Good morning. Yesterday Wordle was bought by the New York Times. How long do you think it'll stay free before it's paywalled?
MrBeast Launches a Snack Brand
Halfway through his escape room video released Saturday, the highest-paid YouTube creator announced his latest food venture, Feastables.
The snack brand’s first products are a line of chocolate bars that boast minimal, organic ingredients and come in three flavors: Original, Quinoa Crunch, and Almond.
In true MrBeast fashion, the launch is fully gamified—a select number of creators received a mystery box, buyers got the chance to fly out to the creator’s headquarters to compete for a chocolate factory (which will be filmed and published on MrBeast’s channel), or score prizes including a Tesla, ebikes, Sea-Doos, MrBeast Burger discounts, and merch.
Feastables By the Numbers
25 million → number of views his announcement video received in the first 48 hours.
2 years → how long it took to make Feastables, from concept to launch.
$1 million → how much MrBeast is giving away in sweepstakes at launch.
Feastables is MrBeast’s second food venture following MrBeast Burger. In a recent video, his manager Reed Duchscher explained the difference in creating the two brands. “MrBeast Burger was more plug-and-play because we found someone that had the restaurant relationships who was able to get us into 300 locations within 60-90 days,” Duchscher said. “[With Feastables] we had to be involved in the logistics and the operations. It’s been a lot more work.”
MrBeast and his team called in heavy hitters to power the creation of Feastables, with former president of RXBAR Jim Murray acting as the brand’s CEO, and backers like Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and DTC investor Nik Sharma.
Our Take
MrBeast is the master of grabbing attention—and keeping it. Just as his viral videos open with action and purpose in the first 30 seconds, the Feastables launch employs the same tactics, with a huge amount of hype and giveaways to start. Like Logan Paul and KSI's PRIME beverage, Feastables is taking aim at some of the largest CPG companies in the US like Kraft, Nabisco, and Hershey’s. He'll stand out by doing what he does best—gamifying the experience and keeping the audience's attention.
Is The Future X the Next Big Music Group?
Imagine if the Hype House was a band—that’s the concept Simon Fuller, the creator of American Idol, is bringing to life with his TikTok-founded music group The Future X.
The band is made up of three singers and four dancers. Fuller held auditions on the app over the last year with the hashtag #nextinmusic.
Its members already have a combined 4.4 million followers on their individual TikTok accounts. The majority of those come from dancer Tray Taylor who has made multiple viral videos since 2019, including one about homework that earned over 16 million views.
According to a press release, fans will be able to watch "every stage of the group's creative and personal journey" on TikTok as they record new music at their house in Malibu and prepare for a tour with Fuller's other band, Now United, in March.
Their debut single, This Kind Of Love, is due next month on Columbia Records.
Our Take
As Hype House has shown us, fans love watching group dynamics—but in the creator era where individuals are more powerful than the group, they face the difficulty of finding reasons to stick together. Fuller is betting that he can change that by fitting a TikTok group into a legacy entertainment format, like a pop band.
Sponsored by Jellysmack
MMA Star Francis Ngannou Starts a YouTube Channel
He’s the "Baddest Man on the Planet'' and the hardest recorded puncher in the world—and now he’s taking his career to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat—how? Jellysmack.
You already know about Jellysmack’s Creator Program that helps creators edit, optimize and distribute their content across social media platforms. Jellysmack’s new Marquee Program offers celebrity personalities end-to-end content strategy services including financing, creative ideation, content production, and optimization. The vision is to transform prominent public personalities into powerful creators with multi-platform audiences and revenue streams.
Go here to learn more about Jellysmack and Francis Ngannou’s partnership.
Khaby Lame Signs Multi-Year Partnership with Hugo Boss
The TikTok star known for his wordless reaction videos is co-designing the first collection under Boss’s rebrand, which aims to be more playful and casual.
This is the second time the Italy-based creator has partnered with the brand. Last year, Lame walked the runway for Hugo Boss during Milan Fashion Week, with videos from the event resulting in 4 billion social impressions.
Khaby is the second-most followed person on TikTok behind Charli D’Amelio, with over 130 million followers.
Our Take
Lame’s everyman appeal makes him approachable, and his track record of viral hits makes him an authority on curated content. This partnership with Boss shows what success can look like for creators with humble beginnings, and those that break the mold.
🔥 Press Worthy
Tinx launches Rich Mom Gear.
Airrack raises $3 million to educate creators.
Zach King wins $1 million from MrBeast, and is giving it away.
Amanda Rach Lee is hiring for an executive assistant and social media manager.
MrBeast is hiring for 14 positions.
Rhett & Link get a show on Food Network.
This video is wild.