CreatorIQ, the operating system for creator-led growth, announced the appointment of Senthil Kumaran as Chief Technology Officer. Kumaran brings more than two decades experience scaling global engineering organizations, integrating complex platforms, and building predictive machine learning systems on first-party data. He will lead CreatorIQ’s global technology organization as the company accelerates its AI-driven roadmap and deepens its data advantage for brands and agencies worldwide.

Kumaran joins CreatorIQ from his role as CTO of Digital Turbine, where he led large-scale engineering teams and advanced cloud-native, data-driven platforms. He previously held engineering leadership roles at Meta Reality Labs, Verifone, Yahoo!, and Xperi Inc. Over the course of his career, he has overseen global teams of more than 1,000 engineers, built predictive machine learning systems leveraging first-party data, led development of major AWS environments at scale, and integrated technology stacks, enterprise systems and products across multiple companies post-acquisition.

His appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the creator economy. As AI-native applications reshape business and marketing, brands are demanding greater speed, deeper insights, and measurable impact from creator investments. CreatorIQ is positioned to meet this shift by further operationalizing its proprietary Creator Graph intelligence infrastructure and expanding AI-assisted capabilities across the platform.

Also Read: Gradial Launches GEO Agent With Built-In Execution to Help Brands Win in AI Search

“AI is transforming marketing from campaign management into intelligent systems that orchestrate entire ecosystems in real time,” said Chris Harrington, CEO of CreatorIQ. “Nowhere is that shift more visible than in the creator economy, where brands are managing thousands of creator relationships across global markets. CreatorIQ is building the AI-native platform to power that future—turning creator partnerships into always-on growth engines for the world’s leading brands. Senthil brings the technical vision and leadership to accelerate this transformation and help define the next generation of creator marketing.”

Under Kumaran’s leadership, CreatorIQ will focus on advancing AI-powered execution layers, accelerating product velocity, strengthening data infrastructure, and expanding integrations that reduce time to value for customers. By reducing operational complexity through intelligent systems, CreatorIQ aims to give marketers time back to invest in the inherently human aspects of creator marketing that give it the edge over traditional media.

“CreatorIQ has built an extraordinary foundation – industry-leading data, the powerful Creator Graph, and a global ecosystem of customers and partners,” said Senthil Kumaran, Chief Technology Officer of CreatorIQ. “As marketing shifts toward data- and AI-driven execution, the opportunity is to transform that foundation into intelligent systems that help brands and creators operate faster and more effectively. I’m excited to build on CreatorIQ’s data advantage to unlock new capabilities, deepen integrations across the marketing ecosystem, and accelerate how brands launch, optimize, and monetize creator programs.”

SOURCE: BusinessWire

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#paid, the leading creator marketing platform for brands and creators to partner on authentic, performance-driven campaigns, today announced a strategic partnership with Pinterest, the AI-powered visual search and discovery platform where inspiration turns into decisions.

As an official execution partner for the Pinterest Creator Partnership Program, #paid will help brands bring creator-led campaigns to life through content that feels native to the platform, adds value to the user experience, and drives measurable business outcomes via Idea Ads.

Unlike traditional social platforms built around entertainment and social validation, Pinterest is where people actively plan what comes next: what to cook, wear, buy, renovate, or book. In this environment, creators function less as influencers and more as trusted experts and guides who help consumers move seamlessly from discovery to action.

“Pinterest is where intent lives,” said Ashley Riske, Head of Partnerships at #paid. “People don’t come to Pinterest to be interrupted, they come to decide. This partnership allows brands to show up through creators who are already shaping those decisions, with content that feels helpful, authentic, and genuinely additive.”

Also Read: Pacvue and Reddit Announce Partnership to Bring Reddit Ads into Pacvue’s Commerce Operating System

Through this partnership, #paid will combine its proprietary creator-brand matching technology and opt-in “Handraise” workflow with Pinterest’s creator ecosystem to produce high-impact, platform-native content. Creators self-select into campaigns they are genuinely passionate about, and then create Idea Ads with paid partnership that blend expertise, inspiration, and utility for Pinners. Creators will produce Pinterest content inherently designed to be saved, revisited, and acted on.

The collaboration enables brands to activate creators across key verticals, from beauty and fashion to food, home, and lifestyle, producing scroll-stopping, evergreen content that supports the funnel from awareness to conversion. With Pinterest users increasingly shopping what they discover, creator content plays a critical role in bridging inspiration and commerce.

SOURCE: AccessNewswire

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Ruder Finn, one of the world’s largest independent marketing and communications companies, announced the launch of its brand-new integrated influence platform, rf.Voices, which brings artificial intelligence-driven influencer marketing, customer advocacy, and amplification under one measurable model. This innovative platform is designed to help brands create human connections in a world where AI-driven platforms and big language models dominate brand communication strategies.

