Welcome to the Sundae Tuesdae. Last week we looked at AI crashing the party. This week, the party got a lot bigger — and a lot more expensive to skip.
New data, new money, and new expectations from creators themselves. Here's what happened.
1. U.S. creator ad spend hits $43.9 billion — and creators want something different in return
The Influencer Marketing Factory just released its 2026 Creator Economy Report — 1,000 U.S. creators surveyed, 5 million social accounts analyzed. The headline number: U.S. creator ad spend is projected to reach $43.9 billion this year, up 18.3% from $37.1 billion in 2025.
But the more interesting data is what creators want back from brands.
44.9% of creators say they prefer long-term brand partnerships over one-off campaigns. Nearly half. Platform diversification is now standard — the typical creator is earning across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram simultaneously. And TikTok has emerged as the most democratized platform: engagement rates are consistent regardless of follower size, which means a 20K creator can outperform a 500K creator on any given day.
Sundae take: The brand playbook of “hire a creator for one post and move on” is increasingly in tension with how creators themselves want to operate — and the creators worth working with have enough leverage now to say no. Long-term relationships, platform-native content, and consistent briefing processes aren’t just good practice anymore. They’re table stakes for brands that want access to the best talent.
2. TikTok Shop grew 108%. This is not a test channel.
U.S. TikTok Shop sales grew 108% year over year in 2025. For the brands that figured it out, it’s now a real volume driver — not a side hustle, not a Q4 experiment, but a legitimate commerce engine with strong repeat purchase behavior and built-in discovery.
Later’s brand guide identified the product categories where TikTok Shop actually works. Everyday-to-mid-priced products ($25 and under tends to be the sweet spot). Replenishable items. SKUs that demo well on camera. Products that naturally fit into routines, trends, or hacks. What doesn’t work: expecting the platform to do the work for you. Brands that succeed have figured out fulfillment, margins, and creator volume before they scale — not after.
Sundae take: 108% growth is not a sign of an emerging channel. It’s the confirmation. The window for being an “early mover” on TikTok Shop has mostly closed — but the window for doing it properly is wide open. Most brands on the platform are still winging it. A thoughtful affiliate program with the right creator profile and commission structure is still a meaningful competitive advantage in most categories.
3. ShopMy just raised $77M. Here’s what that tells you about where creator infrastructure is going.
ShopMy — the creator monetization and affiliate platform — closed a $77 million Series B this week. TikTok, Substack, and AI startups Hedra and ElevenLabs are all competing for creator talent simultaneously. The money flowing into creator infrastructure is a signal: platforms are no longer betting on whether creator commerce will be big — they’re competing for the rails.
Sundae take: When infrastructure raises at this scale, the category is past early adoption. Brands that still treat creator programs as experimental campaigns are now operating on a different timeline than the platforms they’re running those campaigns on. ShopMy’s raise is a reminder that the back-end of creator commerce is being professionalized fast. Brands should be asking whether their agency and tech partners are keeping pace.
4. The brands that won creators this week didn’t have the biggest budgets
Reformation launched its “Divorce Collection” in partnership with a celebrity divorce lawyer. TurboTax ran a comedy creator collab timed to tax season. And a Target store employee — “Staples Baddie” — became one of the week’s biggest organic creator moments, getting picked up across platforms with no brand involvement at all. Three very different approaches. One common thread: relevance over reach.
Sundae take: The Staples Baddie moment is the one worth paying attention to. A brand captured real cultural momentum from an employee going viral in-store — not because they planned it, but because the content was genuinely interesting. The brands building always-on creator relationships are the ones best positioned to respond to moments like this quickly: they have the relationships, the briefing infrastructure, and the content pipelines to move when something is happening. One-off campaign brands don’t.
5. The creator economy is entering its institutional era — and that changes how you should buy it
InfluenceLogic’s weekly digest made the case that the creator economy has shifted from experimentation to formalization. Platforms are building ownership structures. Investors are treating creator businesses as investable assets. Cultural institutions — including the Museum of Science, Boston, which opened a Director-level global creator network role this week — are formalizing their creator relationships. The language of the industry is changing from “influencer campaigns” to “creator programs.” From “reach and impressions” to “content pipelines” and “always-on infrastructure.”
Sundae take: This shift matters for how brands buy creator marketing. A formalized creator economy means more professionalized creators, higher rates, clearer IP and usage expectations, and longer lead times for quality work. The brands that are still approaching creator marketing as a low-cost, fast-turn channel are going to find the market moving against them. The brands that are building real programs — with real relationships and real infrastructure — are going to be better positioned than they’ve ever been.
📊 WORTH KNOWING
$43.9B — Projected U.S. creator ad spend in 2026. Up 18.3% from last year. The category is growing faster than most traditional media.
44.9% of creators prefer long-term brand partnerships. The one-and-done campaign model is increasingly out of step with what good creators want.
108% — TikTok Shop’s YoY U.S. sales growth in 2025. The product-to-platform fit question has been answered.
TikTok has the most consistent engagement rates of any platform — follower count matters less on TikTok than anywhere else. A smaller creator with the right niche can outperform a macro every time.
The Sundae Tuesdae is a weekly briefing on creator marketing for brand builders. Curated by Isla Novak, Sundae Collective — creator marketing for high-expectation brands. sundaecollective.com