A new platform is helping influencers create their own product lines

Hi, this is Amanda Perelli and welcome back to Insider Influencers, our weekly rundown on the business of influencers, creators, and social-media platforms. Sign up for the newsletter here.

In this week's edition:

• A new startup is helping influencers create and sell products

• The exact media kit a TikTok influencer house uses to land brand deals

• How TikTok is shaping beauty and skincare brand trends

• A look inside the influencer council of fintech giant Klarna

• And more including influencer Tana Mongeau becoming a talent manager and accepting applications

Send tips to aperelli@insider.com or DM me on Twitter at @arperelli.

A new startup is helping influencers design and manufacture their own products

A new startup called Pietra is launching a marketplace for influencers to create their own product lines.

Pietra wants to help more creators develop direct-to-consumer products like coffee, clothing, or fragrances.

The platform works by connecting creators with product designers, manufacturers, and warehouse companies.

Dan Whateley wrote that while in beta, the company worked with several influencers to launch clothing and skincare brands.

Here's how Pietra works:

• Designing a product on Pietra pre-production is free. Then the influencers will cover the costs of manufacturing the items.

• The company charges a handling fee for any samples ordered, a flat production fee to create up to 500 units of an item, and other incremental fees.

• Pietra doesn't require a minimum follower count for users interested since the company passes the costs of developing a product to the influencer.

Key takeaway: The Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup wants to lower the barriers to entry so that more creators can test out influencer-led DTC sales.

Read more about using Pietra's platform to create products in a variety of categories, here.

TikTok influencers share the exact 16-page media kit they use to pitch brand sponsors

Risk House, which was founded in November, is a group of seven creators known for their wild flips and parkour videos.

Sydney Bradley wrote about the exact media kit Risk House uses to pitch brands:

• The house is interested in long-term deals that include all of its creators and multiple deliverables within a $50,000 to $100,000 range.

• For its sponsorships, Risk House offers a menu of options across video, merchandise, and audio.

• Risk House members have worked with a variety of brands and music partners, like Puma and Fendi.

"The pitch is probably the most important part, the media deck really just shows that we're capable," founder Mike Hammontree said.

View the exact 16-page media kit here.

TikTok is reshaping beauty and skincare trends among teens. Here are the brands that are the biggest winners.

Thanks to TikTok, CeraVe took the crown as the No. 1 favorite skincare brand in a new survey of 7,000 US teens.

Sydney wrote about a new Piper Sandler report that detailed how TikTok is reshaping teens beauty and skincare brand preferences.

CeraVe skyrocketed to the top in 2020 after being ranked at just No. 10 in 2019.

Why?

• A new generation of skincare influencers emerged on TikTok in 2020, including creators like Hyram Yarbro who has 6.8 million TikTok followers.

• CeraVe is one of Yarbro's frequently recommended products, and the brand has also sponsored Yarbro in the past.

• Another TikTok favorite, The Ordinary - which didn't break into the top 10 favorite skincare brands for US teens in 2019 - now ranks at No. 4.

"The explosive rise of TikTok has given marketers the ability to reach Gen-Z in previously unimaginable ways," Kory Marchisotto, e.l.f.'s chief marketing officer, told Insider in 2020.

Check out the top skincare and beauty brands that have spiked in popularity because of TikTok, here.

A look inside Klarna's influencer council, which the $31 billion 'buy now, pay later' giant hopes will set a standard for responsible influencer marketing

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has taken notice of "buy now, pay later" fintech giant Klarna's social-media marketing.

Last year, the ASA ruled that four influencer advertisements Klarna ran in 2020 were "irresponsible."

Now, Klarna is working with its influencer marketing council that launched in March to boost responsible marketing.

Molly Innes spoke to four members of the council who outlined its strategy and ambitions.

Read more on how the council works, here.

More creator industry coverage from Insider:

• Top influencer Tana Mongeau is becoming a talent manager and is accepting applications (Amanda Perelli)

• Why a YouTube creator has focused on email as a way to connect directly with her fans (Amanda Perelli)

• Gaming and esports organization 100 Thieves promoted two of its creators to co-owners of the business, and other industry moves (Dan Whateley)

• Salesforce invests $40 million in text-marketing startup Community (Dan Whateley)

• Inside the CareerAdvice TikTok trend where creators are helping Gen-Z users land jobs (Molly Innes)

This week from Insider's digital culture team:

James Charles has been accused of sexting minors, and people have asked why police aren't involved.

The beauty YouTuber acknowledged the conversations between himself and at least two minors.

Insider reporter Kat Tenbarge spoke with Emily D. Baker, a lawyer-turned-YouTuber, on what she believes could happen legally.

Baker told Insider that it's unlikely any law enforcement agency would initiate an investigation into Charles without an accuser coming forward to their local agency.

"You would first have to have a police investigation, a police report, and someone either coming forward and talking to the police or the police knowing someone from one of these TikToks and starting their investigation there," Baker said. "You would need a person who is willing to hand over their TikTok to the police."

For more on what could impact a future case, read the full story here.

More on digital culture:

• YouTube star Trisha Paytas announces they are non-binary and use "they/them" pronouns

• JoJo Siwa defied critics and became even more famous after coming out

• Durte Dom returned to the internet after a rape allegation, and he joked about the Vlog Squad

Here's what else we're reading:

• Inside the invite-only audio app Clubhouse and its most obsessive users (Ashley Carman, from The Verge)

• What to know about BitClout, the mysterious influencer stock market (Jen Wieczner, from New York Magazine)

• Influencer beauty brands are trending in China (Casey Hall, from Business of Fashion)

• West Elm launched an ambassador program, joining other retailers in establishing an influencer network (Tatiana Walk-Morris, from Retail Dive)

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