April 2025: NFL's Creator Push, AI Gone Wrong & The Rise of Employee Influencers

In this episode, hosts Ceci Carloni and Nii Ahene dive into three game-changing stories reshaping the creator economy:

🏈 NFL's Creator Revolution: The league is going all-in on creator marketing with a new VP position dedicated to influencer strategy. Discover why even this traditional sports giant realizes that "some of our top-performing posts ever involve creators and influencers" and what this signals for the future of sports marketing.

⚠️ AI Controversy Alert: When a skincare brand used AI to generate a fake endorsement from wellness creator Arielle Lorry without permission, it sparked serious questions about ethics and rights in the AI era. We unpack what went wrong and what brands need to know about navigating these new waters.

👥 Employee Creators Take Center Stage: Employee-generated content is outperforming both brand and influencer content at major companies. With 73% of organizations saying leadership involvement is key, we explore whether this trend represents the future of authentic marketing or adds undue pressure on employees.

Join us for fast-paced, informed analysis on the stories that matter most in today's creator economy. New episodes monthly!

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

Transcript

Hi everyone and welcome to the very first episode of Influence Weekly, where we dive into the biggest trends, insights and stories shaping influencer marketing and the creator economy. I'm your host, Ceci Carloni, and I'm joined by our founder, Nii Ahene We're so excited to kick things off and explore how the space is evolving one big story at a time. Welcome, Nii How are you today?

Speaker 2 (01:17.838)
doing pretty good. How's it going, Ceci?

It's been a good day. So I'm really excited to dive in. Yeah. Well, this month, we've got a great lineup. We're starting with a major move from the NFL, a messy AI misstep from a skincare brand and a growing trend of employee generated content that's shaking up how brands tell the stories. So first up.

The NFL announced is hiring a vice president of influencer and creator marketing. This is a brand new role and the job description makes it clear they're going all in. Whoever takes the job will be leading strategies across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and podcasts with a focus on building long-term creator relationships and driving fan engagement. I mean, we're talking.

about integrating creators into the league's core marketing approach. Now, we need for a league as traditional as the NFL with decades of legacy media deals, big cable contracts, and Sunday TV culture. This feels like a major shift. I want to know what does a move like this tell you about how fast the ground is shifting between traditional media and digital?

Yeah, when I see a move like this, it really comes down to one thing and it's really about capturing youth audiences. You know, your average young consumer, let's call it somebody under the age, two groups, somebody in the age of 30, so 18 to 30 and somebody under the age of 18. So you're 18, so you're 19 to 30 year olds. They may not have cable. They may not have Sunday ticket. They may not have the ability to watch their teams. And so the ability to download content or watch content.

Speaker 2 (03:13.582)
with creator activations is critical to get that user to be able to understand what's happening with the NFL. The Sunday ticket package last year went from DirecTV to YouTube, and I think this is just the extension of that kind of plan. Now there's an opportunity for creators to create content around games that helps to amplify that brand and the individuals that may not be able to watch the game live, even though they might be playing fantasy football.

they can engage in content in other ways. And then when it comes to kind of the youth, people under the age of 18, really, if you're not on social, if you're not thinking about social, first, you don't exist. Those individuals, they're not spending time watching, you know, TV. They're not spending time in front of TVs flipping through their channels. They're on TikTok. They're on YouTube. They're on Instagram. And the only way to be able to register on their radars is to find the people that they're already engaged with and then connecting with them.

When I see the NFL make a move like this, it's acknowledging like for them to be able to have a future, they have to embrace this. They have to understand this thing from first principles. And I'm super excited to see the sort of campaigns that they roll out as a result.

Absolutely. Yeah, for me this really shows that the NFL gets where things are going. Fans are following creators, not networks, and to keep that connection strong, even a legacy league like the NFL has to think differently about how it shows up online.

Absolutely, I agree.

Speaker 1 (04:45.846)
Yeah. Nia, actually recalled I interviewed Ian Trombetta, the NFL's SVP of social influencer and content marketing last year. And he sort of hinted something like this happening. He said, you'll see more live creator activations from a wide variety of brands and partners as well as from us. And he also made a very powerful statement and it's quoted in this article. He said,

Some of our top performing posts ever in the history of the NFL involve creators and influencers. I mean, it's clear for me, I think it's, you know, we're officially past the nice to have face. Influencer marketing is now a must have and this move really signals that even the most traditional brands and leagues are waking up to that.