The rf.Voices platform helps brands tap into trusted human voices, ranging from micro-, nano-, and macro-influencers to experts, customers, employees, and partners, all under a single intelligent system. The platform combines Ruder Finn’s Digital Integration Group’s expertise with Big Sky Communications’ customer advocacy capabilities to orchestrate audiences from awareness to engagement and action under a fully data-informed, measurable system.

AI-Powered, Human-Led Influence

The platform integrates AI and analytics across four core capabilities:

• Audience Intelligence: Data synthesis and audience modeling with AI to better understand motivations and behaviors for more intelligent campaign activation.
• Influence Mapping: Matching influencers and advocates with audiences with AI precision and human insight.
• Precision Amplification: Reaching more people through targeted paid amplification and connecting content with the most relevant and engaged audiences.
• Risk Intelligence: Establishing monitoring and vetting systems to ensure brand safety and rapid activation.

rf.Voices leverages AI to enhance strategic decision-making and performance measurement while ensuring human credibility remains central to all interactions.

Also Read: New Engen Acquires Grapevine to Scale Creator-Led Performance Marketing

Measuring Influence Beyond Vanity Metrics

Unlike traditional influencer programs, rf.Voices measures outcomes beyond likes, impressions, or follower counts. It evaluates high-value actions, community conversation quality, shifts in brand perception, next-step intent, and indicators of long-term brand equity and advocacy. By linking influence and advocacy to tangible growth outcomes, brands gain unprecedented visibility into how these efforts contribute to loyalty and sustained business performance.

“AI has fundamentally changed how people search and discover information, requiring brands to rethink how they connect with their audiences,” said Eric Petersen. “In a world of LLMs and chatbots, social and influencers are where real human connection and authentic conversation still thrive. rf.Voices pairs AI with human judgment to help brands find and activate the creators who genuinely move people and deliver real business impact.”

“For influence to create real change in the market, you need different voices speaking to different audiences in different ways; there is no one-size-fits-all approach,” said Eddie Miller. “When influence and advocacy combine, it creates a groundswell. People take action, advocates feel passionate to share their stories, and momentum builds across communities. rf.Voices gives brands a structured way to build that momentum, sustain it, and measure it against shifts in perception, behavior, and business performance.”

“Too often, influence programs are measured after the fact,” said Sara Record. “rf.Voices starts earlier, using AI-powered predictive audience modeling to inform who we activate before any experiences or content go live, and how we define success from day one.”

By combining AI-powered insights with human-led execution, rf.Voices offers brands a comprehensive, measurable approach to influence that aligns with modern audience behaviors and emerging AI-driven discovery channels.

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QYOU Media Inc. has launched a new performance media business unit named QYOU Amplify, which is designed to revolutionise the way in which campaigns for creators and influencers are scaled, optimised, and measured across paid and organic distribution, thus formalising the company’s paid media capabilities under a unified growth engine for brands. The new business unit combines certified media buying expertise, advanced audience targeting, and real-time performance analytics with the company’s existing expertise in creator strategy and creative development, thus enabling brands to discover breakout creator content, shift their investment in response to signals, and maximise their return on investment through precise audience reach and optimisation.

Also Read: Cineverse Launches Matchpoint Creative Labs to Power Generative AI-Driven Creative for CTV and FAST Advertising

Instead, QYOU Amplify is engineered to view influencer marketing as a full, funnel growth engine rather than a single marketing tactic and to measure and reallocate spend accordingly. This is also consistent with the industry trend, where brands are increasingly asking for measurable business results from their campaigns, as can be seen in traditional media channels. The announcement also aligns with QYOU’s present strengths and partnerships, which span from North America to India, and their emphasis on performance accountability and storytelling.

Read Complete Post: QYOU Launches QYOU Amplify, a Performance Media Business Unit Built to Scale Creator Campaigns

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Later, the world’s most intelligent influencer marketing company, launches Later 360, a unified reporting suite that gives brands complete visibility across their influencer programs, from top-of-funnel awareness to bottom-of-funnel sales. For the first time, marketers can see organic performance, paid amplification, and commerce outcomes in a single view, built specifically to handle the complexity of enterprise multi-channel programs.

Behind the reporting is Later’s industry-leading dataset: over $2 billion in verified influencer-driven purchases, more than 1 billion Link in Bio transactions, an ecosystem of 16 million creators, and millions of scheduled social posts generating over 130 billion annual impressions. Powered by Later EdgeAI, the company’s proprietary predictive intelligence engine, Later 360 transforms extensive performance data into actionable intelligence. Now, teams can identify what drives engagement, what converts to sales, and where to invest next-without manual reporting or fragmented dashboards.

