In 2025, podcasts are more attractive than ever to advertisers who want to reach young and plugged-in consumers. As podcasting evolves from an audio medium into a video medium, brands are increasingly viewing the format as premium, complete with high viewability, strong engagement and audience quality. As a result, brands are starting to pull from budgets beyond their usual audio advertising funds, including those earmarked for influencer marketing, for their podcasting spend.

On Tuesday, June 4, podcasting research and consultancy firm Sounds Profitable will release a report on podcasting’s place within the broader world of ad-supported media. The online study, done in partnership with Signal Hill Insights, analyzed the responses of 5,005 Americans above the age of 18 in January and February 2025 — and Digiday got a sneak preview. Here are some of the key takeaways.

Frequent podcast listeners remember ads more than top consumers of other media

Sounds Profitable’s data report included questions that focused on what the company calls “prime users” — the most engaged and loyal consumers who tune in to their preferred medium daily — with the goal of understanding the reach of advertisers’ messaging to both casual consumers and dedicated podcast listeners.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

Roblox is pushing to onboard more advertisers, but the platform’s current lack of third-party measurement tools is becoming a roadblock for some marketers.

Agencies trying to onboard advertisers new to Roblox say it’s becoming harder to convince brands to invest without third-party measurement tools in place, according to three agency execs Digiday spoke to for this article. 

“There’s baseline media integrations, where the media is served through their [Roblox’s] first-party ad server, and then you get data back from their first-party ad server, and then from an [experience] integration standpoint, all of the metrics you’re receiving are from the developers themselves,” said Jason Scorrano, CEO of the agency Gaming Attict. “There’s no third-party Nielsen or Comscore that is showing you what is happening.”

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

In 2025, advertisers’ Pride Month spending has cratered — and LGBTQ+ creators and influencers are feeling the squeeze.

Brands and marketers have been reconsidering their support of gay pride since 2023, when Bud Light’s Pride campaign sparked an uproar — and boycotts — among elements of the political right by sponsoring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Since then, brands have grown increasingly wary of spending on Pride-related marketing campaigns, with data from research firm Gravity Research suggesting that overall marketing spend in this area has consistently decreased year over year since 2023.

As advertisers curb their Pride marketing spend, some LGBTQ+ influencers are seeing their brand partnership revenue for June’s Pride Month — which is often their most active month — dwindle to almost nothing. These creators are among the individuals whose livelihoods are directly impacted as big businesses rush to distance themselves from DEI initiatives.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

LinkedIn has introduced a range of creator metrics aimed at giving brands and marketers deeper insights into the platform’s influence and ROI.

As of Wednesday (May 28), LinkedIn creators can now track how many profile views and followers they gain from each post, as well as how many times each post generates a click on creators’ “custom buttons” — which direct followers to creators’ online stores, newsletters or other web pages of their choice.

The “followers gained from this post” metric can, for instance, help creators understand how their posts are driving growth, which they can leverage when working with brands, according to LinkedIn vp of product management Gyanda Sachdeva. “‘Premium custom button interactions’ (like clicks to a website or newsletter for Premium members), on the other hand, gives them a way to show how their content drives action, which can be valuable in securing partnerships,” Sachdeva added. 

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

Over the past two years, clipping has quietly become a staple in some advertisers’ media mix.

The term “clipping” refers to the practice of sharing short clips from longer content such as podcasts, livestreams or YouTube videos on social media platforms, to boost the original content’s audience or promote a brand. Originally, the technique was championed by larger content creators, who paid other creators to share their clips.

In 2025, brands and advertisers are recognizing its potential — and are starting to pour more marketing dollars into clipping, according to three creators interviewed for this article.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

As podcast consumption shifts to video, advertisers are treating the format as more premium than ever, drawn by opportunities across multiple channels — and are investing more marketing dollars accordingly.

In the first quarter of the year, ad revenues for podcast representation agency True Native Media jumped 40 percent year over year, according to founder Heather Osgood. “2025 has, so far, been a really strong year for us, and I don’t anticipate, if Trump doesn’t do anything too crazy, that we’re going to see a decrease in that,” said Osgood, who didn’t share exact numbers. “There definitely is an increase in interest in video.”

Other podcast production companies, such as Audacy, Wondery and Pave Studios, also confirmed to Digiday that their ad revenue had increased year over year between the first quarters of 2024 and 2025, though they declined to share specific figures.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

As virtual-world creators begin building large audiences — and real incomes — on platforms beyond Roblox and Fortnite, advertisers are starting to take notice.

