Influencers Are the New Paid Media—Even at Cannes

What’s happening: Former YouTube exec Steve Beckman and longtime producer Ben Stillman have launched Further Adventures, a lean, creator-first studio aiming to bridge the gap between digital creators and traditional filmmaking. As reported by Dana Harris-Bridson for IndieWire, the duo is scouting talent as diverse as off-grid YouTubers in West Virginia and established internet stars like Andrew Rea of Babish Culinary Universe. Their model supports storytellers who might lack infrastructure but have cultural traction—investing in projects like a horror-golf video game-turned-film, or the Sundance-winning If I Go Will They Miss Me by Walter Thompson-Hernández. Rather than just repping creators, Further Adventures wants to help them build IP that works across platforms, treating online audiences and festival buzz as equally potent launchpads.

Why it matters: Further Adventures is placing a strategic bet on the convergence of creator economy dynamics and legacy entertainment models. As traditional pathways to Hollywood shrink, creators who cut their teeth on platforms like YouTube or TikTok are proving they don’t just have audiences—they have IP. What Beckman and Stillman understand is that success in today’s media landscape requires more than good ideas; it requires distribution fluency, fan engagement, and cross-platform thinking. By funding the transition from shorts to features, or from viral videos to original films, Further is building an on-ramp for creators to scale without losing authorship. In doing so, they’re challenging the long-held industry notion that internet fame and artistic legitimacy are mutually exclusive. For brands, studios, and strategists, this model suggests the future of storytelling isn’t just in film festivals or feeds—it’s in the fusion of both.

What’s happening: AI-generated ASMR has exploded across TikTok and YouTube, drawing millions of views for surreal visuals of people slurping molten lava, crunching radioactive rocks, and slicing glass fruit. As reported by Grace Snelling for Fast Company, this bizarre and mesmerizing genre is powered by Google’s Veo 3, an AI tool that can generate both photorealistic video and native sound. Creators like @asmraiworks and @impossibleais have gone viral within days, and tutorials on making AI ASMR are already circulating. While many ASMR fans seem intrigued or amused, others are expressing unease at the uncanny realism—and how easily future viewers could be deceived.

Why it matters: This trend marks a significant inflection point in the creator economy—where AI isn’t just a back-end tool but the star of the content itself. Veo 3’s ability to generate video and sound in one step lowers the barrier to entry for high-quality, viral content, effectively shifting the ASMR genre (and perhaps others) into a synthetic content era. It also underscores the growing appetite for visually novel, impossible-to-produce IRL experiences that still feel emotionally and sensorily real. For platforms, this creates a dilemma: reward engagement regardless of source—or preserve trust by signaling what’s synthetic. And for marketers and media brands, it’s a glimpse into a future where the most popular “creators” may not be human at all.

What’s happening: TikTok has officially kicked off Community Fest 2025, a global in-app event running from June 15 through July 5 that celebrates creators who are building communities through TikTok LIVE. As detailed on TikTok’s Newsroom, the event serves as a precursor to the larger LIVE Fest 2025 and is designed to help creators grow their audiences and deepen real-time engagement. The platform is highlighting standout creators—from a braider supporting kids in need to astrophotographers and indie musicians—who’ve used LIVE to turn niche passions into livelihoods. TikTok LIVE now supports roughly 130 million daily creators globally, with tools like Multi-Guest and Take the Stage enabling real-time collaboration and monetization.

Why it matters: Community Fest 2025 reinforces TikTok’s ambitions to evolve beyond short-form content into a real-time, community-powered entertainment platform. TikTok LIVE’s growth isn’t just about livestreaming—it’s about transforming creators into hosts, educators, and entrepreneurs with built-in support systems and monetization tools. The emphasis on live, co-created experiences also differentiates TikTok from more static platforms like Instagram or YouTube, positioning it closer to a hybrid of Twitch, Shopify, and traditional broadcast media. For brands and creators alike, LIVE is becoming less of a feature and more of a format—and TikTok is aggressively defining what that future looks like.

What’s happening: The FTC is stepping in to prevent Omnicom—now poised to become the world’s largest media-buying agency after acquiring rival IPG for $13.5 billion—from quietly steering advertisers away from certain websites based on politics or ideology. The proposed consent order stops Omnicom from blacklisting media outlets over viewpoint unless a specific advertiser asks them to. The move comes after past instances where major ad agencies reportedly coordinated to cut off ad spend to certain publishers, which could limit those outlets’ ability to fund their content. The FTC says this kind of backroom coordination can hurt competition and distort public conversation by starving certain voices of ad dollars.

