Gamified Creator Programs 🏆

Less than three years after launch, Target is shutting down its Target Creator Program, an affiliate-based initiative that enabled creators to build storefronts, share product links, and earn commissions. The retailer is replacing it with a new program called Club Target.

The program is open to anyone with 500 or more followers. Participants progress through tiers by completing challenges, earning points, and unlocking rewards like gift cards and perks. There is still an affiliate layer, but it has to be earned. Storefronts and commissions only become available once creators unlock that tier.

Target’s move reflects a broader shift among retailers that are evolving their affiliate programs or launching new ones built around gamification and structured advocacy. This includes American Eagle Outfitters (AE Creator Community), Urban Outfitters (ME@UO Creator), Gap (Gap Creator Community), and more recently Aerie (Aerie Realmakers Community).

Affiliate remains a component of many of these programs, but at their core is always-on gamification, offering advantages that traditional affiliate models do not. Because creators are incentivized to complete specific prompts or challenges, brands have more influence over the type of content being produced and can better align it with key initiatives and priority products.

By contrast, in traditional affiliate models, creators are primarily incentivized to drive sales and will naturally optimize for conversion, which often does not align with how brands want to shape product narratives.

Retention is another advantage. In affiliate programs, creators can quickly disengage if they are not seeing results. Tiers, leaderboards, and badges change that dynamic, giving creators reasons to stay active beyond commission potential.

Scale is also a major driver. From Unilever to Bath & Body Works, more brands at the executive level are committing to creator programs involving thousands or even hundreds of thousands of creators. Running those programs through traditional means, finding, briefing, and managing creators individually, does not scale at that volume. Gamified, always-on programs are becoming one of the primary ways brands get there.

Cost is another factor. While affiliate is framed as performance-driven and efficient, commission costs can compound quickly, especially for retailers already facing margin pressure. Programs that expanded over time may no longer be as attractive as they once were, which could explain why Target structured Club Target this way, making affiliate something creators unlock rather than a default.

There is an argument that these gamified programs are not purely about advocacy given the level of brand direction involved. But more importantly, they signal the growing importance of smaller creators.

While larger creators tend to dominate headlines, smaller creators are becoming a bigger part of the influencer marketing mix. Nearly half of influencer marketing spend is expected to go toward creators with fewer than 20,000 followers this year, according to eMarketer.

Higher trust and engagement, niche audience relevance, and cost efficiency all work in their favor. So do interest-based algorithms that make follower count less important, technology that enables brands to manage creators at scale, and the rise of creator-led ad formats, where brands can put paid media behind creators’ posts to achieve the targeting, reach, and performance they want.

Instagram is expanding its originality guidelines beyond Reels to include photos and carousels, building on rules already in place since 2024. Aggregator accounts that regularly re-upload content they didn’t create or meaningfully edit will no longer be eligible for recommendations. It adds to Meta’s ongoing efforts to reward original content creators.

Instagram updated Insights, adding new Reels-specific engagement metrics like skip rate and share rate. These metrics are prioritized by importance, giving creators and brands a clearer signal on what is driving or hurting their reach.

Threads launched Live Chats, enabling creators to host scheduled, real-time conversations around cultural moments like sports and award shows. The platform has been vocal about wanting to own this space, which X has somewhat vacated.

Edits celebrated its one-year anniversary. Since launch, it has added 140+ features and is already expanding its toolkit with more new features including the ability to save video effects, customize text, and generate AI clips from images. Its consistent product launches have made it one of the go-to editing apps for short-form video creators.

YouTube is testing an AI-powered conversational search experience called Ask YouTube, allowing users to search in natural language and receive a mix of long-form videos, Shorts, and informative text, along with follow-up questions. It moves search closer to an AI answer engine, making results more actionable for queries like trip planning or DIY projects.

TikTok is launching a Campus Hub, which is an expansion of its Campus Verification feature. The hub features dedicated group chats and personalized feeds featuring content from verified students and content related to their school. It helps students stay connected year-round while deepening TikTok’s ties to the college community.

