TOGETHER WITH

Happy Hump Day! Serial procrastinators are doing away with the “boss button” and finding a new way to appear busy: They’re pulling up random Zoom meetings on YouTube.

X HITS THE TARGET

X’s new ad product connects brands to “some of the world’s best content creators”

X is looking to win back advertisers with a new ad product centered around its premium content. A new tool called Creator Targeting sections off ad space next to the platform’s top accounts.

They said it: A blog post from X described Creator Targeting as a method partners can use to “run ads against a curated list of premium content creators.”

Sound familiar?: X’s curated list of top creator channels will enable advertisers to run pre-rolls before the platform’s most-watched videos. That strategy sounds a lot like YouTube Select, which offers curated content lineups to agencies and brands.

• YouTube Select replaced Google Preferred, a preexisting program with a similar structure, in 2020.

Brand safe? X’s blog post indicates that Creator Targeting could eventually drill down to individual channels, but for now, the platform must answer a key question about its premium advertising inventory.

• YouTube Select partners can rely on YouTube’s commitment to brand-safe advertising. Can X offer the same guarantee?
  
  

• X has lost some advertisers due to the erratic behavior of owner Elon Musk. Some major buyers have completely ceased campaigns. Creator Targeting is part of X’s plan to regain trust.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Talk about power couples: These Viral Nation duos have transformed their shared accounts into multimedia empires

Only one talent agency offers 360° creator representation—including OTT licensing, mainstream press coverage, and lucrative brand deals. Viral’s Nation’s product development and PR experts handle all the heavy lifting, so you can transform your online presence into an industry-leading brand.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, meet 3 Viral Nation power couples who have turned their accounts into brand empires:

1. The Blonde Brewer ☕
When Jaron and Maggie aren’t sharing delicious beverages and hilarious videos with 5 million TikTok followers, the pub owners focus on their new coffee line, The Blonde Brew. Looking for a belated Valentine’s gift? Check out Jaron and Maggie’s his & hers coffee bags: Morning Wood and PMS.

2. Matthew & Paul 🦮
2M TikTok followers tune into Matthew & Paul’s heartwarming content, which often touches on Paul’s experiences as a blind creator. Viewers also love the couple’s adorable guide dog, Maple, and Paul’s illustrated children’s books.

3. Brooke Ashley Hall ✨
Brooke Ashley Hall reaches over 14M fans on TikTok, where she vlogs about her fabulous life with boxer Marco Hall and their three children. Recently, she collaborated with Alicia Keys to promote the musician’s wellness brand, Keys Soulcare.

Ready to find out if Viral Nation is your perfect match? 

Make a date with the Viral Nation team → 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• The Try Guys have taken their podcast to the Rooster Teeth network. (Tubefilter)
  ​

• 28 hip-hop artists (including familiar faces like Chief Keef and De La Soul) are part of the latest cohort for YouTube’s Fifty Deep grant program. (Tubefilter)
  ​

• The VOD version of the Super Bowl halftime show cleaned up some Alicia Keys vocal errors. If edited Super Bowl concerts are going to be a thing, there’s a certain wardrobe malfunction that deserves some attention. (Variety)
  ​

• Singapore’s top envoy in Washington said that Congress went too far when it questioned Singaporean TikTok chief Shou Zi Chew over his alleged ties to China. (South China Morning Post)

DATA • GLOBAL TOP 50 📈

Bad girls are going viral on YouTube Shorts

Sakura ShinHye is the latest Japanese creator to make an imprint in our Global Top 50 chart. Sakura’s channel just cracked our ranking of YouTube’s most-watched hubs.

She’s got ‘tude: Sakura’s two most-watched Shorts clips depict her as a tough-talking, hard-drinking, corn-skewering character. It’s not what I expected from a channel that prompts visitors to “be kind,” but there are about 72 million reasons why it works.

Sigma enigma: With her fierce, confident attitude, Sakura resembles the “sigma girls” who have been depicted on chart-topping Korean channels like CuRe and CRAZY GREAPA. Independent women seem to be all the rage in the East Asian Shorts community.

📈 By the numbers: Sakura supports her sassier videos with an assortment of viral clips that touch on subjects like art and animals. Her eclectic collection vaulted her to 22nd place in the Global Top 50.

• In total, she collected 296.7 million views during the first full week of February.
  
  

• By increasing her viewership by 19% week-over-week, Sakura pushed her 18-month-old YouTube channel past one billion lifetime views.

SLAYONCÉ OR NAY?

I don’t think Beyoncé has 60,000 followers on Twitch, but I want to believe

Beyoncé tried to “break the internet” in Verizon’s Super Bowl ad, and in the process, she brought more than 60,000 followers to a Twitch account that could very well belong to a random stranger.

Let me explain: In one of the commercial’s scenes, Beyoncé streamed on a Twitch account called IAmSlayoncé. The associated account has already gained a large follower count even without an associated

• There’s no previous caches available for the IAmSlayoncé Twitch page, so it seems to be newly registered in the wake of Beyoncé’s Super Bowl ad. I’m not sure the BeyHive cares.

Celebs on Twitch: The IAmSlayoncé saga is a reminder that A-listers like Beyoncé have the potential to break viewership records if they ever give streaming a try.

• Another pop star, Nicki Minaj, recently showed up on Kai Cenat’s Twitch stream to discuss her new album.

• Beyoncé did announce that she has a new album coming out, so perhaps she’ll reconsider streaming as a promotional tactic.

WATCH THIS 📺

Ryan Trahan’s “last video” was actually an ad for his new sour candy line

If you’re a fan of Ryan Trahan’s challenge videos, fret not: The 25-year-old creator is not taking a break, even though he just posted something called “my last video”.

• Trahan’s doom-and-gloom upload is actually a long-winded introduction for his sour candy brand JOYRIDE. Creators like Colin & Samir and MrBeast helped Trahan introduce his four-flavor sour strip line.
  
  

• MrBeast’s cameo makes sense, since there are plenty of parallels between his Feastables brand and Trahan’s JOYRIDE. Both are purveyors of better-for-you sweet treats that feature real, natural ingredients.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.​

Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.