partnerships and creative shoots, producing five longform videos for Sony’s YouTube as well as various short-form cuts and paid social ads.

While filming one of these longer interview-based videos, Lerman began speaking in internet, which Ellenbarger identified as a perfect moment to cut into an ad to prompt viewers to buy tickets to the film. That kind of tongue-in-cheek humor, which often hits best with online audiences, brought in more than 350,000 views on a single organic X post; Ellenbarger said the video ended up being one of the film campaign’s better performing pieces of content. The video is emblematic of Ellenbarger’s approach to marketing, which he describes as balancing the highbrow with the lowbrow.

“[My approach] puts the talent, who are these Hollywood stars that people have grown up with, are seeing on acclaimed TV shows, and it makes them more peer to peer, which is how we consume TikTok creators,” Ellenbarger said.

Star Quality began working with Sony Pictures Classics during its campaign for the black comedy 

in 2023, where Ellenbarger worked on exploring new creative formats for paid ads outside of trailers and teasers. When 

 came around two years later, he was called on once again to create bespoke ads for social designed to stand out from the crowd of film marketing online.

“We always filter our ideation process through, ‘What do we want people to understand about this movie?’” Ellenbarger told Marketing Brew. “I always have this philosophy of, think like a fan.”

meant focusing less on typical promotional material, like the actors’ preparation process, and more on interpretations of the film’s big themes, like creating an anonymous hotline for those with dating advice questions, which actors answered on screen. Ellenbarger finds inspiration from internet series that have already seen success, including 

both of which follow easily identifiable formats.

Leading creative ad shoots aimed at online success requires a level of buy-in from the talent, Ellenbarger said, and he said that the level of enthusiasm to expect from actors or musicians varies across projects. But it’s always a positive when A-list talent is willing to participate in his ideas.

“Everyone’s a little bit different. It depends on how they want their own personal brands to seem,” he said. “But I think the [artists] that I’ve noticed be more successful as far as returns at the box office or album sales…are the ones that are a little bit more down to play the game.”

Ellenbarger found the cast to be particularly game for his “more playful, silly ideas,” and the film went on to score a top 10 box office debut weekend at $1.15 million, which he said felt like a win considering that the limited release went up against major franchises like 

Beyond social videos, Star Quality was responsible for what Ellenbarger calls “creator matchmaking,” which involves finding and commissioning influencer partnerships for sponsored content.

partnered with comedian Hannah Esky and the popular Instagram account @afffirmations. Esky, known for what Ellenbarger described as “unhinged tarot readings,” made 

 in her signature style touching on plot points from the film without giving anything away; @afffirmations also created a 

 mirroring its general post format featuring stills from the movie and red carpet images of Gordon and Lerman.

“[It’s] less like mechanical influencer marketing and more like brand influencer marketing,” Ellenbarger said of his partnership process.

To find the right creator partners, Ellenbarger said there’s no secret sauce or perfect tool. Instead, he said it comes down to “having really high screen time” and “rabbit hole-ing a lot.” As creator partnerships continue to be a major segment of Star Quality’s work, he’s looking to hire people who understand the internet the way he does—the kind of person who maybe used to run a Tumblr fan blog or can help craft the next viral TikTok sound.

“That’s the type of internet user that is going to find the right people that will actually move the needle,” Ellenbarger said.

Two people at a table covered with a white tablecloth, they're both holding the receiver of a red corded phone.

 Inside the social campaign for ‘Oh, Hi!’ 

Hunter Ellenbarger’s boutique agency Star Quality led the charge on some of the indie film’s most resonant social assets.

 Inside the lowbrow/highbrow approach powering the ‘Oh, Hi!’ social campaign

A cartoon image of Kristina Monllos created by Morning Brew

Kristina Monllos

We’re talking, of course, about the “dream” of content creation, posting content, gaining a massive following on social media, getting a ton of brand deals, and quitting your 9-to-5. Someone might see it as a fool’s game when watching the backlash that one creator, Connor Hubbard, or @hubs.life_, has faced over the last few months.

Hubbard, dubbed “the most boring man on the internet” last year by 

 (1.4 million) for his mundane day-in-the-life videos that, as 

 reported, drove “the internet insane.”

