How Brands Are Expanding Their Influencer Playbook in 2025

Why good morning and happy Thursday! Hope your week has been treating you well. I mean with Love Island USA being back on this week and the NBA Finals tonight, how can it not?

If you’re reading this, I just wanted to say a quick thank you for taking the time. Transparently, it’s been one of those seasons of life where you just need to push through and this newsletter and getting responses is always something that brings me relaxation so I am very grateful for you. It’s by no means easy, but it’s fun.

Also, if you’re going to be at Future Commerce’s VISIONS Summit next Tuesday in NYC, I will see you there. I had to miss the last one and have had FOMO ever since.

This week’s newsletter was inspired by a question I received the other week: What are the best ways brands can work with creators and influencers in 2025 beyond content creation?

So, I put together 5+ ways that you can work with influencers and content creators this year that you might not have thought about.

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by my friends over at Superfiliate. If you’re a brand, you know there are a million ways to work with influencers from affiliate and  ambassador programs to gifting product and paid partnerships and most teams are either doing a little bit of everything or want to. But making it all feel connected? That’s the hard part.

I’ve been using Superfiliate as my end-to-end influencer hub to run and track it my efforts. I first used it with Graza after learning about it two years ago, and since then it’s become one of those tools I keep coming back to for every client. It actually helps you see what’s working, what’s not, and where you can optimize within your influencer program.

One thing not enough people talk about: how annoying it is to get creator content into your paid media funnel. The approvals, the links, the setup. I am triggered even writing that. It’s why so much good content never ends up getting the true love it deserves.

However, their new Meta Ads Suite, built in partnership with Instagram, fixes that and here’s how:

• One-click ad account authentication inside Instagram (no more “did they accept the request?”) or having to sort your way through the jungle that is Meta Business Manager. Pushing top-performing creator content directly into paid is now a breeze.
  

• Track real results in an organized fashion that is actually up to date. Be able to track your  ROAS (return on ad spend), CAC (how much it costs to get a customer), CTR (click-through rate), purchases, and more in one dashboard.
  

• Easily manage what’s live, pending, and paused without digging through a spreadsheet from three campaigns ago wondering if you need to renew usage with a creator or if that one piece of content never even went live.

If you’re tired of chasing approvals, broken spreadsheets, or not knowing what’s actually driving sales, Superfiliate is offering reduced pricing for No Filter readers who commit before July 1st. Interested? Click HERE.

Let’s Get Into It

If you’ve been feeling like the standard influencer partnership format of send product, pay for a post or two is starting to feel a little flat, you’re not alone.

This year, I’ve been noticing more brands looking for ways to go beyond just content creation and really lean into what creators bring to the table. Not in a groundbreaking, “throw out the whole playbook” way, but in a way that feels more thoughtful, more collaborative, and honestly, more effective.

It makes sense, too. According to Aspire’s State of Influencer Marketing 2025 report, 71% of marketers planned to increase their influencer marketing budgets heading into this year. Now, we all know that more money doesn’t always mean better results, but that how you spend matters.

Here are some of the shifts I’ve seen brands exploring that might help spark ideas if you’re wanting to break the mold you have been in:

1. More Collaborative Storytelling

It’s still a sponsored post, but the why is showing up more.

I’ve seen brands involve creators earlier in launches, so that instead of just holding up a product, they’re helping explain what it is, why it exists, and how it fits into people’s routines. They are becoming part of the content strategy, not just a platform for a brand to get the eyeballs.

A recent example that stuck out: Merit’s “Uniform” Rollout.
Creators and influencers weren’t just showing it—they were explaining the formula (via Charlotte Palermino, known for her large education around skincare and SPF and also is also the fellow founder of Dieux, a skincare brand), the finish, how it compares to others they’ve tried. It felt natural and informative and they thoughtfully found influencers who have their own “uniform” in life like Omondi from The Cutting Room Floor.

Takeaway: Allow influencers to help carry the story of a product in your overall content strategy, not just the promo. They are humans who enjoy it, who know how to integrate your brand into their everyday life or find the touch points that help with the storytelling. There’s a reason that influencer-created content usually outperforms brand-directed content. Just sayin’.

2. Scaling Love, Not Just Going Viral

One post probably won’t make or break a brand. But having hundreds of people, big or small, who genuinely love and talk about your product? That can change everything. There was a reason that Graza became a household name or why Olipop and Poppi have taken over the screens of everyone’s phone. They show up everywhere whether it’s their own doing (via seeding in high quantity) or not.

Yes, I know the TikTok 75-day extension of the ban is about to hit, but I think we can all agree that we’ll be in this cycle for the rest of our days.

So, this brings me to how brands are utilizing TikTok Shop and how they are getting creative. Here are a few ways:

• Bundling products just for a creator’s audience or creating a custom SKU that is only available on TTS

• Letting influencers actually own their sales moment. This isn’t a surprise, but more times than not, the integration for TTS is pretty seamless on an influencer’s video.

