Instagram announced on Monday the launch of a new awards program, which will recognize creators worldwide who are celebrated for shifting culture and breaking barriers. The company is set to honor 25 creators with a gold ring next week.
The Award and Its Privileges
The judging panel for the new awards program features several prominent figures, including Instagram head Adam Mosseri, director Spike Lee, designer Marc Jacobs, YouTuber Marques Brownlee, actress Yara Shahidi, and makeup artist Pat McGrath, among others.
Winners will receive a physical, custom-designed ring created by English fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner. They will also be granted a digital golden ring that appears around their Instagram profile photo, and the ability to design a custom “Like” button that appears when users like their feed posts. Notably, the winners will not receive any monetary prize or financial compensation. The company stated in a blog post that the award is “all about celebrating those who aren’t afraid to take creative chances and do it their way. Those who bring people together over their creativity, and deserve recognition.”
Scaling Back Financial Incentives
The launch of this symbolic awards program comes at a time when Meta has been steadily scaling back its financial payout programs for creators over the past few years. Earlier this year, Meta discontinued a program that paid creators for ads placed within their profiles. In 2023, the company stopped offering bonuses to Reels creators on both Instagram and Facebook, and it also shut down its affiliate marketing bonuses in 2022.
These financial shifts coincide with a documented decline in the creator economy; a survey from Kajabi reported a 52% decrease in brand deals in 2024 for creators. Additionally, Bank of America noted last year that competition is growing, with more paid partnerships becoming concentrated among only the top-tier creators. Given this background of financial contraction, Instagram’s decision to launch an awards program focused on symbolic recognition rather than monetary compensation—effectively functioning as the Oscars for content creators (without a ceremony)—is particularly interesting.
The winners of the new awards will be officially announced on October 16.
The Value of Symbolic Status
Instagram’s decision to replace cash payouts with a custom gold ring is a shrewd, cost-effective maneuver that substitutes financial reward with social capital, leveraging the core driver of the platform: status. For most creators, a physical object and profile badge that confers exclusivity and public recognition from high-profile judges is arguably more valuable for career longevity than a one-time bonus. This move is a clear shift from treating creators as gig workers who need a paycheck to treating them as a self-regulating elite who are motivated by prestige and access, which ultimately costs the platform far less to maintain.
Featured image credit: Pramod Tiwari via Unsplash
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