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Not too long ago, creators didn’t seem like much of a priority for top Hollywood talent agencies. Now those companies are moving deeper into the creator economy, competing to sign the same names and pushing into territory that’s traditionally belonged to managers.
In June, CAA teamed up with TPG’s Integrated Media Company to launch a $250 million holding company to acquire creator businesses. The agency has also been signing a flurry of social media creators over the past year or so, including Rhett & Link and The Stokes Twins. (CAA also represents Scalable.)
The competition for talent is heating up. CAA is reportedly in talks with Alex Cooper, who left UTA in July. UTA, an early mover in creator representation, counts stars like MrBeast and Emma Chamberlain.
And agencies aren’t just looking at individual creators, but increasingly related businesses. For example, this summer WME signed Toonstar, an animation studio that develops creator-led digital series, while CAA signed Betches Media and The Female Quotient, a media and events company focused on professional women.
As the big talent agencies get more involved in the creator economy, the traditional distinction between agents and managers is fading. Agents have typically focused on negotiating and securing financial deals, while managers have looked at creators’ businesses more holistically, including strategy, growth and day-to-day decisionmaking.
“The definition is a little blurry,” said Reza Izad, co-founder of Underscore Talent, a management firm for creators. Many of Underscore’s top clients also have agents, while others have just one rep. The biggest difference is that managers tend to carry much smaller client lists, Izad said.
The agencies’ growing focus on creators is also showing up in how they’re structuring their operations. Over the past two years, UTA and CAA have also formed dedicated Creators divisions, which also include podcasting and other forms of digital talent.
Regardless of whether creators tap an agent or manager, many of them need help running their businesses. A 2025 report from Visa showed creators were more confident in their skills in content strategy and audience growth, than business strategy, financial management and contract negotiation.
That’s also why we see more creators hiring experienced executives, on top of representation, though not all of those roles have worked out.
Still, not every creator thinks outside representation is worth it. Natalie Marshall, better known as Corporate Natalie, isn’t signed with an agency or management firm. Marshall has seen creators build positive relationships with reps, but other relationships have been “super predatory,” with reps taking a 20% cut of deals “and barely doing anything.”
High-profile scandals haven’t helped. In 2023, the Carter Agency was accused of withholding payments, hiding brand deal rates and misrepresenting who they worked with.
In Marshall’s case, she’s isn’t doing it alone. She’s one of several creators who has launched her own ad agency, which also handles her own brand deals.
“We do it all in-house,” Marshall told us. “No shade on talent managers, it just wasn’t for me.”
But for many creators, being signed by a talent agency is a mark of prestige and legitimacy. The real challenge is finding the right partner.
We go deeper into this topic on last week’s episode of Scalable, including why we opted for representation and the best advice we got before signing with an agent. Plus, we discuss how talent reps are contributing to the lack of transparency around influencer rates.
The Round Up
Meta and YouTube will host ads for an upcoming documentary about Elon Musk after the Hollywood Reporter reported on Friday that social media platforms had been rejecting paid ads for the film. Meta told TechCrunch it was an error, while YouTube wrote on X that an ad was temporarily restricted.
Snapchat is expanding its efforts to attract B2B marketers with a new campaign called “Spend Smarter” that encourages businesses to rethink where their media budgets go.
Instagram’s new Pixel effect for disappearing Stories, which blurs out a person or object, is generating buzz. The company is pitching it as a way to “soft launch” a relationship without revealing who the person is, but some users had other ideas. “Just in time for me to blur out my situationship,” creator RV Mendoza quipped on Instagram’s post announcing the feature.
Samsung TV Plus is adding new creator channels, including interviews from Fearne Cotton’s podcast “Happy Place” and popular golf and comedy brand Golf Life. It’s also expanding existing creator content to more countries, such as bringing Mark Rober’s FAST channel to Brazil and Mexico. (Read more about why some creators are betting on FAST channels to be everywhere, rather than exclusive to one streaming service, here.)
HardScope, a new media company from DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish, launched with a studio that develops shows with creators. HardScope’s first series will premiere on YouTube between September and November, with nearly $4 million in production and development funding. Creators will get equity in the original series and franchises they help build.
RedBird Capital Partners agreed to take a majority stake in Puck, the newsletter-focused media company, at a $250 million valuation. The investment firm backed Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount, a deal Puck covered extensively. Executives told staff the investment won’t change the outlet’s editorial independence.
