Lowe’s today announced plans to give the members of its creator network the opportunity to create products — not just content — for the home improvement retailer, per details shared with Marketing Dive. The move combines the Lowe’s Creator Network, which launched last June, with a previous Into the Blue initiative that helped entrepreneurs bring products to Lowe’s customers.

“We've been thinking about this evolution of our creator network as taking it from content to curation to creation,” said Jen Wilson, senior vice president and CMO at Lowe’s. “We've helped other small businesses manufacture and distribute products, so we know how to do this, without sitting on too much inventory, or without breaking the system… we have the blueprint.”

As part of Lowe’s Creator: Into the Blue, creators may submit existing products that need distribution, scale and retail exposure; product ideas that need development and sourcing support; and collaborations with existing Lowe’s products. Applications are open through Sept. 1.

The program also builds on a recent collaboration with MrBeast, the YouTube superstar who was the first major name to join the Lowe’s Creator Network at launch. Lowe’s in May announced a series of three workshops oriented around exclusive MrBeast Lab Swarms toys, demonstrating how creators can move from content and digital storefronts to IRL products and experiences.

“We were really inspired by that process, and feel like the natural progression is to open that up to other creators who might have their own ideas,” Wilson said of the latest work with MrBeast. “That might be our product design team partnering with one of our creators who has a vision for a patio set, it might be somebody who has a vision for a new tool belt or even a new tool, function or a product that we've not seen before.”

Marketing Dive spoke with Wilson about creator network developments, along with other recent marketing moves around culture and sports. 

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

MARKETING DIVE: It’s been about a year since the creator network launched. How would you describe its progress?

JEN WILSON: We are at around 28,000 creators, so we hope to be at the 30,000 mark by the end of the year. We're really pleased with the total number of folks in our first-party creator network. We do work across first-party and third-party, but our first-party creator network is the fastest growing, from a revenue perspective. 

We continue to see a great engagement. We had a really big viral Black Friday moment that helped us drive some considerable wins across the holiday season. Specifically, we leveraged our creator network around our Lowe's Blue Bucket giveaway and had tremendous virality out of that: over 500 million views and engagements across just Black Friday proper. 

For our loyalty program, we give free member gifts, and our creators get behind that in a big way. We see anywhere from 30 to 100 people lined up at our doors nationwide, waiting for their free gift.

Lowe’s is activating around the World Cup in a few different ways, including a 10-foot Lionel Messi inflatable and a related social campaign. What’s Lowe’s strategy around the tournament?

One of the big things that we're trying to do is just engage where consumers are engaging most, and we know that most people are either watching the live broadcast while they have a phone in their hand or following a lot of the game with the phone in their hand.

In a world where we knew that we weren't going to fully break through across broadcast, because we don't have the [sponsorships] and we don't have the [ad] spend to do so, we felt like the place to play was heavier in social. We want to be able to take over some of the buzzy moments where people are just talking about Lowe's in curious ways.

There's going to be merchandise that either Messi signed or that he wore that will be available at a Messi halftime show that we're putting on [during the tournament final], and it's going to be a cool, unexpected way to bring Lowe’s into the ecosystem of the World Cup.

Last month, Lowe’s kicked off a partnership with A’ja Wilson and Jalen Brunson. Wilson is arguably the best player in the WNBA, but Brunson was lesser known until he helped lead the Knicks to a championship. What do you look for in a sports partner?

It always starts with core values. We are a very driven, results-oriented, people-first organization, and we look for athletes who embody that. We line up our values when we meet and talk with these players, and we saw that in Jalen and A’ja.

What has been so cool to see, and I think really people are seeing this at first hand, is just the steadfastness and the emotional maturity of Jalen Brunson. Just to see someone who stays in the fight and, under pressure, stays so level-headed and professional. 

The day after they won the championship, we offered our loyalty members 11 times the bonus points [in a nod to Brunson’s jersey number], so our members could celebrate with him. We had some great engagement, especially, as you can imagine, in the state of New York.

What can consumers expect from Lowe’s new Live Nation partnership?

Music is another unifier for people. [Concerts] are not just a place for young families to gather; when pros are on the job site, all they do is listen to music. It's not just a summertime thing, but it's a year-round experience, and we wanted to be able to give our rewards members special perks.

Another thing we're excited about with Live Nation is that we expect to be able to pass this through to some of our vendor brands through our media network. We've orchestrated the deal so that we can have some of our vendor brands advertise at some of these concert venues, take over some of the tailgates and create experiences.

I'm trying to take the brand from just home improvement to life improvement, and make this more about lifestyle, and the way that people live their lives is through sports, family, live music and other great experiences. We want to be a brand who brings and unlocks those experiences to them.