Why it matters: This isn’t just a business deal—it’s about who gets to stay visible and funded online. Advertising agencies like Omnicom play gatekeeper for billions in media spend, and if they quietly blacklist outlets based on politics, it can shut down diverse perspectives. The FTC’s move sends a clear message: decisions about where ads run should be made by individual brands, not by agencies pushing their own agenda behind the scenes. For media companies, this is about survival; for marketers, it’s a reminder to stay closely involved in where and how your brand shows up. As consolidation tightens control over ad ecosystems, these checks on behind-the-curtain influence matter more than ever.

What’s happening: Influencer marketing is no longer an experiment—it’s mainstream strategy. At Cannes Lions 2025, creators weren’t just on red carpets; they were inside panel rooms, closing deals with some of the world’s biggest brands. As reported by Sapna Maheshwari for The New York Times, the influencer category has matured, with even traditionally risk-averse sectors like finance and healthcare investing heavily in creator partnerships. Marketers are now more comfortable loosening creative control in exchange for authenticity and the viral momentum that social creators can spark. The old concerns about influencers going off-script have largely faded. Unilever CMO Esi Eggleston Bracey describes the shift as moving from a “one to many” broadcast model to “many to many”—a reflection of marketing’s new social architecture.

Why it matters: This shift reframes influencer content from “experimental media spend” to “core paid media,” challenging legacy ad models that treat creators as add-ons rather than amplifiers. The tradeoff is clear: less polish, more resonance. For brands, especially those in high-stakes categories, the real win is distribution—creators don’t just hold attention, they move culture and drive conversion in ways display ads can’t. Cannes’ embrace of influencers signals that creative control is no longer the metric of effective messaging; participation is. Marketers must now design for influence from the ground up—not just add it to the plan after the fact.

What’s happening: Pixar’s Elio just posted the studio’s worst-ever opening weekend, earning only $21M domestically and $14M internationally—despite a $150M budget. As Nicholas Barber reports for BBC Culture, Elio is part of a larger trend: original animated films are increasingly floundering at the box office while sequels, remakes, and video game adaptations thrive. Unlike 2024’s Inside Out 2 or Moana 2, Elio lacked built-in brand recognition and struggled with a convoluted plot and creative leadership churn. Meanwhile, familiar IPs like Minecraft, Despicable Me 4, and Lilo & Stitch are dominating the family film market, even as story complexity and originality decline.

Why it matters: Elio’s stumble highlights how risk-averse studio storytelling has become in the post-pandemic landscape. With rising budgets and declining attention spans, studios are hesitant to greenlight original stories unless they’re smoothed to a fault by committee. But what’s being lost in that process is narrative clarity, charm, and emotional punch—elements that once defined Pixar’s greatest hits. Today’s family films are competing not just with each other, but with multitasking, mobile-first audiences who gravitate toward the familiar. If studios want original animated films to matter again—not just IP extensions—they need to stop fearing simplicity and start trusting singular creative voices to deliver it.

What’s happening: Gen Z is having less sex than any generation in modern history—and two new books offer competing explanations. In A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century, British journalist Louise Perry argues that sexual liberation has failed women. Her advice? Avoid dating apps, alcohol, and kink entirely. Perry sees the “sex recession” as a positive turn toward caution and self-protection. Meanwhile, Carter Sherman’s The Second Coming traces the same trend to a culture-wide collapse: rising porn consumption, anxiety, loneliness, and a deep confusion about intimacy. Through more than 100 interviews, Sherman shows how Gen Z feels stuck between hypersexualized media and a lack of real-world connection—with no clear path forward.

Why it matters: The Gen Z “sex recession” isn’t just a cultural talking point—it’s a signal that intimacy, identity, and connection are being reshaped in real time. For consumers, this shift reflects deeper emotional undercurrents: growing anxiety, distrust, overstimulation, and the collapse of in-person connection. When young people disengage from sex, it’s rarely about prudishness or purity—it’s about overwhelm, burnout, and not feeling safe.

For brands, especially in lifestyle, fashion, wellness, dating, and media, the implications are massive. Messaging that once leaned into “sex sells” is increasingly falling flat or coming off as tone-deaf. Instead, Gen Z responds to emotional safety, authenticity, and self-regulation. Products that once marketed through fantasy now win through vulnerability. Dating apps, for example, are shifting toward content, compatibility, and even therapy tools—not just hookups.

