It’s Tuesday and Chipotle is putting 100 creators in charge of a national ad campaign that will air on TV and across TikTok, Reels, and Shorts.

PLATFORM NEWS

The update: Last month, YouTube introduced a significant change to how it counts views on long-form content. Instead of requiring people to watch for a certain length of time before considering them ‘a viewer,’ YouTube decided to count a view from the instant a video’s first frame loads.

That metric only applies to public viewcounts; in their channel analytics, creators still see “Engaged Views” calculated on YouTube’s original view measurement system.

The data: So, how inflated are public views compared to Engaged views?

According to a report by Agentio—which examined the viewcounts of over 75,000 videos from its network of creators—only 6 out of 10 public views also counted as Engaged Views (on average). In other words, YouTube’s new public viewcounts over-report engagement by 40%.

That inflation varies across creators with different subscriber counts. Agentio found that on average, public viewcounts are overstated by 85% for “micro channels” (channels with <50K subs), but 49% for “macro channels” (300K+ subs).

The creator advertising platform also examined how much inflation results from autoplay versus things like misclicks. Its data showed that “feed surfaces” like homepage hovering, “up next” autoplay, and recommended shelves produce a whopping 38% of all public views—"but only 20% of [those views] became engaged views.”

The brand angle: As Agentio pointed out, that imbalance could have a serious impact on how brands approach partnerships with creators.

At the end of the day, public views simply can no longer be trusted to accurately reflect a creator’s audience engagement—and savvy brands will figure that out quick.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

TIKTOK TALK

The updates: TikTok is adding several new features to its comments section.

According to a Newsroom post, Voice Comments—which will roll out next month to users over 18—can be up to 60 seconds long and can be played by anyone. Comment Polls, which are currently available, can have up to five options and run for a set timeframe.

For Photo Carousels and Live Photo Comments, up to nine images can be appended to a post. The former of those features is out now, while the latter (which adds “a brief burst of motion” to photos) will arrive in the coming month.

The motivations: So, why is TikTok introducing these changes now? On one hand, expanding comments will result in more posting volume, which can enhance the app’s utility as a search engine. Creator content has become an important source for AI chatbots, and the field of answer engine optimization has also gained more credibility among marketers.

Ultimately, however, the simplest explanation for TikTok’s commenting push is that the platform wants to be an “everything app”—just like many of its rivals. TikTok has already expanded its photo infrastructure, harkening back to the days of old-school Instagram. Now, it’s adding Insta-style photos, YouTube-style community polls, and Snap-style live responses to its comment section.

BOTTOMS UP

The policy change: YouTube’s advertising ecosystem is evolving yet again—and this time, it’s good news for alcohol brands.

While alcohol ads are currently permitted on the platform, they come with significant restrictions. Personalized targeting is disabled for those spots, users can opt out of being served alcohol ads, and no alcohol references are permitted in banners on the homepage. Because of those policies, alcohol brands haven’t typically seen YouTube as an efficient medium for ads—but that could be about to change.

Starting October 30, Google will implement a new policy that will enable some amount of personalization on ads for alcohol brands on YouTube.

The context: Why is Google making this change now? A post cites “customer interest, emerging categories, and improved controls and data protections” as three factors informing the new policy, but it’s also possible that Google is looking to keep up with the competition. On TikTok, age verification tech has enabled the proliferation of alcohol ad campaigns, which have featured creators like Sabrina Brier.

No matter the true explanation for Google’s update, the new policy will open up a world of possibilities for purveyors of boozy beverages. Personalization will be turned on for a wide range of alcohol-related products, enabling more effective targeting—at least, where the policy change applies.

In countries with stronger restrictions on alcohol (like Egypt, India, Indonesia, and Poland), the new layer of personalization will not be available. Age restrictions on alcohol ads will also remain in place, and advertisers will be unable to incorporate a user’s health data related to alcohol when targeting them.

WATCH THIS 👀

The episode: Is AI ruining our schools? And did a golf ad just destroy a massive creator brand?

On the latest installment of Creator Upload, hosts Joshua Cohen and Lauren Schnipper tackle the recent AI bans in NYC and LA schools, the massive new partnership between YouTube and Amazon, and Good Good’s big ad controversy.

Tune into the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for all the details.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.​

Want to introduce your brand to Tubefilter’s audience? Sponsor the newsletter.

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