TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday and X is setting its sights on YouTube’s throne. The Musk-owned platform’s next big goal: bringing a long-form video app to smart TVs.

SHOOT YOUR SHOT

Grab consumers by the horns: Danny Duncan is breaking into the energy drink biz

The product: After reportedly selling $150 million worth of apparel and dipping a toe into the ice cream industry, Duncan Duncan is jumping headfirst into the beverage business. The YouTube stuntman’s new energy shot, Matador Energy, bills itself as a “cleaner” alternative to established energy drink brands.

• Duncan has been working with Austin-based company Night to create Matador for the last three years. (Luckily for Duncan, this isn’t Night’s first rodeo; the company manages MrBeast and was integral to the launch of Feastables.)
  
  

• Also on board is former Vitaminwater/Smartwater Director of Marketing Chris Pruneda, who says Duncan and Night approached him to help run Matador as its co-founder and CEO.

The rollout: Matador Energy celebrated its prelaunch at Spencer’s (a longtime partner of Duncan’s) this past weekend. Following that initial step, Pruneda says Matador will roll out in 6,000 convenience stores this May, and will be available in 10,000 convenience stores by the end of 2024.

• Duncan also plans to kick off a tour for the brand in June, although he hasn’t yet revealed where that adventure will take him.

Industry perspective: The success of KSI and Logan Paul’s Prime and MrBeast’s Feastables represents concrete proof that creators can generate sustainable revenue streams by building businesses that don’t rely on the continual rollout of digital content.

• As part of that paradigm shift, creators like Duncan have turned their focus to the development of their own standalone companies rather than relying on collaborations and ambassadorships with existing brands.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Get your AdSense payments within FIVE days with Cre8torPay

From fresh capital to vital data insights, the creator funding specialists at Viewture provide everything top YouTube creators need to achieve their dreams—including upfront, lump-sum payments.

Now, Viewture has launched another vital creator resource: Cre8torPay.

Cre8torPay is a brand-new, FREE service that helps creators get their AdSense within 5 working days.

Why wait for your hard-earned cash? 💸
You’ve done the work—now, you need to get paid. Cre8torPay is there to support YouTubers who don’t want to wait weeks for their AdSense revenue.

Get support with copyright claims and takedowns 🚫
Tired of losing profits over copyright strikes? Cre8torPay assists creators throughout the appeal process—so you can get back to monetizing your content ASAP.

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To qualify for Cre8torPay, creators must earn a minimum of $3,000 per month in AdSense revenue. Terms & conditions apply, so be sure to click the link below for more info:

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Viewture has tapped CAA agent Dana Pirkle to become its new Head of Creator Partnerships. (Tubefilter)
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• A Pinterest feature that allows users to choose the body types featured in search results for “women’s fashion and wedding ideas” has officially launched in the U.S. (TechCrunch)
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• Twitter’s former head of Trust & Safety, Yoel Roth, has “swiped right on Match Group.” Roth will become the Tinder parent company’s new VP of Trust and Safety. (Wired)
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• Apple has added NBCUniversal vet Joseph Cady to its video advertising team—a move that could foreshadow the introduction of an ad-supported Apple TV+ tier. (Gizmodo)

DATA • GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top 3 Branded Videos: MrBeast is 114 million views ahead of the rest

After months of analyzing Gospel Stats’ Weekly Brand Reports, we’ve learned that there are two types of weeks in the world of sponsored YouTube content: ones that include a newly-uploaded MrBeast video and ones that don’t.

🥇 MrBeast x Cirkul: I Survived 7 Days In An Abandoned City
Luckily for water enhancement brand Cirkul, this was a MrBeast kind of week. The creator teamed up with Kris, Chandler, and Mark Rober for a dystopian challenge that attracted 122 million viewers—roughly 114 million more than the #2 sponsored video of the week.

• MrBeast’s explanation for his skyrocketing viewership? The creator says he’s slowed down the pacing of his videos over the last year by updated his team’s editing style to include fewer cuts and more storytelling.

🥈 Lex Fridman x ZipRecruiter, Listening.com, HiddenLayer, LMNT, Athletic Greens: Tucker Carlson: Putin, Navalny, Trump, CIA, NSA, War, Politics & Freedom | Lex Fridman Podcast #414
YouTube podcasts are on the rise and Lex Fridman’s show is no exception. The creator capitalized on the buzz around Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with Vladimir Putin by chatting up the former Fox host in a three-hour episode sponsored by a total of five sponsors.

🥉 Veritasium x Eight Sleep: The Trillion Dollar Equation
Veritasium has proven to be a favorite partner of online education companies, but the channel’s latest sponsor is more focused on keeping consumers cool (or hot—whatever floats your boat). 5.8 million viewers discovered the temperature-regulating powers of Eight Sleep tech in the process of learning about math’s effects on the stock market.

FYI: These rankings only scratch the surface of everything Gospel Stats has to offer. Check out the full site here for in-depth data on branded partnerships, rising channels, and top stars.

DOIN’ IT

Lilly Singh is hitting the big screen as the co-writer, co-producer, and star of a new film

The star: It’s been a solid decade since Lilly Singh first captured the attention of 14 million YouTube subscribers using the handle Superwoman. Now, the creator is proving once again that her online moniker still applies.

The film: Singh has worn many hats since her initial YouTube days, including as a producer and self-help author. Around the same time she made her debut as the host of NBC’s A Little Late with Lilly Singh, the creator began work on another project: a comedic film called Doin’ It.

• Singh’s NBC show has since come and gone, but after five years of “hustle, sweat, and vagina jokes” (as Singh puts it), Doin It’ is at last ready to hit the silver screen at South by Southwest (SXSW). The movie will premiere at the annual Austin-based conference, where attendees can drop into evening screenings on March 12, 13, and 14.
  
  

• Those viewers will get an early look at Singh’s performance as a sheltered virgin who gets a job as a substitute sex-ed teacher. Stephanie Beatriz, Ana Gasteyer, and Utkarsh Ambudkar also play supporting roles in the film, which Singh co-produced through her company Unicorn Island Productions and co-wrote alongside Zandieh and Neel Patel.

The context: Singh is one of several creators who have leveraged their online acting, writing, and production skills to break into the movie business. TikTok influencer Addison Rae has added a Netflix rom-com and a holiday-themed horror flick to her IMDb page, while the twins behind the RackaRacka YouTube channel inked a distribution deal with A24 just last year.

WATCH THIS 📺

The author of Ready Player One is bringing his dystopian metaverse to life

The game: Ready Player One author Ernst Cline is one step closer to introducing players to “the first genre-defining AAA metaverse gaming experience.”

• Cline’s Readyverse Studios dropped a teaser for its upcoming “multi-biome, multi-IP, multi-mode battle royale” title, Open, at SXSW. The clip is short, but the imagery has undeniable Ready Player One vibes—which makes sense given that the book series is set in a dystopian universe dominated by an immersive digital platform.
  
  

• Check out the full teaser here.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.