LinkedIn has announced that it has finally finished tinkering with The Wire Program, which was first announced in June 2024.
Now, the program, which has been renamed BrandLink, will primarily work by matching 30 of the platform’s biggest B2B content creators with advertisers. As Tubefilter points out, this transformed monetization program is not dissimilar to YouTube Select; which, as the name implies, involves reserving ad spaces next to the most popular creators’ video content.
Additionally, according to Bloomberg, LinkedIn will allow marketers to sponsor posts through this handpicked group of creators. These posts will be called ‘Thought Leader Ads,’ and while they won’t be that different from normal LinkedIn posts, they will be shown to more users.
Per LinkedIn’s announcement post, creators participating in this program include Steven Bartlett, Bernard Marr, Allie K. Miller, Rebecca Minkoff, Candace Nelson, Guy Raz, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Shelley Zalis.
Bloomberg also notes that this is the first time LinkedIn has shared advertising revenue with creators, although it remains unclear what percentage the platform will be taking.
In an interview cited by the outlet, Matthew Derella, LinkedIn’s vice president of marketing solutions, said: “The thing that is coming to LinkedIn is the rise of the B2B creator. Chief marketing officers want to align with the next generation of voices that are talking about business.”
Since introducing TikTok-like full-screen videos last year, LinkedIn says that the number of daily viewers has increased by 36%. It might have seemed like a random and risky investment at the time, but this pivot to video has clearly paid off.
