Even though advertisers are pouring money into YouTube, there’s still a lot of debate over the metrics that should be used to measure those campaigns. Famous Birthdaysoffers one notable rubric via its “velocity” data, and those figures are the subject of a new partnership. Famous Birthdays and Pixability have announced a pact that will integrate velocity numbers into the latter company’s Super Signal Aggregation (SSA) technology.
Since its 2012 launch, Famous Birthdays has tracked the creator economy by measuring internal search traffic from a user base that now includes 25 million unique visitors per month. The frequency of specific searches informs Famous Birthdays’ velocity numbers and its rankings of trending creators. By relying on its homegrown statistics, the so-called “IMDb for creators” was one of the first companies to clock the rise of now-ubiquitous social media stars like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae.
Pixability, a longtime operator in the world of YouTube marketing, recognized that Famous Birthdays’ velocity numbers can be a goldmine for brands. By incorporating that data into SSA — which in turn powers the company’s AI-driven, contextual targeting option for advertisers — Pixability is giving its partners new ways to reach YouTube-based audiences.
The early results of that partnership have been promising. According to a joint press release from the two companies, early adopters of the fresh data have seen conversions rise by 31% and engagement go up by 58% when channels dubbed “high-velocity” by Famous Birthdays are incorporated into Pixability-run campaigns.
In a statement, Pixability CEO David George said that the Famous Birthdays data is the “newest piece to further enrich our YouTube campaign planning.” Famous Birthdays Founder Evan Britton described the partnership as a rare opportunity for his company to step outside of its independent mindset. “Pixability is a company that believes, as I do, that the future of marketing will be driven by creators,” Britton said. “Together, I know we can build a better way to help brands chart their best future on YouTube by leveraging creators that are rising right now and using our proprietary platform-agnostic rankings.”
Microinfluencers and other under-the-radar creator partners are becoming more powerful in the world of influencer marketing, so the time is right for Famous Birthdays to capitalize on the potential of its velocity data. Through its search traffic, the 13-year-old company knows who’s next — and Pixability is ready to share those secrets with advertisers who are willing to pay attention.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Famous Birthdays can identify the next big creators. Pixability is passing that data on to advertisers.
Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.
We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.
And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.
MrBeast is back at #1 in this week’s Gospel Stats Brand Report–and, of course, he’s up to something charitable. Chasing him are an undercover polyglot, a car rescue specialist, a gamer’s gamer, and last but not least, a guy who lives to eat. Relatable.
Were it anybody else, this video title would probably be clickbait–but for MrBeast, it’s just the latest in a long string of videos ideas designed to be as eye-catching as they are charitable. He’s teamed up with Mark Rober once again to launch a third philanthropic endeavor. First it was #TeamTreesfor forest conservation. Then it was #TeamSeasfor ocean cleanup. Now? It’s #TeamWater, raising $40 million to supply millions of households with clean drinking water. MrBeast is usually #1 on our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Reports, and it’s usually for something that involves giving money to people–but in this case, it’s pretty gratifying to see a video watched 50 million times by people who now know about #TeamWater’s mission.
In last week’s report, video #2 was about multilingual seduction, sponsored by language-learning app Airlearn. This week, Xiaomanyc is also sponsored by a language-learning service (Migaku), but he doesn’t need a language-learning app–he already knows exactly what he’s saying. He’s one of YouTube‘s favorite polyglots, and has spent years posting content where he records himself surprising people (usually Asian people) by fluently speaking their native tongue. This week’s video is more of the same, with a twist where he takes a table-waiting position and gives his customers a side dish they definitely weren’t expecting.
We know not everyone is a #CarBoy, but surely everyone feels a little pain in their heart when they see a beautiful car destroyed. Right? Right? Well, if you’re like us, you find it soothing to watch Mat Armstrong take these beauties under his wing–and into his shop–and put them back to rights again. He’s made our top 5 lists multiple times by restoring rare and/or expensive cars that anyone else would write off as totaled, and this one’s no different. ~$600,000 Lamborghini with a crushed front end? Sounds like the perfect challenge for his team. As usual, his video is sponsored by vehicle history report service carVertical, which probably wouldn’t give this one a stellar grade…at least, not until Armstrong is done with it.
