TOGETHER WITH

It’s Wednesday and flip phones aren’t the only early ‘00s sensation to re-emerge in ‘24. Enron—aka the company behind that infamous fraud scandal—is reportedly making a comeback as a crypto company.

SOCIAL SHOPPING SPREE

A creator earned $2 million during a single Black Friday livestream on TikTok

The big day: TikTok Shop’s second Black Friday proved to be a lucrative day for the platform and creators alike. According to TikTok’s official numbers, its ecommerce hub drove over $100 million in sales in the U.S. alone, with creators collectively hosting more than 30,000 live shopping streams. That’s a big number for a single platform—but TikTok wasn’t the only company to see strong sales numbers on Black Friday. This year’s overall sales in the U.S. for the consumer holiday reached $10.8 billion, a 10% jump from 2023.

The creator cut: Those streams generated significant profits for certain creators, with some receiving Shop affiliate cuts as high as 20% by promoting deals from brands like Xbox, PlayStation, Fenty Beauty, Ole Henriksen, Liquid I.V., and Staub. Others successfully drew attention to their own products: Canvas Beauty CEO/Founder Stormi Steele spotlighted her brand in a TikTok livestream on Black Friday, and made over $2 million from viewers buying products off the broadcast. Canvas Beauty ended up selling 100,000+ products and making $3 million in sales over the course of the day (per Business Insider).

The context: While we can’t make a direct comparison to last year (Shop had only recently launched and TikTok chose not to share official numbers), some brands certainly saw high sales on Black Friday in 2023. Los Angeles-based trading card company Dappz Sports told Business Insider that it brought in $12 million in sales through TikTok Shop in September/October 2023. On Black Friday of that year, its live shopping streams bumped average traffic and income by 20%.

The takeaway: TikTok is consistently driving significant social shopping traffic in the west, something platforms have been trying to do for years.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Ask the experts: What defines next-level talent representation?

From original programming to product development, Viral Nation always goes the extra mile to grow creators’ brands. So, what’s the secret to revolutionizing a creator’s career? 

To find out, we asked Viral Nation agents and creators: "What truly moves the needle in talent representation?”

Going beyond brand deals: "I focus on the holistic strategy of my talent's careers…Each decision we make is intentional and tailored to the individual talent." (Joanna Giunta, Director of Talent: Fashion, Beauty, and Lifestyle)

Personalized support: “Family, career, and friends all require attention — the last thing you want is to add more unnecessary stress on top of it.” (Michael Chew, Director of Comedy, Entertainment, Gaming, Music & Sports)

Navigating every opportunity: “Having trust in my agent to negotiate terms that protect me and my personal brand is a huge priority. Viral Nation… ensures all details are buttoned up.” (Dalton Chandler, Lifestyle Creator)

Ready to expand your media empire, launch a creator product, or bring your content to streaming services? Viral Nation is here to make it happen. 

Learn more about Viral Nation Talent → 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Clowns aren’t just the stuff of horror films. Take it from El Payaso Plim Plim: the Argentinian creator scored 252.6 million views last week by clowning around on YouTube. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• In a recent blog post, Meta revealed that AI content “represented less than 1% of all fact-checked misinformation” related to recent elections in US, UK, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, France, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil. (Meta Newsroom)
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• Winners of the inaugural UK and Ireland TikTok Awards include Kyra-Mae Turner (Creator of the Year) and Myles Smith (Breakthrough Artist of the Year). (TikTok Newsroom)
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• Researchers at Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism found that ChatGPT was “fully or partially wrong more than right” when asked to identify the origins of 200 quotes “but almost always confidently so.” (The Verge)

TREND ALERT

YouTube trending topics 2024: MrBeast is Not Like Us

The annual list: As 2024 wraps up, YouTube has once again revealed the search topics, creators, and musicians that received the most traffic on the platform during the calendar year. Read on to discover which creators and videos topped the list.

Top creator: Of the ten U.S. creators who cracked YouTube’s year-end list in 2022, only one managed to retain a spot in the ranking in 2024: MrBeast. Despite spending much of the year addressing allegations related to his Amazon Prime Video series Beast Games and working conditions at his North Carolina HQ, MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) ranked as YouTube’s top creator for the fourth time in a row.

Top song: Kendrick Lamar and Drake hauled in millions of views in 2024 with their respective diss tracks. The general consensus is that Lamar won the war of words, and YouTube’s data backs up that claim. The man known as K-Dot ranked among the top ten trending search topics of 2024, while his ultimate diss track, “Not Like Us,” emerged as the top trending song on the platform.

Shorts hits: YouTube Shorts traffic boosted some viral tracks in 2024, with Sabrina Carpenter appearing as a top search topic after seeing her music show up in multiple short-form trends. Other vertical video faves, however, struggled to achieve that level of global penetration. In total, YouTube’s 2024 ranking of the top ten tracks on Shorts included just a single record that also showed up on the general “top songs” list: Tommy Richman‘s R&B-infused bop “Million Dollar Baby.”

The Takeaway:: YouTube Shorts can still be a temporary kingmaker for up-and-coming artists, but long-term success may require more than a brief appearance in a short-form meme.

GAME ON

Gamers spend more time watching content than playing games. What can developers do?

The study: We already know gaming enthusiasts watch billions of hours of content every month on platforms like YouTube and Twitch—but according to MIDiA Research, gamers are actually more keen to watch gaming content than actually play themselves.

A new report from the London-based analytics firm found that gamers typically spend around 7.4 hours per week playing games, but 8.5 hours per week watching gaming-related videos and streams.

The problem: According to MIDiA, that imbalance means that “revenue [is] left on the table” by developers, who are “ceding significant revenue opportunities–especially advertising–to third-party video platforms.” So, how can publishers recapture gamers’ attention?

MIDiA Games Analyst Rhys Elliott says “it’s time for game publishers to think about in-game video as something beyond marketing alone” and begin “reclaiming video engagement.” The actual mechanics of that reclamation are unclear. Does MIDiA envision that newly-logged-on players will visit a tab in the lobby where they can watch creators’ videos while waiting to join combat?

The scenario might work, but it seems unlikely to meaningfully reshape gamers’ and creators’ habits. After all, part of the reason YouTube and Twitch are so successful is because they offer content about countless topics and allow people to watch wherever they want, while giving creators a way to earn a living from making videos.

Our suggestion: Instead of incorporating video into their own games, we think publishers should consider deepening partnerships with creators on established platforms. After all, MIDiA’s report found that 48% of gamers who watch gaming content at least once a month on YouTube and/or Twitch will spend money on in-game items like cosmetics—meaning gamers who are dedicated enough to seek out gaming content are also willing to pay for developers’ products.

WATCH THIS 📺

Take it from Cole Walliser: You don’t need a red carpet to go full glam

The bot: It’s been eight years since Cole Walliser began directing E! Entertainment’s famous GlamBOT on red carpets. In that time, millions of YouTube viewers have eagerly watched celebs like Tyla, Ariana Grande, and Joey King strike a pose for the slow-mo camera. Some of those moments have proven to be viral sensations; others have been less than groundbreaking.

The content: Now, Walliser—who claims 628K subscribers on YouTube—is proving that you don’t need an Oscars invite to go glam. In a recent Short, the E! vet rounded up some of the best homemade GlamBOT poses of 2024. Check out his reaction to those clips here.

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.