A new kind of creator has emerged in the past two years: the user-generated content (UGC) creator, whose preferred medium is three-dimensional virtual items and worlds, rather than audio, video or text. Platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite have led this charge, with Roblox paying $280 million to UGC creators who published digital avatars or virtual worlds in the fourth quarter of 2024. Advertisers have also poured millions of dollars into these UGC gaming platforms in recent years, solidifying their evolution from video games into full-service creator platforms and marketing channels.

In 2025, UGC creators are starting to find success in smaller UGC platforms beyond the major players Roblox and Fortnite. UGC mini-game creator Soydade, who asked to keep his real name private, boasts a following of nearly 150,000 on the UGC platform Highrise, and has earned over $300,000 over the last two years by charging users to play poker games inside a virtual lounge on the platform.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

Artificial intelligence has become a standard part of many creators’ toolboxes in 2025.

As AI technology continues to improve, creators are starting to implement generative AI at every stage of the content production process. From script writing to AI-generated voices, creators have found that AI makes their jobs simpler and their lives easier — even if some advertisers remain averse to content made using AI.

On Wednesday, May 14, AI audio generation company Wondercraft is publishing a comprehensive report on creators’ use of AI tools in their daily or weekly workflows. The report, which drew from an online survey distributed between March and April 2025, featured responses from 514 creators distributed across North America, Europe and other regions, with the majority of respondents residing in North America. Subjects were split roughly evenly between genders and age groups. 

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

As platforms increasingly compete for livestreaming creators and their audiences, Twitch’s discovery issues remain a sticking point for some streamers. 

It’s been just over a year since Twitch launched its Discovery Feed in April 2024. The feed, a TikTok-style endless scroll of vertical video clips and current livestreams, was Twitch’s first product explicitly intended to help viewers discover new streamers without having to leave the platform. 

Twitch claims the new feed has had a measurable impact on discovery and user growth, with more than half of new viewer video views now coming through the feed and roughly 38 million new creator follows being driven through Discovery-Feed-related video playback, according to Twitch chief monetization officer Mike Minton.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

Roblox is pushing its case to advertisers, releasing new data aimed at proving the value of ads on its platform.

At its NewFronts event on Thursday, Roblox unveiled the results of a MediaScience study that used eye tracking and other physiological data to measure users’ increase in attention and brand recall when participating in branded immersive experiences on Roblox.

Marketers have welcomed the additional transparency from the platform, but say Roblox will need to move beyond emotional response metrics if it wants to unlock deeper ad investment. 

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

As generative artificial intelligence improves, creators are growing more confident using it to make audience-facing content.

For content creators of all types, generative AI use is on the rise. In March, a survey of content professionals by Kontent.AI found that 74 percent use AI tools on a weekly basis, with 39 percent using them daily. Now, digital creators across platforms such as YouTube and Spotify are joining this growing trend to further scale their content.

Here’s a look at how some creators are leveraging generative AI to create video, audio and written content — and whether or not that’s a turn-off for advertisers.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

Podcasts are no longer the territory of audiophiles. As connected TV becomes YouTube’s primary watch surface, podcasters are seeing a rise in viewership on the biggest screen in the house.

Amid the shift, many podcasters with audiences on YouTube are upping their game with visual content to capture and sustain attention as more fans tune in through connected TVs.

Podcaster Tara Suwinyattichaiporn is among them. Last year, 14 percent of Suwinyattichaiporn’s 46,000 YouTube subscribers tuned into her Luvbites Podcast via connected TVs, with 69.7 percent watching via mobile, 9 percent via personal computers and 6.7 percent through tablets. In April 2025, Suwinyattichaiporn’s TV viewership percentage jumped to 23.5 percent on YouTube’s CTV app — a nearly 10 percent year-over-year increase — while her mobile viewership percentage plummeted to 56 percent.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

Creators are flocking to LinkedIn — and brands’ dollars are right behind them.

As LinkedIn positions itself more firmly as a home for creators, influencer marketers who operate within the platform’s ecosystem say that their business is booming.

B2B influencer marketing agency Creator Match, which launched in early 2024, has made 80 percent of its lifetime revenue in the “past few months,” paying out over $1 million to LinkedIn creators during that period, per CEO AJ Eckstein.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

Roblox partner Super League, a metaverse production company, today has acquired fellow Roblox specialist Supersocial, for an undisclosed sum, as it seeks to scale up brand world-building for advertisers.

As Roblox and its ecosystem of studios continue to grapple with proving its advertising potential to brands, analysts and observers believe the deal could signal a coming wave of consolidation among these types of companies.

Super League and Supersocial are members of the Roblox Partner Program, essentially serving as influencer marketing agencies for the Roblox ecosystem. Both companies build custom-branded Roblox worlds and manage brands’ integrations into popular pre-existing experiences on the metaverse platform. 

