The advertising world’s best-known trophy is finally being handed to creators themselves. According to ADWEEK‘s Mark Stenberg, the Clios will hold the first Clio Creator Awards on Nov. 18 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, with actor Terry Crews as host and the whole show streaming exclusively on YouTube.

A new kind of Clio

The Clios have been honoring advertising for more than 65 years. Clio Creators is a new program built around creative work on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and other platforms. It is presented by YouTube and powered by the influencer marketing company Influential.

TV News Check‘s staff report that submissions also cover LinkedIn, Snapchat and other emerging platforms, with winners split across Brand and Creator tracks. MOCEAN is on board as a creative partner.

The big difference from most industry awards is who gets the trophy. Clio Creators will name the creator as the recipient, not the brand or the agency that hired them. Creators can enter their own work, and brands can enter campaigns they made with creators. Awards run from Bronze up to the Grand Clio.

Built to feel like the Oscars

Chris Detert, Influential’s chief communications officer and the show’s executive producer, told ADWEEK the program has been in the works for about two years, and the goal from day one was a show on the level of the Oscars and the Grammys. “We wanted red carpet fanfare,” he said.

Nearly every award will be handed out on stage by a well-known creator. Names on the presenter list include Trixie Mattel, King Bach, Jordan the Stallion, Jesser, iJustine, Amanda McCants, Hannah Stocking and Cole Walliser.

Dhar Mann and Grace Wells get special honors

Two honors are already locked in. Dhar Mann, founder of Dhar Mann Studios, will receive the 2026 Clio Creator Impact Award. The Clios say his company reaches more than 170 million followers and pulls in more than 320 million views every week.

Short-form filmmaker Grace Wells will take the 2026 Clio Creator Rising Star Award for her series “Making Epic Commercials for Random Objects,” which turns everyday items into big, cinematic ads.

Why Terry Crews

Crews and Detert met at the Possible marketing conference in Miami, while Crews was hosting Crews Control, a YouTube series for Cadillac’s F1 team. Crews has about 25 million followers on TikTok and nearly 18 million on Instagram, and he told ADWEEK that creators are now where a lot of the best storytelling lives.

“Brands and ads have taken the place of sitcoms,” Crews said. “I get most of my great laughs from ads, rather than television shows. Most of the time I get it from these great creators who are doing these hilarious videos.”

He also said the show should judge creativity, not reach. “This is not about numbers and volume,” he said. “This is about how creative these guys are. I think that is the most important thing: to treat everyone there as an artist.”

The money behind the moment

The program was first announced back in March. At the time, Tubefilter‘s Sam Gutelle noted that creator marketing had simply grown too big for the Clios to ignore, and that Influential was bought by ad giant Publicis for $500 million in 2024.

Clios CEO Nicole Purcell said, per TV News Check, that the impact creators have had on the business in recent years “is hard to overstate.” Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster and the Dolby Theatre, and the stream will run on YouTube’s Clio Creators channel.

The takeaway

Putting the creator’s name on the trophy is a real shift. For years, brand deals were judged as the brand’s work, with the creator treated as the hired help. A Clio with a creator’s name on it gives independent talent something they can point to when pitching sponsors and setting rates. Whether the first show lands like the Oscars or plays more like an industry mixer, the message is clear: the ad business now sees creators as the artists, not just the billboard.

Featured image: Terry Crews by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.