Good morning. Over the weekend, I saw Nathan Fielder’s new documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, You Can See Everything—and it quickly became one of my favorite theater experiences this year.

If you have three hours to spare (and a subsequent three days to not think about anything else), go give it a watch.

— Syd Cohen

Today’s lineup:

Yesterday, I—alongside 3.1M live viewers—tuned in to the Super Bowl Sunday for underwear: the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. For context, last year’s show drew around 2.5M live viewers on YouTube.

Of all the years I’ve watched, this one felt different. Victoria’s Secret was thinking like a creator.

After streaming last year’s show across Amazon Live, Prime Video and social platforms, Victoria’s Secret made YouTube its primary livestream destination this year. But the shift went beyond distribution: the brand built an entire world around the runway.

Creators were central to the spectacle, from Alex Consani and Quen Blackwell walking the runway to others capturing content from the sidelines. But to understand the full picture, we need to back up three weeks.

In September, Victoria’s Secret launched a reality series on its YouTube channel. Similar to America’s Next Top Model, Angels Among Us aimed to find the next VS Angel from a casting call of ordinary girls. 

More than 100K women applied, and the six episodes attracted almost 19M views. The winner earned a spot in this year’s show. 

“[The idea] came from our customers, who are really interested in the behind-the-scenes,” Victoria’s Secret CEO Hillary Super said before the show. “We got that idea from the comments and socials.”

How we see it: From GM’s F1 series to Red Bull’s support of large livestreaming events, brands are increasingly borrowing from the creator playbook to build entertainment properties of their own. Victoria’s Secret is doing the same, turning a one-night fashion show into a larger world of characters, stories, and creator-led content that audiences can immerse themselves in.

Last week, Colin and Samir hosted a live Creator Support thumbnail roast at our Coffee With Creators event. Here are three tips you can apply to your video next time you Press Publish.

Test one thing at a time. If you're not sure what to A/B test first, choose visuals over text. The same copy on two vastly different images gives you a clear signal around what your audience will click.

Keep your title simple. If you're struggling to choose a video title, start with the clearest description of what viewers can expect.

“I would always recommend that you make your title exactly what the video is and be unique in the thumbnail,” Colin and Samir’s YouTube strategist, Kish Mangra, said. “You just want to make sure people know what they’re clicking on. It’s a lot easier to stand out with a picture than it is with words.”

Mangra calls this making the title “more vanilla.” For example, during our live thumbnail roast, the team simplified two titles: 

Make the honest video. With recent YouTube algorithm updates, creators have more data available than ever. But more data can tempt you to make an optimized video that performs well, but one you don’t care about.

“The thing I would caution everybody against here, especially with the amount of data we get as creative individuals now, is there’s a potential reduction in conviction of your ideas,” Samir said.

Feedback from mentors, peers, and your audience is valuable. Just don’t let those signals disrupt the mission of your channel. The honest video is always the one worth making.

Sponsored by CTB

Group chat meets bookworm energy.

That’s what you get by following @overheardbookclub. It’s one of several accounts from @Overheard, the brand that turned eavesdropping into a scroll-stopping event.

Each post features reading recommendations from a best-selling author.

To secure the lineup, the team behind @overheardbookclub turned to Central Talent Booking, which has been landing A-list guests for shows and now creators since 1999. 

For the series’ latest post, CTB booked comedian-turned-author Taylor Tomlinson. Her clip has earned over 5,000 engagements (and counting).

With the right partner, the guests you thought were out of reach are just one call away. Connect with CTB today.

Georgia’s film industry is hurting. Creators may be the solution.

Context: When Trilith Studios opened in Georgia 12 years ago, it became the epicenter of production for many of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Avengers: Endgame.

But in recent years, many of the productions that generated Trilith’s revenue have taken their budgets elsewhere. To fill the void that Hollywood left, it’s turning to creators.

Trilith CEO Frank Patterson told the Atlanta Business Chronicle that the 700-acre studio opened its doors to creators like IShowSpeed, MrBeast, and Dude Perfect. 

Why now? Film production spending in Georgia halved in the past four years, down to $2B this year from a record $4.4B in 2022.

A number of factors have led to the decrease, including:

Zooming out: Hollywood recognition has long defined success for creators. Now the power dynamic is shifting. To survive, studios like Trilith need creators, which gives them increasing leverage to negotiate access to resources once reserved for Hollywood.