For instance, in the Best Use of Influencer Marketing category, Warner Bros. Discovery's Courageous Studios is nominated for a Google Pixel campaign centered around the third season of HBO's "The White Lotus." Pop culture podcaster Evan Ross Katz and cast member Nicholas Duvernay traveled through Thailand with only the Google Pixel and Gemini to guide them, turning real-time exploration into a dynamic content series that paired seamlessly with the show's weekly episodes.
Just in time for back-to-school season, the Mentholatum-owned skincare brand has launched 'Zitcoms,' a content campaign that trades clinical messaging for something teens actually want to watch: awkward, self-deprecating humor. The series, created with agency The Bam Connection, uses influencers, everyday consumers and even high school drama departments to stage mini sitcom-style skits about acne struggles. The result is part branded content, part user-generated experiment and part theater performance, designed to feel more authentic than glossy ads and more relatable than medical claims.
At the core, Labubu and Sydney Sweeney aren't radically new; they're evolutions of age-old marketing patterns. History is repeating itself. Labubu mirrors the Beanie Babies craze of the '90s: collectible, emotionally charged, and driven by hype cycles.