The FPS scene has had stagnant vibes for a while now. Is that something the much-anticipated Battlefield 6 can change? Some early access reviewers say no, some say yes–ah, the classic critics’ dichotomy. But jackfrags, who Battlefield 6 developer Electronic Arts paid to make this 51-minute video, seems pretty stoked, and so do his ~4 million viewers. His lengthy video is a full breakdown of what B6 is like at the moment. His feedback, along with other early access players’, will be used to tweak the game pre-launch, so folks who play after it officially drops Oct. 6 will (ideally) get an even better version. Games alpha and beta test all the time, but we don’t often get to see the process play out like this–so jackfrags’ video is an interesting look at part of a massive industry that often can’t seem to get out of its own way.
In today’s economy, being better with your budget is a must. (Can you tell we’ve been on a Caleb Hammer binge?) But, look, nobody’s perfect, and sometimes instead of eating $1 overnight oats or a meal-prepped salad or baking some chicken, you just want to sink your teeth into some oily gooey cheesy Chili’s mozzarella sticks. We get it! We’ve been there! And so has video essayist chon digital, whose sympathy is outpaced only by his appetite. Thankfully, his sponsor is Rocket Money, which can tell you how much you need to put in savings, how much you need to spend on bills, and then, at last, how much you can spend on those sweet sweet sticks.
…and there’s a lot more data where that came from. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.
Filed under: Articles, Brands, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by James Hale Comments Off on Top 5 Branded Videos of the Week: Would you like a side of water with that?
We’ve talked a lot about how impressive YouTube’s TV viewership stats are here in the United States, but they’re not looking too bad across the pond, either.
According to Edison Research‘s new UK Podcast Consumer report, the number of UK-based people who most often listen to podcasts via smart TV has doubled since 2023, going from 4% to 8%.
The vast majority of consumers–66%–still listen to podcasts most often on a smartphone, but that doubling number shows people outside the U.S. are getting more into connected TV too.
As for YouTube specifically, 20% of UK-based weekly podcast consumers told Edison it’s their most frequented platform for listening to podcast content. Spotify beats it, with 33% of people using that as their top platform, but YouTube is above all others, including Apple Podcasts (13%) and BBC Sounds (15%).
If you’re trying some mental math to figure out how many people these percentages might figure up to, it might help to know this: Edison found that 51% of people over age 16 in the UK have listened to at least one podcast episode in the last month. 33% have consumed one in the last week. 71% of people say they’ve listened to a podcast at least once.
That’s around the same as the U.S., where Edison found that 47% of people have listened to a podcast in the last month and 34% have listened to one in the past week.
One last key stat: 59% of UK podcast consumers listen to shows most often at home–which indicates the CTV-to-smartphone ratio could continue to tip toward CTV.
“This year’s UK Podcast Consumer Report shows not only mainstream adoption, but also how podcasts are reaching valuable and diverse audiences,” Gabriel Soto, Edison’s Senior Director of Research, said in a statement. “For advertisers, this is a pivotal moment. We at Edison are bullish on podcasting because the data shows further adoption potential, robust ad ROI and tools already in place to help brands confidently invest in podcasts as a core part of their media strategy.”
While, yes, this is valuable information for advertisers, we’re intrigued by the possibility of long-form podcast content–even video podcast content–being a key player in YouTube’s UK CTV success. The Google-owned platform mainly cites its U.S. Nielsen watch time data, which is understandable, considering said data puts it above every TV network and streaming service.
But we don’t as often hear about its CTV ambitions in the UK. And, since YouTube continues to push podcasts, battling with established competitors like Spotify and Apple, we’re keen to see if and how this rapidly growing CTV consumption will influence its strategy moving forward.
Filed under: Homepage Feature, YouTube by James Hale Comments Off on Podcast listening on TVs has doubled. What can YouTube do with that growth?
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]
Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart. 👇
MrBeast maintained his perch at the top of the Global Sub Top 50 chart. During the first full week of August, Jimmy Donaldson added two million new subscribers on his primary YouTube hub, bringing his platform-leading total up to 421 million. Not bad for a 27-year-old who was mostly anonymous ten years ago.
