When Beyoncé took her "Renaissance World Tour" abroad in 2023, stories of Americans flying to Paris and Hamburg, Germany, to see the "Break My Soul" singer live — and save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in the process on tickets — made headlines.
Travel-centric content creator Mercedes Arielle saw an opportunity. Not only did she secure tickets to see Queen Bey in Stockholm for the May 10, 2023, tour opener, but she also wanted to tell her nearly 200,000 followers how they could get in on the deal too.
When tickets went on sale, the Dallas-based entrepreneur posted a tip on her Instagram and TikTok in February 2023 for securing lower-priced international tickets to the superstar's concerts. She told Yahoo Entertainment her tip was "a contributing factor of why 50% of the Swedish ticket sales to go see Beyoncé [in Sweden] were … Americans specifically."
Arielle, who is also known by her handle Calculated Opulence, has an audience that is mostly Black women between the ages of 25 and 44, and focused on solo sightseeing and “affordable luxury.”
“We are serious about traveling, we have the disposable income to do so, and when we get behind something and believe in it, we will show up,” she said.
“I don't think that people really process the way in which women of color choose to travel internationally,” Arielle said. “Because we don't see ourselves in marketing materials, in the campaigns that tourism boards are putting on, or we don't see the type of travel that resonates with us, we often are concerned that these are not places and spaces who celebrate diversity.”
That’s why, she said, there’s “a need for far more intentionality, especially considering our ability to spend and stimulate local economies.”
Arielle is one of about 12 million content creators across the U.S. who are turning influencing into a lucrative full-time career.
So lucrative, in fact, that in 2023, Goldman Sachs Research estimated the creator economy to be $250 billion, a number the investment bank says could reach nearly $500 billion in the next couple of years.
“Where is that money going to come from?” Steven Bertoni, assistant managing editor at Forbes, asked at the publication’s inaugural Creator Upfronts, which the publication hosted with Walmart Creator in Los Angeles this week. “Brand partnerships. They think 70% of that revenue is coming from brand partnerships.”
Those partnerships with retailers, beauty brands or film studios can be profitable for creators and make the difference between full-time influencing and juggling a 9-5 job in order to make ends meet.
Partnerships can also be tricky tightropes to walk — for both sides — with money and reputations on the line, especially because content creators know how much authenticity matters.
“Content creators aren't just folks that are posting on social media,” Sarah Henry, vice president and head of content, influencer and commerce for Walmart, told Yahoo Entertainment. “They're entrepreneurs that have built a brand and they have built a business out of this that includes both passive and active income opportunities. They found a way to not only create those income opportunities through their content but the way that they had to carefully curate their communities and the way that they had to engage them.”
It's that tight community that helped Dani Austin, who has 3 million followers across platforms, connect about hair loss and eventually launch her own hair care line to help treat it.
“I had always shared the ups and downs with my audience. I was always very vulnerable about, you know, whether it was postpartum depression or anything I was going through that was more of a struggle,” Austin said on a panel at the event. “I wasn’t scared to share it.”
So when Austin started losing her hair in 2019, she shared that too.
“I was really embarrassed about it, and it happened for so many different reasons — stress and then traction alopecia from hair extensions trying to cover it up and dyeing it to make it look thicker. But then I just lost more,” she said.
It got to the point where she looked at her husband and said, “I don't even want to leave the house. Like, I don't even feel feminine anymore.”
After he told her she should get a wig like the Kardashians, she not only bought one (and named it Kim) but also told her audience about it, used her chemistry degree and teamed with scientists to create her Divi hair growth serum in 2021.
Austin’s serum sold 40 million units in its first year — all from a link on Instagram.
“I kind of discovered this hidden epidemic of women that were going through something so similar,” she said. “And it was the first time that I started meeting my audience face-to-face — and they would be crying.”
For creator Jordan Howlett, who has 32 million followers across social media platforms and posts about everything from food hacks to how Gen Z is "aging like milk," he likens his community and influence to a sport's team captain.
“In the creator space, you have the power to really make people feel like not only they are heard, right, but they are a part of something that is bigger than just themselves or even you,” Howlett said on a panel at the event.
But managing brand deals, partnerships, content posting and community engagement while also maintaining authenticity also comes with its own stressors, ones that the audience doesn’t always see on screen.
“To be fully candid, there's severe levels of anxiety with this stuff,” Howlett said. “It's a severe grind. I mean, those levels of anxiety are still there. Those levels of overthinking and over-anxiousness are there. They're always there. But that's what makes you authentically you. Instead of trying to mask it or hide it, you [have to] be open to it.”
Howlett, who has partnered with celebrities including Donald Glover, said that authenticity is what matters most.
“When it comes to brand deals or partnerships, I'm never worried about the engagement of it all. Because if you do, then at that point you stop being you,” he said.
Howlett added that, while having an audience of millions can be daunting, his work is much more manageable when he’s posting in front of his bathroom mirror.
“When you're making a video, I am just trying to talk to you,” he said. “You don't see it as like, OK, I'm about to talk to 30-plus million people now. You make it as if I'm having a conversation with you, and anybody else can join in, and that's how it helps.”