“Most of the world is working,” Hubbard told GQ last May, theorizing why his content 

 had become so popular. “They have to work for a living. They can’t all be influencers.”

 become an influencer. And in February of this year, Hubbard followed the now familiar trajectory, 

 his 9-to-5 to become a full-time content creator, transitioning from what had made him famous to yet another influencer without a traditional day job. (Hubbard did not respond to Marketing Brew’s request for comment.) Since then, Hubbard has faced backlash from his fans for no longer being “

.” There’s even a new content cycle from other creators, 

 what went wrong—a “downfall” that some say “

Hubbard is one of a number of content creators who’ve followed this trajectory, pivoting from a part-time influencer (who has a normal job) to a full-time content creator, dependent on brands and algorithms for income. It’s a difficult transition for any creator to manage, one they should approach with a plan to guide audiences along on the journey, according to influencer marketing and ad agency execs.

While the appeal of content creation can be a sense of freedom and the possibility to create and make money doing so, what’s happening for Hubbard is a reality check that there are boundaries—even for the creator economy.

“It’s a good reminder that if you’re a creator, if the ultimate goal is to work for yourself, you have to work for your audience,” Oliver McAteer, partner and head of development at ad agency Mischief, said. “You do have customers out there, so to speak, consumers that know you for kind of one thing. So it does kind of narrow you or limit you to how far you could go.”

McAteer has experienced limits with his own content. Two and a half years ago, McAteer started to document his experience as a first-time dad on his personal TikTok account called 

. With that page, which has 28,000 followers, he experimented in switching up the content, running a series about being a Brit in America. “Whilst [that] had a life of its own, my followership stalled, and it has stalled to this day,” McAteer said. “And that’s because I tried to change my content and do something a little bit different.”

Doing something different isn’t inherently bad. Creators can and do need to adjust their approach to content creation as they see fit, but their audience may have a reaction to any changes. It’s all a matter of how creators manage a shift in their approach to the content.

“If you think of it more like I’m switching up my content and I’m making a major life change—there’s always a risk with that; a lot of times, that risk pays off,” Mae Karwowski, founder and CEO of influencer marketing agency Obviously, said. “Your audience truly has a parasocial relationship with you, and they really feel like they know you really well if you’re doing a good job, so you really need to understand and be very thoughtful about how you make a transition.”

Karwowski believes that creators should think of themselves as akin to magazines. For instance, Karwowski posited that if Vogue started posting 

 out of nowhere, its subscribers would probably unsubscribe. Creators making a stark transition in content should consider a scenario like that and think about what followers might want from them, she said.

For creators, it’s not just a matter of whether or not they’re making audiences happy. There’s a ripple effect: “You as a creator should be taking cues from your followers,” Christina Goswiller, SVP and head of social transformation for Digitas, said. “Ultimately, they’re the ones who are engaging with your content, [determining] the performance of your content, which then determines brand deals and your livelihood.”

If a marketer was looking to work with a creator because of their specific type of content and the audience they’ve cultivated, but then that creator makes a change, they could end up losing out on future brand deals.

Marketers may want to “reevaluate that partnership,” Goswiller said, adding that it depends on the longevity of the relationship.

And even if a creator wants to quit what made them successful, it can be smarter to stick with what has worked, Karwowski said. She shared a parallel of a successful small-town content creator who moves to LA, and “then the lifestyle creep is so real, and now it’s just LA influencer content,” she said. “I always advise, if you don’t have to move, [don’t].”

Hubslife backlash is a reminder that audiences can be fickle

Transitioning from the content you're known for isn't as easy as it seems. 

Creator Madi Marotta’s first official day on the job as Waterboy’s new social media manager was a tropical and eventful one.

The electrolyte additive company was off on its second-ever brand trip, this year to Tulum, Mexico, with some big-name influencers, their plus-ones, and regular-schmegular customers all in tow. With 38 people representing the brand in some capacity, they were there mostly to party and hang out, and Marotta was there to capture it all.

She created dozens of social videos for TikTok, many taking a casual, creator-as-brand-voice approach and showing Waterboy’s guests indulging in the party scene. But the TikTok audience was unimpressed with the content she gathered, and she took on what some would consider a rather unfortunate title: worst social media manager ever.

