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The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. The creator economy has evolved from a marketing tactic to a C-suite priority, driven by a cultural shift that positions creators at the core of brand strategy. Over the past decade, it has transformed from a niche segment of digital culture into one of the most powerful forces shaping modern businesses. Today, creators sit at the epicenter of consumer attention, shaping purchasing decisions, brand perceptions, and cultural trends at scale. This evolution didnt happen by accident. The movement from the fringes of culture to the mainstream was propelled by creators ability to authentically connect with audiences, build communities, and operate as entrepreneurial media company owners. In doing so, theyve transformed how brands connect with customers and reshaped the core of modern marketing and communications. Creators have proven theyre more than content producers or influencers. Theyre strategic partners shaping the future of business. In 2023, many C-suite executives reached a new level of familiarity and comfort with the creator economy as the industry continued to evolve. Now, part way into 2025, that awareness is cementing. Creators are no longer an experimental line item in the marketing budget; theyre critical growth partners driving innovation, storytelling, and consumer loyalty. Embrace the creator economy Creators have become a boardroom priority. Theyre shaping conversations at marketing events, influencing business meetings, and redefining how brands connect with consumers. My biggest piece of advice? Plan early and plan integrated. A creator strategy shouldnt be an afterthoughtit should be embedded from the start, whether in a campaigns early planning stages or during product development. Creators dont just understand the audience; they are the audience. And theyre masters of the platforms where real influence happens today. By embracing this early on, brands will position themselves for long-term relevance. Those that hesitate risk falling behind, as creators continue to command cultural and consumer influence. The rise of creators is part of a bigger cultural shift, and brands cant afford to ignore it. The creator revolution is changing what consumers expect and how businesses drive product awareness and sales. This year, well see more creators diversify their collaboration as strategic partners across multi-dimensional industries. The conversations that began as niche marketing discussions are now guiding decisions in innovation labs, investor presentations, and executive off-sites. Creators are shaping brands Creators arent just marketing assets anymore. Theyre reshaping how we think about building brands from the ground up. Today, creators are redefining how stories are told, connecting with audiences in deeply personal and immediate ways. Prioritizing creators isnt just an opportunityits essential, which is why the Tribeca Festival launched its creators vertical in partnership with the Whalar Group last year, said Chris Brady, president, global chief commercial officer at Tribeca Enterprises. Creators are shaping culture, driving conversations, and changing the future of entertainment. To stay competitive, global brands and platforms must recognize them as essential voices in this new era. The time for hesitation is over. Brands that see creators as mere marketing tools will be left behind. Those that embrace them as strategic partners and extensions of their team will shape the future, while the rest struggle to keep up. The creator economy isnt just here to stayits a growing focus in the boardroom, and in 2025, it will distinguish the leaders from the followers. Neil Waller is co-CEO and cofounder of the Whalar Group.
Category:
E-Commerce
The historic Buffalo Trace Distillery has temporarily closed after deadly flooding ravaging Kentucky swept into its facilities, forcing the popular bourbon company to turn away the public and staff. In a statement released on Sunday, the Frankfort, Kentucky-based distillery said it would remain closed through April 10 but warned that date could change. Due to the unprecedented and ongoing rain and flooding, we are not able to advise on the impact to our total distillery footprint, Buffalo Trace said. We will assess those realities in the coming days as the facilities become safe to navigate and will make necessary adjustments to operations as required. A spokesperson for Buffalo Trace declined to comment further. Days of unrelenting torrential rain in Kentucky and across the U.S. South and Midwest have caused catastrophic flooding and raised fears the damage could linger for days as rivers swell. In Frankfort, the Kentucky River curves throughout the capital city and has been known to flood. On Monday, the river was cresting at Frankfort Lock approaching the record of 48 1/2 feet (14.78 meters) set on Dec. 10, 1978, according to CJ Padgett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Louisville, Kentucky, office. Buffalo Trace is far from the only distillery in Kentucky, the home of bourbon country, but it is one of the closest to the banks of the Kentucky River. Notably, the distillery has markers of several high-water marks from previous floods inside its Frankfort buildings, with the most recent being the 1978 flood. As of Monday, several Buffalo Trace buildings were flooded at lower levels and parking lots and cars were underwater. The water tower bearing the brands logo stood over the visitor center and warehouses that appeared to be inundated with water. Residents stopped to take pictures of the well-known bourbon makers property as it was flooded out. Traffic signs directing trucks and visitors to parking peeked