Creator-in-Chief

Good morning. Back in October, MrBeast released a TikTok vowing to recreate Squid Game if the post got 10 million likes. Seventeen million likes later, the creator has been hard at work building exact replicas of the sets, spending over $3 million in the process. Some say it’s tone-deaf, others say it’s nothing compared to all he does for charity. I say that I—and millions of others—will be tuning in to the reveal tomorrow regardless.

-Hannah Doyle

→ Phil DeFranco joins a creator monetization startup

→ Why a YouTube channel with zero content has a devoted following

→ How Spotify’s new feature increases podcaster’s monetization opportunities

Phil DeFranco, who has been recapping the news on YouTube for 15 years, was recruited by the startup Fourthwall last week to guide their product development. 

The company aims to be an all-in-one monetization platform for creators, providing a website like Squarespace, merchandise like Shopify, and membership offerings like Patreon—all while allowing creators to retain full ownership of their brands and data. While they are currently prioritizing YouTube creators with over 100,000 subscribers, creators of all sizes can request an invite to join.

DeFranco’s new role as Chief Creator Officer coincides with the company announcing they have raised $17 million for building out their engineering team and more creator services. According to research by eMarketer, social commerce is expected to hit $36.6 billion by the end of this year. With a market this large, the investment could be a drop in the bucket for a promising company.

Creator economy brands are increasingly recognizing the value in bringing in creatives like Phil DeFranco not just as advisors, but as active participants in development. Creators trust creators, so having one involved at the executive level immediately builds brand trust. We expect to see more companies adding creators to their leadership teams.

Imagine growing a channel to 4.5 million subscribers and 860 million views in one year—then deleting it. 

That’s what gaming YouTubers Markiplier and CrankGameplays did with Unus Annus, a YouTube channel that the creators posted to every day for one year, collaborating on videos outside the gaming realm—from skits to cooking challenges. 

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the project’s end, which was livestreamed with a total of 15 million views. In tribute, both creators released a video with the same title: “Memento Mori”, reflecting on the impact of Unus Annus, citing it as their best work.

The YouTubers deleted everything related to Unus Annus, including merchandise, social media accounts, and videos. They also said they’d issue copyright claims on any re-uploads, but would allow fan edits of their videos.

Watching a social project with a known, definite ending is refreshing and has its benefits—the ephemeral nature creates a deeper bond with the audience and gives creators a sense of finality to their project. We expect to see more limited, project-based content on YouTube in the future.

Last week Spotify rolled out its self-service ad network, Spotify Ad Studio, which allows advertisers to buy and manage campaigns across the platform’s network. Brands only need to meet a $500 minimum spend to build target audience-based campaigns across the Spotify Ad Network. 

Most notably, advertisers can now buy “title-by-title”, meaning they can build campaigns directly with specific podcasts and hosts. It’s currently available only for Spotify exclusives and originals, but they have plans to expand the offering to all podcasts within their network. 

Building and managing the ad/monetization operation can be difficult for podcasts that are low on resources. If or when Spotify’s title-title offering does open up to all podcasts (not just originals and exclusives), it could provide the tech and infrastructure to help podcast creators of all sizes build out their revenue capabilities without incurring high costs.

See you next week. We’re taking a few days to work on a special project that we’re stoked to share with you—and give you one less email to bulk-delete on Black Friday. Have a great holiday!