TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday, but more importantly, it’s the end of an era. Say goodbye to the Google logo you’ve known for the last ten years—because the company’s new-and-improved ‘G’ just dropped.

Today’s News

NEWFRONTS 2025

Roblox tracked people’s eyes to see how effective its ads are. The results? Eye-opening.

The study: One year after debuting programmatic ads, Roblox is eager to sell brands on the effectiveness of its ad offerings. The platform used its recent NewFronts slot to discuss a study conducted in partnership with research firm MediaScience. That report tracked eye movement and physiological responses to see how 140 Americans between the ages of 13 and 34 reacted to branded experiences on Roblox versus in-feed ads on social media and streaming TV. The results:

• MediaScience found that users paid 100x more attention to branded content in Roblox than ads on social media, and 35x more attention to Roblox ads than ads on streaming TV.
  
  

• Users also showed a 211% increase in “unaided brand recall” versus social media ads, and a 38% increase versus streaming
  
  

• The study also noted that a Roblox + social combo ad strategy leads to a 292% increase in brand recall versus advertising just on social, while the combination of Roblox + streaming TV produced 107% higher recall than streaming TV alone.

The motivation: Presenting that latter data indicates that Roblox is trying to pitch its programmatic ads as part of a holistic digital ad strategy—which makes sense given that brands have reportedly struggled to understand the platform’s sprawling ad marketplace.

Programmatic ads - which are sold and placed by Roblox itself or via its new partnership with Google’s Ad Manager - are the most approachable for brands that already run digital ads on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

By talking up its own ad engagement at the NewFronts, Roblox is contextualizing itself as a rival to those social hubs—rather than as a video game with competitors like Fortnite and Minecraft.

🔆 PRESENTED BY VIRAL NATION 🔆

Here’s how one of the creator economy’s first-ever talent agencies became a marketing powerhouse:

The origin story: When best friends Joe Gagliese and Mat Micheli co-founded Viral Nation in 2014, they initially planned to rep YouTubers—a profession that was then barely out of infancy.

Eleven years later, Gagliese and Micheli's talent agency is a full-blown social media company with a roster of 900+ creators, award-winning social media marketing, and proprietary AI technology to scale every effort.

The 360° model: Viral Nation’s tech, talent, and marketing build upon one another for social media services unlike anything else in the industry—from AI-powered influencer vetting technology that makes brands safer to data-driven analysis that optimize marketing campaigns in real time and a community management arm that pulls it all together.

That fully in-house approach has made Viral Nation a trend-setting powerhouse for both creators and brands. Visit the website to learn more:

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• From Anaya Kandhal to dednahype, family channels have already made unprecedented gains on YouTube Shorts this month. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Twitch streamer Hasan Piker said in a recent livestream that he was detained by border agents who asked about his opinions on Donald Trump, various terrorist organizations, and the war in Gaza. (The Washington Post)
  
  

• Google has announced the launch of the AI Futures Fund, which it describes as an initiative “to collaborate with and support founders building next-gen AI products with Gemini models.” (Google Labs)
  
  

• Peacock is preparing for an October onslaught of NBA games by introducing a flurry of new features, including a “performance view”—which will show details like player names—and a live shot chart. (The Verge)

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top Branded Videos of the Week: Dynamite, Dunking, Druski

MrBeast is back with yet another death-defying challenge—but this time, it’s a virtual one. Even with that lack of IRL stakes, the beast couldn’t be stopped from topping Gospel Stats’ latest ranking of most-viewed branded videos (or from snagging 9 million more views than the closest runner-up).

🥇 #1. MrBeast Gaming x DoorDash: $10,000 Every Explosion You Survive (16.6M views)
Last week, MrBeast wanted to know if a contestant would drown for $500K. This time around, he was willing to bet a challenger would risk exploding for just $10K—but don’t worry: MrBeast’s latest sponsored vid (brought to viewers by DoorDash) is a fully virtual Roblox challenge on his secondary channel, MrBeast Gaming.

🥈 #2. Druski x Ro, PrizePicks: Coulda Been Love Reunion (7.5M views)
Coulda Been Love took YouTube by storm this spring, reaching the top five in Gospel’s Weekly Brand Report multiple weeks in a row. The dating show wrapped up in March (around the same time its host, Druski, was named in a sexual assault case against Drake), but it returned this week for a reunion sponsored by telehealth company Ro and daily fantasy sports operator PrizePicks.

🔎 #1,857. World of Antiquity x Nolah: Artifact Jacker Tries to School Me in Archaeology (Scientists Weep) (43.7K views)
People love getting into fights on X—an activity that doesn’t usually end well for either party. In the case of World of Antiquity and DeDunking’s recent spat, however, there was a pretty clear winner. When “alternate history” enthusiast DeDunking argued that ancient historian Dr. David Miano didn’t understand “basic science,” he was treated to a 40-minute dissection of his claims uploaded to Miano’s YouTube channel, World of Antiquity. The sponsor of that thorough takedown: mattress brand Nolah.

Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

STREAM ON

Tired of the radio? A new app lets you listen to Twitch streams in the car.

The app: An indie app wants to keep you tuned in during your daily commute. CarStream for Twitch integrates Twitch streams into the iOS-powered CarPlay system.

On the relevant Apple App Store listing, developer CodeStep describes CarStream as a tool that “transforms your car into the ultimate Twitch listening experience.” Once enabled, the app locates active broadcasts from Twitch accounts you follow and displays them within the CarPlay interface (although functionality is limited to audio for obvious reasons).

The context: Consuming digital entertainment platforms within cars has been a thing for a few years now. Mercedes-Benz arguably kicked off the trend in 2023 when it announced plans to put the TikTok app in its new line of E-Class vehicles. (The integration was designed so that it only functions when the car is not in motion.)

Automakers like Porsche and Rivian followed suit by bringing YouTube into their automobiles. Similar integration have since become popular among third-party developers who, like CodeStep, have found inventive ways to access platforms in CarPlay.

Within that growing field of integrations, Twitch is arguably the most natural platform for an in-car listening experience. Many of its streams are passive by nature and about three-quarters of the platform’s users are under the age of 35—meaning they’re likely to show more interest in CarStream than anything their car radios have to offer.

WATCH THIS

Mark Rober just revealed his “Hinge profile secrets”

The interview: Former NASA engineer Mark Rober has talked about everything from squirrel experiments to thief-foiling booby traps on his wildly popular YouTube channel. But you probably haven’t heard him talk too much about dating—unless, of course, you remember that time he called out Hinge on Twitter.

Rober appeared on a recent episode of Clickbaited, a podcast hosted by Dextero co-founder Mark Kent. During that interview, the YouTuber dug into his “Hinge profile secrets.” The TL;DR: he’s found his person and is now “off all the apps”—but back in the day, he wasn’t afraid to toss in a tasteful “picture of the abs” and a few references to NASA.

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