over several feet of rushing water. Buffalo Trace Distillery is an American, family-owned company that has operated for more than 200 years. Its products include the holy grail for bourbon fanatics: Pappy Van Winkle 23-year-old, which can sell for tens of thousands of dollars on resale markets. Kimberlee Kruesi and Kristin M. Hall, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Redbox is getting ready for one final sale. The defunct DVD rental chains assets, and those of its corporate siblings Crackle and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, are being auctioned off in New York later this month, according to a court filing published Monday morning. The asset sale is just the latest chapter in Redboxs tumultuous downfall: Once one of the countrys biggest DVD vendors, the rental chain saw its revenue evaporate overnight during the pandemic, leading to its bankruptcy in June of 2024. Much of this had to do with consumers switching to streaming, but the exact circumstances of Redboxs demise remain highly contested: Last month, the trustee in charge of the bankruptcy proceedings filed a lawsuit against Chicken Soup for the Soup Entertainments former executives and board, alleging that the company and its subsidiaries were victim of mismanagement and pillaging by insiders on a scale rarely seen with public companies. For sale: Everything but the kiosks When the assets of Redbox and its corporate siblings go on sale on April 23, potential buyers will be able to bid on Redboxs and Crackles trademarks, patents and other intellectual property. Among other things, the sale also includes various rights associated with hundreds of movies and TV shows produced and distributed by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment subsidiary Screen Media Films. Titles mentioned in Mondays filing range from Jeepers Creepers to Machine Gun Woman to the 2021 Nicholas Cage flick Willys Wonderland. While its hard to estimate what the assets will ultimately be selling for, there does appear to be some interest in those film catalogs. The court-appointed trustee noted in a legal filing earlier this year that he had received offers in excess of $100 million. Notably exempt from the firesale: Redboxs once-ubiquitous red rental kiosks. The filing does not explain why the DVD vending machines arent being sold at this point, but one reason could be that many of them have already found their way to landfills and Ebay auctions. When Redbox went bankrupt, it still operated about 27,000 kiosks, located in front of grocery stores, pharmacies and other retailers. Redbox had stopped paying many of these retail partners contractually owed commission fees long before it went bankrupt, leading to lawsuits from major chains including CVS and 7-Eleven. After the company went under, the kiosks became even more of a nuisance for retailers, with Albertsons complaining in a legal filing that its electricity bill for the machines amounted to $184,000 a month. Eventually, the bankruptcy court granted most retailers the right to dispose of the kiosks themselves. A few machines were saved by enthusiasts, while others apparently have been stripped for parts that are now being sold on Ebay. Wildly unrealistic projections The story of Redboxs downfall has few parallels in modern corporate history: The company surpassed $1 billion in revenue in 2018, and had long planned a transition to streaming. Those plans were thrown into upheaval when the pandemic hit in 2020, with many of its consumers embracing much-larger streaming competitors like Netflix and Disney+ overnight. Redboxs revenue declined to around $250 million in 2021, and the company was effectively out of money by early 2022. Thats when Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book publisher, swooped in to acquire Redbox for $375 million. The deal included the assumption of $325 million in debt, but Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainments leadership forecast at the time that DVD rentals would quickly recover. That didnt happen. Instead, Redboxs revenue continued to crater. The company found itself in a cash crunch, unable to buy new DVDs, which further depressed rentals. In early 2024, the companys cash on hand was so low that it wasnt able to pay most of its bills, even leaving its service technicians stranded because corporate credit cards meant to pay for gas for company vehicles stopped working for days at a time. Employees would later discover that they had lost their health insurance while still working for the company. This was all too expected, according to the bankruptcy trustee. Redboxs recovery never could have reasonably been expected to happen and were based on wildly unrealistic business projections and plans, the trustee claimed in his recently-filed lawsuit. The lawsuit also alleges that Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainments corporate leadership used the company as their personal piggy bank by relying on unusual fee arrangements: Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and its subsidiaries were obligated to pay 10% of their revenues to the book publisher every month in exchange for management services as well as the right to use the publishers trademarks. These fees allegedly ballooned to $18.4 million dollars a year following the Redbox acquisition, despite the fact that Redbox was losing money hand-over-fist. Payments even continued after Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment had stopped paying payroll taxes in late 2023. The trustee now wants executives to pay back those fees; any money recovered through such legal actions as well as this months auction is likely going to go to the companys primary lender HPS, which is reportedly owed $500 million.
