Picsart

Picsart and Alibaba Cloud Launch AI Video Competition

Picsart partnered with Alibaba Cloud to launch the Happy Horse Awards, a global competition inviting creators to produce original AI-generated vertical short films using Picsart’s new Happy Horse model. Open to participants aged 18+, the contest runs from May 26, 2026 (submission window opens) with a deadline of June 14, 2026; entrants may submit up to ten videos (15–300 seconds) posted publicly on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. Winners will be selected against five criteria and the grand prize is either a travel package to HumanX Amsterdam or $5,000 cash, with honorable mentions receiving Picsart credits. The announcement highlights Picsart’s scale (over 130M monthly creators), recent product additions (Agent Marketplace, Earn with Picsart) and developer tools (CLI and MCP).

Picsart launches creator monetization program

Picsart has launched a creator monetization program open to all creators with no invite list or minimum audience size. Participants create original content for campaign prompts using Picsart tools (including the AI conversational assistant Picsart Aura), post assets to social platforms and tag them per campaign rules, then earn revenue based on engagement metrics (views, comments, shares, reach). Creators access a dashboard showing current prompts and campaigns, track earnings, and withdraw funds via Stripe. Picsart frames the move as a shift from a creative tool to a revenue-generating platform for creators. The announcement follows Picsart’s recent reveal of an AI agent marketplace that lets creators “hire” AI assistants for tasks like resizing, remixing social content or editing product photos on Shopify.

KitKat Truck Theft Sparks Viral Brand Playbook

A truck carrying 413,793 KitKat bars (approximately twelve tons) disappeared between Italy and Poland. KitKat published an official statement confirming the theft and later launched a "Stolen KitKat Tracker" for consumers to check whether a bar came from the missing shipment. Within 48 hours many other brands (including Domino’s, Dr. Squatch, Picsart, DoorDash, RØDE, Ryanair, KFC and McDonald’s) posted their own parody "official statements," amplifying the story across social channels. The author—12 years in marketing—argues the virality succeeded because the campaign gave the public clear roles or "jobs" (victim, suspects, detectives) that encouraged participation. The piece presents a practical playbook: four audience "jobs" required for spread, a day-by-day social sequence to stage a mystery launch, an adaptation for very small brands, and warnings using a recent startup example that failed by not giving audiences a task.