TOGETHER WITH

It’s Friday and if people-watching is your passion, look no further than the Meta AI App, where unwitting users are getting awfully personal in public conversations with a chatbot.

Today’s News

BIRTHDAY WISHES

Here’s how Instagram is celebrating its 15th birthday:

The milestone: Instagram is turning fifteen—and to celebrate, the Meta-owned app is rolling out its “biggest campaign yet” (per AdWeek).

For its “Anyway” ad campaign, Instagram teamed up with Uncommon Creative Studio to show off the work of artists who have achieved success on its platform, including Tyler, The Creator, Rosalía, Nadia Lee Cohen, and Cole Bennett. Within those commercials (which are airing during the NBA Finals), Instagram promises that creators can achieve great things if they are brave enough to post.

The context: That push to turn passive users into active creators doesn’t just correspond with Instagram’s 15th birthday. Meta has doubled-down on its appeals to influencers while TikTok has been fighting a ban attempt in the United States. Clearly, the tech giant sees TikTok’s (potential) loss as Instagram’s (potential) gain. “Anyway” is yet another strategical move designed to add more creators to Instagram’s growing tally.

The platform’s efforts to capitalize on TikTok’s misfortune have also included the introduction of tools and initiatives similar to those that have gained popularity on the ByteDance-owned app. Features released during the launch of “Anyway” include a fresh form of sharing that allows users to upload “quietly” (by showing posts on profiles before they get pushed out to followers’ feeds), while a newly-announced Drafts program will equip up-and-coming creators with “financial support, connections, co-ideation and collaboration opportunities.” 

🔆 PRESENTED BY VIRAL NATION 🔆

Viral Nation just dropped its latest creator marketing playbook. Here are 4 takeaways to apply in 2025:

Influencer Marketing at Scale has arrived. Compiled by Viral Nation—an industry-leading social media company—the report gives brands an inside look at strategies that will define influencer marketing in 2025.

Here are the 4 pillars of scaling influence in 2025:

1. Center Your Marketing Team Around Influence: Social media has officially become the world’s largest advertising channel. To keep up in the digital age, brands should embed creator influence at the heart of their strategy and fully integrate those campaigns across paid media, PR, customer experience, and community building.

2. Merge Community & Content to Build Loyal Momentum: Community trust and loyalty is the new currency of this modern marketing paradigm:

3. Treat Creators Like Scaled Media Channels: Viral Nation CEO Joe Gagliese put it best: “It's not about finding the 4 best food creators—it's about activating 200 paid creators without treating each like a separate campaign.”

4. Build Systems and Tech Stacks that Scale Influence: Brands require infrastructure such as centralized workflows, performance scorecards, and AI-powered brand safety tools.

Access Viral Nation’s full playbook for free to discover insights on brand safety, scaling with intention, and 2025 campaign trends:

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Kick’s nascent Kick Studios arm is partnering with Austin-based streaming group OTK for an exclusive event series. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Thanks to a new partnership between Pinterest and affiliate shopping hub LTK, top-performing image posts from the latter platform will “automatically be cross-posted to Pinterest.” (The Verge)
  
  

• Snapchat has announced an upcoming timeline editor and the ability to auto-save Stories to public profiles. (Snap Newsroom)
  
  

• Meta is reportedly spending $14.3 billion to buy 49% of AI model-training company Scale AI. (The Verge)

CONVENTION CIRCUIT

Does VidCon’s new owner have a plan?

The convention: When the Green brothers founded VidCon in 2010, there was no other event like it. Since then, however, the arrival of seveal biz dev-focused gatherings (like VidSummit, Creator Economy Live, and more) has left VidCon in a sort of limbo—especially in the wake of its 2018 sale to Viacom (now Paramount Global).

In response, the convention has pushed to evolve by embracing the TikTok era, introducing (often short-lived) international events, and launching an East Coast expansion that was cancelled after one convention.

Now, VidCon is approaching its first Anaheim event under its latest owner: Informa. Last September, Paramount Global sold VidCon to the London-based company, which—through its “Fan Expo HQ” division—runs nearly 20 events, including Toronto Comicon, Megacon, and the Game Developers Conference. So, what’s its plan for VidCon 2025?

Next steps: With the Anaheim convention less than a week away, Fan Expo HQ President Aman Gupta told The Hollywood Reporter that his team has “a lot of big, exciting things” planned and wants the 2025 edition of VidCon—which he calls “the Super Bowl for creators”—to “set the foundation for the future.”

This year’s con will feature its usual creator, industry, and community programming tracks, plus some special-edition stuff to mark title sponsor YouTube‘s 20th anniversary. That programming will include a creator game show, a live “Roblox Hunt,” and an outdoor experience. A keynote from YouTube Head of Culture and Trends Kevin Alocca and VP of Creator Products Amjad Hanif will also mark the platform’s 20-year milestone, while a hall of fame will honor OG YouTubers like VidCon co-founder Hank Green, Rhett & Link, and Grace Helbig.

Going forward, Gupta told THR that Informa wants to “bring VidCon to the world”—but “what that means is still to be determined.”

LAUNCHING LENS+

Snapchat is launching a Lens subscription

The service: Powered by a $3.99/month price point and a feature-rich design, Snapchat+ reached 12 million subscribers within two years of its 2022 launch. Now, buoyed by that success, Snapchat is introducing its next paywalled subscription service.

That Lens+ tier is being launched as a premium add-on for Snap+. It will expand options for the creators of Snap’s augmented reality (AR) effects while setting the table for the arrival of the company’s Specs wearables.

According to an introductory blog post, subscribers who pay $8.99/month for Lens+ will get access to “Lenses built by Snapchat and select creators.” Snapchat plans to expand the Lens Plus program over the next few months by letting some creators “build and monetize exclusive Lenses.”

The context: Snap has a rocky past when it comes to AR, but the company is bullish about the potential of its upcoming Specs line. If next year’s launch is going to succeed, the company will need a dedicated community of Lens creators—which is exactly why it’s started paying the creators of top-performing effects. Now, Lens+ will open up additional monetization opportunities while (theoretically) expanding the size of the app’s AR community.

WATCH THIS

A betting hub ran an AI-generated ad during the NBA Finals

The AI ad: The NBA Finals might not get as much hype as the Super Bowl, but brands still pay a pretty penny to put their ads in front of the sporting event’s millions of viewers. This year, betting platform Kalshi was one of those advertisers—and (presumably to cut costs) it decided to run a fully AI-generated ad that reportedly took just $2,000 to produce.

AI filmmaker PJ Accetturo took credit for creating the ad for Kalshi, and said on X that it took him around 2-3 days to put the whole commercial together. The result: “a 95% cost reduction vs traditional ad.”

So, what does an AI-generated ad for a betting company look like? Well…it’s certainly something.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.