At a macro level, both Perry and Sherman underscore that intimacy is becoming a political and commercial battleground. Brands that ignore this tension risk irrelevance. Those that engage it—thoughtfully, respectfully, and with nuance—can tap into a generation that craves real connection but has no roadmap for how to get there.

What’s happening: A new Deloitte study finds that 40% of Americans now identify as “value seekers”—consumers who aren’t just chasing the lowest price, but prioritizing what Deloitte calls MVPs: more value for the price. These shoppers are recalibrating spending across categories like groceries, dining, travel, and automotive. As Ben Unglesbee reports for Chain Store Age, while 75% of consumers say they’ve noticed prices going up, more than half say they’re still willing to spend—just more selectively. Brands delivering high perceived value, whether through product quality, store presentation, or customer service, are seeing stronger loyalty and wallet share. One example: grocery retailers seen as MVPs captured 72% more spend and 86% more preference than their lower-value peers.

Why it matters: The inflation era hasn’t made consumers cheap—it’s made them choosier. Price still matters, but it no longer guarantees conversion. Only 57% of consumer spending decisions are now driven by cost, with the rest influenced by things like trust, consistency, and emotional connection. That’s a major shift for brands built on price-cutting alone. To stay competitive, companies need to double down on quality and experience, not just discounts. In categories like retail, travel, and dining, the brands winning right now aren’t the cheapest—they’re the ones that feel worth it.

What’s happening: Netflix is expanding from screens to real life with Netflix House—massive, permanent venues opening later this year at the King of Prussia Mall in Philadelphia and Galleria Dallas, with a third slated for the Las Vegas Strip in 2027. As Nicholas Morine reports for RetailWire, each site spans over 100,000 square feet and blends themed dining, interactive games, and immersive story-driven environments tied to franchises like Stranger Things, Squid Game, One Piece, and Knives Out. Netflix Bites restaurants and merch shops will round out the experience. Forbes contributor Clara Ludmir notes that Netflix is betting big on Gen Z’s appetite for social-ready, experiential spaces that turn fandom into lifestyle.

Why it matters: Will Netflix House display staying power in experiential retail? That’s the billion-dollar question. Netflix House is a bold leap from content to culture—but turning hit shows into high-footfall destinations won’t be easy. While Gen Z craves immersive, Instagrammable experiences, they’re also facing financial pressure, meaning premium activations need to feel genuinely worth the spend. Netflix has an edge—constant IP generation, a massive fan base, and cultural clout—but the operational demands are steep. As commenters like Neil Saunders and Mohamed Amer point out, the challenge isn’t launch—it’s longevity. High costs, tight margins, and the need for constant refresh will require Netflix to treat these venues not as static showcases but as living retail ecosystems. Done right, this could be more than just a flagship—it could rewrite the model for how IP lives beyond the screen. But if the novelty fades without renewal, Netflix risks becoming just another theme park experiment that couldn’t scale. For brands watching closely, this is a lesson in how to make media tangible—and how storytelling, space, and commerce are converging fast.

What’s happening: Amazon’s Prime Day is set for July 8–11, but major competitors are crowding the calendar with their own sales events. As Dani James reports for Chain Store Age, Walmart is running “Walmart Deals” from July 8–13 (with early access for Walmart+ members on July 7), while Target’s “Circle Week” spans July 6–12, kicking off early for Circle 360 members on July 5. Best Buy is reviving “Black Friday in July” from July 7–13, and Kohl’s is extending its Summer Cyber Deals to four full days from July 7–10. With U.S. shoppers spending $14.2 billion during Prime Day last year, these overlapping sales windows are no coincidence—they’re a direct play for mid-summer wallet share.

Why it matters: Prime Day may have created the playbook, but it’s no longer the only game in town. What we’re seeing now is the summer sales version of a streaming war—retail giants racing to win attention, loyalty, and margin during a high-stakes window. Exclusive early access for paid members like Walmart+ and Circle 360 signals a deeper move to turn one-time deal hunters into recurring customers. The real win isn’t just transaction volume—it’s enrollment, ecosystem stickiness, and long-term LTV. In an inflation-conscious market, these sales aren’t just about discounts—they’re a strategic grab for consumer trust and year-round loyalty.

The lesson for brands? Competing with a rival’s tentpole moment isn’t about mirroring tactics—it’s about creating your own reason to matter. Prime Day works because it builds urgency, exclusivity, and habit. The brands finding success aren’t just reacting—they’re owning the calendar, investing in membership flywheels, and launching events that deepen connection with their audience. In a crowded marketplace, it’s not about being louder—it’s about being stickier.