The rest of the channels in the Global Sub Top 50 aren’t quite on MrBeast’s level, but all of them added at least 320,000 new subscribers during the first full week of August. For many creators, reeling in that many new fans requires an age-old web video tactic: Bring the people the pet videos they so desperately crave.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…Slopperman?
James Gunn’s Superman reboot has brought a lot of changes to the global pop culture landscape since the film’s premiere on July 7. The box office returns have already surpassed a half-billion dollars, DC Studios is making a case that it’s the new Marvel, and perhaps most importantly, Superman’s dog has been reintroduced into the public consciousness.
Krypto, as the heroic pooch is known, has earned a legion of admirers. Interest in dog adoption is surging, and Superman’s pet is getting a statue at a dog park in Burbank.
YouTube creators have known for years that inserting random animal cameos into videos is a surefire way to bring up lagging viewership. The arrival of YouTube Shorts has only opened up more opportunities for animal lovers who wish to showcase the idiosyncrasies of the world’s fauna.
Generative AI is another technological innovation that has changed the world of cute animal videos. Many channels have discovered that using LLMs to generate pet-themed content is an easy path into our Tubefilter rankings.
Add up those two phenomena, and the result is The Labrador’s Adventure, the #41 channel in this week’s Global Sub Top 50. By adding 351,000 new subscribers during the week that was, this fast-rising hub more than doubled its subscriber count week-over-week. How much of that growth can be attributed to the titular pooch’s superheroic costume? Would these moralistic AI slop videos perform as well without the obtuse Krypto references?
If you’re not convinced that Krypto is currently the biggest thing on YouTube Shorts, consider that the star of The Labrador’s Adventure is not the only canine rocking a big red-and-yellow S in the Global Sub Top 50. Another channel that cracked our latest subscriber ranking is Secretos Curiosos, which pairs a Superman-themed channel banner with bizarre animal content. The result: 360,000 new subscribers over a seven-day period.
Data via Gospel Stats
For these sloppy channels, the power of Krypto doesn’t just come from his cute canine complexion. He is also a superhero, tying him into another content category that has made hay on YouTube Shorts since the format’s inception.
When you add up all of those trends, it’s easy to understand why Superman’s dog is such a big inspiration for so many Shorts channels. Forget Bitcoin — the views associated with this super-dog are the hot new Krypto-currency.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
India and the United States: 13
Hong Kong: 4
Australia, Brazil, and Spain: 2
Argentina, Belarus, Canada, China, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey: 1
This week, 39 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all our news by subscribing to our newsletter. You’re going to love it. 👉 Newsletter.Tubefilter.com.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]
Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart. 👇
Double Date got more than one billion weekly views for each member of its hosting duo. The couple channel pulled in 2.1 billion weekly views during the first full week of August, giving it a second straight date with the #1 spot in the Global Top 50.
Five other channels earned ten-digit viewership over the same period. That level of traffic has become the norm since YouTube made a big change to its counting policies earlier this year.
Cup stacking is back, baby!
Speed stacking videos are a classic genre on YouTube. What began as a niche competitive activity eventually evolved into a global community, with the world’s best cup athletes challenging one another’s top times. This video, for example, is legendary in my eyes, and this one became so iconic that Skrillex famously sampled it in his track “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.”
Cup-slinging creators aren’t quite as popular as they were during their 2000s heyday, but the results from the latest Global Top 50 ranking suggest that speed stacking could be making a comeback. A couple channel titled Liz and Jaiceis leaning into the sportiness of cup stacking — and finding strong results with that approach.
Not all of Liz and Jaice’s videos feature cup stacking, but three of the four most-watched clips in the couple’s Shorts library fit into that category. Like other dynamic YouTube duos — including the current Global Top 50 leaders, Double Date — Liz and Jaice turn challenge content into a rivalry by seeing who can perform better. In the case of cup stacking, Liz is the clear leader.
