TOGETHER WITH

It’s Wednesday and Threads is reportedly getting into minigames. And really, is there anything better than ending a doomscrolling sesh with some pixelated basketball?

Today’s News

CREATOR COMMOTION

For almost a decade, Veritasium was a one-man show. Then it got an investment.

The shift: Over the last few months, Veritasium viewers have noticed that Derek Muller—who launched the channel in 2011 after earning his Ph.D. in physics—has been appearing less frequently in videos.

Muller addressed that shift in a December 24 video, during which he explained that he’d originally started Veritasium as a one-man passion project and had continued handling everything himself for most of the channel’s lifetime.

That one-man approach impacted both Veritasium’s output and Muller’s work/life balance. He eventually hired a few people, but the workload was still extreme—until 2023, when Ian Shepherd and Owen Maher approached him about investing.

The investment: At the time, Shepherd (a Turner Broadcasting, Universal Music Group, and Walt Disney alum and co-founder of The Social Store) and Maher (a former executive managing partner of strategy for Findex and a principal at KKR) had recently co-founded Electrify Video Partners to invest in and grow edutainment channels.

According to Muller, Electrify offered to “buy some of the business, but I would remain an owner. They would take care of things like hiring, production, logistics, corporate compliance, taxes…and they would reduce my working hours.” That deal, he said, “was kind of the perfect offer.”

Since Electrify’s investment, Veritasium has produced its three most-watched videos of all time (its latest upload being #1) and grown its subscriber count by 50%. The channel currently brings in around ~75 million views per month.

To make all this happen, Veritasium’s production costs have quadrupled, and its team has grown to include 30 people. According to Muller, “those are the people responsible for some of your favorite videos.” And they’ll continue to produce Veritasium’s content—while Muller transitions to working more off-camera.

The creator isn’t retiring just yet, but says he plans to “at some point” (it’s just “not exactly clear when that will be”).

🌟 SPONSORED 🌟

The first AI video agent built for social media has arrived. Say hello to Agent Opus:

Last month, OpusClip hosted the first-ever live human-AI video creation battle. Now, you can harness the AI that competed in that unprecedented showdown: Agent Opus. 

Agent Opus is the first AI video agent built for social media.

From research, scripts, and motion graphics to avatars, voiceovers, and editing, Agent Opus does it all in one flow—enabling end-to-end AI video creation at the speed of thought. Here’s

1. Make any idea move with motion graphics
Agent Opus blends real-world assets with AI motion to create graphics that feel professional and look stylish.

2. Create a realistic avatar that looks and sounds like you
Your face and voice are your biggest brand. With Agent Opus, you can create a lifelike AI avatar that fits seamlessly into your videos.

3. Turn the whole web into your media library
Agent Opus instantly finds real-world images, news, clips, b-roll, and more—so you can level up your videos without worrying about licensing or copyright takedowns. 

Top brands and creators like Logan Paul, Audacy, Diary of CEO, and Univision are already producing up to 7x more content with OpusClip tools. Now, it’s your turn.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• At the start of 2026, Instagram head Adam Mosseri took to Threads to issue a strong warning. The gist: AI has become so powerful that it may soon become nearly impossible to tell reality from deepfakes. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Universal Music Group has unveiled “a collaboration with NVIDIA to pioneer responsible AI for music discovery, creation, and engagement.” (PR Newswire)
  
  

• xAI has raised $20 billion in a Series E funding round, with Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, and Fidelity Management & Research Company among the participating investors. (xAI)
  
  

• OpenAI Vice President of Research Jerry Tworek has announced that he will be departing the company after a tenure of almost seven years. (Digitimes)

GAME ON

With 210 brands active on Roblox, top games have become the hot new IP

The acquisition: Roblox-based advertising is shaping up to become a major creator economy trend in 2026—and Super League is ready to go all in.

After teaming up with Common Sense Media in 2024 to ensure child-safe ad experiences in the metaverse, the firm (which is known for developing ad campaigns and branded experiences in Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, and other immersive platforms) leveled up its immersive marketing capabilities through its 2025 acquisition of Supersocial. Now, Super League is doubling down once more.

The company has acquired an interest in Hide or Die!, a Roblox game that ranks among the platform’s top 100 experiences. That transaction signals a shift in Super League’s strategy as it looks to acquire revenue-generating properties (and then presumably inject branded experiences into its ownership stakes). 

The draw of those experiences is obvious. Roblox games reach large swaths of Gen Alpha and Gen Z users—audiences that aren’t always easy for brands to reach through other avenues. Hide or Die! devs Cole Tucker and Alex Culp, for instance, reach nearly three million daily active users with their blend of hide-and-seek and the Garry’s Mod classic Prop Hunt.

The context: Super League is not the first firm to direct its brand campaigns through a partially-owned piece of IP. Gamefam, a Roblox development firm, recently bought into the 2026 World Cup hype by partnering with FIFA on the Roblox experience Super League Soccer. The global soccer org isn’t alone. In total, Gamefam reported that 210 brands launched content on Roblox in 2025.

That marketing wave reveals Roblox’s unique position in the world of creator advertising. It may not be the best medium for traditional campaigns, but its top games present palpable sponsorship opportunities—and Super League is positioning its clients to surf that momentum.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

TikTok is keeping brands up to date with a 12-month marketing calendar

The calendar: TikTok has unveiled a timely resource for its brand and agency partners. The 2026 Small Business Marketing Calendar—which was recently revealed via the TikTok for Business hub—highlights important dates across 12 months and 13 countries, while also providing tips for advertisers looking to tap into seasonal trends. Holidays referenced on the calendar range from Galentine’s Day to World Tourism Day to Black Friday.

The context: TikTok has published annual marketing calendars since 2022, but the resource has evolved over the years from a simple blog post to a full-sized calendar covering key dates in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, the UAE, and the UK.

Those calendars may provide genuine assistance for brands, but they also double as promotional material for TikTok’s ad products. Since 2022, the Pulse format has been a common thread uniting TikTok’s NewFronts presentations. The app’s answer to the YouTube Select program has been souped up through Pulse Premiere, which allows advertisers to place their campaigns at the center of major tentpoles.

If TikTok plans to continue promoting Pulse Premiere as a conduit between branded content and significant cultural moments, expanding its marketing calendar is a smart and simple way to draw as much attention to those tentpoles as possible. 

WATCH THIS 👀

Steven He just revealed the financial decision that cost him “multiple six figures”

The interview: Fans of YouTuber Steven He know him as the primary comedic mind associated with the “Emotional Damage” meme and viral “Asian Dad” sketches. But even for pro creators like He, a few strategic missteps can result in major consequences.

On a recent episode of Driven Podcast, He recounted a financial decision—launching a new show in a new genre—that cost him “multiple six figures” and “crashed the entire channel by over 80%.” On the surface, the creator had all the momentum he needed to pull off a high-quality content series starring nine popular Asian creators. Instead, after two years of development, the project (temporarily) “tanked” He’s entire company.

That outcome might seem like a total loss, but He says it proved to be “the single biggest lesson” he’s learned as a content creator. Check out a sneak peek of the full episode here to find out why.

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