The 14 most innovative influencer marketers of 2026

Lindsay Burstein jumps into action when marketing opportunities show up unexpectedly, like when TikTok creator Romeo Bingham posted an impromptu Dr Pepper jingle that went viral and gathered over 100 million views.

Burstein oversees a social team that works on creator partnerships, social listening, and digital community building at Keurig Dr Pepper, which has a portfolio of beverage brands like 7UP, Dr Pepper, and Snapple.

“We’re always looking for ways to do it faster and in a way that feels more real-time so that we’re keeping up with the pace and the culture of the internet,” Burstein said.

In the case of the Bingham Dr Pepper jingle, the company reached out to the creator to license the song for a Dr Pepper commercial that aired during the College Football Playoff national championship.

Other recent projects Burstein worked on included a 7UP LuluLime creator campaign tied to the US Open and a Snapple-sponsored comedy night with Pete Davidson and Colin Jost on their decommissioned Staten Island Ferry.

Burstein works with celebrities and top influencers, as well as creators with smaller audiences who have posted positively about the company’s brands.

“We like to reward our fans,” Burstein said. “An example could be letting them taste test a new flavor first. They’re a big fan. Maybe we send them something that’s going to be on the shelves in two weeks, like, ‘Hey, we know you’re a huge fan. Why don’t you try this first?'”

Charlie Crideford has turned Pepsi Max’s creator efforts from an experiment into a pillar of its marketing since taking over the zero-sugar soda’s UK work with creators in 2022.

Working with the NewGen agency, Crideford grew Pepsi Pioneers, a program that uses creators to advise and shape campaigns for Pepsi, from 15 to 80 people across music, sports, food, and lifestyle.

Over the past year, content created by Pioneers creators has more than tripled its reach, while the cost to reach those audiences has fallen by 61%. Under Crideford, Pioneers previously helped spark two highly impactful earned-media campaigns — Pepsi’s Iconic Corner Shop and Cherry Ring Popper — and a Christmas TV spot.

Crideford has more planned. She’s aiming to make Pioneers a permanent part of PepsiCo’s marketing approach. She’s also extending the program to Ireland and the Nordics and building creator rosters for each market’s culture.

Word of mouth is how Rothy’s, the shoe brand best known for its comfortable flats, got on the map. Influencers are the next evolution of that, and Anna Doré knows it.

Doré is turning to Substack to find the next generation of creators spreading the gospel about Rothy’s shoes.

“People follow these Substack writers because they are in the know,” Doré said. “They are arbiters of taste.”

While Rothy’s is still working with creators on Instagram and TikTok content, Substack has been a spot to experiment with its marketing. For example, as part of Rothy’s 10-year anniversary marketing campaign, the brand partnered with five Substack creators to write essays about their own personal growth. Rothy’s has seen an 18% year-over-year increase in mentions on the newsletter and blogging platform.

Doré is also pushing for more in-real-life (IRL) marketing experiences with creators. Creators, especially Substackers, “want to take their communities out of the inbox and into the world,” Doré said. Rothy’s has been helping creators do just that, sponsoring niche events like a vintage pop-up or a pizza party.

Events have real business impact, too. Rothy’s worked with Substacker Erika Veurink on an in-store activation at one of the brand’s New York locations, where Veurink hosted a vintage sale. The event brought in more than 200 people and increased store foot traffic by 75%, according to Rothy’s. The brand also worked with Substacker and travel writer Denna Nazem after Doré spotted that the creator was organically talking about Rothy’s shoes in her newsletter. It resulted in a travel-themed event promoting the launch of Rothy’s at Nordstrom and a new collection of its shoes, boosting orders for its Cruiser collection and doubling product saves on the affiliate platform ShopMy.

Substackers have “really rabid fans and followers who care deeply about what the writers are putting out there and want to connect in person,” Doré said.

Sarah Henry has expanded Walmart’s creator marketing push, giving customers more ways to discover and shop at the retail giant.

With oversight of content, influencer marketing, and social commerce, Henry integrated the hundreds of thousands of creators Walmart works with into its broader plans rather than treating them as a stand-alone marketing channel.

Under Henry, the Walmart Creator program has grown from a small cohort in 2022 to a large network of brand advocates, and added new ways they can earn and work with brands. Walmart said dollar sales driven by the program have tripled in the past year.