Yeah, yeah, it's very clear that's the case. so, you know, for the last two years, those of us who followed the NFL know that the entire Travis Kelsey-Taylor-Swift relationship was a huge part of the storyline, especially with the Chiefs being a great team, being back to Super Bowl three times in a row. And as much as that, you know, is not necessarily a turn on for traditional fans, it's necessary to bring new audiences to the TV screen. And so...

I'm glad the NFL kind of recognizes that. I'm glad to see that they're going to look for more opportunities to bring credit into the fold. you yeah, this is the way you have to kind of think about your marketing. You have to think about those synergies, otherwise you're going to be left behind.

Absolutely, 100%.

Speaker 1 (06:24.43)
Let's discuss the next story about a brand that got called out by a creator. So wellness creator Arielle Lorry recently called out a skin care brand for using an AI generated video of her without her consent. The clip used her likeness and voice and was posted on the brand's TikTok as if it were a paid partnership. Arielle.

responded quickly, calling it widely inappropriate and made clear she had nothing to do with that campaign. The brand eventually issued a statement blaming an external agency saying the content was created using AI tools for the US market and that they work with different vendors globally. But it didn't really sounded like an apology to me. I keep wondering.

If this was a calculated risk or just major oversight from the brand side, what's your take on what went wrong here and what should brands be doing instead?

Yeah, this is a tough one. mean, I definitely was super, super surprised by this story that, you know, something like this could happen. But at the same time, it was only a matter of time. So, you know, obviously there hasn't been an investigation so that we don't have the specific details on exactly how it happened. But there's a lot of tools out there that you can easily take somebody's look, look and feel their likeness, record a short video, and then you can have that.

avatar pretty much say anything that you want it to. And so what that means is the tools that brands are partnering with, brands need to do the work to ensure that they have the rights to be able to use those avatars digitally. Otherwise there's a chance you might run into an issue like this. And the fact that this is a well-known influencer as opposed to kind of just a random person shows how damaging this can potentially be. And so I'm looking forward to seeing.

Speaker 2 (08:23.65)
you know, what kind of shakes out of it, but it's not surprising that this has happened. know, deep fakes have been around for a while. I'm just surprised that this is the first time we've heard of it happening with someone who's an influencer as opposed to celebrity. So, yeah, I mean, I'm super curious to kind of see where things go, but in terms of brands, yeah, you have to vet your partners, right? You have to ensure that they have the processes in place to...

to show you that they have the ability to use those avatars the right way.

Yeah. And this is not only damaging the creators, it's also damaging the brand, both sides. So I agree with you, but this also makes me wonder if this could have been prevented with something as basic as a required disclosure around AI use, or maybe even better, a real process for getting creator approval before anything goes live.

You know, it's tough, right? Because if you think about it, you know, let's not think about AI. Let's think about kind of the previous generation. So there are big asset libraries that have stock photography, pictures of people, pictures of actors, pictures of people doing things. And as a brand, you can license that stock photography and say, okay, I'm going to use this content for my advertisement, for my collateral. And you assume as a brand that if you're working with an iStock photo or

Corbus or any of these companies, they've gone and done the work necessary to get the rights. And that's the last thing you're thinking about is how do I ensure that these rights are in place the right way? Because you're working with an organization. I think because AI is so new and a lot of the companies in this space are so new and very startup, you know, move fast and break things, brands have to take a special care here because it's not like using stock photography, especially if you can get an avatar to endorse something. And so...

Speaker 2 (10:20.812)
Well, I don't blame the brand if what they're saying is true. I don't think there was any malicious intent here. I do think this is a warning shot to kind of anybody using these AI avatars that you have to vet the businesses that are providing these avatars for you because this is a brand new world. And, you know, maybe somebody gave their, their, their, their likeness rights to their likeness to be a stock photographer, a stock photo, but they didn't give it to necessarily become.

an avatar that speaks and recommends things. And so again, we're in a brand new kind of situation. And I would be surprised if we didn't hear more stories like this across the next couple of quarters of years.

Yeah. And I agree with you, Nii. I don't blame the brand, but I would have expected a bit more from them. I mean, I don't think their statement, I feel like their statement felt like a dodge, no real ownership, just, you know, we use lots of vendors globally. Like that explains anything.

