Hi friends!
Happy Tuesday - busy week. I’ll be at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival tomorrow in NYC and my colleagues will be at ShopTalk in Chicago — let me know if you’re around at either.
Lots happening in social commerce this week also: YouTube is reimagining brand/creator sponsorships, LTK is opening brand profiles and TikTok is pushing into hotels and movie tickets.
Let’s dive in.
(September 16th)
👗 LTK launches brand profiles
LTK, long known as a creator-first affiliate platform, is opening the doors to brands. New “brand profiles” let labels build storefront-style hubs directly on LTK, putting them side by side with creators in the app. It’s a play to make the platform less middleman and more marketplace, a place where discovery, inspiration, and checkout all converge. For LTK, this signals an evolution from being just a creator tool to becoming a true social commerce ecosystem.
▶️ YouTube makes creators look more like TV networks with new ad tools
At its Made On event earlier today, YouTube announced it’s “re-imagining sponsorships” for long-form video with dynamic ad insertion. Until now, if a creator recorded a brand integration, it was baked into the video forever, a one-time deal that lived permanently in the file. Starting next year, those segments can be swapped in and out, resold over time, and even targeted by geography or demographics.
The move effectively turns creators’ back catalogs into renewable inventory, closer to how podcasts have run ads for years. For brands, this means less permanence. For creators, it unlocks recurring revenue instead of one-and-done deals. And for YouTube, it makes the platform even harder to ignore for both sides of the market.
📎 AdAge
🎬 TikTok expands verticals: from movies to hotels
TikTok just rolled out two big category moves. First, it partnered with Fandango to let users buy movie tickets without leaving the app. And in hospitality, “TikTok Go” launched last month with Booking.com, allowing creators to earn commissions on hotel bookings made directly in-app.
Both signal the same play: collapsing the gap between inspiration and transaction across industries far beyond retail.
🧠 Brand Move of the Week
Future of Digital 2025
Last week, I went to eMarketer’s Future of Digital event here in New York, where I came across Liquid Death’s chief media officer Benoit Vatere. His philosophy was clear: “If you expect us to do it, we should not do it.”
He expressed his frustration of Meta’s move toward fully automated AI ad campaigns and argued that one algorithmic impression won’t take a shopper from brand story to checkout. Instead, Liquid Death is leaning on bold creative to drive organic reach, like its “Greatest Hates” Spotify series, which turns negative online comments into songs.
On the paid side, the brand is betting big on connected TV. Vatere says CTV offers the scale of a big screen with the precision of retail data, helping them identify whether a viewer is a Walmart or Amazon buyer and track how exposure translates into sales. It’s a format the brand has already tested at the Super Bowl, which Vatere called “the best top-of-funnel you can think of.”
And while Liquid Death has been cautious about AI in creative, Vatere hinted at its next frontier: cracking the “new SEO” of AI-driven search: AIO.
🔭 Trend Watch
What are the next categories for TikTok to win?
TikTok has already proven it can move impulse buys at scale — beauty, fast fashion, gadgets, you name it. But its latest category plays feel different. Partnering with Fandango to sell movie tickets directly in-app makes a ton of sense: film culture is already massive on TikTok (trailers, fan edits, reviews), and turning that hype into instant ticket sales feels like a natural progression.
@moviesaretherapy Fantastic Four First Steps movie review #fyp #foryou #movies
The hotel push is even more interesting. With Booking.com onboard, TikTok is letting creators earn commissions on hotel stays booked in-app. Travel is already a huge vertical on TikTok — “travel hacks,” “hidden gems,” and “hotel tours” rack up millions of views. Collapsing inspiration into booking could be a killer move. I actually think this one works. TikTok could become a legitimate OTA competitor if they play it right.
Which naturally leads me to wonder: what’s next? If TikTok can sell mascara, movie tickets, and hotel rooms, what about…
Houses → Imagine scrolling into a home tour and hitting “Book a showing” or even “Make an offer.” TikTok could partner with Zillow, Redfin, or even create its own marketplace.
Cars → Auto influencers already drive crazy interest. Adding “Lease now” or “Reserve a test drive” could flip TikTok into a dealership.
Doctors & cosmetic appointments → TikTok already shapes beauty standards. Booking Botox, Invisalign, or a dermatologist consultation could be one swipe away.
It sounds far out, but the logic is there. TikTok owns attention, has frictionless checkout, and thrives on trust built between creators and communities. If they can sell you mascara in a minute-long video, why not a car — or even a house? 🤷