Building the Infrastructure Behind the Political Creator Economy
Plus: Clare O’Donoghue Velikić on how progressive campaigns can adapt to Europe’s new TTPA political advertising rules
Hey There!
We are back from yet another fun week in Charleston at the Reed Awards, and yes, we are still thinking about it. Partly because of the conversations, partly because of the win, and partly because we discovered orgeat (pronounced or-zhat for anyone else who is also curious) which we will now be ordering with confidence.
The biggest highlight was taking home Best Influencer Partnership for our work with the Gill Foundation. This campaign focused on shifting online narratives around the LGBTQ+ community among audiences who may not always be easily reached, so the recognition feels especially meaningful in this climate.
We are very grateful to our partners at the Gill Foundation, and to everyone who supported the work throughout 2025. It means a lot to build this alongside people who care as deeply as we do. Here’s to another year of impact!
Now, let’s get into this month’s edition.
The Influencer Economy Is Political. The Infrastructure Just Needs to Keep Growing.
Emily’s piece makes an important point: the influencer economy isn’t just marketing anymore. It’s political infrastructure.
The reason is simple: Attention has moved.
Political persuasion doesn’t just happen on cable news or in op-eds anymore. It happens in the same feeds as cooking videos, gym routines, and group chats with friends. The creators who live in those spaces have built something incredibly powerful: trusted relationships with sustained attention among real communities.
To make that work at scale, two things matter most: attention and infrastructure.
Most organizations now understand the attention piece. What’s been missing is the infrastructure that connects creators to campaigns, nonprofits, and social impact organizations in a reliable way.
That’s the work we’ve been doing at People First for the last seven years.
Today we’ve built the largest influencer community in all of social impact. But the key insight is that a political creator ecosystem can’t just be political.
Real influence comes from communities that actually look like the country. That means trad moms, gamers, podcasters, athletes, coaches, artists, foodies, moderate-coded white men, and thousands of other voices who aren’t primarily political creators but who have deep trust with their audiences.
Our network now includes 22k+ verified creators across the social impact space. When we send a text to that network we see 98% click through rates, because these creators know us and have worked with us before. We keep the community active year-round. Our creator newsletter regularly sees 70% open rates, and we host webinars, maintain active social channels, and run Creator Studio, a curated membership layer for the creators who consistently produce the strongest work.
The goal isn’t just to activate creators during campaign season. It’s to maintain a durable community that can mobilize whenever it matters.
That infrastructure is increasingly open to the broader ecosystem.
We’ve begun making our creator database available to social impact agencies, advocacy organizations, and Democratic campaigns through a subscription platform. We’re also exploring API connections with DSPs, donation platforms, and other civic tech tools, so creators can plug more directly into the broader political and nonprofit ecosystem.
The influencer economy is political. The next step isn’t to start building infrastructure, it’s to keep building it.
🎧 Clare O'Donoghue Velikić: How Progressive Campaigns Can Adapt to Europe’s TTPA
Our Influencer Impact podcast special guest is Clare O’Donoghue Velikić, Founder & Director of ODV Digital, a consultancy that works with progressive campaigns across Europe.
Clare joins us to talk about the EU’s new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulations and what they mean for progressive political organizations. We dig into how campaigns can adapt their digital strategies, and explore practical ways both organic and paid programs can continue reaching voters while staying compliant with the new rules.
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