The rise of couple challenge content is one factor that has informed Liz and Jaice’s rapid rise (the duo got 450.2 million weekly views to reach 38th place in the Global Top 50.) Another aspect of that ascent can be seen on Liz’s shirt. Challenge videos are particularly popular among the soccer fans who are currently driving numerous short-form trends. By wearing a Real Madrid jersey in her videos, Liz appeals to that group and its love of competition.
One creator who has long combined soccer, challenges, and couple content is Celine Dept, a Belgian athlete who has been a Top 50 mainstay for more than two years. Based on the trajectory of creators who have followed in Dept’s footsteps, it’s fair to argue that she has influenced YouTube Shorts content more than any other individual videomaker.
During the first full week of August, Dept didn’t quite soar as high as she once did, but her presence in the Global Top 50 is far from over. With 518.3 million weekly views, she moved up to 27th place in our worldwide ranking after claiming the #46 spot a week ago. Since the start of April, she’s consistently reached 400 million weekly views without fail.
Data via Gospel Stats
Dept’s ongoing success is an invitation for competitive individuals who might be interested in launching their own YouTube channels. If you have a desire to win, you can find viewers who feel the same way.
Some of Dept’s latest challenge videos continue to reflect her competitive spirit, but we still haven’t seen her give speed stacking a try. I don’t know if that activity ever got big in Belgium, but if Dept can challenge Liz and Jaice’s personal records, she could take her hub to a whole new level of notability.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
India: 13
United States: 12
Hong Kong: 6
Australia, China, Indonesia, and Spain: 2
Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, Kazakhstan, Peru, South Korea, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and Vietnam: 1
This week, 39 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all our news by subscribing to our newsletter. You’re going to love it. 👉 Newsletter.Tubefilter.com.
For more than a decade, analytics firms have discussed the “measurement gap” between digital and linear platforms. More robust audience data is available for traditional TV fare, but Barb is looking to close the chasm. The U.K.-based measurement nonprofit has announced its plan to bring Nielsen-style ratings to YouTube’s traffic on TV screens.
Like Nielsen, Barb is creating “human panels” by reading router meters installed in select households. Once those numbers are collected, they are presented in the client portal on Barb’s website, creating a snapshot of the typical viewership a program or channel receives over a set period. By extrapolating from those numbers, Barb can draw broad conclusions about overall viewership trends.
Barb already offers platform-level YouTube viewership data. Nielsen has used those numbers to show that Google’s video platform claims more traffic on TV screens than any other content provider. Now, Barb is drilling down into top channels to offer more granular insights for its users.
A screenshot shared by The Drum shows what Barb’s channel-level statistics look like. The official Peppa Pig YouTube hub, for example, led the listed channels with a .06% audience share via TVs.
Barb CEO Justin Sampson told The Drumthat the “initiative is a natural response to the widely-reported growth of YouTube viewing on the TV set – a behavioral trend that’s validated by Barb’s independent audience measurement.” Added Sampson: “By not responding to our clients’ appetite for more evidence of what people watch on YouTube, we risk a growing black hole in our industry’s standard for understanding what people watch.”
The “black hole” Sampson speaks of is a major concern for advertisers who are looking to get involved on YouTube. In a recent survey published by eMarketer, brand reps were most likely to cite “measuring creator performance” as the biggest roadblock for their influencer marketing campaigns.
Nielsen is indirectly responsible for that persistent issue. The firm has more than 80 years of experience measuring TV programming, and it has built up a considerable amount of trust and prestige over that time. Without a way to install router meters on digital content, it became difficult to make meaningful comparisons between TV viewership and YouTube traffic.
But with YouTube becoming a dominant force on TVs, there’s an opportunity to gauge the platform’s viewership via the same metrics Nielsen gleans from traditional networks. Barb is one firm taking advantage of that opportunity — and U.K.-based marketers will be glad to see the change in action.
Last September, TikTok‘s Director of Travel, Tech, and Telcom said the app sees itself as a burgeoning “discovery engine” that “sparks interest in new destinations and drives visits.” She was commenting on a then-recent partnership between TikTok and Southwest Airlines, which had seen enough travel traffic from the platform to make it the center of an ad campaign with a portal where TikTok users could buy plane tickets to popular destinations like Chicago, New Orleans, and Hawai’i.
