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John Lewis Goes Live on TikTok Shop — and It's Just the Start
John Lewis launched on TikTok Shop this month as part of a sweeping push into social and AI-powered commerce. The British retailer debuted on the platform as a 90-day pilot timed to Mother's Day gifting, leading with a curated beauty edit that includes the sold-out Mother's Day Beauty Box featuring Jo Malone London and Estée Lauder.
But TikTok is just one piece of a much larger picture. John Lewis is positioning itself as one of the first UK retailers to fully integrate AI-powered shopping, meaning products from the partnership will soon be surfaced to customers browsing for inspiration inside ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Once fully deployed, those customers will be able to complete purchases directly within those apps.
"Our customers are already using AI apps and discovery platforms to find products they love. Being able to quickly and easily buy in a few clicks is a gamechanger."— Dom McBrien, Chief Digital & Omnichannel Officer, John Lewis.
The move is part of an £800 million multi-year transformation programme and extends an existing partnership with AI-first commerce platform commercetools. John Lewis is also rolling out on-demand delivery via Uber Eats to customers near four stores later this month. For creators and brands watching, this signals the accelerating convergence of discovery, content and commerce - where the scroll becomes the checkout.
Teen Social Media Bans Are Spreading — But Will They Actually Work?
Governments around the world are racing to restrict under-16s from social media. This week, the UK government launched a public consultation on whether to ban social platforms for under-16s — joining France, Spain, Denmark, New Zealand, Malaysia and more than 40 other regions now actively considering tighter teen access rules.
The most watched experiment so far is Australia, which enacted its under-16 ban in December. Platforms report removing or restricting millions of accounts, with Meta claiming 540,000 in Australia alone, and Snapchat restricted over 440,000 profiles. The Australian government says more than 4.7 million accounts believed to be operated by teens have been deactivated or restricted.
The catch? The research on effectiveness remains largely inconclusive. Teens have grown up as digital natives; versed in VPNs, age-detection workarounds and app-switching. As Snapchat's CEO Evan Spiegel has pointed out, removing teens from established, safety-invested platforms may simply push them to less-moderated corners of the web.
Young people are not going to turn off their phones and go back to playing marbles. The question is where they go instead — and whether that's safer. — Social Media Today analysis.
For the creator economy, the stakes are real. Gen Z audiences are a core constituency for influencer marketing, and widespread age restrictions would fundamentally reshape where and how brands reach younger consumers. This one is worth tracking closely.
Tinder Bets on Creator-First Strategy to Win Over Gen Z
Tinder has appointed VCCP Social Club as its UK social and influencer agency of record, tasking the newly-launched division with overhauling how the dating app shows up in culture. VCCP Social Club — a 80-strong team of social specialists spun out in December — will handle social strategy, creator content, influencer selection and community management for the brand, starting immediately.
The brief is a meaningful one: Tinder has been actively working to shed its reputation as purely a hook-up app, repositioning itself as a genuine relationship platform for Gen Z. With over 630 million downloads and 50 million monthly users across 190 countries, the brand has scale, but it needs relevance. Creator-led, conversation-driving content is the chosen path.
"For Tinder, social isn't support media. It's where the brand is built and where growth happens."— Julian Douglas, Group CEO, VCCP.
It's a telling signal about where brand-building budgets are heading: not to traditional advertising, but to culturally native, creator-driven social. The agency's brief includes what they're calling "drumbeat social" - a steady cadence of relevant, platform-native content designed to keep Tinder in the conversation year-round rather than relying on campaign bursts.
Creator Campaigns
Loveholidays Wants Creators to Make Travel Personal Again
Loveholidays has launched a platform called Book What You Love; an always-on influencer programme built around the idea that holidays should reflect your actual passions, not just where you want to relax. Developed with SocialChain's influencer arm The Fifth, the campaign pairs creators with unexpected destinations that connect to their niche interests, from the quirky to the wonderfully specific.
Launching with four creators across Germany, Ireland and the UK - including Georgiana Davis, Olivia Webb, Adam Fogarty and Sophia Kuhlmann - the programme is built to grow, with a wider roster of niche-specialist creators rolling out across March and April. Each creator is taken out of their usual environment and placed somewhere that genuinely reflects what they love.
"It's about flipping traditional travel content on its head and showing up in unexpected places."— Jacqui Grimsey-Jones, Brand Director, Loveholidays.
The strategy is a sharp departure from generic travel marketing — sun, sea, and aspirational luxury. Instead, it leans into the logic of the creator economy: authenticity drives discovery, and niche audiences convert. For any brand looking to break from category clichés, it's a compelling playbook.
New AI Advertising Guidelines Land — Here's What the Industry Needs to Know
The Influencer Marketing Trade Body (IMTB) this week endorsed a new Best Practice Guide for the Responsible Use of Generative AI in Advertising, developed under the government's Online Advertising Taskforce. The voluntary guide is the result of a working group that includes the Advertising Standards Authority, industry leaders and government officials.
The guide translates eight broad principles covering transparency, fairness, data use, harm prevention, brand safety, human oversight, environmental considerations and continuous monitoring - into concrete, actionable steps for advertisers.
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