Takeaway: Think about how creators can help you distribute, not just promote.

3. Creators as Hosts, Educators, and Editorial Voices

More and more creators are stepping into roles that go beyond just sharing content. They’re helping guide the story. That might look like co-authoring a Substack, leading a product education series, or becoming the face of a specific category for a brand.

This works especially well in skincare, wellness, or anything that needs explaining. Instead of a brand saying “trust us,” the message is coming from someone their audience already does.

Takeaway: Some of your best content creators might already be in your DMs, tagged photos, have an audience and are in influencer in a specific niche, or already have their own equity on the platform.

A few examples of this:

• Casey Lewis, writer of After School, helped co-author and launch American Eagle’s Substack, Off The Cuff.

• Hunter Harris, writer of HUNG UP, was brought in to support Hinge with their “No Ordinary Love” campaign, which is a “an anthology of real Hinge love stories almost never told”. It is written from the perspective of other creators on the platform.

4. Supporting Creators’ Offline Worlds

A small but growing shift: brands helping bring creators’ own events or ideas to life.

This might look like: sponsoring a dinner or IRL hang, partnering on a pop-up, or backing a creator-led or influencer-led activation. I have an example of this that I wish I could say, but it hasn’t been announced yet, but once it is next week, I’ll break this point down more on my Twitter and LinkedIn. I swear I’m fun over there.

It doesn’t have to be big or flashy. It just shows you’re invested beyond the grid.

Takeaway: A little support goes a long way. And often, the most meaningful impressions aren’t measured in views—they happen in real life.

5. Shifting the Narrative Through Creators and Influencers

Sometimes the right voice can make people see your brand differently.

One example that stood out: Steve Madden going on The Cutting Room Floor podcast. It went viral on TikTok (HERE) and totally reframed how a lot of people see the brand because of how deep they went in conversation from storytelling to personal stories to just understanding the core values of the founder and the company that made people create video and say “Wait, maybe I do want to buy his shoes again.” As a result, customers made TikToks showing them going out and starting their collection of Steve Madden shoes again.

Takeaway: Creators and influencers can help reintroduce or reframe a brand in ways that traditional marketing can’t. The right conversation, the right partnership, can truly change the trajectory of a brand, new or old.

Bonus Trends Worth Noting:

• Affiliate marketing is booming: Performance-based partnerships are something to pay attention to if you’re not already. This is a key example of where I use Superfiliate to just manage getting people into the program, communicating with them, getting them a code and an affiliate link, sending product, and seeing them drive sales. After focusing on that for Graza for many months, it was able to add an extra high six-figures to overall revenue.

• Long-term > one-off: Please stop with the one-offs unless it’s seamless.

• Nano & micro are still having moment: I don’t know how many times I have to write it or anyone has to say it, but just because someone has a following doesn’t mean they will change your world. The smaller influencers are known trust factor and engaged communities for a reason. Lean in.

It’s time for Ahead of the Trend. A quick, snappy ode to the fun things I’m seeing online across creators, social, and brands. Sometimes, it’s a trend. Sometimes, it’s just a tip I want to share about marketing. Sometimes, it’s about snacks. TL;DR: just cool things I’m loving right now or things you should know.

In no particular order, let’s dive in:

• Eating: I can’t stop making the viral Carrot Salad that’s going around on TikTok, which is starting the whole conversation up of eating your skincare. It’s so good. I can’t say that I have ever owned this many carrots in my life.

• Social Account of the Week: I always love when the home goods brand, Mush Studios, announces their sample sale. Like how fun is this.

• Post of the Week: This was posted in April, but idc i am sharing it. This teaser for Eadem. I love it so much. To help introduce their new line of flavors, they designed mock fruit stickers like you would see in the grocery store.

• Influencer of the Week: Jake Schroeder. Our modern-day jingle maker and songwriter. Easy win for a brand.

• News You Should Know:

  • Instagram is testing a teleprompter display through Edits, their editing platform for creators.

  • I really enjoyed this Forbes article all around Substack and how it’s benefitting founders and their brands.

  • Talk about more ways that brands are working with influencers. They are working to get off platforms you would expect brands to mostly be. K18 is testing LinkedIn now for influencer campaigns.

THAT’S A WRAP

As always, thank you for taking a few minutes of your morning and spending it with me.

If you have any questions ever, please don’t hesitate to email or DM me.

If you know anyone who you think would enjoy this newsletter community, it would mean so much if you could send them this link or forward this this edition: https://kendalldickieson.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Want to catch up on past editions of No Filter? Read them all for free right here.

Thank you so much and I’ll see you for not one, but TWO newsletters next week because I’m feeling inspired and have a lot to get off my chest. Buckle up! We’ll be breaking down Kiehl’s amazing social and influencer rollout AND chatting all about how you can scale your community as we head into some slower months.

I’ll see you then.

Peace, love, and KPIs,

KD

This edition of No Filter is brought to you by Superfiliate.