Now, TikTok is making destination booking a bigger and more permanent part of its business.
Here’s what’s happening:
It launched a new integration with Booking.com where users find, scope out, and book rooms at hotels around the world.
It also launched TikTok Go, a monetization program specifically for travel vloggers, where businesses like hotels and travel agencies can request promotional tasks in exchange for pay.
The Booking.com integration gives each hotel its own landing page on TikTok; there, users can check dates and rates, see other information like amenities and reviews, and check out what’s around the hotel for entertainment and dining. Then there’s the real TikTok of it all: a section that collects vertical videos about the property. Users can tag participating hotels in videos, and those videos can pop up on the landing page.
Tagging hotels ties into the TikTok Go program. Through it, any user who’s over the age of 18 and has 1,000 followers can accept tasks from hotels/travel agencies/etc, and get paid an undisclosed commission (and/or travel voucher) in exchange for completing them.
Per Business Insider, these tasks include things like posting a video from a certain type of hotel room, or posting a video review about a restaurant in the area.
We’re guessing, based on the low barrier to entry, that these tasks won’t pay out nearly the same amount as a traditional creator/brand sponsorship would–but they do represent a kind of broader TikTok Shopification. Almost anyone can earn affiliate cash by hawking products from TikTok Shop; with TikTok Go, almost anyone can get a little travel money by filming what’s essentially custom-tailored ads.
It’s worth noting Semaforpreviously reported TikTok had filed a U.S. trademark application for “TikTok Go,” saying that its purpose would be “promoting restaurants, retail businesses, the travel industry, and other online and offline businesses.”
This means that while TikTok Go seems primarily focused on hotels and other intensely travel-centric businesses for now, in the future it could expand to include basically anywhere you can spend money, truly completing the Shopification.
Of course, creators likely won’t be the only ones earning from these programs. TikTok hasn’t laid out the financial structure of these two initiatives, but it’s possibly taking a cut from all these transactions–the hotel bookings, the UGC ads. And, even if it isn’t, between Shop, the Booking.com integration, and TikTok Go, TikTok is effectively turning itself into an ecom hub for all products and experiences, and that position has intrinsic value.
Filed under: Homepage Feature, TikTok by James Hale Comments Off on TikTok’s new biz? Selling hotel rooms–and paying creators who help fill them
Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry.
This week, a legendary animated series is ending its hiatus, an annual collegiate phenomenon is sweeping across TikTok, and Jake Paul is acting indignant (what else is new?)
Creator commotion
Don’t you dare accuse Jake Paul of fight fixing. High-powered lawyer Alex Spiro, who once represented MrBeast, is now helping Jake Paul go after haters who accuse him of fixing his boxing matches. Unfortunately for Jake, it’s not illegal to accuse a boxer of padding their record against cupcake and past-their-prime fighters.
Duke Dennis was arrested for an after-hours game of hide-and-seek. In Dennis’ defense, playing hide-and-seek in a large, empty mall sounds like tons of fun, but the cops might not agree. Apparently, to become a member of the creator group AMP, one must be involved in a major public commotion. I don’t make the rules.
Is Danny Duncan “the man who would save fro-yo?” The Florida-born creator has helped 16 Handles enjoy a boom period since he became involved with the chain a few years ago. Now, 16 Handles’ fortunes have soared so high that Duncan and his coworkers have the entire fro-yo industry on their backs, according to a recent profile in The New York Times.
The biz
Skims timed its latest product launch to coincide with this year’s #RushTok bonanza. Each year, TikTok becomes inundated with sorority stories as young women experience Rush Week at some of America’s top universities. Skims put itself at the center of that conversation with a Campus Collection that arrived on August 7. Sure enough, the brand’s buyers are already featuring the new items in try-on and “get ready with me” videos.
Fox sees a creator arms race coming, and it wants to stockpile a leading roster. Fox doesn’t want to fall behind its rivals in the world of creators, so it has reportedly ramped up its talks with digital-native talent. The corporation’s creator-facing initiatives include a program launched on the subscription service Tubi.
