Good morning. If you’ve been on Twitter the last few weeks, you may have wondered “who greenlit those wild tweets from the RadioShack corporate account?”

Turns out it's the company's CMO himself, Abel Czupor. He started tweeting pretty lewd, pretty explicit takes from the Shack's account earlier this summer. Is it marketing genius or juvenile? Well… it’s hard to argue with 100 million impressions and increasing sales.

–Hannah Doyle

Is YouTube Success a Moving Target?

Our team’s been thinking about the answer since we saw a clip of lifestyle creator Kelly Wakasa when he was nine years old filming his first YouTube video.

Wakasa, now 22, shared the clip last week in a video detailing his 11-year-long path to 1 million subscribers. 

Some highlights from that journey:

• Wakasa started as a skateboarding creator in middle school and interned for the channel Braille Skateboarding.

• In high school, he made a hard pivot to vlogging, then moved to LA to pursue YouTube opportunities after graduation.

• After living in an LA creator house with Elliot Choy, Wakasa took his talents (with Choy) to NYC, where he now specializes in content like day-in-the-life videos and giving ice cream to strangers.

And now, he’s at the million sub mark. Wakasa’s years of experience surely informed his success, but the definition of that success is worth a second look.

The introduction of ads and brand deals isn’t the only thing that’s changed for creators this last decade. Success metrics have shifted on YouTube since nine-year-old Wakasa started uploading.

Then, viral hits and big follower counts were necessary to build a business around your content. Now, creators can make a solid living with just 1,000 true fans.

Then, posting daily was vital if you wanted the algorithm to help you go viral. Now, infrequency doesn’t dampen opportunity (see: Ryan Trahan, Michael Reeves, Emma Chamberlain).

Then, it was all about subscriber goals. Now, it’s all about views per video.

Our Take

Sticking it out as platforms change their algorithms and incentive systems can feel like chasing a moving target. But Wakasa's seven-figure following (11 years later) shows that 1) perseverance is as good a strategy as any and 2) success is subjective—something you have to define for yourself.

TikTok is Coming for Google

Has anyone else been using TikTok to find things like where to eat on a vacation to Lisbon in the spring? A recent app update allows TikTok users to search via a query bar at the top right hand of videos. And a set of viral tweets suggest TikTok might be staging an impressive run for Google’s lucrative status as the de facto search engine.

Though a few issues of misinformation have cropped up, TikTok, like YouTube before it, has provided a platform for academics, healthcare professionals, travel guides, construction workers, or really anyone to share knowledge in a fast-paced and visually-engaging manner.

TikTok sees an opening and is taking it. Google’s search engine is increasingly leaving users unsatisfied, with sponsored results and SEO-heavy answers eating up most of the results page. In addition, Instagram’s many algorithm changes have weakened its explore feature, which has further accelerated its declining popularity.

Our Take

In the early- to mid-2000s, entire websites were built around what was trending on Google search (raise your hand if you miss the blog era). Could the same happen on TikTok? Creators mining popular hashtags and search terms could become the next-gen version of those Google-minded bloggers of yore, creating content specifically tailored to what people might seek while using TikTok’s new amplified search tools. Look out for “is this rash normal” videos on your FYP any day now.

Sponsored by Shopify

From College Dropout to 10M Subscribers

The last month was a whirlwind for creator Ryan Trahan, who embarked on a cross-country trip to deliver a penny to MrBeast. He had to get there in 30 days living off of that penny… and he did it! He ended the month with 10M subscribers and over $1.4M raised for Feeding America.

But his YouTube journey started way back in 2017 when he made the decision to drop out of college. Throughout it all, he’s been open about the highs and lows, his struggle with burnout, and his perspective on what it means to be a creator. “I view creating as entrepreneurial,” says Ryan. “Creating something from nothing has always been ingrained in me.”

Read more about Ryan Trahan’s journey in his interview with Shopify.

Viral Trend Boosts Box Office Sales

When I went to the movies as a teen, wearing a Hollister tank was dressing up. Now teens are wearing suits? Here’s why.

The #GentleMinions trend blew up on TikTok with a pretty simple premise: wear a suit to the movies, specifically to see Universal Pictures’ Minions: The Rise of Gru, the prequel to the 12-year-old Despicable Me franchise.

The trend has translated into sales.

• Rise of Gru earned an impressive $125 million at the box office opening weekend.

• 34% of the opening weekend audience was between ages 13 and 17, up from 8% for the previous title in the Despicable Me series.

Our Take

The original Despicable Me target demo grew up, but Universal didn’t let them go—they played right along with them, turning a viral TikTok trend into a major box office payday.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Investor Li Jin is offering a free creator economy course.

• Yes Theory is releasing an activewear line.

• Logan Paul has signed a multi-year contract with WWE.

• Amelia Dimoldenberg is debuting her own pizza with proceeds going to the charity Football Beyond Borders. 

• TikTok is sponsoring another film festival.

• LilyPichu has signed with YouTube Gaming.

• Creators with under 30k followers are making $4k+/month with HeyDaily subscriptions.*

*This is sponsored advertising content.