Good morning. Last night, Alex Warren became the first creator to win the VMA for Best New Artist. That is, unless you count Justin Bieber.
Salish Matter Draws 87K to Skincare Brand Launch
Salish Matter (right) launches her skincare brand at the American Dream mall in New Jersey (left) / Salish Matter, Sincerely Yours
On Saturday, teen creator Salish Matter launched her Sephora-exclusive skincare brand, Sincerely Yours, to a crowd of 87,000—the largest turnout ever for an event at the American Dream mall in New Jersey.
Quick background: Between her vlog channel and her appearances on her father Jordan Matter’s main channel, Salish has an audience of almost 35 million, mostly made up of 8–16-year-old girls and their parents. Her popularity with Gen Z and Gen Alpha has made her the #1 most-searched name on Famous Birthdays.
Behind the brand: “The initial interest [in Sincerely Yours] came from Salish, due to having sensitive skin and realizing there are no cool but affordable products on the market,” Jordan told us.
Salish and Jordan co-founded Sincerely Yours and brought on Julia Straus, the former lead of skincare brand Tula, as the CEO.
The line features a facial mist, sunscreen, face wash, and moisturizer—all of which retail for under $30 to stay accessible for Salish’s tween audience.
Inside the event: Jordan and Salish anticipated about 20% of the 30K people who RSVP’d to Saturday’s event to attend. By 7am on the morning of the launch, the mall reached capacity with 10K people in a secondary overflow venue and 2K in line at Sephora. Due to safety concerns, the mall shut down the event early, barring Jordan and Salish from addressing the fans. Putting that in context ➡️
Salish’s event was bigger than MrBeast’s burger joint opening at American Dream in 2022 (with an estimated 40K attendees).
Beauty creator James Charles—also an investor in Sincerely Yours—drew a crowd of 12K to the Mall of America in 2018 for the launch of the Morphe cosmetics store.
Looking ahead: Although Salish will continue to be the face and co-founder of the brand, Jordan sees a future where she’s a bit more removed.
“She's the person that's giving it the start and getting it in people's hands,” Jordan said. “But at some point it has to transition into skincare that's exciting for people who don't even know who she is.”
Inside YouTube’s Free NFL Stream
MrBeast (right) and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (left) star in a skit where MrBeast buys the NFL / MrBeast 2 and NFL
On Friday, YouTube offered its first free stream of an NFL game, bringing viewers the Kansas City Chiefs vs. LA Chargers matchup live from Brazil.
FYI: All of the NFL’s 200+ regular season games will air on a streamer this year—a first for the league. But with different streamers claiming different rights, fans could be out $750 by the end of the season to watch every single game on subscription-based platforms, Forbes estimates.
Which brings us to YouTube. The platform has been angling for more live sports rights with partnerships like NFL Sunday Ticket and Friday’s São Paulo game. And it’s looking to differentiate itself in a way other platforms can’t: creators.
IShowSpeed, Tom Grossi, Robegrill, and SKabeche hosted “Watch With” streams (which showed their programming next to gameplay) in English and Spanish.
YouTube featured comedy sketches with creators, like MrBeast pretending to buy the NFL.
Football creator Deestroying served as a sideline reporter.
IShowSpeed’s Growth Hack? Tour America
IShowSpeed, now 11 of 35 days into his stream across the US, visited New York City on his seventh day / IShowSpeedK
Streaming creator Darren “IShowSpeed” Watkins Jr. is 11 days into his 24-hour-a-day, 35-day stream across America. And? He’s averaging around 5 million views per day on YouTube and 60K concurrent views on Twitch.
The highlights from the eight states he’s visited so far →
He stopped at Rolling Stone’s offices, Emma Rogue’s clothing boutique, Harvard, and MrBeast HQ.
He livestreamed YouTube’s Chiefs vs. Chargers game (see above).
He released an AI VTuber model to interact with viewers while he’s sleeping, and he was gifted a $200K chain from rapper (and newly minted AI founder) Meek Mill.
Big picture: Speed gained over 4.9 million views and 400K concurrent viewers during his tour through Latin America in January. With tours through China, Southeast Asia, and Europe under his belt, too, Speed is making a compelling case for daily events as a growth lever. His tour of America is on track to be on of his top performing growth moments to-date.
👀 Creator Moves
Tech media company Every is looking for a lead social strategist to increase social presence cross-platform.
The Diary of a CEO podcast is hiring for a variety of creative roles based in Los Angeles, including guest strategist assistant and senior guest strategist.
Political news platform Democracy Docket is looking for a video editor to work on long- and short-form content.
Travel creator Drew Binsky is hiring a shorts creative lead to oversee short-form content across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
🔥 Press Worthy
Dude Perfect is launching a podcast.
Sports analysis creator Michael MacKelvie launches a podcast.
#TeamWater reaches its $40 million fundraising goal in 30 days.
Good Good Golf launches a “golf club” Discord.
Donut Media signs with CAA.
Amelia Dimoldenberg is hosting a two-day event in London to celebrate 10 years of Chicken Shop Date.
