Adweek Names 2026 Brand Genius Creators, Expands List to Include Agencies for First Time
Adweek published its second annual Brand Genius Creators list on April 7, and for the first time added agencies alongside individual talent. Jennifer Quigley-Jones, founder of influencer agency Digital Voices, made the list after PMG acquired the firm in 2025 following breakout campaign work for DoorDash on Amazon's The Summer I Turned Pretty. Other honorees include YouTuber Dhar Mann (26.8M subscribers), who in 2025 inked exclusive content deals with Samsung TV Plus, Fox Entertainment, and Holywater, and TikTok creator Tefi Pessoa (1.9M followers), who has expanded into Vox Media podcasting and a column at The Cut. Emma Grede, co-founder of Skims, was named after launching her podcast Aspire and stepping into content creation.
THE BREAKDOWN
PMG acquiring Digital Voices for its AI-powered tools and campaign track record shows that brands want analytics infrastructure alongside creator relationships, not one or the other. The expansion to include agencies alongside individual talent is a public signal that the brand-creator deal is no longer judged by the talent alone. Agents watching Dhar Mann's multi-platform deal structure with Samsung, Fox, and Holywater should note it as a package template for long-form creators who control their own production. Agents with clients in B2B content, including LinkedIn-first creators and professional-audience shows, should bring those clients into brand conversations now before the category gets crowded.
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