It’s Friday and Snapchat is now accessible at the flick of a wrist—if you can remember to keep your Apple Watch charged, of course.

Today’s News

THE BIZ

MrBeast just hired a TikTok/YouTube vet to get him more brand partnerships

The announcement: An industry exec with experience at TikTok, YouTube, Google, and Meta is lending his talents to MrBeast. Beau Avril confirmed earlier this week that he will serve as the creator’s new Senior Vice President and Global Head of Media & Brand Partnerships.

The new hire: Google installed Avril as YouTube’s Global Head of Sales & Business Operations for FameBit—a matchup marketplace for creators and brands—less than a year after acquiring the buzzy startup in October 2016. In that role, Avril oversaw all of FameBit’s business operations, expanded the platform from self-service to full-service, and snagged partners like Hershey’s, Nike, Calvin Klein, Procter & Gamble, and Warner Bros. He left in 2019, just before FameBit was renamed BrandConnect, and spent the next two years as Director of Product Marketing at Meta (from 2020 to 2022).

In March 2024, Avril joined TikTok as its Director of Global Product Solutions for Brand & Video. He rose to become Director of Global Product Solutions for Agency & Accounts before joining MrBeast’s empire.

The context: Like other top creators, MrBeast has shown an increasing interest in securing weightier brand partnerships. In recent weeks, for example, the creator has debuted an ongoing, multivideo sponsorship with jerky brand Jack Link’s. (And considering he’s already monetizing Beast Games 2 by charging people $100,000 to tour the set—albeit for charity—he’s in market looking for brands to sponsor content around that production, too.)

Bringing in someone of Avril’s pedigree to lead media and brand partnerships is a further indication that MrBeast is looking to tap more into lucrative media budgets and up-level the depth, breadth, and scope of his sponsorships on YouTube and beyond.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Discord Co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy says he’s “constantly bringing up enshittification” to ensure the platform stays focused on its effort to “reinvest and continue to make things better.” (Ars Technica)
  
  

• An experimental feature on X “seeks to uncover ideas, insights, and opinions that bridge perspectives” by recommending posts liked by users with opposing views. (Community Notes via X)
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• Asmongold says he earned $36,910 through his first two Kick streams—roughly $4,500 more than what he made in a month on Twitch. (Game Rant)
  
  

• As deepfaked content becomes more common, the Oversight Board says Meta is “likely allowing significant amounts of scam content to avoid potentially overenforcing” real celebrity enforcements. (Engadget)

TALKING POLITICS

Democrats are spending $20M trying to get Joe Rogan fans to like them

The context: Conservative podcasters made a big impact on the 2024 election. Appearances on shows like The Joe Rogan Experience were so integral to Donald Trump and JD Vance’s success that right-wing streamers earned shoutouts in official victory speeches. Now, Democrats are spending $20 million in the hopes of reaching (and converting) the fans behind those creators.

The research: Over the next two years, the Speaking with American Men project (SAM) will conduct research about men who—in the words of co-founder Ilyse Hogue—believe they’re “invisible to the Democratic coalition.”

SAM’s initial round of research included 30 focus groups and a national media consumption survey. Its key finding: many young men feel “neither party has our back,” but they tend to sway more toward Republicans because they’re seen as “confident and unafraid to offend,” while Democrats are “overly-scripted and cautious” (per Politico).

So what’s the solution? SAM’s preliminary advice for Democrats is to “supercharge social listening” on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Discord. Hogue noted that “most people I talked to, Democratic operatives, have never heard of Red Pill Fitness, which is just huge online.”

The takeaway: That statement alone demonstrates how disconnected top Democrats are from young male constituents. The redpill manosphere movement has been pulling millennial (and now Gen Z) men further into conservatism for years with zero liberal counterweight—and as Hogue pointed out, “Democrats can’t win these folks over if they’re not speaking the language that young men are speaking.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. When asked why Democrats balk at going on ostensibly conservative-leaning podcasts on a recent Smartless episode, Buttigieg gave an explanation.

In other words: if Democrats are going to reach conservative young men, they’ll likely need to begin appearing on shows like JRE. In theory, that will allow liberal candidates to present their platform directly to voters who’ve only heard about it through the lens of conservative mouthpieces.

CREATOR COMMOTION

The Try Guys made their own streaming service—with help from Vimeo

The product: With creator entrepreneurialism at an all-time high, more and more YouTube channels are turning to paywalled content to maximize control over monetization. But going off-platform isn’t easy—especially when you’re designing an entire streaming service.

That’s where Vimeo’s latest offering comes in. Vimeo Streaming lets creators build “Netflix-style streaming services” so they can reach audiences with extra or exclusive content. The new product offers beefy video hosting and playback tools, monetization, and sleek design, while also handling infrastructure coding, customer support and troubleshooting tickets.

Vimeo Streaming officially launched to the public a couple months ago, but it’s already been used by major creators like Dropout and the Try Guys.

The case study: The latter of those two creator orgs got their start at BuzzFeed before taking independent control of the official Try Guys channel in 2018. Their content lived only on YouTube until May 2024—when they used Vimeo Streaming to boot up 2nd Try.

For $4.99/month, 2nd Try subscribers get exclusive content, uncensored and ad-free versions of everything posted to the Guys’ YouTube channel, and early access to new episodes. The group also plans to add a free tier that will give non-paying fans access to one exclusive video a month.

So, after a full year of running their own streaming service, what’s been the Guys’ biggest hurdle? The group tells Tubefilter that they’re still navigating “how to serve two audiences simultaneously” because they’re dedicated to adding “new value for our 2nd Try audience while not taking away anything from the YouTube audiences that’s supported us for 10 years.”

One thing that hasn’t been a hurdle, however, is the setup of 2nd Try.

“Working with Vimeo allows us to have a streaming platform that looks and feels professional without needing to know a lick of coding,” the Guys explain.

FYI: Vimeo is a Tubefilter partner

WATCH THIS 📺

Dream Con 2025 is officially a wrap

The convention: Last week, a sold-out crowd of 28,000 fans and creators headed to Houston to celebrate RDCWorld’s annual celebration of Black nerd culture.

Dream Con 2025 was an event to remember, with appearances from celebs like Megan Thee Stallion (who announced her role in an upcoming anime series), an abundance of impressive cosplays, and a YouTube Universe Creator Lounge.

Check out AMP member Duke Dennis’ account of the convention here to see how it all went down.

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