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The Creator Economy Surge and Verizon’s Corporate Reboot · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarful Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Welcome to Connecting the Dots. I'm Alex.
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  And I'm Morgan. It is Thursday, November 20,
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  2025, and we are ready to connect the dots on
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  some of the biggest shifts happening in tech
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  right now. We really are. We're tracking a huge
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  migration of power today from old school media
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  to individual creators and from closed off tech
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  to open systems that finally work together. But
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  first, let's get a quick snapshot of what's happening
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  out there. Here in Sacramento, it looks like
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  we've got showers likely with a high around 55
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  degrees. And on the national front, a heads up
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  for anyone in the southern plains. There's some
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  severe thunderstorms brewing with the risk of
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  flash flooding down in south central Texas. So
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  please be safe out there. Now for a look at the
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  markets. After Wednesday's close, things were,
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  well, pretty calm, actually. Yeah, very stable.
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  The Dow Jones was essentially flat up just 0
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  .09. Barely a blip. The S &P 500 did a little
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  better. It managed to gain about a quarter of
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  a percent. And Bitcoin is still just kind of
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  moving sideways. It's still just a bit over $91
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  ,000. All right. Before we jump into our main
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  stories, we want to kick things off by thanking
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  all out. OK, let's get into it. We've pulled
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  the top three stories from our SNARFL Tech article
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  report. Our morning star. And this first one
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  is all about where the money is going. And it's
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  not going where it used to. Not at all. The data
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  is pretty staggering. Story number one. The creator
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  economy is officially eating traditional media's
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  ad budgets. I mean, just look at the numbers.
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  Ad spend in the creator ecosystem is on track
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  to hit thirty seven billion dollars in twenty
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  twenty five. Thirty seven billion. Let that sink
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  in. But it's the growth rate that's really the
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  story here, isn't it? It is. That's a 26 percent
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  year over year rise. Now compare that to total
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  media ad spending which is only growing at about
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  five point seven percent So the creator space
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  is growing more than four times faster than the
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  entire rest of the market exactly and this isn't
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  new The spending in this sector has more than
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  doubled since just 2021 This isn't an experiment
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  anymore for brands. No, it's a core strategy.
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  In fact, nearly half of ad spenders, 48%, now
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  call creators a must -buy. A must -buy. That
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  puts them in the same category as paid search
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  and social media advertising. It's a fundamental
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  part of the plan. And we can see where those
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  ad dollars are coming from. They're being pulled
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  directly from legacy formats. Linear TV ad spend
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  is projected to fall by almost 15%. Brands are
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  realizing that creators give them two things
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  they can't get from a TV commercial. Built -in
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  distribution and cultural relevance. Especially
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  with, you know, out of order Gen Z consumers.
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  They just aren't watching cable. Right. So the
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  top campaign goals make sense. It's less about
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  direct sales and more about association. 43 %
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  of brands said their goal was brand awareness.
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  And 41 % said it was about reaching new audiences.
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  Audiences that legacy media, frankly, just can't
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  touch anymore. But here's what I found most fascinating.
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  That $37 billion, it's not all going to the biggest
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  celebrity influencers. No, and that's the key
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  takeaway. It's the rise of the mid -tier creator.
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  The ones with, what, 50 ,000 to half a million
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  followers? Exactly. That group was hired by 61
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  % of brands. They were the most popular segment
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  by far. And the VIPs, the giant celebrities.
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  They were the least popular, only hired by 30
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  % of brands. So why is that? It feels like we're
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  getting back to the original promise of influencer
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  marketing. I think so. The mid -tier creator
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  has that perfect balance. They have enough scale
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  to actually move the needle for a brand. A few
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  hundred thousand followers is a real audience.
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  For sure. But they still have that authentic,
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  close relationship with their followers. They
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  feel genuine. And that's what brands are paying
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  for. It's about audience alignment over just
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  raw numbers. The big challenge, though, is still
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  measurement, right? How do you prove that a campaign
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  actually worked? That is still the big question.
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  Public view counts are one thing, but brands
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  are demanding better tools to measure actual
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  business outcomes. Did we sell more product?
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  And I saw that AI is starting to play a role
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  here, but maybe not in the way people expect.
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  Right. It's not about synthetic AI -generated
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  creators. Not yet, anyway. So it's more of an
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  optimization tool for now. Precisely. Three in
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  four brands are using AI for things like editing
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  content faster, writing creator partnership briefs,
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  or A -B testing different ad copies. It's about
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  making the human -led campaigns more efficient.
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  Speaking of making things more efficient, let's
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  move from the creator economy to the smart home.
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  Yes. Our second story is about fixing what has
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  been, for years, the biggest headache in smart
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  home tech. Anyone who's tried to get a security
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  camera from one brand to work with a smart hub
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  from another brand knows this pain all too well.
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  Oh yeah. Your Google Hub doesn't want to talk
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  to your Apple HomeKit camera? Yeah. It's a mess.
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  Matter was supposed to fix this, but cameras
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  were always the one big exception. Until now.
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  Matter 1 .5 is here, and it finally brings security
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  camera support into the fold. This is a huge
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  deal for user freedom. A matter -certified camera
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  will just work. It'll work with Apple Home, Google
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  Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, all
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  of them. So you can finally mix and match. You're
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  not locked into one brand's ecosystem anymore.