TikTok partnered with Visa to launch a Creator Card in the UK, giving creators faster access to earnings from LIVE, brand deals, and payouts. With 40% of UK creators reporting late payments, it addresses a real pain point and reinforces creators as a valuable consumer segment. (Related: Why Creators Are The Consumer Segment You Can’t Ignore)

LinkedIn added a “Has Verification” filter for comments, alongside Most Relevant and Most Recent, allowing users to surface comments only from verified profiles. It’s part of LinkedIn’s broader push to reduce automated, inauthentic, and spam content, while helping creators cut through the noise as engagement grows.

Pinterest launched the second installment of its brand campaign, highlighting how the platform inspires people to get off the app and create the life they want, rather than keep scrolling. The campaign includes a film, OOH placements, and a “Silence Your Phones” message at major movie premieres. While it may seem counterintuitive, Pinterest’s push—especially among younger audiences—to spend less time on their phones feels refreshing.

Pinterest introduced TV Scientific by Pinterest, a CTV ad solution that uses its first-party data to target audiences across connected TV screens. It enables brands to reach high-intent Pinterest users throughout the journey, both on and off the platform.

Snapchat announced AI Sponsored Snaps, a conversational ad format that lets brands create AI agents that users can interact with directly, such as answering questions and providing recommendations. The format taps into Snapchat’s chat-native behavior and gives brands a new touchpoint with its nearly one billion monthly active users.

Patreon expanded its discovery tools, including short-form posts called Quips, a redesigned Home Feed, a dedicated membership feed, Collab Posts for co-authoring, and moderation tools. It is borrowing social media mechanics to improve discovery while keeping subscriptions at the center of its model.

Spotify launched a new Fitness hub in partnership with Peloton, bringing workout classes from its top instructors, as well as fitness content from creators (who can earn via the Spotify Partner Program). By adding fitness content to its mix of music, podcasts, videos, and audiobooks, Spotify takes another step toward becoming a one-stop content destination similar to YouTube.

Netflix rolled out Clips as part of a redesigned mobile app, a personalized vertical video feed featuring snippets from TV shows and movies, with podcasts and live programming coming later. The TikTok-like experience is designed to improve content discovery and reflects a growing trend of streaming platforms incorporating social-style features to boost engagement.

Adobe released Firefly AI Assistant in public beta, letting creators use conversational prompts to build multi-step workflows across Creative Cloud apps, including Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere, and Firefly. It is Adobe’s push to make its professional tool suite feel more intuitive and accessible through chat-based interaction.

DiVine is now available for download. The six-second looping video app, inspired by Vine, is backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. It gives users access to an archive of 500,000 Vine videos and allows creators to publish new short-form clips. The nostalgia for Vine and DiVine’s creator-friendly positioning could appeal to creators.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Images 2.0, its newest image generation model. The update improves precision for complex creative prompts, adds support for more aspect ratios, and enables up to eight outputs in a single request, giving users a stronger option for creating different types of visuals.

Generation Zeitgeist 2026 (Meta)

A new study from Meta finds the generational gap in digital behavior has largely collapsed, with only a four-point difference between Gen Z and Boomers in key motivations for using Meta’s apps. Instead, behavior is more influenced by life stage and content engagement than age. Life moments like graduating, marriage, or buying a home are stronger predictors of intent and purchase behavior than generation, driving up to 26-point lifts in purchase intent.

David’s Bridal Ramps Up Its Creator Strategy as Part of Its Post-Bankruptcy Comeback (Modern Retail)

David’s Bridal is accelerating its post-bankruptcy marketing reset by shifting a third of its budget from traditional editorial shoots to social-first content, with creators playing a central role. The brand’s Style Squad program blends external creators, customers, and employees into an ambassador network designed to produce authentic, shoppable content and support its broader turnaround strategy.

Big Brands Boost Creator Spending, but Smaller Firms Dominate the Deals (The Wall Street Journal)

Brands are increasing investment in creators, with U.S. advertisers expected to spend $43.9 billion on creator content. However, creator growth is outpacing brand spend, spreading budgets more thinly across a larger ecosystem. Smaller and DTC brands continue to dominate deal volume, while larger advertisers face ongoing challenges around measuring ROI and identifying the right creator fit.

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