Creators Shake Up the Sports World

Hi, I’m Jim Louderback and this is my weekly creator economy newsletter. If you’ve received it, then you are either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.

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Creator Economy Disrupting Sports:  Great story in The Athletic about Good Good golf, the creator-driven YouTube sports league that’s driving more viewership than traditional golf.  Live sport makes up most of traditional TV viewership these days, but it’s not an unassailable firewall.  YouTube golf creators are just the tip of the creator-led sports revolution as we transition loyalty from leagues and teams to the creator-player.   

The first NIL generation of college athletes are going pro and bringing their communities along.  Last week’s MLB all-star game featured rookie internet sensation Paul Skenes (514k IG) pitching a scoreless inning while the camera panned lovingly over his girlfriend cheering in the stands, TikTok/Instagram star and LSU gymnastic savant Livve Dunne (13.3M IG/TT.  I have no idea what team Skenes plays on, but I'll watch him wherever he goes. The NFL gets it - (as I shared from VidCon)  – as they’ve transitioned from the No Fun League into embracing creators.  Kai Cenat, AMP and RDC played a flag football game at the 2023 NFL Draft, with Adam W as a sideline reporter.  Could a real creator-led flag football league be next?

• Related: It’s AMP vs. RDC again this week, as Creator League returns to DreamCon – maybe it’ll become its own league soon.

• Related: YouTube and Eurosport partner to bring 10+ creators to the Olympics – but I’m still more interested in videos from the creator-athletes actually competing at the event.

• Related: Athlete/brand partnerships now look a lot like creator/brand deals.

It’s YouTube’s World, We’re Just Living In It:  Great insight from Dan Frommer’s 2024 mid-year trend report on YouTube’s ascendency.  Along with trouncing Netflix, Frommer finds that every demographic would choose YouTube over other video services if forced to pick just one.  Why?  YouTube offers great entertainment, but also – for many – it makes them smarter. A killer combination.  The insightful research also details GenZ’s special relationship with YouTube, how digital native beauty brands are disrupting the space, and the ways Ozempic and the nicotine pouch are changing food.  Going forward, creators might be better served launching healthy snacks, rather than candy and fast food.  

• Related:  YouTube held their first Influencer Marketing Exec Summit last week with 50+ creator economy leaders, including execs from Izea, Underscore, PIxability and CAA. In addition to product roadmap and an emphasis on their commitment to Shorts, Whalar’s Neal Waller was most taken by YouTube’s willingness to listen.  He also found the focus on just talent and influencer agencies refreshing. It was also unique. No other platform, explained Neal, has done anything similar.  YouTube seems to be ramping up its B2B partnership efforts, so hopefully this will be part of a broader trend.

• Related: Amanda Perelli reinforces YouTube’s ascendency with an insightful analysis at Business Insider ($).

SheerLuxe “Bot” Gets Shanked:  Welcome to the AI bot backlash, where an AI generated image can be AI-shamed while lacking obvious “bot” features. Beauty media company SheerLuxe certainly comes off as tone deaf with its perfect AI-tinged influencer.  But giving voice to a Midjourney image is not a bot.  It’s more like an animated character or mascot – think Skibidi toilet with lipstick or Kermit the Frog.  For example, you can “chat” with @Reembot on Instagram, but after 4 days, my question remains unanswered.  It can’t even reach the admittedly low bar of Instagram’s fake celebrity character chatbots like “Bru” and “Zach”.  AI is no excuse for SheerLuxe’s misguided mascot attempt.

The Great AI YouTube Rip-Off Exposed: 48,000 YouTube channels were surreptitiously harvested to train AI models from Anthropic, Salesforce, Apple and more.  Props to Proof News – led by former NYT journalist Julia Angwin – for the report.  Find out if yours were snagged using their tool. – I found 399 SciShow videos, 886 from CrashCourse and 216 from NPR.   Rather watch?  Proof News launched a companion video as well.  

SPONSOR:  Entrepreneur creator Ashley Alexander (@aaashleyk) just launched Nami Matcha! In partnership with Whalar Group’s creator venture studio Moby Ventures, Nami Matcha is inspired by Ashley's love for matcha as frequently shared in her content.  Join the matcha revolution:  https://namimatcha.com/.  Whalar Co-CEO Neil Waller shares more on this ground-breaking partnership – including stunning first 45-minute sales numbers - on LinkedIn.

