‘It scared the hell out of me to hand over the keys’: What brands have learned from creator partnerships

Creator Playbooks // October 1, 2026 ‘It scared the hell out of me to hand over the keys’: What brands have learned from creator partnerships By Julia Waldow Ivy Liu Brands and retailers say they’re seeing strong returns from creator content, whether that’s from mini-series or unboxing videos.

While creator programs aren’t new, more retail players are jumping into the space to court consumers, drive engagement and spur sales. This year, Aerie launched a creator program for its most avid fans, while Gap Inc. began an employee creator program.

Ugg started working with art students on creative content and product description pages, and Target debuted two new creator programs, Club Target and Target Ambassadors. Meanwhile, Kohl’s began giving its creators a chance to earn a commission on every sale, in addition to getting free products.

Data indicates this trend — and broader interest in the creator space — isn’t slowing down. CreatorIQ’s seventh annual global State of Creator Marketing report shows that nearly half of brands now earn 3x or greater ROI from creators. What’s more, brands’ creator budgets have increased 33% year over year, the report found. U. S.

brands are expected to spend $13. 7 billion on influencer marketing by 2027, according to eMarketer. Here’s how three different retail players — Favorite Daughter, SharkNinja and Bob’s Discount Furniture — are thinking about the creator opportunity, as described on stage at Shoptalk Fall this week in Nashville.

Favorite Daughter Favorite Daughter, a women’s clothing brand founded by sisters Erin and Sara Foster, is finding that creator-led content is powering its growth. For one, the brand now has a dedicated social-media head, Laura Galvan, who’s agreed to be a public face of the brand and stars in multiple videos a week.

In one Instagram post, she shows off “five work shirts you can wear to the office that are 1,000,000% worth the money.” Having a creator on staff wasn’t the plan originally, said Jennifer Stender Hawkins, evp of Favorite Daughter and its partner Centric Brands. “The intent really wasn’t for [Galvan] to be public-facing,” she explained.

But the brand is seeing this strategy pay off, with Galvan’s videos spurring high engagement. “I think there’s not much [that’s] more important” than having a creator on staff, Hawkins said. Favorite Daughter, which launched in 2020, also began working with creators in the months ahead of its National Daughters Day campaign on Sept. 25.

That day, Favorite Daughter discounts everything on its site by 25%. In the past, Hawkins said, “We had a lot of organic support, but we didn’t really engage creators in an official way.” This time around, Favorite Daughter wanted to “fuel the funnel in advance,” Hawkins said.

So, in August, it started doing fall hauls and working with creators to push new denim. On National Daughters Day, the brand had 25 creators go live first thing in the morning. These creators had smaller but engaged audiences, Sara Foster explained.

One mom in Dallas, for instance, has 60,000 followers but tends to sell more product for the brand than an “A-list celebrity,” Foster said. Thanks, in part, to its creators, Favorite Daughter ended up doing $2 million in sales on National Daughters Day, up 100% from last year.

Going forward, Favorite Daughter is invested in building up its creator content, but only when it’s a good culture fit and people are authentic fans of the brand. “The consumer has sniffed out inauthenticity and they don’t want it anymore,” Foster said.

View this post on Instagram SharkNinja SharkNinja, an appliances company that makes everything from vacuums to air fryers to hair dryers, considers creators its “magic sauce,” said Michelle Crossan-Matos, the company’s chief brand and experience officer. “Seventy percent of the content on SharkNinja is actually created by creators.

They are telling the story to their friends. They’re creating this community. ‘Oh my goodness, have you seen the latest slushie?’ ‘I want to tell you my margarita recipe.'” This content focuses on all types of topics, including unboxings, setups and demonstrations. Sometimes, the creator is in the video; other times, the video is a close-up of the product.

What’s consistent is the high view count. Recently, creators made videos about using their Ninja Creami to make protein ice cream; last year, content about the appliance generated 1 billion impressions, Crossan-Matos revealed.

As Modern Retail has reported, the company also invites creators to the test kitchen of its Boston-area headquarters to sample products, provide feedback and tape content. SharkNinja makes 25 new prod