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  Exactly. And these aren't just basic cameras.
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  The standard supports live video, two -way talk,
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  pan -tilt zoom controls, motion detection, all
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  the features you'd actually want. And because
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  Matter runs on your local network, the connection
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  should be faster and more reliable, which is
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  critical for a security feed. Right. And it's
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  not just cameras. Matter 1 .5 is also unifying
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  a bunch of other devices under a new category
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  they're calling closures. Closures. So things
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  that open and close. You got it. Window shades,
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  drapes, garage doors, gates. Before they all
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  used... different clunky standards. Now they're
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  all unified. Which means you can create much
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  smarter automations like getting a notification
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  if you accidentally left the garage door open
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  for more than 10 minutes. Exactly that. It's
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  a real quality of life improvement and for those
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  of us with a shall we say less than green thumb.
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  You're looking at me. They've added support for
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  soil sensors. Okay now I'm listening. It can
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  measure moisture and temperature in your garden
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  or potted plants and then automatically trigger
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  a matter -based water valve, so no more overwatering.
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  That might actually save my houseplants, but
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  the biggest impact here might be in energy management,
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  right? This could actually save people money.
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  A ton of money. This update allows smart devices
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  to pull real -time energy pricing data from your
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  utility. So your smart home knows when electricity
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  is cheapest. Yep, and it can automatically schedule
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  your dishwasher or EV charger to run during those
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  off -peak hours when it costs less. That's how
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  a smart home starts paying for itself. Lower
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  utility bills is definitely a promise everyone
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  can get behind. Which brings us to our final
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  story. We're moving from the smart home to the
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  carrier giants. Specifically Verizon. And this
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  is a really interesting complex situation. Because
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  on the surface, their Q3 results looked pretty
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  good, Rick. Revenue was up to nearly $34 billion.
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  Their broadband business is also booming. They
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  added over 300 ,000 new subscribers, mostly from
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  their fixed wireless service. So if the numbers
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  look Why are we talking about a company in crisis?
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  Because of the core business. Their consumer
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  wireless phone division, the most important part,
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  actually lost 7 ,000 subscribers. Ouch! At the
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  same time T -Mobile is closing in on them. Right.
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  And that pressure led the board to make a huge
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  change. They replaced CEO Hans Vestberg with
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  Dan Schulman, the former CEO of PayPal. But the
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  market reaction was not great. The stock actually
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  fell 5 % on the news. Yeah, a lot of investors'
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  skepticism. Schulman has inherited what is basically
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  a customer loyalty crisis. And to his credit,
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  he didn't sugarcoat it. He came right out and
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  said Verizon, quote, rely too heavily on price
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  increases without adding enough value. That's
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  a huge admission. He's promised a full reboot
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  of the company's culture and cost structure with
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  a new focus on being customer first. But here's
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  the really tricky part. He also said they will
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  not get into a price war. No copycat promotions,
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  no deep discounts to win people back. It's a
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  massive gamble, isn't it? He's betting that Verizon
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  can win by being a premium service, not the cheapest
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  one. It's a tightrope walk. How do you become
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  leaner and scrappier? Which usually means cutting
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  costs like stores and call centers while also
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  delighting your customers. That's the billion
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  dollar question. If you cut support staff, wait
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  times get longer and customers get angry. That's
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  the opposite of delighting them. So they'll almost
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  certainly lean on AI and automation to try and
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  fill that gap. They have to, but that's its own
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  risk. A bad chatbot experience can be even more
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  frustrating than a long wait time. True. So maybe
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  the path forward is to invest in the few flagship
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  stores they keep with better trained staff or
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  maybe bring back a free streaming perk to restore
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  that feeling of premium value. Something to make
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  people feel like, OK, it's a bit more expensive,
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  but it's actually worth it. It is a high stakes
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  pivot. And whether he can pull it off without
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  just cutting prices is going to define Verizon's
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  future. It's going to be a fascinating story
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  to watch. It really is. Now before we wrap up,
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  we want to thank our other sponsor for today,
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  SNARFL. All right, so let's quickly recap the
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  three biggest stories we connected for you today.
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  First, the creator economy is now a $37 billion
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  market and brands are smartly investing in authentic
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  mid -tier creators instead of just giant celebrities.
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  Then we saw Matter 1 .5 finally solve the smart
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  homes camera problem, creating true interoperability
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  while also adding smarts to gardening and energy
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  management. And finally, we broke down the high
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  -risk full reboot at Verizon as its new CEO tries
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  to restore customer value without getting into
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  a price war with competitors. Three huge stories
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  impacting how we consume our media, manage our
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  homes, and connect to the world. So think about
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  this as you go about your day. Which of these
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  shifts, the rise of the creator, the truly unified
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  smart home, or the carrier reboot, do you think
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  will change your daily life the fastest in the
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  coming year? We're here to help at Snarful, so
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  reach out on our website if you have any more
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  questions. That's a wrap on today's top stories.
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  Remember, tech doesn't have to be complicated
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  and we're here to help connect the dots. If you've
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  got questions or want to learn more, visit us
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  at snarful .com. Thanks for listening, and we'll
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  catch you next time.