Waterboy’s co-founder and CEO, Mike Xhaxho, wasn’t fazed by the criticism. In fact, his TikTok bio recently described him as a “Madi stan,” and the online backlash has inspired the brand’s latest TikTok series featuring Marotta trying to figure out how to be a “good” social media manager, humorously leaning into the critique. While he told us that the brand trip’s social content wasn’t designed to spark outrage, the team tried to make the most of it, and it fit into the brand’s untraditional approach to marketing.

“It’s just who we are, which is a little bit polarizing, for better or worse,” Xhaxho said.

For Waterboy’s inaugural brand trip last year, it focused on 

 as a way to appreciate their supporters and in response to online sentiment that seemed to shift away from over-the-top influencer trips, Xhaxho said.

This year, Xhaxho said the strategy was to “double dip” by inviting customers and influencers like Kelsey Anderson, Brandon Edelman (better known as Bran Flakezz), and Ken Eurich, in addition to guests of influencers who were followers chosen via sweepstakes hosted on the influencers’ accounts.

“That’s still the thesis, that we’re doing a customer trip,” Xhaxho said. “But how cool would it maybe be for the customers to be able to party and hang out alongside their favorite creators?”

Some TikTok viewers picked up on this thesis, but several were displeased with its execution online, calling out the brand for seeming to only show the influencers and not customers or followers in its videos. Xhaxho said this was intentionally in response to feedback the brand received on last year’s brand trip, where some viewers said the customers shown in last year’s videos seemed like they were being forced to create ads.

“It feels like on social right now, everything’s kind of under that magnifying glass,” Xhaxho said. “And maybe certain customers view these trips as lavish and wasteful, but for us, it still helps achieve reach and awareness cost effectively.”

During the trip, Marotta helmed 42 TikToks posted to the Waterboy account. Of those, Marketing Brew counted 10 videos that featured mentions of the product or showed it on screen. Still, one of the chief critiques from TikTok commenters was that the product wasn’t shown enough, or positioned as a hangover cure for the partyers on screen.

Screenshot of comment that reads "Went through 40 TikToks and still don't know what Waterboy is"

Xhaxho said that Waterboy doesn’t go into its brand trips with “elaborate plans around exactly the content we want to capture.” Rather, the team approaches the trips with high-level goals like driving awareness. As for marketing it as a hangover cure, he said that’s never been part of the brand’s messaging.

“We don’t want to communicate that, ‘Hey, we have this weekend recovery product that you can go out and get smashed, take this, and wake up feeling fine,’ because that’s not what it does, and we’re fine showcasing content in which it’s not that,” he said. “I know one element of the controversy [online] was, ‘If they took Waterboy, why are they hungover?’ It’s like, well, Waterboy is not this perfect hangover preventer. We would not be charging you $2 a stick if we somehow had the cure for hangovers.”

Overall, viewers were also unsatisfied with the brand’s production level, commenting on details like camera quality and Marotta’s content style, with one person writing “nothing about this page screams professional or very put together” and suggesting the content was more suited to a personal account. But to Xhaxho, Marotta’s style was a key part of why he hired her, as he felt it aligned with the brand.

“Her content style is very much like talking to the camera, vlogging, high energy, so we felt like that would be someone that would be able to document the trip,” he said. “The idea of the content on the trip was, ‘How do we make someone feel like they’re there?’”

Despite the criticism, Xhaxho told us that during and immediately following the trip, the company saw its best month of sales across its website, Amazon, and retail in the company’s history, though he declined to share specific sales numbers. Now, it’s all about continuing the moment.

“We found ourselves in this interesting echo chamber of ‘You’re so bad at marketing,’ and then we made the most of that moment,” he said. “But it’s like, how do we continue to grow the brand and create more of our own earned moments?”

As the Waterboy TikTok account doubles down, Xhaxho said he doesn’t regret the way the Tulum trip played out. Ultimately, if some consumers associate Waterboy with “bad” marketing, Xhaxho said there are worse things for a brand to be associated with, like poor customer relations or having an undesirable product, and he sees Marotta’s content approach as a way to stand out while remaining true to the brand.

