Net Influencer

Creator duo Colin & Samir have partnered with Lexus to produce “Colin & Samir Start Over,” a four-part video series distributed as paid media across YouTube. The first episode launched on July 14. The series is powered by the Lexus GX 550 and Lexus RZ 550e and follows Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry as they travel across the U.S. pursuing four creative projects: making music, off-roading, shaping surfboards, and learning to make chai.

When Nicholas Blake reviewed investment opportunities in and around the Influencer Marketing space from a private equity desk, he concluded that the most interesting investment wasn’t the agencies themselves. It was the talent those agencies depended on. That thesis brought him to The Bloom Network, a boutique creator talent management firm with one manager, a growing roster, and a back office built on spreadsheets.

Weekly podcast consumers rate podcast hosts as more influential than any other media figure, including social media influencers, according to the sixteenth edition of Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights’ “Podcast Download” report. Asked whose influence matters most to them, 52% of weekly respondents named podcast hosts, more than double the 24% who pointed to social media influencers. TV and movie celebrities drew 15%, and AM/FM radio hosts drew 10%.

FARQ just ran its fourth annual creator retreat, the first time the talent agency has put its UK and U.S. rosters in the same room. The event has never turned a profit, and Georgia Farquharson, the agency’s founder, says it was never built to. What it buys instead, she says, is retention. Georgia founded FARQ in 2021, during the pandemic-era boom in influencer content, on a specific complaint about her own industry: talent management, in her view, mostly ignores the fact that creators are isolated.

WWE is producing an original live-action microdrama with ReelShort, pairing wrestlers Drew McIntyre, Joe Hendry and Jacob Fatu with established vertical stars Marc Herrmann and Chase Mattson, per The Hollywood Reporter. Plot details remain undisclosed. Filming begins next month, with a premiere slated for fall.

The first time Emmy Combs attended VidCon as a creator, she came hoping to meet others who were doing what she was doing. This year, she returned as a featured creator with two panels and an audience that traveled to find her specifically. The distance between those two moments measures something the beauty industry has struggled to articulate: what it looks like to build a career by leaning into difference rather than away from it.

Radio host Elvis Duran has partnered with WWE personality Paul Heyman and production company MCM Studios to launch Podrophenia, a new venture aimed at developing, producing, and monetizing video podcasts for creators. As reported by Variety, the company brings together three partners: the Elvis Duran Group, Looking4Larry (a creative marketing agency co-founded by Heyman and producer Mitchell Stuart), and MCM Studios, headed by Michael Canzoniero.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation paid more than 50 influencers over $500,000 combined over the past two and a half years as part of its “Pure Michigan” tourism campaign, according to a report from 9and10News. The sponsored posts highlighted Michigan activities and culture, with the goal of drawing potential visitors and people considering a move to the state, the report said.

WPP has appointed former TikTok executive Rema Vasan as Global President, Social and Creator for WPP Open X, the agency network’s integrated marketing unit serving The Coca-Cola Company. Vasan will lead the capability transformation for Coca-Cola across social, creator marketing, culture, commerce and artificial intelligence.

The global livestreaming industry generated 31.4 billion Hours Watched in the second quarter of 2026, the largest quarterly total on record, according to a report from Streams Charts. The total marked an 8% increase over the first quarter, driven largely by the 2026 FIFA World Cup. YouTube accounted for the bulk of that growth, surpassing 15.5 billion Hours Watched in the quarter, up 14.8% from Q1.