Celebrity Archives - Mediastreet

By Marc Berman

The definition of celebrity has fundamentally changed. Fame is no longer dictated by movie deals, television appearances, or tabloid visibility. Today, it’s built through direct audience relationships, creative ownership, and the ability to convert attention into measurable business value — a shift most clearly visible across digital platforms.

Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have evolved into full-scale media ecosystems, functioning simultaneously as production studios, distribution channels, and monetization engines. In many cases, they now rival traditional entertainment and advertising infrastructures. As a result, social media creators represent the first generation of celebrities built entirely on platforms — measured not by studio backing or legacy exposure, but by engagement, trust, and originality. In this environment, no category of celebrity is out of reach.

Enter Anastasia Tupitsyna

Known to millions as Anastasile, Anastasia Tupitsyna exemplifies this transformation. Rising to prominence through makeup transition videos, she built a global audience entirely online, demonstrating how creators can achieve both celebrity status and commercial power once reserved for traditional media stars.

Anastasia’s recognition is rooted squarely in social platforms. Her influence derives from sustained audience engagement, original storytelling, and creative discipline — not early television exposure or magazine coverage, which increasingly follows digital success rather than leading it.

She has collaborated with brands including Dior, Guerlain, Morphe, and e.l.f. Cosmetics, producing campaigns that go beyond standard influencer placements. These partnerships reflect a broader shift in the creator economy: monetization is increasingly tied to creative ownership, production quality, and audience trust, rather than raw follower counts. For brands, social-first creators offer an integrated content-and-commerce model that traditional advertising struggles to replicate.

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The economics of influence have evolved alongside the platforms. Success is now measured through audience retention, engagement depth, and the ability to generate reusable, platform-agnostic content. In an oversaturated market, high-quality production and storytelling have become critical differentiators—allowing creators like Anastasia to command premium pricing while remaining selective about partnerships.

Technical Skill and Creative Control

Unlike many creators who outsource production, Anastasia controls every stage of her content, from scripting and filming to makeup, styling, and editing. With a degree in 3D and visual effects, she applies technical expertise to produce polished, cinematic visuals that stand out in crowded feeds.

“Brands aren’t paying for eyeballs alone,” she notes. “They’re investing in vision, in trust, and in a creative process that feels irreplicable.”

That combination of technical proficiency and creative direction enables consistent, high-level output—an increasingly valuable asset in a market driven by rapid trend cycles.

Audience Metrics and Selectivity

By the numbers, Anastasia commands significant scale, with approximately 4.3 million followers on Instagram and more than 8.8 million on TikTok, where her videos routinely reach millions of views. Yet she limits brand collaborations to roughly four campaigns per month, prioritizing quality over volume. This disciplined approach helps preserve audience trust, deepen brand relationships, and support sustainable long-term monetization.

TV-Ready and Cross-Platform Influence

Social-first creators are increasingly crossing into traditional media. Beauty entrepreneurs such as Huda Kattan, Michelle Phan, and Rachel Zoe have leveraged digital followings into television visibility, while Bobbi Brown and Tyra Banks have expanded their influence through hosting and commentary roles. Charli D’Amelio, meanwhile, offers one of the most prominent examples of this evolution.

After rising to fame on TikTok, Charli competed on — and won — ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, demonstrating that platform-native stars can bring built-in audiences, cultural relevance, and credibility to legacy television. Her success reinforced a growing industry realization: digital creators are no longer novelty casting choices, but viable stars capable of anchoring major entertainment projects.

DANCING WITH THE STARS – “Finale – 3211” In a series first, the finale episode will have five couples competing for a chance at winning the coveted “Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.” The finalists will perform a redemption dance and an unforgettable freestyle routine. The season 32 finale of “Dancing with the Stars” airs TUESDAY, DEC. 5 (8:00-11:00 p.m. EST/PST) on ABC. (Eric McCandless/DISNEY via Getty Images)CHARLI D’AMELIO, MARK BALLAS. ABC via Getty Images

Anastasia’s trajectory reflects this same crossover potential within beauty. While her content centres on visual storytelling rather than performance, her command of narrative, creative control, and on-camera presence align with what networks increasingly seek in digital-native talent. Platform-first fame is becoming a pathway to broader media opportunities without sacrificing authenticity.

Broader Implications for the Creator Economy

Anastasia’s career underscores the maturation of the creator economy. High-concept, narrative-driven content can simultaneously drive engagement, loyalty, and revenue. Creators today operate as producers, business partners, and cultural contributors—reshaping traditional notions of celebrity.

