Armadillos All the Way Down

Creators descend on Austin and SXSW. What could possibly go wrong.

Author

Jim Louderback
March 10, 2025

This Week: In the thick of SXSW, this special issue recaps the event so far.  But you’ll also find 4 new research reports full of insight, along with the usual mix of analysis and everything else you need to know now.

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SXSW EMBRACES CREATORS

Although SXSW has had elements of the creator economy at its previous events (including back in 2008-2011 before we even knew what to call it), this is the second year they’ve officially had a “creator track” but this year’s version was sponsored by YouTube and felt like a real creator event.  Kajabi had a house, Epidemic Sound and Colin and Samir were everywhere, and a global audience descended.  

Writing this Sunday night and it’s been a ton of fun so far. I was honored to speak to a packed house on Saturday, with attendees from Poland, UAE, Abu Dhabi, Argentina and Brazil in attendance (and that’s just who I talked to).   I’ve been all around the event and connected with a bunch of old and new friends.  @Kaya Yurieff and @Jasmine Enberg led a great session unravelling  big Creator Economy stories – along with some new research data.  Key takeaways: brands have pulled back from TikTok, keeping the lights on but eschewing new initiatives – including for shopping.  And many brands now won’t work with TikTok-only creators – requiring them to have a presence on at least one other platform – any platform.  And the tariffs threatened and enacted by the US have caused many Chinese brands to pause campaigns in the US – along with derailing some new creator product launches.  

The Creator Economy NYC group and Passionfruit graciously invited our Bay Area Creator Economy group to join them at a fun party Sunday afternoon, with great conversation and wonderful attendees.  I learned about the new brand-safety ratings company CreatorScore, caught with friends from Singapore who teased a new home for Creator World, was wowed by @morgan J Ingram’s sales insights and the African podcast network that @molly Jensen is building 

Also got my nostalgia fix at the first Live Diggnation since 2011, where Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht entertained a packed house with their shenanigans.  But the best part was when they brought Alexis Ohanian on stage to join them.  Ohanian and Rose were mortal business enemies back when 17 years ago when Reddit and Digg competed for attention.  With a nod to his parents in the audience, Ohanian shared that he was always jealous of Rose’s Diggnation and how it helped promote Digg.  The proud parents looked on as their son found redemption on the stage – along with joining Rose in relaunching Digg.  Kevin told Alexis, “You Won” the Digg vs. Reddit war, while Ohanian said that the new Digg was a chance to “take all the lessons (we learned) and build a new platform for today’s social landscape.  

SXSW is now firmly a stop on the creator economy event landscape.  In 2008, SXSW was spring break for geeks – if they keep up the strong creator fuse it’ll become spring break for creators too!

  • Related: The new Digg promises to lean into the “Social Spinters” theme from last week’s newsletter and promises to build more intimate communities.  Hope they bring back Mr. BabyMan (and maybe Screen Savers too).  Digg got a lot of buzz here in Austin, but the proof will be in the product.  Can’t wait to see it.

  • Related:  Twitter co-founder @Ev Williams returned to launch new features on his private face-to-face networking app Mozi – and took a star turn on the Diggnation stage as well. Download it here.

  • Related: Alexis Ohanian joins Frank McCourt’s bid to buy TikTok, will take it “on chain”.

  • Related: Based on all the groups I’m part of, I’m calling this SXSW the year of Whatsapp.

BEASTLY PLANS

MR Beast’s pitch deck was leaked to the world, details his plans for global domination.  Some red flags were raised by VCs, including Sam Lessin, previously called it Buzzfeed 2.0 (which did not end well).  Others were concerned about liquidity and worried about the focus on food.  Verge reporter Alex Heath got his hands on the deck and dissected it ($).

How are the world’s most creative minds using AI? In collaboration with Whalar Group, Fast Company polled their “Most Creative People in Business” honorees finding that AI is now a routine part of the creative process, with a return to AI-free work almost unfathomable. Learn more about how Creators are unlocking the possibilities of AI through the full results:  https://www.fastcompany.com/91285651/most-creative-people-in-business-survey-2025.

  • From Jim – it’s a good and insightful read, and I said in my talk at SXSW, we’re moving from a co-pilot to an agentic era in AI – so this story will likely be very different in 12 months!

QUIBIS    

YOUTUBE

META

TIKTOK

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE

RESEARCH

  • Social Engagement Plummets: Research from RivalIQ – which dropped last month – found that Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X have seen drops in engagement from 16% to almost 50%.  TikTok’s engagement lead is slipping, and health and beauty might be headed for a fall.

  • GENA – 2 Billion Strong:  Loving the research coming out on GenA/GenZ and fandom.  This one from SuperAwesome’s a month old and packed with great insight on kids and Gen Alpha – including findings on fandom, mental health and more.. 

  • Latest Food, Wellness and Beverage Trends: New Consumer looks at where these three key categories are headed.  The data is particularly interesting for trend-surfing creators and those considering launching a branded product (consider mushroom coffee).

  • Related:  Kickstarter’s 2024 “Creative Download” is worth perusing on its own – but also good fodder for anyone looking to launch their own products.

100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!).

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I’ve built and sold multiple creator economy startups to top media companies – including Discovery and Paramount. Subscribe here on LinkedIn to get this newsletter every Monday.

Let me know what you think – email me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.