“Later 360 is intelligence built for how your business actually runs,” said Justin Withers, CPO of Later. “Enterprise teams need reporting that reflects the complexity of their programs. When marketers can see the complete story of their influencer investments in a way that aligns with their business structure, they make bolder decisions with greater confidence.”

Also Read: Katch Data Introduces Katch Verified to Verify Social Content

For enterprise customers, Later 360 extends beyond standard reporting to deliver deeper insights that reflect how large organizations operate. Brands can track performance by product category, creator tier, retailer channel, and campaign objective—seeing projected vs. actual spend, category-level ROI, and cross-platform performance in formats built for their specific workflows.

Reports populate automatically as campaigns run, creating a single source of truth that unifies organic, paid, and commerce data across all influencer activations. Enterprise teams can filter and segment by platform, campaign, creator tier, product category, retailer, or any business-specific dimension that matters to their organization. The system connects seamlessly with existing marketing analytics, integrating Later Influence and Mavely commerce data without manual data stitching.

“This is a significant step forward for the industry,” said Danielle Wasserman, Manager, Social Media and Content at BISSELL Homecare, Inc. “For the first time, we can see the entire story of our influencer program in a way that aligns with how our business runs. Later 360 gives us the flexibility and visibility to move faster, prove value across the full funnel, and invest with conviction.”

In an industry where fragmented data often obscures the full value of creator partnerships, Later 360 delivers the clarity enterprise marketers need to scale performance-driven influencer programs. The launch reinforces Later’s position as the enterprise standard for influencer marketing, combining advanced technology with the industry’s richest creator dataset to drive measurable business outcomes.

SOURCE: PRNewswire

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New Engen announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Grapevine, a creator-powered performance content network that enables brands to produce authentic creator-driven content and activate it at scale through whitelisted paid social campaigns. The move strengthens New Engen’s position in creator-led marketing as paid social continues to evolve.

The acquisition reflects a broader transformation in paid social advertising, where brands are shifting more budget toward creator-produced content distributed through whitelisting rather than traditional brand-handle ads. As creative formats, influencer relationships, and media buying increasingly converge, brands face growing pressure to source high-performing, authentic creator content at volume. By bringing Grapevine into its portfolio, New Engen addresses this challenge head-on, expanding its creator-powered capabilities while improving scalability and performance consistency.

“As media buying becomes increasingly automated, creative and audience access are emerging as the primary growth levers in paid social,” said Justin Hayashi, CEO at New Engen. “Creator-led content isn’t just a format shift-it’s becoming growth infrastructure. Grapevine strengthens our ability to help brands scale that infrastructure with measurable impact.”

Also Read: Statusphere Raises $18 Million in Series A to Scale Trusted Influencer Marketing

Grapevine operates a curated network of more than 700 performance-focused creators and provides end-to-end support across the content lifecycle. The company aligns creators to clear business objectives through strategic briefing, manages pre- and post-production optimization internally, and distributes creator-produced, advertorial-style content using creator and publisher whitelisting across paid social platforms. This approach allows brands to move beyond brand-handle-only advertising while maintaining strong cost-per-acquisition (CPA) and return on ad spend (ROAS). In addition to paid social activation, Grapevine also supports brands with high-performing editorial, blog, and long-form creator content.

“This partnership gives Grapevine the scale and infrastructure to expand what we can offer brands while continuing to focus on creator-led performance,” said Caroline Levere, CEO and co-founder of Grapevine. “New Engen and Grapevine already share clients like Arrae and Rugiet, and this is a natural next step that allows us to accelerate our vision and deliver more creative, media, and measurement capabilities to our clients.”

With this acquisition, New Engen further strengthens its creator-centric performance marketing stack within its broader full-funnel digital marketing offering. Grapevine’s creator-led, whitelisted distribution model complements Donut Studios’ high-volume brand-handle creative, as well as New Engen’s influencer marketing, media activation, and measurement capabilities. Together, these offerings position New Engen to help brands drive performance at scale by uniting creative production, creator partnerships, and paid media execution under one integrated strategy.

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Katch Data, the content intelligence company trusted by major Hollywood studios and the world’s largest social platforms, is announcing Katch Verified, its first product for agencies and brands working in influencer marketing.

Katch Verified applies the company’s sought-after genomic approach to social content analysis, powering precise influencer vetting. Teams can review hundreds of influencers in minutes, eliminating manual scrolling and gotcha moments. Ideal for identifying influencer/brand fit, Katch Verified spots any red/green flags in creators’ content to ensure teams are making the right strategic choice. Katch Verified is built on a proprietary semantic understanding algorithm powered by multimodal AI analysis and content genomics, similar to the methodology Katch Data developed for film and television studios.

