It’s Wednesday, and TikTok has predictions for this year’s most popular Halloween costumes. At the top of the list: get-ups inspired by Off Campus, Obsession, and Coraline.

CREATOR COMMOTION

The partnership: Earlier this year, Tubi unveiled plans to launch original programs spearheaded by some of the biggest stars on TikTok. Seven months later, that initiative—called the Creatorverse Incubator—is coming into focus.

The incubator’s first slate of long-form programs includes an animated superhero comedy (Lynnell Jones Jr.’s Feeling Super), a gender-bending dating show (Kai Cameron’s Kai Picks the Guy), a big-city-girl/small-town-boy love triangle (Yasmine Sahid, Alex Maystrik, and Pablo Hernandez’s Never Have I Ever Spent the Winter with the Romano Brothers), a film-inspired horror show (Allie Tran’s Scare Tours), and a Down Under travelogue (Marc Sebastian’s A Great Australian Gay Sidequest).

The strategy: Among the ten shows greenlit by Tubi, 12 notable TikTokers are getting top billing. TikTok itself helped the Fox-owned AVOD platform identify creators ready to develop their own long-form shows; now, it’s expected to use its Spotlight product to promote the resulting originals.

In a statement, TikTok Global Head of Entertainment and Microseries Dawn Yang highlighted the “unique perspectives” that will get serial opportunities through the Creatorverse Incubator.

Release dates for the initiative’s first slate of shows haven’t yet been revealed—but in the meantime, Tubi’s parent company is hunting for new ways to connect with rising influencers. Fox-affiliated Red Seat Ventures, for instance, recently announced a new offering targeting the newsletter industry, indicating that Fox is committed to meeting creators wherever they produce content.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

HITTING THE BOOKS

The big release: The latest installment of Sarah J. Maas’ bestselling A Court of Thorns and Roses series dropped yesterday—and BookTube is all aflutter. In fact, YouTube itself appears to have partnered with publisher Bloomsbury to build hype surrounding the book’s release.

For those unfamiliar, ACOTAR has been a BookTube/BookTok darling for years. The series follows 19-year-old Feyre Archeron, who, after killing a faerie wolf during a hard winter, finds herself in peril (and, ultimately, in love) at the fae royal court.

A Court of Splintered Harmony is the series’ sixth book, and delves deeper into existential threats faced by human and fae alike.

The campaign: As part of YouTube’s bid for readers’ attention, the platform featured YouTuber-slash-author Haley Pham in an episode of its creator profile series Channeling. Four years ago, Pham read the first five ACOTAR books in a single week and chronicled her experience in a viral BookTube vlog. Now, Channeling is offering viewers a peek into her own career as an author.

Other ACOTAR x YouTube touches include a special Starfall progress bar icon on Maas-related videos, a themed background for Google Search, and a YouTube Shorts effect that sorts video makers into their respective fae courts.

As for why YouTube’s plucking this particular page, the platform cited data from NRG that showed 69% of 14-to-44-year-olds in the U.S. watched videos from “a niche community or online subculture” in the last 12 months. We’re not sure ACOTAR readers constitute a “niche community” anymore—but either way, YouTube is clearly courting a devoted fanbase.

#FOODTOK

The guide: TikTok is adding a “Must Eat” restaurant guide to its Local feed. At launch, the guide highlights holes-in-the-wall and high-end hotspots across New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

For each of those regions, TikTok’s Must Eat guide is split in two. An Everyday Eats category contains neighborhood favorites that won’t break the bank, while Elevated Dining delivers the best choices for exceptional (and presumably expensive) meals.

The context: TikTok factored in over 40 million posts, reviews, and comments to compile Must Eat, so it tracks that the guide taps into behaviors that are already common on TikTok.

According to the platform, 27 million Americans visited an independent restaurant, café, or shop for the first time after discovering it on TikTok. The app says that phenomenon has generated an estimated $4.7 billion in local spending.

Food-related TikTok content has also made its way onto restaurant menus, and #FoodTok stars like Keith Lee have become one-person recommendation engines who uplift local eateries. All that hype has helped cement TikTok’s status as a tastemaker—a role TikTok USDS JV execs have leaned into since the establishment of the U.S.-only version of TikTok.

TikTok GO already helps users book vacations and visit viral attractions. Now, Must Eat will serve as an extension of that hub while also tying into the Local feed, which harnesses precise user data to turn TikTok into a contemporary take on Foursquare.

WATCH THIS 👀

The guest appearance: MrBeast’s head of virality has a lot to say about YouTube’s latest audience engagement tools—and some sage advice for creators who are just starting out.

In a new episode uploaded to YouTube’s Creator Insider channel, MrBeast exec Chucky Appleby sat down with YouTube Senior Director Todd Beaupré and Creator Liaison ‪Rene Ritchie to chat about dynamic thumbnails, video A/B testing, and the future of the platform’s algorithm.

Appleby also offered some wise words to creators starting a new channel, noting that “the first thing is to not focus on metrics, but to focus on purpose.”

Check out the full video here.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.​

Want to introduce your brand to Tubefilter’s audience? Sponsor the newsletter.

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