Instagram’s Collab posts have a lot of fans. Both brands and creators are seeing strong results from the tandem-posting feature since its arrival on the app. Fast Company has the latest updates from Collab users who are singing the praises of their joint uploads.
Platform headlines
The Tomorrowland music festival set live-streaming records on TikTok. The EDM gathering drew 74 million unique viewers on a 24-hour TikTok live stream that operated for both of the festival’s two weekends. I think TikTok may have just found its answer to YouTube’s annual Coachella streams.
Disney’s streaming merger will give it a chance to stop reporting subcriber numbers. Once Hulu is folded into Disney+, the Mouse House will follow Netflix’s lead by no longer breaking out quarterly subscriber numbers. Per Disney: Those numbers are “less meaningful to evaluating the performance of our businesses.”
Bluesky has added 8 million MAUs since March, but its growth is plateauing. The decentralized alternative to X is now sitting at 38 million monthly active users after cracking the 30 million mark earlier this year. Those are nice gains on the surface, but when you compare them to last year — when Bluesky added 15 million MAUs between August and November — the platform’s slowing growth rate becomes clear.
The ad world
Unilever’s pledge to influencers has had sweeping ramifications. Earlier this year, consumer goods giant Unilever made a splash when its CEO announced a plan to spend half of the company’s ad budget on “influencer-first” social media content. About five months later, creator rates have reportedly gone up by 30%. That’s enough fresh earnings to buy a whole lot of Hellmann’s mayonnaise.
Sunglass Hut turns connected TV ads into in-store visits. In an effort to direct consumers to its physical locations, the sunglasses retailer ran ads on platforms like HBO Max, Paramount+, and Peacock. The results of the campaign were pretty big: Sunglasss Hut reported that year-over-year store traffic increased six times over between July and September.
Audioboom’s podcast library is in the midst of a video boom. During the first half of 2025, Audioboom doubled its revenue on video podcasts. That uptick was largely driven by volume; the podcast network reported that 60% of its creators now produce video versions of their shows.
The internet is a strange place
One of the best (and weirdest) animated web series is coming back. It’s been ten years since the last update from the world of Baman Piderman, but creators Alex and Lindsay Small-Butera have reclaimed the rights to their series and are making more episodes. While you wait, check out “Find Da Sandwich,” which remains one of the internet’s great absurdist gems.
French agency Havas Play turned Twitch viewers into firefighters. The agency installed live video from local forest on the wait screens of Twitch streamers. So while viewers waited for a new broadcast to begin, they kept their eyes peeled for any new blazes happening in the woods. Will this clever campaign turn the Twitch wait screen into the hot new piece of inventory?
Microsoft used Windows XP as the inspiration for a new line of Crocs. No one looks cooler than the person who’s walking around with Clippy on their feet, but I won’t believe these Crocs are authentic unless they throw up a Blue Screen of Death when you stub your toe.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Have you heard? Jake Paul gets litigious, brands get in on #RushTok, and ‘Baman Piderman’ returns.
Snap wants to sell consumers on the entertainment value of augmented reality (AR) experiences, so it’s teaming up with a U.K.-based broadcaster to look back at some of the earth’s long-lost monuments. Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a self-explanatory docuseries on Channel 5, includes interactive elements powered by the parent company of Snapchat.
In a Newsroom post, Snap explained how its contribution to Seven Wonders of the Ancient World functions. “By simply scanning an on-screen QR code with their phones, viewers will be able to virtually travel to moments in time to explore, learn, and see these sites,” reads the post. “From traveling to Egypt’s Old Kingdom to check out the Giza Pyramids to seeing the beautiful Hanging Gardens of Babylon — people will be able to explore these awe-inspiring sites in Augmented Reality.”
The concept of a “second screen” adjacent to TV viewership is nothing new, especially in the context of social media platforms, but the idea has recently been reexamined. Kids, for example, have been identified as regular users of second screens, inviting media companies like Netflix to cater programming to a half-checked-in audience.
Snap’s integration, however, isn’t just about consumption habits. The tech company has gone all in on AR, developing programs and in-app features that encourage users to create their own effects. A revenue-sharing program for Lens creators arrived in 2023. Earlier this year, Snap debuted a Lens+ subscription service, which offers access to premium AR products in exchange for an $8.99 monthly fee.