Users simply upload a list of influencers and define their requirements, which Katch runs through their proprietary algorithms. The system examines every frame, object, sound, and word across an influencer’s content history. It surfaces what humans and generic LLMs routinely miss, such as brief background objects or subtle contextual risks. Every flagged moment includes specific reasoning so teams understand and see exactly what was found and why it was flagged.

Also Read: Sprout Social Named IDC MarketScape Leader in Influencer Marketing

“Influencer marketing is entering its most important era, and also its riskiest,” said Andrew Tight, CEO and Co-Founder of Katch Data. “Brands are pouring billions into creators, yet the industry still relies on manual review. Katch Verified ends that. Brands need to know with certainty that the people representing them are aligned with their values. Katch Verified makes that trust possible.”

“Our genomics approach makes it possible to detect nuances that even advanced tagging systems simply cannot capture,” said Dr. Nolan Gasser, Chief Genomic Officer and Co-Founder of Katch Data. “Our team has gained a deep view of content and audiences through our work with the world’s top entertainment companies, social platforms, and advertising agencies. This knowledge gives us a unique perspective on this constantly evolving challenge.”

SOURCE: PRNewswire

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GRIN has revealed that its creator marketing platform will be instantly and directly accessible by users, which is a major strategic change from the one that previously only allowed enterprise, level onboarding. Now brands can instantly launch and scale influencer programs with no need for demos, long, term contracts or drawn, out sales cycles. The company, which is based in Sacramento and has been acknowledged as a pioneer in creator management, is now extending flexible month, to, month pricing along with a 30, day free trial that customers can start by credit card. This move by GRIN is aimed at removing the barriers of marketing budget cuts that have to be faced by organisations, thus providing them with the opportunity to find out about and implement creator, centric strategies in a way that suits them the most.

Also Read: Spotter and Stagwell Forge Strategic Partnership to Scale Creator-Led Media in Brand Marketing

This move is a direct response to industry challenges: with nearly 60 % of CMOs reporting budget constraints limiting strategy execution, the new model empowers smaller teams and emerging brands to test and grow creator initiatives without financial risk. GRIN’s platform, backed by AI and over a decade of proprietary data, has already powered significant results for clients, with users generating hundreds of millions in affiliate revenue and millions of pieces of creator content. By simplifying access and reducing commitment friction, GRIN aims to broaden adoption of authentic, creator-driven marketing across brands of all sizes.

Read Complete Post: GRIN Opens Instant, Self-Serve Access to Its Creator Marketing Platform

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Amaze Holdings, Inc. a global leader in creator-powered commerce, announced an expanded strategic partnership with Contend, the creative studio behind innovative, high-impact brand launches for global audiences. The collaboration formalizes and elevates Contend’s existing role as a strategy advisor to Amaze, expanding the relationship into a fully integrated partnership focused on scaling creator-led commerce through immersive storytelling and integrated fulfillment.

Building on a successful advisory relationship, Amaze and Contend will now partner to shape Amaze’s brand campaigns and go-to-market strategies, ensuring how the platform is positioned and marketed delivers maximum value to creators. The expanded partnership brings together Contend’s proven ability to turn culture into measurable demand with Amaze’s global commerce platform. This will enable creators and brands to launch products that seamlessly connect content, community, and conversation. Contend has helped leading brands-including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Apple TV+, and Ticketmaster-build audience-first formats that drive measurable business outcomes.

Throughout 2026, Amaze and Contend plan to roll out a slate of creator- and brand-led commerce launches across food, culture, entertainment, and lifestyle, anchored by larger platform activations.

Also Read: Pivotree Partners with OroCommerce to Deliver Unmatched B2B eCommerce Powered by Mastered Data

What the Partnership Delivers

Through Amaze and Contend’s partnership, creators and brands gain access to:

• End-to-end launch strategy and execution
• Innovative video, live, and shoppable content formats
• Creator-led auctions, timed drops, and livestream shopping
• Immersive experiences, including AR activations and real-world unlocks
• Global fulfillment and commerce operations powered by Amaze

“Our mission at Amaze is to help creators build real, durable businesses,” said Aaron Day, CEO of Amaze. “Contend has been a trusted advisor to Amaze and has consistently demonstrated an ability to turn storytelling into demand. Together, we’re building a scalable model that drives engagement and revenue at global scale.”

“At Contend, we believe content should be built with an endgame, starting with what people already care about and translating that attention into real action by expanding access to the things they love,” said Steven Amato, Founder and CEO of Contend. “Expanding our partnership with Amaze allows us to bring that philosophy to life at scale.”

SOURCE: GlobeNewswire

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