Henry has struck partnerships with affiliate platforms, including YouTube Shopping, ShopMy, and LTK.

She has also pushed Walmart into creator-led entertainment content. This summer, she tapped creators like Nick DiGiovanni, Raven Elyse, and Eric Wang to develop original episodic series around dorm makeovers, cooking, and more to keep Walmart top of mind for back-to-school shoppers. Walmart said the series demonstrated that it can create shoppable content that drives purchases.

Kemma Kefalas rebuilt Yahoo’s social strategy after joining in 2024, with dramatic results. Its TikTok and Instagram presence has soared, while her splashy creator-led campaigns have reintroduced a legacy brand to audiences.

Kefalas’ work with creators both raised awareness and contributed to tangible business results.

Yahoo partnered with olive oil maker Graza ahead of the winter holidays to launch “Sssshhhhizzle” Keyboard Oil, a riff on the office archetype of the too-loud typer, continuing Yahoo’s series of satirical “techcessories” that dramatize everyday digital frustrations. Boosted by LinkedIn influencers including Jade Walters and Brandon Smithwrick, the campaign earned nearly 3.5 million social views.

For Planner, a new AI-driven feature in Yahoo Mail, Kefalas helped cast Cardi B for a campaign that tapped into what it called “FOMSI”: Fear of Missing Something Important. Yahoo said the “Cardi B Busy” spot was its most-viewed, engaged-with, liked, and commented-on brand social post ever, and helped drive Yahoo Mail’s app store rankings. The campaign delivered more than 10 million views and 600,000 likes across Yahoo’s TikTok and Instagram accounts in its first two days.

To launch a new Yahoo Weather app in July, Yahoo partnered with TV personality Kyle Cooke, the cofounder of Loverboy canned cocktails, as the “Weatherboy” to bring energy to the new app.

And for April Fools’ Day, Kemma’s team introduced The Scrōll Stoppr, a $4.99 finger accessory that physically blocks the thumb from touching the screen. The product tapped into a universal pain point of mindless scrolling and promoted the idea of Yahoo as a brand that helps people get things done. Creators including Nicky Reardon, Gavin Fernand, and AJ Eckstein amplified the campaign, contributing to 4.5 million social views and 97 press stories, including an NBC News segment.

Engagement is a frequent buzzword in influencer marketing. But for The Knot, which connects millions of couples with wedding vendors, it means something more: a potential new creator to work with ahead of their nuptials.

Kiara Kempski runs The Knot’s lean but mighty influencer team, working with engaged influencers getting ready for their big day. In February, The Knot — which owns several wedding planning brands — launched a new ambassador program for couples called “The Knot Wedding Party.” The Knot then takes that content from its ambassador program and repurposes it into paid media.

The Knot’s “Win a Honeymoon” campaign, which worked with creators to promote its sweepstakes, resulted in a 55% year-over-year increase in registry creations, according to the company.

Kempski has focused The Knot’s influencer strategy on nano and micro influencers — those with relatively small follower counts — who can tell everyday stories about the wedding-planning process.

“Going with smaller creators gives us that breadth of different types of weddings and accessibility that’s really important to couples, especially when we’re trying to influence decision-making,” Kempski said.

Samantha Maltin leads marketing and brand management for ALSAC, the fundraising organization behind St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Previously a marketing exec at Sesame Street’s Sesame Workshop, Maltin now focuses on growing St. Jude’s brand awareness, overseeing a community management team that sets up creator and celebrity fundraising and marketing opportunities for St. Jude.

“We vet very carefully any creator or influencer that we’re going to work with,” Maltin said. “We want to make sure that we share values, that they are as passionate about the mission as we are.”

Last year, Maltin’s team worked with YouTuber Ryan Trahan to turn his “50 States in 50 Days” series into a fundraising campaign for St. Jude’s, raising over $11.6 million for the research hospital.

Longtime Adobe marketer Stacy Martinet led two of its most ambitious creator marketing stunts this past year, including major moments in Times Square and at Cannes Lions.

For Firefly, Adobe’s suite of AI tools, Martinet put the creator community that makes up a significant part of its customer base at the center of its “Just Imagine” campaign. Instead of using creators as spokespeople, Adobe created a documentary-style video series that featured the likes of Kinigra Deon, Valerie Zhang, and Pablo Rochat using Firefly in their own production work.