There’s more room for Snap to expand its AR push. As companies like Meta bring wearable tech into vogue, Snap has an opportunity to reenter a field it previously abandoned. That move would be easier if consumers can see clear use cases for AR effects — hence Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Channel 5’s wondrous docuseries is produced by SandStone Global Productions and hosted by Bettany Hughes OBE. It premiered in the U.K. on August 2. Viewers in the rest of the world can check out Snap’s AR integrations by visiting the SandStone website.
Traditional studios are eager to increase activity on YouTube, but before that plan can go full speed ahead, the platform and its partners must confront issues that have plagued YouTube since its earliest days: IP infringement and unsafe content.
The Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), a trade group whose members include NBCUniversal, ESPN, and Sony Pictures Television, has put YouTube on blast over the large volume of infringing videos that are removed from the platform each day. A moderation report published by VAB details YouTube’s slop problem by analyzing first-party data from semiannual takedown summaries.
The VAB found more than half the removed videos YouTube cited in its transparency reports already had at least one view, though the aggregate viewership among those videos hasn’t been made clear. In the first quarter of 2025, 8.6 million videos were taken down, and 54% of those removals were due to child safety reasons.
“My biggest takeaway from looking at the breadth of what we were able to assemble is the 24/7 assault that this platform is under from the worst of the worst actors,” said VAB CEO Sean Cunningham. “The fact that the sheer volume of assault is, if anything, only going up, clearly that can only be because bad actors are finding some significant margin of success at using this platform.”
Cunningham clarified that the VAB isn’t trying to “stain” YouTube, but rather wants to “assess the risk and demand transparency” that surrounds “the endless conveyor belt of ad dollars.” In response to the VAB report, a Google spokesperson stated that “our commitment to removing violative content and regular transparency reporting gives advertisers confidence to partner with YouTube and support our creators.”
YouTube’s effort is meaningful, but advertisers are nevertheless concerned about the videos that appear next to their spots. There have been reports of placements on illicit streams the feature unauthorized IP, and buyers have claimed that ads on videos that are eventually taken down results in less efficient campaigns. One anonymous exec told AdAge that YouTube refunded a $50,000 lump sum to brands whose ads ran on infringing inventory.
In an age when AI slop intersects with IP owned by Hollywood studios, YouTube may need to make its moderation technology more sophisticated. If AI is causing problems for advertisers and rights holders alike, maybe it can be part of the solution, too.
At the same time, the VAB’s report should be taken with a grain of salt, as the group’s members include subscription-based streaming services like Peacock, Paramount+, Hulu, and HBO Max. Those entities may have ulterior motives that are leading them to cast YouTube’s inventory as an underregulated landscape. But no matter how loud its competitors protest, YouTube is still drawing massive interest from advertisers — slop be damned.
Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.
We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.
And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.
In this week’s Gospel Stats Brand Report, MrBeast makes a bad guy rich, a skilled linguist gets one over on a potential date, Veritasium (once again) probes the universe, Airrack gets a little illegal, and How to Train Your Dragonreally, really didn’t need a remake.
Sometimes being a bad guy pays off. To celebrate the Bad Guyssequel, DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures bought the biggest influencer on YouTube, and let him do what he’s best at: giving people absurd amounts of money if they can complete challenges. The movie follows an animal gang of master criminals–and so, for this sponsored Short, MrBeast scripted a pop culture reference-laden burglar chase scene fit for any action movie…and it doesn’t end the way you think it will. As is common with the big-ticket brands that sponsor MrBeast, DreamWorks and Universal only paid for his video this week. But, though this is the only Universal-sponsored video, it’s not the only time Universal makes our list, so read on!
One of the biggest company categories we see in YouTube sponsors is education. Businesses like Brilliant and MasterClass tap into YouTube’s thriving DIY community. This week, language-learning app Airlearn joins the class, sponsoring a Short from lifestyle creator Victoria Pfeifer. In a brief skit, Pfeifer follows someone who’s unlucky in love: After spotting a cute girl, they introduce themself, but she says she doesn’t speak English. Since she’s Latina, they assume she speaks Spanish, and zip off to use Airlearn to become fluent. When they return, though, she reveals she’s Brazilian–so speaks Portuguese, not Spanish. No problem, though–she’s got a crush on our main character, and in the time they were away, used Airlearn to learn English. It’s a pretty cute ad for a practical product, and also the only Airlearn-sponsored video this week.