Her success also highlights a structural shift in how influence is built. Social-first stars achieve relevance through originality, consistency, and trust rather than studio contracts or institutional gatekeepers. Daily engagement converts directly into measurable business outcomes, creating a model designed for longevity.

Looking Ahead

For creators like Anastasia, the next phase lies in longer-form storytelling — branded short films, digital series, and cross-platform projects—while maintaining a careful balance between creative autonomy and commercial alignment.

Her trajectory illustrates a defining truth of modern fame: visibility alone no longer creates celebrity. Creativity, technical skill, audience trust, and business acumen now matter just as much. Social media influencers are not simply the next generation of stars— they are redefining what celebrity means in a digital-first world. And both audiences and the industry are paying attention.

Feature image credit: Anastasia Tupitsyna

By Marc Berman

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Sourced from Forbes

By Rob Wilson

Brands are the engines of the luxury market. The red-soled Louboutins, the Mulberry tree, the Ferrari horse… without them, would people still buy the products they are emblazoned on? Maybe, but certainly not as many.

Luxury has always been about signalling status. Therefore, as a concept it is always evolving as people’s ideas about what confers status change. From the opulent luxury of most of the 20th century, recent years seem to have shifted to less conspicuous forms of consumption. This presents a challenge to luxury brands. Now they not only have to emphasise their quality, but also demonstrate their credentials in other ways that will appeal to the less conspicuous luxury consumer.

Marketers have often targeted campaigns at people based on broad demographic factors – their age, their gender – but we have found a much more effective way is to connect with people through their passion points. Whether that’s football, food or fashion, if you can connect to people through one of their passions it will create a much stronger connection between them and the brand. Through connecting with these communities of shared interest, you can also have a more effective influencer strategy. Whether you work with more traditional celebrities or social media stars, by targeting a particular community of interest you can ensure your influencers feel truly relevant to your target consumer. When we worked with Breitling to launch its flagship store, we worked with celebrities that were truly relevant to its target audience, whereas when we launched Garnier Moisture Bomb we worked with everyday women as that is who was relevant for its brand and the community it wanted to talk to.

Luxury brands need to appeal to younger audiences or risk falling sales. Luxury brands can often be seen as outdated to younger generations because of product perceptions or the heritage they celebrate. We are working with Johnnie Walker to help it change perceptions of whisky as a drink that isn’t for everyone and open it up to new audiences. Delivering campaigns globally, we are helping it highlight the different ways and different occasions to drink Johnnie Walker, emphasising that it is a drink for everyone and anyone.

To recruit younger audiences, luxury brands need to respond to our changing spending habits. We are living in the experience economy. The latest figures from Barclaycard, which processes around half of all of the UK’s credit and debit transactions, show a rise of 20% in spending in pubs in April this year compared to last year, with restaurants, theatres and cinemas also seeing rises. More than ever, the experience a brand delivers is key to convincing people to part with their cash and when your product has a luxury price tag, people expect a luxury experience.

Through research we conducted for one of our luxury clients, we found that the retail experience is a particularly important part of the buying journey for luxury consumers. Across the range of different people we spoke to, most expressed a desire for a personal experience, where needs could be openly discussed, as well as a rich experience where they could learn about the brand stories and values underpinning a product. If a brand can achieve both these things they are much more likely to convert.

Every bit of the brand experience, from in-store to brand communications, online to packaging matters, is an opportunity for a luxury brand to damage its luxury reputation. Whether that’s a bad retail environment or a piece of packaging that doesn’t feel as hand crafted and special as the product it contains, it is very easy for brands to lose their luxury status in the minds of potential buyers.

Delivering a total luxury experience wherever a consumer interacts with your brand is a difficult task, but it is a must for luxury brands. Some luxury brands are embracing the experience economy already – this summer Cartier partnered with the London Design Museum to curate an exhibition called Cartier in Motion, telling the story of their unique approach to watchmaking and the evolution of the modern wristwatch. We will see more luxury brands turning to experiential marketing in the future.

Luxury is a highly emotive concept. It is all about the experience, the touch, the taste, how it makes you feel. And it is all too easy to break the luxury feel at some point in the experience a consumer has of your brand.

By Rob Wilson

Rob Wilson is strategy and creative director at RPM.

This article was originally published in The Drum Network luxury special. You can get your hands on a copy here. To be featured in the next special focused on the charity sector, please contact [email protected].