Martinet then moved that idea to one of advertising’s most iconic stages with a Times Square takeover this past spring. Twenty-three creators’ Firefly-generated work lit up 38 screens across six city blocks, while self-serve stations let the public generate their own Firefly portraits that were published live onto 12-foot LED screens on-site.

“Our goal was to say: We want people to know that Adobe Firefly is a place where you can move from ideation to creation into production very quickly,” Martinet said. “And we wanted these creators to show how that works in their world.”

Adobe was also the first headline partner of Lions Creators, the creator-economy program of the Cannes Lions ad-industry blowout. More than 250 creators participated in the official Cannes creator programming. Adobe said the effort was its biggest Cannes investment to date.

Martinet, who recently expanded her remit, will continue to make Adobe’s case with creators at Adobe Max in November, its three-day creativity conference. Max will include initiatives such as the Creator Playground, a dedicated destination where influencers can create content on-site using Adobe’s tools; a stand-alone Creator Track; and additional creator-economy programming.

Christina Nguyen has helped usher creators from the sidelines of movie marketing into the center of the action.

From sending creators onto sets, to pairing them with Hollywood stars, and building entire storylines around them, Nguyen’s work has generated hundreds of millions of views and helped drive audiences to theaters.

To build excitement for “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” Nguyen assembled creators from different niches — including Hero DW, Angelica Trae, Joe Mele, and Sam Hutchinson — for a social series in which basketball creator Lethal Shooter tried to solve an unfolding case. The story culminated at the film’s red carpet premiere, where Lethal Shooter and Mele met Tom Cruise.

For “Scream’s” 30th anniversary, Nguyen and the team created a “Scream Kill Tour” T-shirt and sent it to actors who had played victims in the franchise. An initial limited-edition drop of 700 free tees was claimed almost instantly, prompting the company to release an updated version for sale on the Paramount Shop.

Nguyen also demonstrates how being scrappy can pay off. Ahead of the cast filming a day of press interviews to promote the release of “By Any Means,” Nguyen squeezed in 30 minutes for the YouTuber Adam W to quickly shoot some content with the film’s stars. The resulting videos melded Adam W’s comedic style with the movie’s interrogation theme. They generated nearly 10 million views across Instagram and TikTok, per the creative agency Armed Mind, which works with Paramount Pictures.

She’s also breaking new ground in creator marketing with innovative partnerships. For the launch of “Running Man” last year, Nguyen and the team partnered with Strava to launch “The Running Man Challenge,” encouraging top running creators and other users to complete 200 minutes of fitness activities within 30 days to unlock a special badge. More than 139,000 people participated, Strava said.

“She truly approaches each title and opportunity as its own creative platform; a puzzle as opposed to an influencer-marketing formula that needs refreshing,” said Michael Rudin, founder of Armed Mind.

Patrick O’Keefe has helped make E.l.f. Cosmetics into a brand that creators want to actually create with, not simply promote.

He does that by working with creators in ways that are native to their voices. This year, Emma Norton made a 2-minute cinematic adaptation of E.l.f.’s true crime-style mockumentary campaign tackling makeup clutter, “Vanity Vandals.” It generated nearly 900,000 views and almost $90,000 in earned media value, a measure of the monetary worth of that exposure. A musical post she made for E.l.f.’s mock-horror campaign, Unglammy Valley, that poked fun at the difficulty of finding the right foundation shade, delivered similar results.

Showing its sense of humor, E.l.f. tapped comedy creator Big Foot Bae, a pink bow-wearing Sasquatch, to amplify its Bigfoot-themed hair care campaign online and in person. E.l.f. said it was one of the company’s most successful creator launches, generating more than 1,300 posts and reaching 166 million people.

E.l.f. also knows when to jump into culture. When “Sailing with Phoenix,” a creator who left his corporate life to sail with his cat, started gaining steam, E.l.f. dropped a care package to him in the middle of the ocean last year. The stunt went viral across social channels and traditional media.

“E.l.f. is leaning into purpose, and what we saw was a guy living his dreams, and we wanted to be there to support him,” O’Keefe said.