Speaking of Brilliant…We can always count on Veritasium to make us question our universe. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: We’re not math people. But Veritasium has a way of explaining math that even us language arts devotees can understand. This video (sponsored, as we mentioned, by education company and frequent Veritasium partner Brilliant) starts with a history lesson, revealing how a Russian feud led to mathematician Andrey Markov building the process for determining a certain type of probability. This isn’t the kind of math you’d learn in middle school, but judging by Veritasium’s viewership numbers, ~5 million people are happy to go back to school.
We’ve noticed lots of beach resort/waterpark content popping up lately, from Ed Chapman and Jack Pembrook‘s sagas about trying to profit on all-inclusive holidays to the usual summer uptick in Disney FOMO bait. Airrack‘s contribution? Trying to “secretly live” in a waterpark. This video actually isn’t too far off another Pembrook upload, where he tried to live in a luxury resort undetected, and for free. Airrack’s goal is to pay for one ticket into Splashway Waterpark & Campgrounds in Texas, and then remain there for as long as possible. Will he succeed? Will security call the cops? Is it really worth having to sleep on the ground under the slide tubes? All this and more within…
Yeah, so, live-action remakes of animated movies tend to be bad. Almost universally bad. Lion King? Awful. The Little Mermaid? Rough. Don’t even get us started on Lilo & Stitch. In most cases, it seems like these dead-eyed live-actions aren’t made so much for the love of the story, but for the love of box-office bucks. But, you’ll notice, all those films came from Disney. So what would happen if another studio tried to turn one of its biggest animated films into a live-action? Well, it’s also bad. We know our opinion is subjective here, but animator/film critic Alex Meyers agrees. Thanks to sponsor Raycon, he’ll talk you through why it was a baffling decision to make this movie in the first place, and how some of the choices made in the development process are even more baffling. Why can’t we just leave animated masterpieces alone?!?!
…and there’s a lot more data where that came from. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.
It’s been seven months since Southern California was devastated by a series of wildfires, and YouTube is adding to the ongoing relief efforts. The platform has earmarked $3 million to directly support creators who were affected by the disaster.
The $3 million sum is coming out of the $15 million total YouTube and Google jointly pledged to wildfire relief efforts back in January. Creators are eligible to access that fund if their property was lost or damaged in the fires. That group includes some of YouTube’s biggest names, including both members of the duo known as Colin and Samir.
YouTube’s goal, however, is not just to help its homegrown creators get back on their feet. Los Angeles would not be able to maintain its status as the epicenter of U.S. creator content without supporting a broader community of creative professionals, and YouTube is looking to support those individuals as well, “regardless of whether they create on YouTube.”
That quote comes from a blog post authored by YouTube VP of Sales Adam Stewart, who lost his own home in the wildfires. “That magic of Los Angeles lies in its rich ecosystem of creative talent,” Stewart wrote. “The people who support our creators and their growing businesses are a vital part of the YouTube family: the editors, writers, costume teams, and countless other professionals who make up the backbone of the creative industry.”
YouTube is one of several platforms that have supported creators who have been displaced by wildfires. Like Spotify, it opened its doors to provide studio space for affected individuals.
Some of those creators chose to document their experiences during the wildfires through harrowing vlogs that went online in the days following the onset of the disaster. Those videos are part of a long history of first-person disaster viewpoints published on YouTube. Those eyewitness accounts date back to Hurricane Katrina, which hit the South just a few months after YouTube was established.
YouTube’s video journalism community is an important part of its culture, so it’s nice to see the platform giving back to creators who have told painful — but important — stories. The $3 million of support will be distributed through the Entertainment Community Fund, an organization that advocates for professionals in fields like theater, film, television, radio, music, and dance.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on YouTube’s support for LA wildfire relief includes $3 million fund for local creators