I definitely think the brand was probably just as surprised as the creator was that this situation happened. And if this was a very large brand like a Sony or a Nintendo or a Nike, I would expect a little bit more of a formal apology and we're going to make it right. We're going to actually create a true ambassadorship for you or something like that. But this is a very small D2C company. These businesses, they have 10, maybe 20 employees tops.

These are mom and pop businesses at the end of the day. And so to expect a brand like that, that's producing a product and trying to launch their goods to kind of do more than what they actually did when they were probably just as surprised to see Influencer, I'm not surprised that was a response that brand gave.

Speaker 1 (12:07.874)
Yeah.

All right, before we wrap, let's end on a trend that's been gaining momentum and is starting to actually show real marketing impact, the rise of employee influencers, sometimes called HEC or employee generated content. More and more companies are leaning into their employees to create social content that feels authentic, insider, and highly shareable.

product tips, behind the scenes moments, or day in the life clips. It's a way to connect with younger audiences without the gloss of traditional influencer campaigns. There was a report from from disseminate the employee advocacy benchmark report report 2025 based on a survey conducted from May to August 2034 with 254 respondents.

from companies like IBM, Expedia and P &G, all with over 1000 employees. So before we dive deeper into this trend, let me give you some stats on the report. 72 % of organizations now use technology platforms to manage their employee advocacy efforts, indicating a widespread adoption.

of these formalized EGC approaches. 61 % say EGC is extremely important or very important to their overall strategy. And 73 % say leadership involvement is key to driving participation. And what's really interesting is that employee posts are often outperforming the brand content and even influencer content, especially

Speaker 1 (14:00.364)
when the faces are familiar and trusted inside the company. So I want to know what's your take. Do you see this as a smart internal marketing or are we just stretching the definition of influencer a little too far?

I I don't necessarily look at this as influencer marketing as much as I do content marketing, but I do think it's a great strategy. And so the reason why I think it's a great strategy is because, you know, let's take Nike, for instance, if I want to go to a Nike store, I'm not going to be talking to the CEO. I'm not going to be talking to Tiger Woods. I'm not going to be talking to Michael Jordan. I'm going to be talking to an employee. And so for me to have the warm and fuzzies around the employee experience and the employee talking about the latest shoe.

whether it's a running shoe or a basketball shoe, it's gonna give me the confidence as a consumer that when I go to the store, I'm gonna have people who are knowledgeable and passionate about the subjects that are on the of the product in the store. And so, yeah, I love employee advocacy. I think it's a great content and marketing strategy. And I wouldn't be surprised to see more B2C companies, especially companies with physical locations embrace this trend.

Yeah, I mean, I'm with you. do actually love that this trend gives employees more of a voice, but I also do wonder, are we putting extra pressure on people who might not want to be a content creator? Is this a skill set we're now expecting from everyone, regardless of the role?

Yeah. I I hope that organizations that embrace this trend are doing so on a voluntary basis. They're asking for volunteers for those that are good and actually get their content selected and promoted. Hopefully there is some sort of bonus associated with it. I don't think this is something that you can just expect every single employee to start creating content for you. one, not everybody is going to be passionate about it. And two, not everybody is going to be good at it. You can be passionate and not good about it. Not good with it. And so.

Speaker 2 (16:02.222)
No, ideally there's some sort of process where, yeah, if you're an hourly employee, you're working in a store, this is something you can do during your downtime. We talk about product and if you're good at it, maybe that's a pathway for you to move from being a frontline employee into the marketing team. And so that's what I'm excited to see brands and organizations start to embrace that. And ideally they're doing so in a way, which also gives the employees an opportunity to level up in the organization. It's not a requirement. It's something that you can do.

and there's an incentive to do so as well.

Okay, before we wrap, I do have a question with all this talk about EGC. Are we going to start seeing you create more behind the scenes content for Influence Weekly? Should I be expecting TikToks from your desk soon?

Anything is possible. mean, we've been very active with our social platform recently. And yeah, I mean, I think there's a good chance that if we think that that's what our audience wants to hear and see, it's a good chance that something that we'll embrace.

have to wait and see. Okay, that wraps up this episode of Influence Weekly. Thanks for tuning in and exploring the latest stories with us. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss what's next in influencer marketing and the creator economy. Until next time, I'm Ceci. Talk soon.