Meet the PGA Tour's Creator Council ⛳

If you’re enjoying the newsletter, consider sharing it with a friend or colleague. You can also support it via Buy Me a Coffee.

The PGA Tour is looking to attract new audiences by turning to creators for help. It has recently announced the launch of a Creator Council—a group of content creators who will collaborate with the PGA Tour’s media, marketing, and communications teams to develop strategies for content development and fan engagement.

The Creator Council includes 10 prominent names in the golf creator space, such as Bob Does Sports, Bryan Bros Golf, Erik Anders Lang, Fore Play/Barstool Sports, No Laying Up, Paige Spiranac, Roger Steele, and Tisha Alyn.

Starting in January, the group will meet monthly to focus on initiatives like:

In addition to virtual meetings, the council will convene in person three times a year at select PGA Tour events. Creators will also gain access to the PGA Tour’s platform and network to create both standalone content and content that complements the weekly PGA Tour coverage.

The launch of the Creator Council marks a notable shift for the PGA Tour. Moving beyond one-off events like the Creator Classic—where 16 creators competed at East Lake Golf Club before the TOUR Championship, airing on ESPN+, Peacock, and YouTube—the organization is now embracing an always-on, integrated strategy with creators.

This new approach positions creators as long-term partners, supporting a wide range of initiatives across the business.

With the Creator Council, the PGA Tour will connect with younger audiences who engage with golf content through creators on digital platforms like YouTube. These creators, who have millions of subscribers, have mastered the art of resonating with a new generation of fans, offering the PGA Tour an opportunity to expand its reach, particularly on YouTube, which has become the central hub for golf content.

Collaborating with YouTube-first creators will help the PGA Tour tap into these communities in an environment that has become increasingly important for the sport. The pairing of YouTube’s long-form content with the slow pace of golf makes it a natural fit, bridging digital streaming with traditional TV.

Creators can help the PGA Tour engage viewers authentically on YouTube while identifying opportunities to integrate popular YouTube elements—such as behind-the-scenes content and raw moments—into traditional broadcasts.

This approach could play a critical role in reversing the PGA Tour’s declining TV viewership. For example, the Creator Classic garnered 2.6 million views on YouTube and an additional 2.8 million across creators' individual channels, demonstrating the significant audiences creators can attract. This is especially important as the PGA Tour relies heavily on media rights agreements, which are closely tied to its TV viewership.

While the PGA Tour is embracing creators, it remains mindful of its core audience, which has historically been predominantly male, affluent, and older.

By blending creators’ fresh perspectives with the time-honored expertise of its media, marketing, and communications teams, the PGA Tour seeks to strike a balance between innovation and tradition to connect with both new and core audiences.

Brands like Budweiser and John Deere have faced backlash for creator-driven activations, demonstrating that long-standing audiences may not always be receptive to change. John Deere, for example, hired its first Chief Tractor Officer, a social media-facing figure, but faced resistance from its traditional audience. When brands shift too drastically in the eyes of their core audience, even strategically sound moves can provoke backlash.

Although creators involved in the council won’t receive direct compensation, the opportunity may prove more valuable than a paycheck. They’ll play a key role in shaping the future of golf and its presentation to fans, which in itself is a significant achievement.

Additionally, they will gain access to exclusive talent and events, potentially driving audience growth and opening new monetization opportunities. These could include elevated content that attracts more viewers and generates YouTube ad revenue, or partnerships with PGA Tour brand partners, who want to work with creators directly.

Sports organizations across the board have embraced creators in 2024. Notable examples include the NBA, which ramped up its creator initiatives for the season; the NFL, which is continuing its partnership with YouTube while also integrating creators from other platforms into key moments throughout the year; and NBCUniversal, sending 27 creators to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games with its Creator Collective.

Want to incorporate aspects of the Creator Council into your influencer marketing efforts? Regardless of your industry, here are a few key takeaways:

Roku predicts that 2025 will be a breakthrough year for self-serve CTV advertising. Roku Ads Manager makes it easy to integrate CTV into your 2025 marketing mix. Easily segment your target audience, optimize campaigns in real-time, and drive conversions with interactive ad formats and shoppable ads with a Shopify integration. Roku Ads Manager makes CTV advertising accessible and impactful for businesses of any size.

Discover CTV performance on Roku

After federal courts rejected its appeal to overturn the U.S. law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19, the company filed an emergency injunction to prevent the shutdown.

TikTok argued that such a move would shut down one of the nation's most popular speech platforms for more than 170 million U.S. users on the eve of a presidential inauguration. The company also highlighted that small businesses could lose $1 billion in revenue, while creators would miss out on $300 million in earnings within a month.

Why It Matters: TikTok is racing against the clock, hoping that the incoming administration will deliver a more favorable resolution. A ban would ripple across creators, small businesses, brands, TikTok employees, and the millions of users who rely on the platform for expression and communication.

No matter the outcome, this situation highlights an important lesson for anyone building a business on the internet — the need to diversify social media platforms and invest in owned channels like newsletters. Creators who began diversifying in 2020, during the first wave of TikTok ban concerns, are likely feeling less stress than those scrambling to pivot at the last minute

Cameo introduced CameoX, a new onboarding policy allowing digital creators to join its marketplace. After rejecting over 100,000 applications in the past three years, creators can now fill out a form, download the app, and verify their identity to enroll. Since the pilot program's launch, over 31,000 creators have joined, completing more than 155,000 Cameos.

Why It Matters: CameoX represents a pivot for Cameo, which was once valued at $1 billion. Originally focused on celebrity talent, the platform now expands its appeal to include digital creators, aligning itself more with platforms like YouTube and Twitch, where creators of all sizes can monetize. With creators often going viral overnight, Cameo offers a quick and easy way to capitalize on these moments through personalized shoutouts.

Since its inception in 2017, Cameo has generated over $310 million in talent earnings. By broadening its talent pool and tapping into the rising popularity of digital creators—today's celebrities—Cameo can regain momentum.

Reddit is testing a new AI-powered search feature, Reddit Answers, that allows users to ask questions and receive curated information, perspectives, and recommendations from Reddit communities. Users will get a summary of relevant conversations, including snippets, along with links to related communities and posts.

Why It Matters: Reddit Answers offers an experience similar to AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity, providing quick access to information. However, in this case, it is leveraging its own vast dataset of user-generated content.

As part of its efforts to improve search, this should make it easier and faster for users to discover relevant content, which can help Reddit build on the impressive growth in average daily time spent by active users in the U.S., surpassing platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

Reddit has also become a key platform for brands' social listening. With Reddit Answers, brands can tap into this more efficiently and turn conversations and trends into actionable campaign ideas.

Twitch has introduced Shared Viewership, a new metric for collaborations between streamers. When two or more streamers host a collaborative stream with Shared Chat enabled, the Shared Viewership metric will display the total unique count of concurrent viewers across all participating channels. This metric will appear on channel pages and discovery surfaces, influencing stream discoverability.

Why It Matters: This feature builds on Twitch’s push for collaborative tools like Drop-Ins for Stream Together. By offering a clearer view of a collaborative stream’s reach, Shared Viewership benefits creators by highlighting the impact of co-creation and helps viewers gauge the popularity of streams. With discoverability now tied to this metric, expect more streamers to join forces to grow their audiences.

Thanks for reading! Enjoyed this edition? Share it with a friend or colleague!