TOGETHER WITH

It’s Monday and after snagging nearly 26 billion lifetime visits on Roblox, 99 Nights in the Forest is getting its very own film adaptation.

TALKING POLITICS

The Creators Caucus: What can creators accomplish when they lobby the U.S. Senate? We’re about to find out.

Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and John Kennedy (R-LA) have announced the Senate Creators Caucus, a brand-new entity that will be a vehicle for “recognizing creators as small business owners, job engines, and culture drivers” (per YouTube).

Sens. Booker and Kennedy kicked off the Caucus with a panel at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in D.C. The participating creators encompassed YouTube vets (including Jackie Aina, MatPat, Mark Vins, Shira Lazar, and Kati Morton), family creator Dr. Javoris Hollingsworth of Gracie’s Corner, podcast reps like Ian Schwartzman of the Joe Budden Network, and digital-savvy small business owners like Avery Smith of the Louisiana Crawfish Company.

When given the floor, the assembled creators informed Booker and Kennedy about their businesses and advocated for policies that can ease headaches moving forward. A VOD of the panel can be found via C-SPAN.

The context: This isn’t the first time a Creators Caucus has made waves on Capitol Hill. Luminaries like MatPat first established the Congressional Creators Caucus last year to educate their Congressional reps while advocating for their peers.

Since then, policymakers have taken more active roles in the creator economy. Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) proposed a Creator Bill of Rights earlier this year, while his colleague George Whitesides (D-CA) offered up a Congressional take on Hot Ones. As Congress has become more aware of creator needs, it has also uncovered areas where policy updates are required. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), for instance, has set his sights on a campaign finance loophole that turns creator endorsements into an under-regulated grey area.

Clearly, more conversations between creators and politicians are needed, and the Senate Creators Caucus is the next step in the Congressional outreach plan.

From October 12-15, the world’s #1 global content marketplace will bring 10,600+ entertainment industry pros to the French Riviera—and MIP BrandWorks will be at the center of it all. 

Taking place at MIPCOM Cannes, MIP BrandWorks brings together the entertainment industry’s top brands, agencies, and creators to spark new commercial opportunities. 

Now, MIPCOM Cannes has revealed its first MIP BrandWorks Headline Partner for 2026: dentsu.

As a Headline Partner, dentsu will bring its expertise and clients to programming, executive-level meetings, and industry initiatives designed to spotlight best-in-class branded entertainment and forge new relationships. Meta will also join across key elements of the BrandWorks programme. 

As a Headline Partner, dentsu will lead a dedicated MIP BrandWorks Main Stage slot. It will also participate in the Microdrama & Vertical Leaders Summit and the CXO Summit. 

Visit the website to find out more and claim your pass:

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

TUBE TALK

The lineup: YouTube is beefing up its Canadian content lineup. At the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the platform announced a fresh slate of original programs that will open up new opportunities for Canadian creators (and Subway Takes host Kareem Rahma).

Those announcements came during the YouTube Features marketing event, which was held adjacent to TIFF and hosted by Rahma. In 2027, the Egyptian-American creator will transport YouTube viewers to the Great White North for Subway Takes Toronto, a spinoff of his Emmy-nominated interview series that will feature a lineup of “iconic Canadian guests.”

In addition to Subway Takes Toronto, YouTube’s TIFF slate cuts across some of the most prominent content categories on YouTube. There will be sports programming led by Olympians like Tessa Virtue and Sarah Nurse, foodie fare from gourmands like Matty Matheson and Susur Lee, and reality TV-style content hosted by Jeenie Weenie, Alexandra Gater, and the Kalogeras Sisters.

YouTube will also present an intriguing scripted project from Julie Nolke, who will pair Millennial friendships with serial killing in a dark comedy called Becky and Miranda.

The details: YouTube Canada Head Nicole Bell said that the creators featured in YouTube’s slate will be in control of their own programs, with the authority to “green light themselves and decide what their content will look like.”

That strategy will (theoretically) be more sustainable than YouTube’s previous attempts to make originals happen. We’ll see how it all plays out when the entries in the Canadian slate premiere exclusively on YouTube in the coming months.

AD WORLD

The virtual placements: From QVC hosts to multibillion-dollar Chinese social streams, live content from live people drives sales—and that fact has never been truer than it is today. TikTok, for instance, just released stats showing that a whopping 94% of Shop’s luxury resale revenue in the U.S. comes from livestreams.

Ad tech company LIVAD Technologies thinks it can push creators’ contributions to ecommerce even higher.

At this week’s IAB Playfronts, LIVAD CEO Arda Genç unveiled Virtual Product Placements, an offering he says will allow creators to place 3D versions of products in livestreams across Twitch, TikTok, YouTube, and Kick.

LIVAD’s core business is providing custom stream overlays and sidebars for creator partnerships with brands like Adidas, KFC, and L’Oréal. So, what makes Virtual Product Placements different from the company’s other overlays?

According to Genç, the virtual placement system can analyze streams to detect real-world distance between physical objects in the creator’s space, then pick a place to drop the product. Once the product is in, LIVAD can change its lighting so it looks like a natural part of an RGB-bathed setup.

Genç said Virtual Product Placements haven’t been used in any campaigns yet, but LIVAD is in active discussions with clients about implementing it.

The use case: In long-term partnerships, brands often provide their partners with physical products to show off on stream—but a growing number of creators now hawk products without the benefits of that kind of formalized arrangement.

Platforms like TikTok and Amazon have increasingly leaned into affiliate marketing, encouraging seasoned creators and regular citizens alike to promote a wide variety of products in exchange for a cut of sales. LIVAD’s new placements would appeal to those creators, many of whom can’t (or don’t want to) order every product they endorse.

LISTEN UP 🎙️

The episode: On the latest installment of Creator Upload, hosts Joshua Cohen and Lauren Schnipper dive into the wildest headlines of the week, including a new AI scent marketing trend and the IAB Creator Fronts’ projected $44 billion industry spend by the end of 2026.

Also on the discussion list is Logan Paul’s $100 million mistake—an expensive oops he recently admitted to making with his hydration brand, Prime. Check out the full episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for all the details.

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