TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday and we’re looking back on the best and strangest streaming merch collabs of 2024. At the top of the list: McDonald’s Squid Game-inspired adult happy meal and Pottery Barn’s Wednesday home decor collection.

Today’s News

LEGAL ACTION

Honey’s business model is “an adpocalypse” for creators. LegalEagle just filed a class action lawsuit to get them paid.

The context: On December 22, YouTuber MegaLag posted a bombshell exposé that accused Honey of snatching creators’ commissions by replacing their affiliate links with its own. Nine days later, the coupon-finding browser extension is facing a class-action lawsuit spearheaded by creator lawyer Devin Stone (aka LegalEagle), who believes Honey may have stolen billions of dollars from creators in the four years since its $4 billion acquisition by PayPal.

The lawsuit: YouTubers Sam Denby (aka Wendover Productions) and Ali Spagnola are the principal plaintiffs of that lawsuit, which was filed on Dec. 29. Stone says he’s working with a cross-country team of half a dozen other attorneys in hopes of achieving two goals:

1. Monetary damages for potential revenue that should have gone to creators but was “intercepted by Honey.”
   
   

2. An injunction that will prevent Honey from engaging in these alleged business practices in the future.

The creators Honey worked with directly won’t be the only beneficiaries if LegalEagle’s lawsuit succeeds. Stone says creators like Denby and Spagnola have also been potentially affected by alleged affiliation link sniping and the underground adpocalypse—despite having never worked with Honey in an official capacity:

Next steps: If a judge rules against Honey, Stone hopes other potential offenders—including Karma, Capital One Shopping, and Pie—could also be investigated for allegedly utilizing affiliation-snatching strategies. In the meantime, he encourages “creators who think or know that Honey has prevented them from making money via affiliate links or attribution” to reach out to [email protected].

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

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Creators like Dude Perfect, Kinigra Deon, Kent Heckel, and The Oddity are already seeing incredible results. Watch Kent Heckel’s testimonial to find out why he considers Spotter Studio his “brainstorm and video execution partner”—or take a look at the stats for a snapshot of Spotter Studio’s beta test results:

So far, videos made with Spotter Studio earn 49% more views in the first 7 days compared to videos made without. Altogether, videos developed with Spotter Studio have reeled in 844M views. 

Ready to streamline your content creation process? Hit the link below to score 30 days of free access to Spotter Studio:

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Meta says it plans to introduce custom AI avatars that will “have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI” on Facebook and Instagram. (Rolling Stone)
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• The UK government has urged YouTube to place a stronger focus on “high-quality” children’s content amid concerns about the wellbeing of young users. (BBC)
  
  

• According to Instagram head Adam Mosseri, a Request Inbox keyword search tool could hit the Meta-owned platform sometime in 2025. (NoMusica)
  
  

• X owner Elon Musk has filed a preliminary injunction against OpenAI in the hopes of preventing the company from adopting a more traditional for-profit structure. (Barron’s)

FOODTOK

Cake mix, cottage cheese, and more: TikTok had a big impact on grocery store shelves in 2024

The context: From Chipotle’s creator-inspired menu items to TikTok’s own food delivery service, viral snack hacks left a major mark on the culinary world this year. Grocery stores in particular felt the impact of that building influence. According to data from grocery delivery service Gopuff reported by Fast Company, creators like cucumber wiz Logan Moffitt and Addison Rae and trends like the “sleepy girl mocktail” have boosted searches and sales for items like cucumbers, cottage cheese, and Diet Pepsi.

The stats: Here’s a snapshot of how TikTok trends shook up grocery store shelves in 2024:

• The “hear me out cake” trend (where people confess questionable fictional crushes) went viral in October. That month, Gopuff saw cake mix sales jump 24%.
  
  

• Since January, Gopuff has seen a 166% increase in orders for cottage cheese, which foodfluencers often use in high-protein recipes.
  
  

• Since the August release of Rae’s song “Diet Pepsi,” there’s been a 10% increase in orders for the soda on Gopuff.
  
  

• According to Gopuff, January 2024 sales for Josh Cellars—a cheap-ish wine brand that went viral in 2023 for its memeable name—were up 35% year-over-year from January 2023.
  
  

• Searches for cherry juice, probiotic soda Olipop, and magnesium supplements were up 111% year-over-year this past January thanks to the viral “sleepy girl mocktail” recipe (per Gopuff).

SUMMIT SUMMARY

Here’s a peek at Tubefilter’s official guide to 1 Billion Followers Summit 2025:

The Summit: From January 11-13, over 5,000 content creators and industry professionals will gather in Dubai for the third annual 1 Billion Followers Summit. 2025’s event is expected to be 1BFS’ biggest yet, with over 250 speeches, panels, workshops, and more taking place at the Museum of the Future, the Emirates Towers, and the Dubai International Financial Centre.

Those offerings will be spread across three different programming tracks: Creator Economy, Technology, and Content. All-track and VIP passes are still available here.

The guide: With hundreds of activations to choose from, attendees will want to do some advance planning—and to make that strategizing a little easier, we at Tubefilter have compiled an official guide to the Summit. Browse through a complete list of picks here or check out the highlights below:

SATURDAY, JAN. 11

• 10:00-11:00 a.m. (Dubai time): Opening ceremony in Etihad Airways Hall

• 12:20-12:35 p.m.: Unlocking the Future of AI with Meta with Fares Akkad, Regional Director at Meta

• 4:35-4:55 p.m.: Decoding the New Creator Landscape with Kudzi Chikumbu, former Global Head of Creator Marketing at TikTok

• 5:30-6:00 p.m.: Resilience, a keynote from longtime motivational creator Jay Shetty

SUNDAY, JAN. 12

• 10:00-10:20 a.m.: Building a Viral Brand with YouTuber Airrack and Zack Honarvar, co-founder/CEO at Creator Now

• 11:50 a.m.-12:20 p.m.: The 14-Year-Old Who First Hit 1 Billion Views on YouTube Shorts with Georgio Khoury

• 12:20-12:40 p.m.: Rethinking Social for Creators and Brands with social media analyst Matt Navarra

• 5:50-6:15 p.m.: Why MENA and Asia Will Rule the Creator Economy with Althea Lim (CEO at Gushcloud), Michel Chahda (co-founder/CEO at Talent Plus), and Esther Nguyen (founder/CEO at POPS Worldwide)

MONDAY, JAN. 13

• 12:30-12:45 p.m.: The Duolingo Playbook for Social-First Brands with Zaria Parvez, Senior Global Social Media Manager at Duolingo

• 1:25-1:55 p.m.: How I Raised the Richest Man On Earth with Elon Musk’s mother Maye Musk

• 3:30-3:50 p.m.: Staying Creative While Following Brand Rules with content creator Max Klymenko

WATCH THIS 📺

This creator encourages viewers to judge books by their covers

The creator: Elisha Zepeda is shining a light on an aspect of the literary industry that consumers don’t typically see. On TikTok, the book cover designer brings 400K followers behind the scenes by sharing the briefs he receives from publishers, the resulting cover options, and the ultimate winners.

Given the popularity of #BookTok, it’s no surprise that Zepeda’s design videos are a hit. The creator currently counts seven million likes on TikTok, and has fostered a community of over 470K followers on Instagram.

Check out his most recent video here.

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