Why Brands Are Trading Celebs for Creators: Learnings and Implications for B2C PR Agencies
By: Bethany Edwards
For years, celebrity spokespeople defined consumer marketing. The formula was simple: hire a household name, get attention, and call it a win. But in 2025, that equation doesn’t add up. Attention doesn’t guarantee cultural impact and quantity doesn’t automatically translate to credibility.
Across the consumer tech and lifestyle industries, brands are rethinking what influence truly means. And for new generations, authenticity is the new currency of credibility. Consumers trust people who genuinely use and believe in a product or service, not those simply paid to pose. The result: fewer A-list endorsements, more creator-driven campaigns that drive attention through participation, not overly branded promotion. For B2C PR agencies, this shift presents both a challenge and an opportunity: to help brands earn cultural relevance through authentic collaboration and messaging, community engagement and relevant storytelling within the spaces consumers live and breathe.
Why Celebrity-Driven Campaigns Are Losing Power
Every year, celebrity campaigns try to make a comeback - most visibly during tentpole moments like the Super Bowl, where they burn bright for 30 seconds before fading just as fast. Today’s audiences are more skeptical, more discerning, and far more active in shaping the stories brands tell. But audiences today are more skeptical, more discerning and far more active in shaping the stories brands tell.
The Authenticity Gap: The biggest weakness of celebrity partnerships is credibility. Audiences can spot a phoned-in campaign from a mile away. Gen Z and Gen Alpha in particular value authenticity over aspiration. They want to see someone who actually uses the product, not someone paid to pose with it.
The Risk Factor: Consumer PR teams also know how fragile those partnerships can be. One off-brand quote or controversy, and the campaign’s message no longer belongs to you (see: the American Eagle x Sydney Sweeney disaster). With micro-influencers and creator partners, brands can diversify their voices, mitigate the risk and maintain more control over tone and timing.
The Fragmented Attention Economy: Media consumption isn’t linear anymore. It’s chaotic, algorithmic and deeply personal. To earn attention today, brands have to meet audiences where they actually spend their time: inside creator ecosystems, Discord servers, Reddit threads, Substack newsletters and communities that talk about your product category every day.
The Rise of the Creator-Led PR Era
Enter the era of the creator. For consumer tech brands, creators and micro-influencers have become the most credible storytellers. They help translate features into real-life use cases, bring credibility to launches, and build trust faster than any press release or ad campaign ever could. According to EMARKETER’s latest influencer marketing forecast, US influencer marketing spending will surpass $10 billion in 2025, one year earlier than previously predicted.
For consumer PR agencies, this isn’t just a marketing trend; it’s a new form of earned media. Our discipline has shifted beyond merely curating headlines (that are often forgotten in minutes) to igniting impactful discourse.
Micro-influencers are the new tech reviewers, the new lifestyle columnists, the new everyday experts. They bring a built-in audience and credibility that no traditional campaign can buy. A creator who’s been testing gaming platforms, reviewing wellness gadgets or designing with a website builder already has the trust of their followers. Their content - and subsequent brand deals - feels like a recommendation, not a transaction.
The Power of Moments Over Faces
Consumer tech PR campaigns breaking through today are built around moments, not mouthpieces. Think stunt activations that invite hands-on discovery, unexpected brand collaborations that merge digital and physical experiences, or community-driven launches that spark conversation. These are the kinds of stories journalists want to cover, creators want to share, and consumers actually want to be a part of.
Why Some Celebrities Still Work (and What Sets Them Apart)
There’s still room for star power, but it looks different now. Celebrities like Hailey Bieber, Timothée Chalamet and Charli XCX resonate because they act more like creators than spokespeople. They’re chronically online with a steady stream of unfiltered content, and engage directly with fans, bridging the gap between celebrity reach and creator intimacy.
For a consumer PR agency, these stars represent a new kind of hybrid: famous enough to drive coverage, but grounded enough to feel accessible. When celebrity campaigns succeed today, it’s because they’re part of a larger storytelling ecosystem, not the whole story. According to Antoinette Sui, former creator economy reporter at Digiday, “Marketers want celebrities who understand the creator economy. They also want creators who will crossover into the world of true celebrity. Ultimately, brands are hoping for a hybrid personality.”
So what does this mean for consumer PR?
The decline of the celebrity campaign isn’t the death of influence; it’s the redistribution of it. Influence now flows through many voices instead of one, through conversations instead of endorsements and through authenticity instead of aspiration.
That’s good news for PR. It puts storytelling, relationships and reputation (our core strengths) back at the center of brand building.
Here’s how B2C PR agencies can lead in this space:
Think beyond placements. Build creator relationships the same way you build media relationships: long-term, authentic and strategic.
Redefine earned media. A viral TikTok challenge or pop-up event can drive more coverage than a press release if done right.
Be culture-led, not campaign-led. The best ideas start with what’s already happening in culture, not what the brand wants to say.
Measure meaning, not just metrics. Engagement rates and impressions matter, but so do sentiment and community trust.
The Takeaway
The celebrity endorsement era isn’t gone; it’s evolved. Influence has shifted from being bought to being earned. And in that shift, consumer PR has never been more relevant.
The next big campaign won’t be remembered for who starred in it, it’ll be remembered for what it started.