The digital marketing landscape and greater creator economy are evolving fast, and whoooboy did Q1 have some interesting parts to it. This digital marketing round-up covers all the important points you may have missed and things to look out for. 

 

TikTok went away for [checks notes] two hours in the USA, Meta threw its content moderation and hate speech principles out of the window, X released an AI that could do ‘sexy talk’ (don’t go there), MailChimp decided to lose the goodwill of thousands of SMBs everywhere by reducing list size for cheaper and free packages, a thumb of a man went viral on LinkedIn for some outrageous sexism… And Blue Sky now allows up to 3 minutes of video, which was celebrated by users sharing long videos of cats being petted in video games.

 

TikTok Uncertainty, Meta Lack of Safety, and the Rise of Direct Email/Substack

 

With TikTok still only inching closer to a resolution regarding the situation of the USA banning it (or not), or demanding it is bought out (if Bytedance agrees), creators and brands are looking at alternative platforms. Meta is doing its best to lure creators back, but as minority communities feel increasingly under threat, are we looking at a resurgence of email lists?

 

Newsletters are returning to a must-have for audience connection. Brands are eyeing up alternatives to MailChimp … and while Substack and Medium have been the most popular names and contenders for influencers and creators, there isn’t a clear favourite as they offer slightly different things. With users complaining about both quite broadly, it’s clear you’ll need to do some digging for what suits you best.

 

LinkedIn and the B2B Creator Boom

 

A few years ago, LinkedIn’s creator push barely made a ripple. Now, B2B creators are gaining traction, and brands are paying attention. 

 

The shift is so pronounced that some are moving away from the term ‘B2B’ altogether, coining ‘B2P’—business to professional—to capture the growing demand for personal, engaging content in professional spaces. (This delightful new term was invented by LinkedIn creator marketing agency Creator Match.)

 

We’ve known for a long time that the majority of decisions taken anywhere in life are driven by emotions, and we’ve also known for a while that people buy from people. So it was only an amount of time until LinkedIn caught up. Sadly for the rest of us, we have to read people climbing ‘cringe mountain’. (A term coined by my favourite LinkedIn creator Courtney Johnson.)

 

AI’s Real Value vs Data Depth and Diversity

 

AI isn’t a novelty anymore, it’s a tool that’s already embedded in workflows across the industry and being forced onto everything from search engines to email inboxes. A little like the CBD boom we had in the UK a few years ago. (CBD hummus, anyone?) 

But as AI-powered creator marketing matures, the focus is shifting to the quality of data behind it. If you put slop in, you’ll get slop out. And, we can often tell when someone has just accepted the first thing given as an output. 

 

Rather than using AI to create the content, it’s a fantastic tool to leverage your data to tell you what those numerical insights actually mean, and what next steps to take for media spend and content direction. You’ll still need the human touch to sense check and then implement the best ideas. But not verbatim, though. That’s a slippery slope to not being personally effective in the long run, and dangerous from the implicit bias currently built into this technology.

 

 

YouTube Is TV Now?

 

The lines between YouTube and traditional TV aren’t just blurring—they’re disappearing. One billion people now watch podcasts on YouTube via their TVs every month, and for many, YouTube *is* premium television.

 

In the last week or so we’ve had news of C4 and ITV agreeing that YT is not hurting their viewership numbers. C4 has been releasing back episodes of content on YT since 2022 and ITV joined in with a similar deal in December 2024.

 

This is not hurting advertising opportunities nor making the platform less attractive to content creators. We’re also seeing more Google Ad suggestions of including video content for Performance Max and Search campaigns – so stop neglecting your video content!

 

Looking Ahead

 

The next few months will be unpredictable, especially with the uncertainty surrounding TikTok in the US. If a ban goes through, expect a scramble from those in digital marketing as platforms fight for dominance. Beyond that, it’s business as usual. (Until it’s not!)