QUIBIS:    

YOUTUBE

• YouTube Creator liaison Rene Ritchie’s Top Five weekly post is a must read.  This week he highlighted a great behind-the-scenes VidCon recap on YouTube’s Official Blog.  Sorry Rene and Julia Lee Harter, but Julia @VidCon will always be Anaheim Exec Producer Julia Maes to me.

• YouTube testing new community spaces as they lean into improving creator communities - and countering TikTok’s content graph.

• Netflix isn’t afraid of the big red wolf.  We’re going after the 80% “that isn’t going either to us or to YouTube”, said Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.

META

• Instagram expands Notes, adding more ways to connect to your friends with disappearing messages.  According to Lia Haberman there are 12 DIFFERENT Notes types.  More spaghetti / wall throwing.  And new pathways for cyberbullying too.

• Instagram continues to test ways to become more of a messaging app.  Jasmine Enberg found her “create” icon replaced with a “messaging” icon last week. Signs of things to come?

• Could “Super-Duper Likes” be next?

• Meta not offering LatAm creators the option to “opt-out” AI training on their posts.

TIKTOK

• TikTok partners with Eventbrite to make it easier for creators to host events.  Cool idea, looking forward to seeing how it works in practice.

• European courts say TikTok is all grown up – no longer a disrupting upstart.  And that means the Digital Market Act applies. 

• Related: It used to be unfiltered, now it’s littered with ads.  How brands are adapting ($).

• Fascinating essay about the TikTok experience, calling creators there “the new pornographers”. 

• TikTok continues to focus on music and musicians, making it easier for independent artists to get official accounts, and launching an interactive portal to celebrate the second solo album from Jimin of BTS.

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

• Soap operas are back!  Adobe CSO Scott Belsky believes “Brandertainment” will replace Hollywood and traditional gatekeepers.  He also touches on how “algorithmic tuning has become the new social media product playbook for differentiation in the AI era.”

• Great interview with Hank Green on TechCrunch.

• Zaria Parvez leans into what goofy trends are really telling us about GenZ.

• I hate to be the one to tell you – but Hamster Kombat is real.  Worth studying, if only to understand its addictive growth hacking models.

• Negative tech reviews led to a lawsuit. Luckily, the reviewer ended up exonerated.  This time.

• It starts with faking YouTube subscriber counts.  It ends with faking a YouTube exec.  Ozy Media CEO guilty of fraud.  Ask me about my disturbing meeting with him in early 2020 next time you see me.

• Finally, smart brands realize they need to build their own in-house MCNs – or as Michael Shields calls it, a Brand Creator Network (BCN). Shields mentions Claire’s, Levis and Zara – but I’d throw in Opus and Black Magic too.

• Related: ShopMy launches a new way for brands to create long-term relationships with creators.

• Hollywood comes calling.  Now what? Naomi Lennon's advice for managers is broadly applicable across the creator economy.

• Podcasts aren’t dying – they are just washing out the excess optimism.

• I love this video where Mr. Beast breaks down his biggest video ever with Jon Youshaei.  What a great format. 

CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE

• Most people who try AI don’t come back – might be a while before we reach broad product-market fit – great insight from Benedict Evans.

• Get ready for “Hollywood grade visual AI", from new startup Odyssey – backed by Google Ventures and other A-listers.  Presumably priced at a bit more than $19.99 a month at launch.

• And in India, Bollywood.AI wants to upend traditional video creation with text to video tools.

• Building AI into your creator economy product?  OpenAI’s new GPT-4o mini model offers better performance at a cheaper price.  Ben’s Bites breaks down the cost and capability.

• Google’s AI video creation tool “VIDS” is now available to Workplace Labs users – a sort of closed beta.  If you have access, let me know what you think!

• Another cool Sora demo – as more hand-picked creators get access.  Check out the OpenAI YouTube channel for 6 more that debuted this week.  I Want My SoraTV!

• A clever way to spot deepfakes.  Hopefully the AI detection teams at Instagram and YouTube know about this.

RESEARCH:  

• Coatue’s 2024 state of venture report includes some good data on the state of AI.

• New research from NeoReach finds that Instagram broadly leads TikTok and other platforms when it comes to buying stuff, but buyers still need to see an ad 2-4 times first.  There’s more bottom funnel insights inside as well.

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 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.