Category:
E-Commerce
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke shared an internal memo on X on Monday that stressed the importance of using AI effectively in daily tasks. In fact, he wrote, using AI is now a fundamental expectation of Shopify employees. Spotify product designers are now expected to use AI tools to do all platform feature prototypes. The results, Lutke says, are more exploratory and faster to produce and share. Shopify already provides employees with access to various AI coding tools from Github (Copilot), Cursor, and Anthropic (Claude code). Our task here at Shopify is to make our software unquestionably the best canvas on which to develop the best businesses of the future, Lutke wrote in the memo, which he said he posted to X because he believed it was about to be leaked anyhow. We do this by keeping everyone cutting edge and bringing all the best tools to bear . . . for that we need to be absolutely ahead. Lutke says his company will judge employees in performance reviews on how well they know and use AI tools. Employees are expected to continue to learn about and experiment with new AI tools, and share their findings within the company. Spotify product designers are now expected to use AI tools to do all platform feature prototypes. The results, Lutke says, are more exploratory and faster to produce and share. Shopify already provides employees with access to various AI coding tools from Github (Copilot), Cursor, and Anthropic (Claude code). But the new focus on AI tools such as Anthropics Claude and Githubs Copilot may not end at helping clients. Lutke says that before Shopify hires any more humans to work at the company, the hiring managers must explain why an AI tool couldnt do the job. [T]eams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI, he wrote. What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team? Shopify has been a boon for merchants by providing a comprehensive, user-friendly platform that streamlines the process of establishing and managing online stores. Our job is to figure out what entrepreneurship looks like in a world where AI is universally available, Lutke wrote in the memo. And I intend for us to do the best possible job of that, and to do that I need everyones help.
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E-Commerce
As the European Union looks at how best to respond to Donald Trump’s trade war, officials are considering further escalating things, taking them to a point where it could really hurt Big Tech companies. Sophie Primas, a spokesperson for the French government, said the EU is deciding on its response to Trump’s blanket tariffs that would include not just tech goods, but tech services as well, an area where the U.S. enjoys a massive trade surplus. That would potentially target companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and X. Apple is already under pressure as tariffs on imported goods will likely result in higher prices for the company’s products, such as the iPhone and iPad, but Microsoft’s stock has largely escaped the drubbing other tech companies have seen on Wall Street since Trump announced the tariffs. (Shares are down just 5% in the past five days vs. 10% for Nvidia and 18% for Apple.) That’s because Microsoft’s chief products are software and services, such as cloud storage and Microsoft 365. Should the EU place tariffs on those, it would cause more pain for tech companies, which are already sore after a series of tariff-inspired body blows in recent days. Other examples of tech services include Googles ad and cloud network; Meta’s ad network as well as the Quest (and digital store); Apple’s Music, Arcade and TV+ offerings; Amazon’s Web Services and Prime loyalty program; and X’s AI offering and planned financial services unit. The nuclear option The EU, it’s important to note, has not imposed these reciprocal tariffs yet. On Monday, the European Commission said it had offered a “zero-for-zero” tariff proposal to Washington. Michal Baranowski, deputy economy minister of Poland, following a meeting by the Commission Monday, said EU officials did not want to be “trigger-happy.” (Elon Musk has espoused a similar zero tariff proposal, in a video call to Italy’s right-wing, co-ruling League Party.) The White House has, so far, shrugged off talk of “zero tariffs,” with Peter Navarro, Trump’s top trade advisor who is seen as the architect of the tariff plan, dismissing Musk as a “car assembler” that relies on parts from other countries. “When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White Houseand the American people understandthat Elon is a car manufacturer, but he’s not a car manufacturer. He’s a car assembler,” Navarro said. “He’s a car person. That’s what he does, and he wants the cheap foreign parts.” Should the Trump administration refuse to deal, which has not yet been discussed, EU officials said nothing was off the table, though there appears to be different schools of thought among members about whether placing a tariff on services would be wise. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris said doing so would be “very much the nuclear option.” The likelihood of putting tariffs on services is part of what the EU calls the anti-coercion instrument (ACI). Adopted in 2023, it was designed to defend the EU against a trade war with China, but now it’s being seen as a tool to battle Trump, if necessary. Some EU officials refer to it as the “bazooka”. The ACI has wide ranging potential powers. It can be used to limit American banks’ access to certain EU markets or it could also increase tax and regulatory pressure on American digital platforms, said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen last week. Talk that the EU could be considering a tariff on services from U.S tech companies comes as the market continues to show extreme volatility. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw trading range from 36,705 to 39,198- a nearly 2,500-point swing.
Category:
E-Commerce