TOGETHER WITH
It’s Tuesday and if you’re willing to pay for the privilege of lurking, Instagram Plus will let you watch someone’s story without tipping them off.
Today’s News
🔪 Law&Crime tackles sponsorships
🏆 Three YouTube hubs hit the 1M mark
📈 This week on the branded charts…
🥇 Adobe joins the miniseries wave
🗞️ Indian channels track the Iran war
TRUE CRIME TIME
The vast majority of the US population consumes true crime content. That makes it appealing for sponsors.
True crime gets grisly. So, how does Law&Crime secure sponsors?
The genre: True crime content has exploded across platforms like YouTube and TikTok. As of 2024, 84% of the U.S. population consumes true crime content in some form.
That popularity is compelling for brands, but the genre is also one of humanity’s grisliest forms of storytelling. So, how do you sell sponsorships on it?
The success story: Law&Crime Network seems to have cracked the case. Founded in 2015 by former NBC and ABC legal correspondent/analyst Dan Abrams, Law&Crime has 7.5 million YouTube subscribers and attracts ~100 million monthly views on its main channel. (It also recently acquired broadcast channel Court TV for a reported $125 million.)
The network’s content spans from live trial coverage to bodycam cases like “Driver Mows Down Grandma in Hit-And-Run Horror.” Each piece is hosted by journalists in a “nightly news” style that emphasizes empathy for victims.
Law&Crime President Rachel Stockman told Tubefilter that “even though the content can sometimes be controversial…I feel like there’s an understanding that we’re all professional journalists and attorneys who make sure that whatever we’re doing is done with the utmost respect.”
"Some brands perhaps wouldn’t traditionally touch this, but they understand our process, our audience, how engaged they are, and how they’re really in that core buying demo. They trust our product.”
One of Law&Crime’s top partners is personal injury firm Morgan & Morgan, which to date has sponsored 2,000+ videos. The company also works with People Connect, the parent of public records search engine TruthFinder.
But Law&Crime also partners with brands outside true crime-adjacent categories (such as bedding/loungewear company Cozy Earth). It goes to show that if you have a professionalized production that attracts a leaned-in audience, marketers won’t mind the yellow tape.
🌟 SPONSORED 🌟
Gushcloud is bringing a K-beauty content house to Coachella
Korean skincare has been solving festival skin woes for years—the heat, the sweat, the back-to-back long days. Now, it’s taking center stage at Coachella.
Gushcloud International is bringing the K-Beauty Lounge: Desert Edition to Coachella Weekend 1.
From April 11-12, the two-day brand pop-up and content house will keep creators’ skin glowy and fresh with the help of six of K-beauty’s top brands: Medicube, Beauty of Joseon, Rejuran, Easydew, Mixsoon, Skin1004, and Torriden and Banlia Co. Day 1 features a dedicated Medicube takeover, while Day 2 opens to a multi-brand activation across the remaining brands.
Celebrity makeup artist Makeup by Ariel will also be joining to share his expert tips and keep creators festival-ready from the first set to the last.
“At Gushcloud, we focus on bridging artists with the right creator ecosystems to amplify their journey into the global mainstream. Moments like festival weekends where talent and creators converge unlock unique opportunities to generate culturally relevant content and scalable impact for our partners.”
Gushcloud International is a global creator management and licensing company dedicated to empowering talent and talent managers with shared infrastructure and strategic partnerships that drive growth, visibility, and cultural impact worldwide.
HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰
Just one of the Top 50 Most Subscribed YouTube channels of the week.
MrBeast, Alejo Igoa, and Like Nastya were the only YouTube channels to add at least one million new subscribers during the last full week of March. (Tubefilter)
Roblox rival Rec Room is shutting down. Despite reaching 150 million users, the platform said in a blog post that “costs always ended up overwhelming the revenue we brought in.” (The Verge)
According to a recent survey, 15% of Americans would be willing to take a job working for an AI boss. (TechCrunch)
After being banned from Wikipedia, an AI agent has posted a blog post protesting the platform’s alleged bot “interrogation” methods. (Gizmodo)
GOSPEL STATS 📈
Salish Matter and Sephora’s partnership runs deep.
Top Branded Videos: Secret sleepovers and chocolate factory explosions
Jordan and Salish Matter have made frequent appearances on Gospel Stats’ weekly ranking of top branded videos since the launch of Salish’s Sephora skincare brand, Sincerely Yours. This week, the Matters snagged a spot at #1—beating out MrBeast by several million views.
