TOGETHER WITH

It’s Wednesday and Revyze has a $5.5M plan to make test prep less boring. The French app’s strategy: TikTok-ifying homework.

LOST AND FOUND

LOST iN wants creators to be the face of its travel brand. Can it avoid BuzzFeed’s pitfall?

The company: LOST iN has a plan for its first round of creator partnerships—and a BuzzFeed-style model isn’t part of the equation. Instead of relying on “‘stars’ that we’ll build formats around,” co-founder Jonathan Smogmo says the travel brand aims to form “more of a rotating crew.”

The context: LOST iN is smart to avoid building its brand on the backs of a few key stars. BuzzFeed took that approach with creators like Try Guys and the trio that later became Watcher Entertainment—and when those groups exited to start their own media brands (and gain control over their content and revenue), fan viewership went with them. 

By contrast, Skogmo says LOST iN will contract creators to produce some content for its accounts and some on their own accounts—without restricting or taking ownership of anything they choose to post outside of their contracts. The company is equally uninterested in forming “an exclusive MCN-type network where we’d handle monetization of their channels for a fee.”

The creators: Instead, Skogmo says LOST iN’s main goal is to “help travel creators further their careers and grow their followings”—something it hopes “will in turn attract new creators.”

YouTubers the Vagabrothers and Instagrammers Pretty Little London, Jeremy Jacobwitz, Giselle Chusan, and Cedric Wood will be the first creators to come aboard. All five partners have signed agreements covering the development of original and branded content, licensing of back catalogs, and collaborations on their own channels and LOST iN’s accounts. 

LOST iN has the resources to make the most of those partnerships. Former Jukin Media co-founders and execs Jonathan Skogmo, Mike Skogmo, and Anton Reut launched the brand in June with a $4 million seed round from investors like pocket.watch founder Chris Williams and Fullscreen founder George Strompolos.

🔆SPONSORED 🔆

This holiday season, Viral Nation has something for everyone

As the world’s #1 influencer talent agency, Viral Nation represents 900+ creators and partners with top brands across dozens of industries—including Amazon, Nike, and Warner Bros. 

Now, Viral Nation is helping brands and creators across all verticals find their perfect matches in time for cuffing season.

Looking for your ideal holiday campaign partner? Here’s a snapshot of Viral Nation’s diverse creator roster:

• 🎃 Terrence Bradshaw's wellness-inspired TikToks provide peak inspiration for holistic holiday gifting (after all, it’s boo basket time!).
  
  

• 🦃 With Andy Hay’s approachable home recipes, whipping up Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t have to be daunting.
  
  

• 🍂 Who doesn’t love a fall wedding? Family/lifestyle creator Stephanie Pena is celebrating sweater season with November 30th nuptials and a cozy PJ line.
  
  

• 🎄 From decorating Christmas cookies to decking the halls, baker Karen Thi has big plans after buying her new house.  

Whether you’re a brand or a creator, Viral Nation has the cross-vertical expertise to make sure your next partnership is a perfect fit:

Get matched with Viral Nation →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Chicago’s Godfrey Hotel will play host to the Red Bull Legends Inn, a November activation that will bring the gaming, hospitality, and marketing worlds together for an Apex Legends battle royale. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• TikTok is now facing 14 lawsuits from state attorneys general that have accused the app of pushing addictive features and harvesting the data of underage users without parental consent. (Gizmodo)
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• The White House made its first public post on Reddit this week in an effort to spread accurate information related to Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. (Engadget)
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• A report published by Hindenberg Research claims that Roblox actively “inflated key metrics” in communications with advertisers, regulators, and investors. (Engadget)

SAY HELLO TO HIHI

YouTube’s biggest female streamer is now a CEO of her own production studio

The launch: There’s a new creator CEO on the block. Valkyrae—aka YouTube’s biggest female streamer, Rachell Hofstetter—is taking on a new executive role as the head of her own production company, Hihi Studios. The 100 Thieves co-owner launched the venture in partnership with several staffers from Range Media Partners, her longtime reps. Hofstetter’s manager, Kai Gayoso, is Hihi’s co-founder, and Gabe Pepe and Madeline McFerren have also come aboard.

The mission: Hihi Studios is following in the footsteps of companies like Rooster Teeth, which produced some of the West’s biggest animes (RWBY and gen:LOCK) before shuttering earlier this year. Hofstetter’s venture will devote a similar focus to series inspired by Japanese manga and anime. The studio says it aims to develop strong IPs that defy our current “world of hyper optimization” and can spin out into manga, anime, merch, and other products.

At least one of those projects is already underway. According to Variety, Hihi Studios has signed a co-publishing deal with digital comic book platform GlobalComix that will see the two companies fund, creatively develop, and distribute media related to Hihi’s first IP. That initial project will be revealed on October 19, when Valkyrae herself takes the stage at this year’s New York Comic-Con.

What’s next: Hihi’s second IP is still a mystery—but we’re wondering if Jacksepticeye might be involved. The YouTuber recently noted that he’d created a stable of characters that would be introduced in a comic book series. Hofstetter hasn’t confirmed yet whether Hihi will tap other creators, but we wouldn’t be surprised: upon seeing a clip about Jacksepticeye’s characters on-stream, she laughingly said “who knows, maybe we’ll do a TV adaptation of the comic or something.”

DRESS TO IMPRESS

Twitch officially has a dress code for VTubers

The update: Even virtual creators can’t get away with being too risqué on Twitch. The platform has updated its Community Guidelines with a new Enforcement Note that specifically addresses VTuber attire. Per the clarification, VTubers must wear outfits that are “publicly appropriate for the context, location, and activity they are broadcasting” and cover up their “genitalia, buttocks, hips, female-presented nipples, and underbust” while streaming.

The context: Those rules also apply to human creators, but Twitch hasn’t always been clear about how its guidelines are enforced. The platform’s new Enforcement Notes are designed to rectify that situation:

It’s unclear whether those notes will be enough. Some virtual creators are already struggling to determine whether their outfits violate the clarified rules—and this isn’t the first time Twitch has caused concern among the VTuber community. VTubers recently prompted a change to the platform’s “drop-ins” after complaining that the feature inadvertently revealed their identities.

The motive: The rapid resolution of that drop-in SNAFU points to the prominence of VTubers on Twitch. The biggest name in the VTuber game, Ironmouse, recently set a new record by attracting over 321,000 active paying subscribers. Numbers like those are good for Twitch’s bottom line—so why would it risk alienating top talent with a restrictive dress code?

The likely answer is that Twitch doesn’t have much choice. Brands have been known to abandon ship if creators violate ad-friendly guidelines and, given recent reports that Twitch’s ad revenue is being dwarfed by rivals like YouTube, the platform needs all the brand partners it can get.

WATCH THIS 📺

Is Marcos Sanchez the next big Shorts commentator?

The genre: Content aggregation might be a controversial genre, but that hasn’t stopped YouTube commentators from climbing the charts. Every few days, another content aggregator seems to join the ranks of commentary kings like Zack D. Films and Dylan Anderson.

The creator: This week, that creator is Marcos Sanchez. Commentaries like this one have helped the U.S.-based star grow from 205 million monthly views in April 2024 to nearly 304 million in September.

For now, Sanchez is sitting pretty at #31 in our latest U.S. Top 50 chart—but Zack D. Films and Anderson might want to keep an eye on this up-and-coming commentator. Check out Sanchez’s top Short here to see what all the fuss is about.

Creator economy marketing starts here. Get in touch to advertise with Tubefilter.

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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.