Alix Earle and Top Creators Push Fewer Brand Deals, More Equity

Top creators at Advertising Week New York said they are cutting brand rosters and pushing for equity, product input and longer partnerships instead of one-off posts, Digiday reported Oct. 9. NetInfluencer covered the same day’s creator programming and quoted Alix Earle on the same preference for a short list of aligned brands.

Earle, whose social footprint Digiday put at a combined 14 million followers, told a panel she would rather work with “five or six brands than 100 every year” and is weighing equity deals with partners whose products she actually uses. NetInfluencer quoted the same framing — “I’d rather be aligned with five to six brands over the year than one hundred” — as she discussed Reale Actives expansion without naming new categories.

Digiday said the equity arrangements Earle described work more like joint ventures, with shared creative work and shared upside. She is working on two such deals now: one puts her on a text thread with a photographer and stylist, and another links her with a brand’s creative agency. “They’re very great about letting me sort of take charge and take the lead, and trusting me as the creator,” Earle said, adding that early involvement makes her “always want to overperform and overdeliver.”

Jordan Howlett took the next step by becoming chief content officer at Blenders Eyewear earlier this year, Digiday reported. CEO Jack Gray said Howlett ignored the brand’s first approach and rejected a transactional deal; he now has an office, gives blunt feedback on work he did not create, directed a commercial with Method Man, and is helping design “Jordan proof glasses” with tougher hinges plus a 3,000-pair mystery holiday collection.

Dad creator Kevin Cooney told a Later-hosted panel he turns down campaigns he doubts will perform and tells brands to “put it with a few micros,” Digiday said. Issa Rae, speaking on the same Advertising Week slate NetInfluencer covered, said HOORAE Media’s free TikTok microseries are funded through brand integrations and that she wants “collaborators at the end of the day.” She also debuted “The Compatibility Experiment,” set to premiere Oct. 14 on TikTok and PineDrama, NetInfluencer reported.

Digiday framed the shift as a response to marketers treating creators like disposable ad inventory. NowThis editor-in-chief Michael Vito Valentino said the company canceled a high-view show whose audience never attached and bought finance series Salary Transparency for loyalty rather than raw views: “Really we’re buying the audience.”

HYDP North American CEO Stefani Stamatiou told Digiday that equity should not simply replace endorsement fees. She argued the next phase is “sweat equity,” where creators earn ownership through strategic, consultative or operational work — product development, consumer insight and go-to-market — rather than lending a name. Digiday also cited holiday and social-commerce stats in the same briefing, including retail leaders’ belief that social commerce ranks among the top two holiday online-order drivers, underscoring why brands still chase creator reach even as talent demands change.

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Verification: Earle’s five-or-six-brands preference, equity/joint-venture framing, Howlett–Blenders role, Cooney and NowThis quotes, and Advertising Week context come from Digiday (Seb Joseph and Krystal Scanlon, Oct. 9, 2026). Earle’s Reale Actives comments, Issa Rae microseries premiere and same-day creator programming confirmation are from NetInfluencer (Dragomir Stojkov, Oct. 9, 2026).