TOGETHER WITH

It’s Friday and TikTok’s latest feature gives creators a peek into the minds of viewers by revealing which topics are searched for most.

#SLIVING IT UP

Paris Hilton’s Roblox destination has already generated $60 million worth of buzz

Paris Hilton’s digital Roblox hub is generating IRL results.

The report: A GEEIQ report commissioned by Hilton’s media company (aka 11:11) is pulling back the curtain on metaverse-based marketing. Slivingland lies at the center of those findings: in six months, GEEIQ says Hilton’s six-month-old Roblox destination has generated the equivalent buzz of a $60 million ad campaign.

• Slivingland’s total audience as of February 2024: 3.4 million visitors. On average, GEEIQ says those users spend about 11 minutes per day perusing the Hilton-inspired universe.

The context: Slivingland isn’t the only branded hub entertaining Roblox users with offerings like minigames, shops, hotels, and nightclubs. According to GEEIQ’s report, more than 400 brands have done activations on Roblox as of 2024—a massive increase from the 28 brands active on the platform in 2021.

• In addition to hitting up Slivingland, players can explore digital hubs like Gucci Town, Walmart Discovered, H&M Looptopia, and Chipotle‘s three-year-old virtual restaurant. In return, brands gain unprecedented access to Gen A consumers, who are often difficult to reach through traditional advertising methods:

Why it matters: Brands preoccupied with the rise of generative AI and short-form video shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the rapid growth of metaverse-based marketing. As GEEIQ’s report points out, “there’s no sign of this slowing”—especially as Gen A and Gen Z users continue flooding into digital spaces.

• The proof is in the stats: according to GEEIQ, Roblox “captured Gen Z’s attention for more minutes per day than TikTok did in 2023.”

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Artlist’s latest creator collaboration brings award-winning street art into the world of online video creation

Since 2016, Artlist has earned the trust of 26M digital creators and major brands like Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Now, the world’s #1 all-in-one creator platform is joining forces with acclaimed street artist Luke Smile. 

The mission: Combining the vibrancy of street art with the accessibility of digital templates, enabling creators to bring the raw, unfiltered art of the streets into the digital realm.

As part of the Make It Move collaboration, Smiles transformed a blank wall in one of London’s most iconic street art locations: Shoreditch. His creation has been digitized as a typography template exclusively available on Artlist — empowering marketers, influencers, and content creators to seamlessly incorporate authentic street art into their video projects.

Smiles’ digitized art will join more than 2 million digital assets in Artlist’s catalogs of professional-quality music, SFX, footage, templates, plugins, and more. 

Artlist is dedicated to democratizing the art creation process, meaning every asset in its catalog — including the Make It Move template — comes with unlimited usage, unlimited downloads, and a simple global license. 

Learn more about Make It Move here →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• The European Union has passed the AI Act as part of a wide-ranging, multi-year effort to regulate AI while still fostering innovation. (Tubefilter)
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• Meta’s CrowdTangle tool—a data analysis feature used by researchers and government officials to track the spread of misinformation—will shut down on August 14. (Ars Technica)
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• A CIA effort launched in 2019 reportedly set up “bogus” social media accounts to spread “disparaging” news and “negative narratives” about the Chinese government. (Reuters)
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• According to Google, the 2024 edition of its annual I/O conference will take place on May 14. (Engadget)

COLUMNS • STREAMERS ON THE RISE 📈

This “baby creator” is ready to start testing the waters on YouTube

How it started: Hammybanks thought she was “going to work for the mouse” for the rest of her life. She’d gone to school for hospitality management, completed the Disney College Program three times, and was, in fact, working for the mouse…until COVID hit.

• With her position eliminated, hammybanks found herself stuck at home. She had “all the time in the world” and Fortnite was free on the Nintendo Switch, so she decided to give the whole battle royale thing a try.
  
  

• Then her husband started streaming. Seeing him in front of the camera made hammybanks miss vlogging, a hobby she’d picked up during her early Disney days. That nostalgia, she says, was the “little kick in the butt” she needed to invest her unemployment money in a PC.
  
  

• Hammybanks streamed for a while before pivoting to a new strategy: “posting little gaming clips” and couples content on Instagram and TikTok.

How it’s going: Two years later, those “little gaming clips” have turned into a full-time career. Hammybanks claims nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok and another 73,000 on Instagram, and is hard at work on a year-long ambassadorship with Samsung—but that doesn’t mean she’s done growing.

What’s up next: In addition to posting on TikTok and Instagram, hammybanks’ plan for 2024 centers around “picking up the streaming and starting YouTube.” Her first vlog “should be going up soon”—meaning fans can look forward to plenty of new content from their favorite multiplatform creator.

GAME ON 🎮

Loaded’s Open World consultancy just unveiled a new Game Dev unit

Earlier this week, Loaded Holdings revealed that it had acquired GG Talent Group. Now, the parent of management firm Loaded has dropped another major announcement: its Open World consultancy is launching a dedicated Game Dev unit.

The mission: That unit will work alongside developers and publishers of varying sizes to ideate and deploy go-to-market strategies. A few of those partnerships are already in motion: in addition to helping EA devise its marketing strategy for the battle royale hit Apex Legends, Open World’s Game Dev unit has teamed up with Scopely for a long-term campaign related to Monopoly GO.

The official statement:

The context: Open World made its debut in 2022 as a complement to Loaded, a marketing firm that has made connections with game publishers and developers during its years of working with streaming stars like Myth and DrLupo.

• Now, the studio’s newly-debuted Game Dev unit aims to capitalize on those connections—along with Open World services like paid media and audience analytics—to provide a “competitive edge.”

WATCH THIS 📺

Kajabi says its new tool can reduce time spent on content creation by over 90%

The release: Kajabi Creator Studio has arrived. In a new teaser, the company introduced its latest AI-driven tool—which launched in beta last May—as a resource for creators seeking to “easily create amazing content without being a designer.”

• In addition to helping users brainstorm and design social posts, blog posts, and email campaigns, Creator Studio now features an integration with Adobe Express. Find out more about the tool 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.