Creator Moves
Cyrus Veyssi will make their Broadway debut in “& Juliet” in October, joining a growing list of creators who have landed Broadway roles, including Jake Shane, Whitney Leavitt and Dylan Mulvaney.
🎾Roger Federer thinks tennis should embrace influencers, even after all the complaints about them disrupting the US Open. “They’re here to stay,” the 20-time Grand Slam winner told the Financial Times. “They actually make the tennis way more appealing and more digestible.” The GOAT has spoken!
Overheard opened a one-day newsstand in New York City’s Flatiron district on Tuesday. The company runs popular meme accounts that post snippets of conversations overheard in different cities. As part of the event, it also launched a free, limited-edition newspaper called The Overheard Post, which includes real conversations heard across the city. It’s the latest example of creators embracing IRL pop-up events and tangible products.
We told you people love a list of top creators! Even the AARP released one, looking at “influencers over 50 you should know.” (But the list includes plenty of well-known celebrities, including Dwayne Johnson and Ina Garten.)
Beyond Trigger Words
in partnership with Pop.Store
Comment sections are a double-edged sword for creators.
They build engagement and community (who doesn’t want a personal response from their favorite creator?), but responding to every comment and DM is exhausting, if not impossible.
Automated comment-to-DM tools have emerged to fill the gap. Creators set a trigger word, and anyone who comments it gets an automated response. We’ve all seen it or even done it ourselves: Comment [X word] and we’ll send you a link!
That saves time, but it can also make comment sections feel overrun with bots, with hundreds of people commenting the same word and getting a generic response. And because these tools don’t always consider the context, they can send links to people who used the trigger word by accident.
Pop.Store’s approach is different. Its AI-driven ECHO-ME platform monitors creators’ posts, as well as fan comments and DMs, to learn everything about the creator and figure out what people are actually asking. It then sends a personalized response in the creator’s own voice: A comment that says “where’s this from” and a DM that says “is this still available” can point to the same link, but each gets a custom reply. ECHO can even personalize this further, sending a custom response with the right link, so people get exactly what they are looking for. No more spamming with bot-responses or the wrong links.
Creators can add whatever they’re promoting, such as a newsletter edition, podcast episode or affiliate link. The feature also isn’t limited to a specific platform or type of link.
We’re excited to start testing ECHO out ourselves! Pop.Store is offering 50% off your first month to try ECHO-ME out.
🔊Soundbite
I never purport or claim to be an accredited journalist in the way that these professionals have dedicated their entire careers to…But what I can do is change the way people think about these issues.”
That’s how Cat Goetze, better known as CatGPT, described the difference between her work and professional journalists’ on this week’s episode of Scalable, out Thursday.
Case in point: While Goetze says she doesn’t shy away from talking about the negative impacts of AI, she tries to focus more on ways her followers can feel empowered by the technology. That includes using AI tools to “improve their lives” so they don’t get left behind, and figuring out who to vote for in the midterm elections to get the AI regulations they want to see in place.
Her comments come as the line between traditional journalists and news creators continues to blur: Over half (57%) of Americans ages 13 and older get news and information from influencers and independent creators at least sometimes, according to a report from the Media Insight Project in April.
And more powerful people and institutions, from AI companies to government officials, are increasingly turning to creators and podcasters for coverage—sometimes in lieu of traditional media.
But Goetze suggests that we need both: People who report the news and people who help us make sense of it. We couldn’t agree more. Both matter, as long as they’re not spreading misinformation.
Regulatory Woes
TikTok agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million to settle a social media addiction lawsuit on Friday. The company also agreed to make safety changes to its app. It has been quite the year of social media giants settling cases related to youth safety!
Cheyenne Hunt, a lawyer and creator with more than 225,000 followers on Instagram, is among the plaintiffs suing OpenAI, Anthropic, X and Google over alleged collusion. In a post on X, Hunt claimed these companies have been meeting privately to plan a response to mounting pressure for AI regulation.
Talent Tracker
Jodie Stocker Kennedy is now the chief commercial officer of influencer marketing firm #Paid. Previously, she was chief revenue officer at Spotter.
Ethan Karetsky joined Snap as head of user growth strategy. Before that, he worked in strategy and operations at DoorDash.
Trevor Davis is now senior vice president of platform partnerships at Later, an influencer marketing and social media management firm. Previously, he spent six years at TikTok, most recently as vertical manager of specialty retail.
Daion Morton was promoted to senior director of talent and creator partnerships at NBCUniversal.
Logan Spence, head of content at Good Good Golf, announced he left the company after about a year.
