Good morning. Who Deng? The internet has a new animal best friend: Winnie The Moo, a cow at Twitch streamer Maya Higa’s Alveus Sanctuary who’s going viral for mooing at a livestream camera to activate a feeder full of treats.
YouTube Rolls Out 30+ New Tools for Creators
YouTube announces new tools for creators across analytics, ads, Shorts, videos, and livestreams / YouTube
Yesterday at MadeOn YouTube, YouTube Studio announced major platform advancements designed to bring together global creators, improve livestreaming, and simplify analytics.
Let’s take a look at what’s new ➡️
For analytics:
Creators can now A/B test both titles and thumbnails, a feature that was previously only available for thumbnails.
YouTube is launching AI tools to refine the creator experience—including a chat feature that answers analytics questions and provides video inspiration.
For brand deals:
Dynamic ads are coming next year. Colin & Samir broke it down: Today, YouTube creators bake ad reads from partners directly into their videos.
But soon, YouTube creators will be able to mark ad segments in their videos, and those segments can be removed or updated with new ads at any time—giving creators more flexibility for future partnerships.
For Shorts, videos, and livestreams:
Collaborative posts are here. Creators can tap into each others’ audiences with collab posts—but the AdSense and viewership stats will link to the original poster’s account.
AI is everywhere. Generative AI model Veo is now available on Shorts, YouTube’s multi-language audio feature can now work in tandem with auto-dubbing, and creators can now auto-generate Shorts from popular video segments.
Zoom out: By taking note of other platforms’ popular features (like Instagram’s collaborative post tool launched in 2021), keeping up with AI demand, and integrating new features for analytics, YouTube is setting the tone for the next generation of content creation—tech-forward and strategically designed for creator businesses.
Track Star Sprints Toward Video Podcast
Jack Coyne launches a "Track Star" weekly podcast / Photography courtesy of Jack Coyne
“If you can name the artist, you win five bucks” has become synonymous with short-form music trivia show Track Star. Now, the company behind Track Star is taking that catchphrase and expanding it with a new long-form podcast.
Hit the track: The new weekly version of Track Star (premiering next Wednesday) explores genres like classical music and jazz in 45-minute to hour-long episodes, featuring guests from The New Yorker music writer Kelefa Sanneh to actor John C. Reilly.
“The idea is let's dive into these genres and stories and help people discover them for the first time, but also provide rich history and information for people who are already huge fans of these genres so they can continue to get value out of it,” Jack Coyne, creator and host of Track Star, told us.
The original Track Star is for quick hits—this new iteration is for your entire morning commute, Coyne added.
Breaking down the details: Coyne’s team will film on city streets and offer a companion playlist with songs featured in the episode.
They’ve hired former Search Engine podcast producer Noah John to lead production.
Coyne and team will produce, distribute, and monetize the show independently (but with help from their management team at UTA).
The first 10 episodes are sponsored by electric vehicle company Rivian.
Looking ahead: The show marks a shift for Track Star and its parent company, Public Opinion (run by Coyne, his brother Kieran, and friend Henry Kornaros). Short-form will continue to be a core part of Public Opinion’s strategy, but Coyne said the aim is for long-form video to become the backbone.
“We’re excited to really go deep with more documentary-style storytelling but we haven't lost track of where we came from-–it’s still very conversational, fresh, and we have a lot of fun with all the guests we’re talking to,” Coyne said.
Sticks Commercial Tops 20M Views
Lucas Nicotra (left) and Curtis Nicotra (right) of Sticks film a Feastables commercial starring MrBeast (center) / Sticks
Filmmaking duo Sticks has been on a mission to make cinematic trailers of creators’ lives—from Ryan Trahan to Emma Chamberlain to Mark Rober. Their white whale? MrBeast.
They just got one step closer in their latest commercial, shot for Feastables’ new chocolate milk drink. Curtis Nicotra, one half of Sticks, shared with us how they got it done.
Budget: low- to mid-six figures
Timeline: two weeks to shoot, dub in different languages, add VFX, and edit (a process that would typically take months)
Team: 12 crew, 30 extras, and build engineers from MrBeast’s team
“To us, this was definitely a way to build trust with his team and prove to his team but also the world what we can do on a bigger budget,” Nicotra said.
The result: The video received over 20 million views in four days—nearly double the views of other videos on MrBeast’s second channel during the same period.
The BTS video, published as a collab post between Sticks and MrBeast’s second channel, has 1.4 million views. “The collab post has really helped push our audience to more of Beast’s fans,” Nicotra said.
🔥 Press Worthy
TikTok is reportedly building a new app for US users as American companies negotiate for 80% control of the platform, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Brittany Broski and Trixie Mattel release a makeup collaboration.
Dara Denney shares how she built a six-figure course in just 60 days using Teachable.*
Charli and Dixie D’Amelio launch their first game on Roblox.
Twitch launches age verification requiring users to scan their faces.
Actor Kyle McLaughlin is starting a podcast interviewing Gen Z and Millennial creatives.
MomTok creator Jen Affleck appears in a Dunkin commercial with Ben Affleck.
Fiverr is reportedly laying off approximately 30% of its workforce to focus more on AI.
*This is sponsored content