Jason Ossenmacher has helped make creator marketing a top customer-acquisition channel at Auto Club Enterprises, the century-old member club within the American Automobile Association (AAA) federation, which has more than 17 million members.

With consumers facing anxiety about rising costs, Ossenmacher identified that creator-content formats could help make AAA’s products, in areas such as travel and home insurance, more personal and attainable.

He’s helped expand AAA’s creator content across multiple channels, including Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Snap, and connected TV. It’s worked with creators like the travel influencer Alexander James to promote its travel-focused credit card, and the Minnesota Twins second baseman Kody Clemens on its insurance products. And Ossenmacher has used marketing mix modeling to measure how creator marketing stacks up against paid search, social, and other digital advertising channels.

“What distinguishes Jason is his ability to understand how creator marketing fits within the overall picture,” said Jourdan Gariepy, managing director of AAA’s creator marketing agency Props.

Creator marketing is now one of AAA’s biggest acquisition channels, delivering over 67% of new members between 25 and 54 years old so far this year, per AAA. Adding creator marketing to the mix helped raise the AAA credit card’s application approval rate to 50% from 9% previously, AAA said.

Samim Sadrzadeh has made creators central to how Disney launches its biggest films and connects its stories with fans.

For “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” Sadrzadeh tapped more than 200 creators — including Wisdom Kaye, Lyas, Nicky Campbell, Malu Borges, and Dylan Kelly — to turn the release into a cultural moment. The effort, which included fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle creators, boosted a larger campaign that helped the film earn over $676 million globally, more than double the original film’s lifetime box office, pushing the franchise past $1 billion in global ticket sales.

Sadrzadeh also played a key role in Disney’s creator program that surrounded D23, the company’s annual fan event. Disney hosted about 300 digital creators, giving them access to stories, talent, and experiences spanning Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Experiences. In this way, he helped Disney’s biggest announcements reach fandoms around the world. Disney said in the first 24 hours after D23, content from the event generated more than twice as much engagement (likes, comments, and shares) as the previous D23.

Up next, Sadrzadeh plans to make creator marketing a more consistent and bigger growth engine by moving beyond one-off promotional activations toward longer-term partnerships, involving creators earlier in the marketing process, and more.

Sophia Sesto’s title may make it seem like she runs HR for Poppi. But the prebiotic soda executive’s job is “pop culture,” Sesto told Business Insider.

Being chronically online is part of the job description for Sesto and the rest of Poppi’s team working with creators. Scrolling through the For You Page is how Poppi finds creators to work with and follow cultural moments or trends that could be the brand’s next viral campaign.

Case in point: Poppi’s “Amaya Papaya” drink, a fictional flavor of the soda that the brand posted as a joke during the “Love Island” 2025 season. People wanted the flavor, and Poppi quickly made it happen, launching a limited edition of an “Amaya Island Colada” flavor at Target and tracking down Amaya Espinal, the “Love Island” star, to be part of the campaign.

“We moved at the speed of culture,” Sesto said. “We turned it from a meme to reality.”

Sesto rode the success of the Amaya campaign and established a broader strategy around the reality TV show. The brand worked with creators on watch parties and digital content, generating more than 212 million views, according to Poppi.

Part of Sesto’s mandate is to keep Poppi playful and pop-culture savvy following PepsiCo’s acquisition of the soda brand.

“They’re loving the Poppi flair,” she said. “They’re definitely letting us do our thing.”

Ian Trombetta’s goal is to engage the NFL’s core fans while expanding the league’s audience and finding ways to bring clips and original content to social feeds.

Trombetta heads up social, creator, and content marketing at the NFL, overseeing efforts across its league accounts, 32 team accounts, creator partnerships, and other initiatives.

The league enlists over 150 social producers to go out and shoot content with players and influencers, and has worked with creators like MrBeast, Dhar Mann, and Brazilian influencer CazeTV on collaborations. It looks for big social opportunities adjacent to what happens on the field, like posting content around Taylor Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Where we typically find the most value though working with creators is reaching more casual fans, oftentimes, more international fans,” Trombetta said. “We see our female fan base really engaging a lot with creators, which is great. So depending on what the initiative is, we do spend quite a bit of time on trying to reach those incremental audiences that may not be watching every Sunday.”

Prior to joining the NFL, Trombetta worked at Red Bull and Activision.