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

TikTok is aggressively courting creators and agencies to showcase the revenue potential of its livestreaming tools.

TikTok says its creators are now collectively generating $10 million in revenue daily through livestreaming — a figure the company shared during an in-person mixer for creators, agencies and press at its New York City headquarters on April 24.

The event was part of an ongoing series of in-person mixers TikTok plans to host at its NYC headquarters, to encourage creators to further embrace its livestreaming services. The platform has been steadily building its services and tools for Live creators, launching a dedicated Discord server for TikTok Live creators and creator networks on April 9, as well as providing access to webinars and virtual training Zoom calls, which also kicked off in early April. The platform now wants to build on that momentum.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

With TikTok’s future hanging in the balance, music promoters are widening their focus from TikTok to creators on other short-form video platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.

Although President Donald Trump extended the deadline for the government-mandated U.S. TikTok ban on April 5, marketers of all kinds — including music promoters — remain uncertain about whether the platform will stick around in the long run. That’s why music promoters have spent 2025 investing in alternative platforms.

It has long been a standard practice for music labels and promoters to pay TikTok creators to use their songs in their videos, but three individuals with knowledge of this practice — two music promoters and a creator — told Digiday that the music industry has ramped up its spending on similar creator promotions across Instagram and YouTube, although they declined to share specific numbers. Creators charge different rates for music promotions based on their reach, with mid-tier influencers typically charging between $200 and $300 and top creators commanding rates in the thousands.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

Livestreaming is having a moment in 2025 — and it’s bringing some growing pains.

Creator platforms’ push into livestreaming is exposing a deep cultural divide between Twitch’s dedicated streaming community and creators going live on newer platforms.

The format is breaking out of its niche roots, with platforms from Substack to Patreon launching new tools and total livestreaming hours watched rising by 8.9 percent year-over-year, according to Stream Hatchet’s Q1 2025 livestreaming trends report. But as streaming moves beyond its Twitch-native roots, creators are discovering the format means very different things on different platforms, and the result is growing friction.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

Brands looking to reach Roblox users in 2025 are finding themselves inundated with competing pitches from Roblox over how to best advertise on the platform — and some are deciding to spend their marketing dollars elsewhere — or temporarily pause spend — as a result of the confusion.

Three executives at Roblox studios — the metaverse platform’s version of influencer marketing agencies, which help design branded experiences or integrate brands into pre-existing experiences — told Digiday that confusion over the platform’s competing ad visions in 2025 had caused a brand they were negotiating with to decide not to enter Roblox, though all three declined to name the specific brands to avoid damaging potential deals, and two requested anonymity to preserve business relationships.

At the moment, Roblox’s advertising ecosystem contains a multitude of stakeholders with differing priorities and ideal outcomes. There are the creators, who simply want to make as much money as they can by working with brands — which often means convincing an advertiser to focus its marketing budget on integrating into a single, popular experience. Then there are the studios, which want advertisers to pay them to manage more widely distributed campaigns that integrate brands across multiple experiences. And then there’s Roblox itself, which wants to funnel brands’ marketing budgets into its own ad products, such as Portals and video ads.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

As content creators across the web get swept up into discussions of tariffs and a potential recession, some are adjusting their approach to avoid possible blowback from affected fans.

With Donald Trump’s currently-paused tariffs (save China) threatening to send the global economy into a recession, content creators of all kinds are chiming in, regardless of their usual lane. In addition to the usual suspects in the worlds of investing and personal finance, there are comedians making humor videos about markets crashing, lifestyle influencers posting about recession indicators and political creators making the economy their primary focus in 2025.

Amid the frenzy, some creators are wary of making videos about the potential recession — particularly those who saw what happened to other creators during the most recent financial crash in 2022. Back then, an entire cottage industry of personal finance influencers arose largely to promote and discuss cryptocurrency investing, only to face backlash and a reputation hit from hordes of angry fans after their advice didn’t pan out. 

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

Streaming platform Kick is on a mission to onboard as many creators as possible in 2025. So far, the push appears to be succeeding — but the platform’s edgy reputation represents a challenge as it looks to scale up further.

March 2025 was Kick’s biggest month ever. The platform reached over 317 million hours watched during the month, according to numbers shared by a Kick representative, and achieved its highest-ever average concurrent viewership of 443,559 viewers.

At the moment, Kick boasts over 57 million total users, according to the representative, and is rapidly gaining market share against rival platforms such as Twitch. Although Twitch does not publicly share its total user count, the platform averaged over 2.5 million active users at any given time in 2023, according to a blog post by Twitch CTO Christine Weber. Third-party estimates put Twitch’s monthly user count at roughly 240 million.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.