The era of short videos has arrived.

Written by: Boaz Sobrado

Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News

“In 2025, we spent $30,000 hiring an influencer to promote an exchange, and in the end, only managed to get one registered user.” Rhys McKay said in an interview, “The other party was a globally recognized blogger, and the conversion was just one.”

A few years ago, this investment could have yielded considerable returns. Before founding the short video editing agency Lumina Clippers, McKay ran a cryptocurrency marketing company for five years. He revealed that the company had invested a total of $30 million in influencer marketing. Brands used to be willing to spend $40,000 for an influencer to post a tweet. From 2021 to 2022, as long as an influencer promoted a token or exchange, brands generally achieved positive conversions and realized a return on investment. But after 2025, this model became completely ineffective.

The dilemma faced by McKay is now a common problem throughout the industry. Cryptocurrency and fintech brands are cutting back on paid influencer promotion budgets, reallocating funds to two lower-cost channels. The first is clip distribution: hiring a large number of freelance creators to edit and publish short videos; the second is fan-generated content, where enthusiasts voluntarily create brand-related videos, all for free. The cost of traditional paid information flow ads is about $20–80 per thousand views, while the clip distribution model only costs $1–5.

At the 2023 New York Toy Fair, Toikido showcased the Pudgy Penguins exhibit

“The audience is already saturated”

“Some influencers have collaborated with over 100 brands; if your brand is ranked 101st, the audience is already aesthetically fatigued.” McKay said, “Influencers can no longer guide the audience to invest in or use products; continuous commercial promotions have overdrawn fan trust.”

More than one marketing professional has chosen to withdraw from the influencer track. James Sixsmith, CEO of the futures trading platform Take Profit Trader, stated that influencer promotions are hard to control, and the company decided to reclaim related businesses, reduce external influencer collaborations, and shift marketing work that was originally outsourced to influencers to be completed in-house.

The Rise of the Short Video Army

“We have 62,000 vetted editing creators and 5,000 UGC content producers.” McKay described the operational model of Lumina Clippers, where the team edits long video materials into numerous short videos, widely distributing them on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Editing creators are compensated based on views, with a maximum payout cap of 100,000 views per video, avoiding the exhaustion of marketing budgets on a single video.

Daniel Bitton, head of a similar editing platform, plainly stated the cost advantages of this model, “Our platform’s average cost per thousand views is about $1, compared to the $40 to $80 per thousand views of regular paid ads, making it easy for companies to choose. Essentially, we are creating a market for viral content distribution.”

Short video content also has a significant advantage, as the traffic lifecycle is longer. “When running traditional ads, once the budget stops, the video will not receive any new views.” McKay explained, “But edited videos can be stored long-term. If someone watches this month, there will still be new users discovering the same video two years later.”

This model has already transcended the cryptocurrency industry. The list of institutional clients includes OKX, Adobe, Algorand, Netflix, predictive market Polymarket, and Kalshi, all of which have conducted short video marketing campaigns.

The influx of massive content can also breed low-quality content, and McKay emphasized that strict review is crucial, “Many open platforms allow anyone to register, even getting someone to register an account for them. As long as identity verification is completed, videos can be uploaded. We have application thresholds, review account qualifications, and analyze video data performance.”

Fan-Generated Transmission

Paid placements are one path, while another is zero cost. Zaid Attari, who was responsible for marketing the NFT brand Pudgy Penguins, believes that the most valuable content is the fan-created secondary content, which he calls "Edits".

“The paid short videos that users scroll through have creative motivation driven by profit; fan-generated secondary creations are completely different.” Attari mentioned in a voice memo, “This is passionate creative marketing. A quality secondary creation will drive more enthusiasts to continue producing, forming a spontaneous brand halo effect without any active guidance from the brand.”

The Pudgy Penguins IP image, Pengu, is the best example. By 2025, the image integrated into the viral TikTok meme “Tim Cheese x John Pork”. Attari stated that the brand initially invested in seed secondary creative materials, ultimately achieving approximately 250 million exposures within two weeks of this cross-border promotion. He believes this intuitively proves that fan-generated content can bring tremendous value to IP and tech brands. Pudgy Penguins has not abandoned paid marketing either; during the 2025 holiday season, the brand spent nearly $500,000 on advertising on a large screen in Las Vegas.

Matt, founder of the social app Lockit, analyzed the underlying logic behind the success of organic content in the podcast “On The Margin”: “What the audience really cares about is the video itself, not the awkwardly inserted products. This is also why native content performs better than hard ads.”

Conclusion

“Editing distribution is great for building brand awareness, but it’s difficult to track direct conversion effects, which is a significant pain point in the industry.” McKay admitted. Brands can clearly see that views and shares continue to rise, yet it is challenging to quantify how many real users and transaction orders they ultimately generate.

Another major risk is compliance issues regarding advertising disclosures. Short videos and fan-sourced secondary creations that do not disclose paid attributes are reminiscent of the violations that led to Kardashian being fined $1.26 million by the U.S. SEC. Predictive market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi have already faced regulatory scrutiny for marketing activities that blur the lines between “paid promotion/native content.”

But McKay remains optimistic about this track: “I believe that in 2026, if you want to stabilize traffic acquisition, short videos are the only way to go. To achieve sustained and stable exposure, you cannot do without short video placements.”