The Cadillac of Creator Marketing (HBBIP #116)

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Welcome back to another year of HBBIP! We’re going to do it bigger and better than ever in 2026, even if it takes me another week or so before I stop accidentally writing ‘2025.’ 

2026 will bring you even more of the classic creator marketing profiles you know and like, but this year we’ll be casting a wider net, and catching bigger fish. I’m talking more international brands! More verticals! More brands whose names are known around the world!

In honor of those commitments, and to start off 2026 right, I need to pick a brand that’s synonymous with excellence. An old school brand that’s still hanging with the new school thanks to the power of creator marketing. Maybe in an industry that didn’t get enough love from me in 2025. And definitely a brand where I’d love to score some free merch, which is a gag I intend to keep running all through this year and beyond.

Oh, I guess they could also have impressive growth across all our metrics. That would probably help, too. And bonus points if they were named after a French explorer and military officer with a really cool coat of arms.

Sounds like a tall order, huh? Fortunately, I know just the brand to fit the bill…

The Top Brand  of All Time (of the Week): Cadillac

Cross it off your bingo cards, HBBIP enthusiasts, because Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac is finally getting his due.

Founded 123 years ago in the Motor City, Cadillac is known the world over as the height of luxury, to the point that ‘Cadillac’ is often bandied around as the pinnacle of other industries, i.e. something being ‘the Cadillac of ____.’ (Example: “Wow, a Ferrari! That’s like the Cadillac of cars.”) 

Naturally, I was curious to see whether Cadillac’s creator marketing strategy is like the Cadillac of creator marketing strategies. Let’s go to the charts!

Cadillac Creator Count, 2020 - 2025

We might not have full 2025 data just yet (it’s coming real soon), but that’s not a problem for Cadillac, which blew past its 2024 total in just 11 months. Overall, the brand has seen a roughly 3x surge in creator count since 2020—evidence not only of Cadillac’s success, but of the broader momentum behind the automotive industry as it becomes a force within the creator economy.

Cadillac Post Count, 2020 - 2025

As longtime readers of the newsletter know, more creators means more posts, except when it doesn’t. Fortunately for Cadillac, this time it does. Cadillac saw its post count increase roughly 4x from 2020 to 2025 (and remember, that’s with a whole December still to be counted).

Cadillac EMV, 2020 - 2025

Just when you think you’ve found the most perfect linear-growth graph you could hope to find, here comes one that’s even better. Such was the case for Cadillac’s Earned Media Value (EMV), which shot up nearly 8x from 2020 to 2025. Buzz was clearly gathering for Cadillac online, with the brand garnering looks from more eyes than ever. That’s not just a figure of speech, either:

Cadillac Impressions, 2020 - 2025

That’s a 13x increase in impressions from 2020 to 2025! This might very well be the Cadillac of performance metrics growth (yes, I do intend to run that joke into the ground, thank you very much).

Cadillac Engagements, 2020 - 2025

But we see a disruption in the pattern, if not the end result, when it comes to engagements: despite consistent growth in every other metric, things are fairly flat here between 2021 and 2022, though Cadillac’s engagements do ultimately take a leap in time for 2025. All in all, this was about a 10x increase from 2020 to 2025—still great, if slightly off-pace from some of Cadillac’s marks in other metrics.

Given the brand’s booming impressions and wavering engagements, I suspected that Cadillac’s momentum stemmed mainly from TikTok. Granted, it was hard to picture the sort of content that Cadillac might put on the platform, but that hasn’t stopped other counter-intuitive brands from making the unlikely crossover. So is Cadillac taking over a TikTok feed near you?

Cadillac Share of Impressions by Platform, January - November 2025

Well, not exactly—at least if this chart of the brand’s Jan-Nov 2025 share of impressions by platform is to be believed. With nearly 60% of Cadillac’s impressions coming from Instagram versus 20% from TikTok, the results are pretty lopsided. Plus, Cadillac’s Instagram impressions increased by 77% YoY, compared to a 40% change for its TikTok impressions.

Cadillac Share of Engagements by Platform, January - November 2025

It’s a similar story for engagements, where both Instagram and TikTok increase their marks, while YouTube shrinks considerably. In this case, Instagram engagements were up 36% YoY for Cadillac, versus a 51% YoY surge for TikTok engagements, showing that the gap is closing there.

We don’t often see Instagram as a driving (no pun intended) force for brands these days. How does that play out for Cadillac, and what sort of content is the brand being tagged in?

Across various platforms, Cadillac has adapted quite smoothly to the era of creators, emerging as a fixture in a wide range of content. This includes:

• Family vlogs on YouTube, as seen in this video from The CAN Family, which positions the 2026 Cadillac Escalade IQ as “the coolest family car ever.” (We here at CreatorIQ support anything with an IQ in the name, so I’m inclined to agree.)
• Instagram Reels from car architects and ‘pre-build creators’ like Rashad Harper, aka 412DonkLife, who was excited to show off an outrageously cool 1959 Cadillac Cyclone to his 2.2 million followers.
  • Oh, also, in case you were curious (because I definitely was), I’m going to include Rashad’s disclaimer on his username here:
    • “***Disclaimer A Donk is a 1971-1976 Impala or Caprice on Big Rims or stock**** Not any car with big wheels”
• TikToks from car reviewers like Forrest’s Auto Reviews or dealerships like Vanguard Motor Sales offering full coverage of both modern and classic Cadillac models.

Ultimately, it’s that balance of modern and classic elements that not only defines Cadillac’s mission as a brand, but makes possible their winning creator strategy. After all, why shouldn’t a brand that’s been around for 125 years know a thing or two about adapting? And why wouldn’t creators want to embrace a brand that’s known for quality and reliability? I didn’t see it before, but I see it now: Cadillac and creators are the perfect match. And with the rest of the automotive industry on the rise, I expect to see more of these success stories very soon.

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