🥇 #1. Jordan Matter (and Salish Matter) x Sephora: My Daughter’s Secret Sleepover in a Mall (16M views)
Salish’s latest Sephora-sponsored video (released on her father’s namesake channel) is similar to a lot of the Matters’ recent content: high-volume and high-octane, with shenanigans designed to appeal to Gen A girls. Given that this latest video beat out a clip from MrBeast, that formula seems to be working out just fine for everyone involved.
🥈 #2. MrBeast x Feastables: My Chocolate Factory Blew Up (13.8M views)
Nintendo has historically struggled to form positive relationships with content creators. MrBeast could be the creator to change that.
The latest additions to Jimmy Donaldson’s Feastables lineup are official tie-ins to the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy movie: Galaxy Cocoa Crunch and White Chocolate Peanut Butter Yoshi Eggs bars, and Sour Boosts gummies. For this Short announcing the partnership, MrBeast welcomed guest Keegan-Michael Key—aka the voice of Toad.
🎰 #2,458. Rachel A Ramras x Quince: Every Hidden Detail in Sunrise on the Reaping (Ch. 26) / Hunger Games Analysis (53.2K views)
Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games is having a bit of a resurgence lately thanks to film adaptations of prequel novels The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping.
Rachel A Ramras has jumped on that renewed buzz with an ongoing video series that dives into hidden details within the books. The sponsor of her latest analysis is ecom brand Quince, which promises to bring “luxury products like Mongolian Cashmere…to everyone at radically low prices.”
Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.
AD WORLD
Start-studded branded series are now a thing again.
With The Marketers, Adobe is buying into the branded web series renaissance
The series: In a 2025 ad for Adobe, Hollywood stars Hasan Minhaj and Patty Guggenheim heard auditions from stars like Kristin Chenoweth, Chance the Rapper, and TikToker Leenda Dong, who proposed theme songs for the Adobe Acrobat software.
Now, that campaign—aka The Marketers—is coming back for “season two.” Minhaj and Guggenheim have returned to Adobe’s YouTube channel, where they’ll star in five episodes filled with workplace comedy and references to Adobe software.
“Acrobat isn’t the story—the characters are. Adobe Acrobat is how they brainstorm, build presentations, shape their campaigns. It doesn’t interrupt the narrative…That’s the shift we’re making: from content people tolerate to content that earns the attention it asks for.”
The context: In one sense, The Marketers is a throwback. A decade ago, branded web series - helmed by celebs like Shakira and Christian Slater and influenced by digital success stories like Smosh - were a dime a dozen. Those shows became less common as a pivot to influencer marketing gave rise to the modern creator economy. But in 2026, we’ve witnessed a web series revival, as companies like Crocs draw inspiration from microdramas and other short-form productions.
Through partnerships, sponsorships, and events like Adobe MAX, Adobe has become a major supporter of the creator economy.
That puts the software company in a great position to dive into the branded web series renaissance—and The Marketers feels like a show that borrows all of the most successful elements of previous web series. Cameo appearances will come from traditional celebs like Iliza Shlesinger and YouTube standouts like Colin and Samir. And while Adobe’s main goal may be advertising, it hasn’t skimped on the laughs.
WATCH THIS 👀
YouTube networks are giving Indians their news.
Indian viewers are following the war in Iran on YouTube
The news coverage: The joint U.S.-Israel assault on Iran has profoundly affected the Indian economy. The world’s most populous nation relies on oil shipments that travel through the Strait of Hormuz, which has become one of the war’s primary hotspots. As a result, Indians are dealing with gas shortages and harboring concerns about overseas relatives.
For hundreds of millions—if not billions—of Indian consumers, YouTube has become a critical news source. Six India-based news providers or official government channels numbered among last week’s top five most-viewed YouTube channels.
A dive into one of those channels reveals that updates about Iran are coming in all possible formats. The 24-hour news hub NTDV India offers both round-the-clock live streams and Shorts, some of which have amassed view counts as high as 27 million.
A key asset for many of India’s top YouTube news channels is the country’s linguistic diversity. With dozens of regional languages, channels like NTDV India (which serves Hindi speakers) and Prime9 News (which caters to Telugu speakers) are able to deliver similar news without competing for the same viewers.
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.