TOGETHER WITH

It’s Wednesday and in a dystopian turn of events, Elon Musk says the first patient implanted with a Neuralink brain chip can “move a mouse around the screen by just thinking.”

MANKIND’S BEST?

Listen up, chocolate lovers: MrBeast just made “the biggest announcement” of his entire life

MrBeast is changing the face (and the taste) of his signature chocolate bars.

The revamped recipe: In a three-minute X video, MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) delivered what he described as “the biggest announcement of my entire life.” That revelation centered around the reformulation of Feastables chocolate bars—a herculean task that led Donaldson to “travel from country to country” and try out “hundreds of formulas” between 2023 and 2024.

• The creator says the resulting recipe has upped the quality of Feastables bars from “better than Hershey’s” to “the best-tasting chocolate ever made by mankind.” (The YouTuber backed up that claim by pointing to a blind taste test that pitted Feastables against Dove, Lindt, and Nói Siríus.)

The new flavors: In addition to announcing the reformulation of Feastables, Donaldson revealed a total of seven flavors: Milk Chocolate, Milk Crunch, Almond, Peanut Butter Crunch, Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt, and Peanut Butter (previously know as Deez Nuts).

The sales strategy: If you haven’t seen MrBeast’s revamped Feastables bars at your local Walmart, it’s probably because they’re flying off the shelves. In an effort to increase sales, Donaldson is giving away $10k a day to people who scan the QR code on the back of Feastables wrappers.

• That strategy will be familiar to the creator’s long-time YouTube viewers. Donaldson often raises the stakes of his videos and promotional partnerships by offering impressive prizes (usually in the form of cold, hard cash). That approach might not be an affordable option for all creator product lines, but it’s certainly working out for Feastables; according to Time, the candy brand accounted for 70% of MrBeast revenue in its second year of activity.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Viewers know authentic content when they see it. That’s why top brands work with the UGC creators at Viral Nation.

With influencer marketing on the rise, partnerships with UGC creators are more beneficial to brands than ever before; in fact, UGC campaigns score 29% higher conversion rates on average (Search Logistics). Viral Nation Talent gets it: with 900+ creators and celebrities on its roster, Viral Nation is home to the world’s most influential UGC talent.

Meet three of Viral Nation’s top UGC creators:

lexi.diy 🛠️
Viewers love following Lexi’s home renovation journey—especially because she's so honest about the ups and downs of DIY. That authenticity shines through in the UGC work she’s done for the Magnolia Network and Geico. 

Isa Kristen 💇‍♀️
Whether she’s posting hair tutorials or running a campaign for Metamucil, Isa Kristen uses her beauty and lifestyle content to create an inclusive space where all humans can feel empowered.

Emotions — Ryan Lu ✨
TikTok viewers turn to their astrological BFF every day for motivational affirmations and assurance that better energy is on the way. No wonder Lu has been tapped by brands like Rare Beauty, OkCupid, and Bing! 

UGC creators like Isa, Lexi, and Ryan tailor campaigns to niche verticals, where viewers take their opinions seriously. That loyalty—combined with creators’ next-level editing skills—is exactly what brands need to turn viewers into consumers. 

Learn more about Viral Nation → 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Kai Cenat won the title of Streamer of the Year at the 2024 Streamer Awards, an event that hit a peak of more than 645,000 concurrent viewers. (Tubefilter)
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• In an unprecedented move, Twitch says it plans to increase subscription prices “in several countries.” First up: the UK, Canada, Australia, and Turkey. (Engadget)
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• Nielsen’s latest report found that YouTube accounted for 8.6% of TV viewership in January (as compared to Netflix’s 7.9% share). (TechCrunch)
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• Fubo has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery in an attempt to stop the three companies from collectively launching a sports streaming service. (The Verge)

DATA • GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top 3 Branded Videos: What would you do for $800,000?

MrBeast is back in the winner’s circle for Gospel Stats’ latest weekly rundown of YouTube’s most-watched branded videos. The Feastables founder isn’t the only returning chart-topper: in just one week, serial sponsor Brilliant backed at least 20 newly-uploaded videos—and scored more than 17.5 million views in the process.

🥇 MrBeast x Shopify: Face Your Biggest Fear To Win $800,000
If you’ve skimmed Time’s recent cover story on MrBeast, then you already know the publication tagged along to witness the YouTuber’s production process. The resulting video is a Fear Factor-style adventure—one that received backing from Shopify despite MrBeast’s admission to Time that he’d rather avoid sponsors altogether.

🥈 Veritasium x Brilliant: Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED
Brilliant is a regular sponsor of YouTube’s most-watched educational channels, and Veritasium is no exception. The channel’s latest Brilliant-backed video documents the invention of the blue LED (a topic likely to appeal to the same STEM-minded audience as Brilliant’s digital course platform).

🥉 The B1M x Brilliant: Why Russia Tried to Block This Canal
Veritasium wasn’t the only channel to bring Brilliant millions of views during the second full week of February. An up-and-coming edutainment hub called The B1M entertained 3.3 million viewers with a geography lesson on the Vistula Canal.

FYI: Our weekly brand report is just a sneak peek at Gospel Stats’ in-depth analysis of YouTube sponsorships, rising stars, and established creators. Check out the full site for more info.

DELICIOUSLY ENTERTAINING

Pinterest is partnering with Tastemade to launch its “first-ever streaming TV show”

Pinterest is getting into the streaming game with the release of Deliciously Entertaining, a Tastemade TV show hosted by culinary content creator Danni Rose.

The context: Pinterest’s new show comes out of the platform’s multiyear, multimillion-dollar partnership with digital food network Tastemade. That deal was originally sealed in June 2022; nearly two years later, it could prove to be a major boon for Pinterest’s ecommerce and streaming ambitions.

The show: Deliciously Entertaining will premiere February 23 and air on the Tastemade streaming channel—a hub that currently reaches viewers across more than 20 services, including YouTube TV, Roku, Sling, Fire TV, Vizio, and Tastemade+. That wide distribution will serve to promote both Pinterest’s platform and its ecommerce efforts.

• Rose will kickstart each of the show’s 22-minute episodes by using Pinterest boards to curate menu ideas around a specific theme (with the help of special guests like drag star Trixie Mattel, NSYNC‘s Lance Bass, YouTuber Terrell Grice, artist Maurice Harris, and designer Joy Cho).
  
  

• QR codes embedded into those episodes will link to shoppable boards containing “all of the series’ recipes, DIY tutorials and more inspirational Pins” (per Pinterest). The series finale will take that concept even further by premiering on Amazon Live alongside a “shop the show” companion episode.

Why it matters: As YouTube increases its claim on TV viewership and TikTok focuses in on the expansion of Shop, Pinterest is slowly but surely carving out its own space in the streaming and ecommerce industries. Those Gen Z-targeted efforts will likely be crucial to the platform’s long-term growth, especially given the challenges of competing for advertisers’ attention in a digital market dominated by giants like Meta.

WATCH THIS 📺

Will Smith knows the internet is holding its breath for his next AI spaghetti cameo

AI revolution: If the recent reveal of OpenAI’s Sora has taught us anything, it’s that AI video has come a long way over the last year—and no one knows that better than Will Smith.

• After the internet resurrected an old AI clip that showed his deepfaked doppelganger devouring spaghetti, the celebrity gamely posted his own pasta-eating video.
  
  

• We’re reasonably sure that Smith’s version of the oft-memed video isn’t AI. But at this point, who can say for certain?

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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.