Meghan Markle’s lifestyle brand As Ever is putting influencer marketing at the center of its latest promotional push, highlighting how celebrity-backed businesses are increasingly relying on creators to drive awareness, engagement, and sales.
According to a new report, As Ever recently featured lifestyle influencer Olivia McDowell in promotional content shared on the brand’s Instagram page. The campaign showed McDowell using As Ever products in a polished hosting-themed video, including afternoon tea styling, cucumber sandwiches, croissants, raspberry spread, matches, and a candle.
The move has sparked discussion online because Meghan herself has previously been the public face of As Ever’s lifestyle content. Now, the brand appears to be testing a more traditional influencer marketing strategy by allowing an outside creator to present the products to her own audience and the brand’s followers.
Olivia McDowell Fronts New As Ever Promotional Content
The As Ever video positioned McDowell as a lifestyle host offering summer entertaining tips. The content followed a familiar influencer marketing format: soft visuals, aspirational home styling, product placement, and a lifestyle-first message rather than a hard sales pitch.
McDowell, who reportedly has hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers, used the video to show how As Ever products could fit into a refined hosting moment. This type of creator-led promotion is common among lifestyle and consumer brands because it helps products feel more relatable and usable in everyday settings.
For As Ever, the partnership suggests a shift toward creator-driven storytelling. Instead of relying only on Meghan Markle’s personal brand, As Ever may be trying to expand its reach by using influencers who already have established trust with niche lifestyle audiences.
Why Meghan Markle’s Influencer Marketing Strategy Matters
The use of influencer marketing is not unusual for a lifestyle brand. In fact, it is now one of the most common strategies for companies selling beauty, fashion, food, wellness, and home products.
What makes this campaign notable is the celebrity-founder context. Meghan Markle already has global name recognition, but fame does not always translate directly into repeat customers or sustained e-commerce traffic. Creator partnerships can help bridge that gap by making a brand feel more accessible and less dependent on one public figure.
Influencers can also provide brands with several advantages:
- They can demonstrate products in a practical setting.
- They can reach highly specific audiences.
- They can make promotional content feel more organic.
- They can help brands test different tones, formats, and buyer personas.
For As Ever, creator partnerships may offer a way to refresh its marketing approach while keeping the brand in the lifestyle and hosting space.
Online Reactions Show the Risk of Repetitive Creator Content
The campaign also drew criticism from some social media users, who claimed the influencer video felt similar to Meghan Markle’s previous promotional clips. Some critics argued that the content repeated familiar visual cues such as flowers, table settings, candles, and spreads.
This reaction highlights a common challenge in influencer marketing: audiences can quickly detect when content feels overly scripted or repetitive. While polished lifestyle videos can be effective, they need a clear creative angle to stand out.
For creator campaigns to work, brands must give influencers enough room to bring their own personality and perspective. If the influencer’s content feels too close to the founder’s existing messaging, the partnership may not feel fresh to viewers.
As Ever Faces Questions About Website Traffic
The influencer push comes as As Ever reportedly faces questions about website performance. RadarOnline cited data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb, claiming the brand had 392,111 U.S. visitors between January and May. The report also noted that As Ever had nearly one million global views, while the brand currently ships only within the United States.
For any e-commerce brand, traffic is only one part of the story. What matters most is whether visitors convert into customers, return for repeat purchases, and engage with the brand beyond launch buzz.
Still, website traffic can be an important signal for celebrity-led brands. A major public figure can generate significant attention at launch, but sustaining that attention requires ongoing content, product availability, customer loyalty, and strong marketing channels.
Creator Marketing Could Help As Ever Rebuild Attention
If As Ever continues working with influencers, the brand may be trying to build a more scalable marketing system. Instead of depending only on Meghan Markle’s own promotional appearances, the company could use creators to introduce products to different communities.
This strategy could be especially useful for lifestyle products such as spreads, teas, candles, and hosting essentials. These items often perform well when shown in real-life settings, recipes, entertaining ideas, and seasonal content.
For example, As Ever could benefit from creator campaigns focused on:
- Home entertaining
- Afternoon tea ideas
- Summer hosting
- Gift guides
- Food styling
- Lifestyle routines
- Luxury home aesthetics
The key will be making each campaign feel distinct. Creator content works best when it feels personal, not simply like a brand script delivered by a different person.
What This Means for Celebrity-Founded Brands
Meghan Markle’s As Ever situation reflects a larger trend in celebrity commerce. A famous founder can create awareness, but long-term growth depends on product-market fit, brand trust, and consistent audience engagement.
Influencer marketing can support that growth, but it cannot replace a clear brand identity. If audiences are unsure what makes a product unique, creator partnerships may generate conversation without necessarily driving loyalty.
For celebrity-led businesses, the best influencer campaigns usually do three things well:
- They connect the product to a real lifestyle moment.
- They choose creators whose audience matches the brand’s target buyer.
- They allow creators to communicate in their own authentic voice.
As Ever’s partnership with Olivia McDowell may be an early sign that the brand is broadening its promotional strategy. Whether that move helps increase sales and rebuild momentum will depend on how effectively the company turns influencer attention into customer trust.
Final Thoughts
Meghan Markle’s move into influencer marketing for As Ever shows how even celebrity-backed brands need creator partnerships to stay visible in a crowded e-commerce market.
The Olivia McDowell campaign may have drawn mixed reactions online, but it also shows that As Ever is experimenting with a broader marketing playbook. For creator-led commerce, the lesson is clear: influence matters, but authenticity, originality, and audience fit matter even more.