“We don’t need everyone to love us because unfortunately, in trying to do so, I think what will end up happening is everyone will just feel very lukewarm at best,” he said. “It’s okay if we can have 10% of people love us and 90% of people hate us. That’s better than everyone else feeling pretty indifferent.”

Collage of screenshots from Waterboy's TikTok showing the brand trip and a photo showing guests holding up shot glasses.

Waterboy doesn’t regret that brand trip 

A brand-new social media manager, partying influencers, and unpolished content caught TikTok’s eye for all the wrong reasons—but did it end up helping more than hurting?

 are supposed to be there to find love, so when drama emerges, they’re often asking: Is this person here for the right reasons?

The better question might be: Have the right reasons evolved?

For many reality show contestants, the biggest benefit of appearing on unscripted television isn’t to walk away a winner, but rather to use their raised profiles as a launchpad for their personal brand, according to Tamika Rose, director of campaign management at talent agency Kensington Grey.

“I don’t know if everyone will find love on a [reality show], so there has to be some form of understanding that you will have additional benefits of being on a show like this,” Rose told us. “Approaching it that way is normal at this point. I think people should capitalize on the opportunity that they’re getting.”

And capitalize they are. Hannah Brown, who first competed on Season 23 of 

is the most followed former contestant from the Bachelor franchise, reaching 2.7 million people on Instagram; an AT&T Savings 

 from 2020, after Brown starred in her own season of 

, estimated that she averaged between $5,260 and $8,767 per sponsored Instagram post. Meanwhile, 

Leah Kateb boasts 4.6 million Instagram followers; according to an estimate from creator platform Hafi.pro, she brings in more than $100,000 a month from sponsored social content.

contestants like Season 1’s Aïssata Diallo and Season 2’s Justine Joy Ndiba, has helped create social media careers lasting beyond the immediate hype wave of a season and connected brands to creators for years after the bombshell leaves the villa. While she said that crafting a resonant personal narrative is key, there’s a lot more to it, she told us. Here’s how she gets it done.

Rose encourages reality contestants to begin working with a creator agency far before an onscreen introduction to legions of TV fans.

“Please seek out representation even before you go on the show,” Rose said. “Or after the show, make sure your inbox is open and you’re looking for somebody to help represent who you are now that you have millions of followers.”

In Rose’s experience, some reality show cast members may not be well-versed in the influencer world and sometimes don’t know how to navigate issues like rates, content ownership, or contract negotiations, which can put them at a disadvantage. Management firms can often provide the expertise that newer influencers might otherwise lack, she said.

Once representation is secured, Rose said understanding the client’s personal story is key to laying the foundation for a sustainable creator career, she said. This can look like doubling down on aspects of their personalities that resonated onscreen or introducing new categories of content they’d like to produce.

’s most recent breakout star, Huda Mustafa, who came to the show as a fitness coach. If Rose was working with Mustafa—or someone with a similar background—she suggested leaning into fitness as an area of interest.

“[After the show], we’re looking to see who the biggest names within that industry are, and how can we align her with that?” Rose said. “If…her audience actually resonates really strongly with that, then we’d continue to make that a strong pillar for her.”

That’s not always the case. In the case of Diallo, from Season 1, new fans might have learned about her for the beauty-and-bikinis branding core to the show—but Rose said she helped Diallo pivot, instead elevating Diallo’s personal connection to her religion and leaning into more “modest fashion.”

Rose said the shift helped Diallo defy fans’ expectations, and Diallo said it was necessary for her broader career ambitions.

“My goal was not to be known for being on reality TV, so I knew I had to shift the narrative,” Diallo told us. “I knew that I wanted to brand myself in a way that the brands that I will potentially work with are only elevating my storytelling and speaking to my audience.”

In the reality-to-influencer pipeline, timing can feel like it’s everything, but Rose believes intentional brand partnerships are often more crucial than speed.

“Timing is important, but we want to make sure that whatever the partnership is, it’s very intentional, and it has a long-term brand perception,” Rose said. “We would most likely look to make sure that we catch momentum, but we are not sacrificing the integrity of that creator or their platform.”

Inside the reality-TV-star-to-influencer pipeline 

Talent agency Kensington Grey has worked with alums of ‘Love Island’ and other unscripted hits to turn their moments in the spotlight into lasting business.