TOGETHER WITH

It's Friday and OpenAI is keeping things PG(ish) after all. According to new reports, the company is hitting the brakes on the launch of ChatGPT's erotic "adult mode."

Today's News

🎤 YouTube hits the NewFronts
🏆 Creators get their own Clio Awards
📈 This week on the branded charts…
🗓️ Meta promotes cultural moments
🧠 Jeopardy! heads to YouTube

NEWFRONTS NEWS

YouTube wants advertisers to know the three B's.

At NewFronts, YouTube told brands to "bring, build, and boost" ads with creators and AI

The stats: YouTube wants marketers to know it's never been easier to advertise on its platform. At NewFronts, the video hub wooed marketers with a three-step plan called "Bring, Build, Boost."

"Our ask is that you bring your best content to the platform where it's going to work the hardest for you. Then you build scalable partnerships with the most trusted creators, period, and then you boost that content on our platform, really multiply the impact of what's possible for your brand and business."

- Kristen O'Hara, Google's VP of Agency, Platforms & Client Solutions

O'Hara came armed with solid stats, encouraging brands to "fund YouTube creator content so you can take advantage of the 86% higher ROI on our platform versus other platforms."

She went on to cite Google and Kantar's Future of Video report, noting that YouTube is the #1 platform viewers turn to when vetting or making a decision about a brand, product, and/or service. O'Hara added that 45% of Shorts viewers aren't on TikTok, and 65% aren't on Instagram Reels (per GWI).

The plan: All this data leads to the "Bring" part of YouTube's plan, which tells advertisers that if they're already doing social media marketing, adding in YouTube campaigns is a breeze. O'Hara urged marketers to use Google's generative AI tools to repurpose ads they've previously run on TikTok and Meta platforms, promising that if they do, they'll see 21% more long-term brand growth.

Then there are the "Build" and "Boost" steps of the plan, which direct brands to find their ideal spokespeople among YouTube's 3+ million Partner creators and produce content with them.

Ultimately, O'Hara told marketers that by advertising on YouTube, they're "going to spark discovery, drive decisions for your consumers, and engage new audiences that will go all the way from the Shorts feed to the living room."

🌟 SPONSORED 🌟

OpusClip helped Audacy reinvent radio for a social-first world—and score 1B+ views in the process

Radio has traditionally been viewed as legacy media: powerful in reach but slow to adapt to modern trends. The winners in today's digital age are radio broadcasters who know how to translate that reach into new platforms at scale.

Audacy is one of those broadcasters.

As one of the largest audio content creators in the United States, Audacy recognized the opportunity to extend the reach of its on-air moments by moving beyond traditional radio channels. But to make that vision possible, Audacy needed a solution that could:

Clip and publish content across 20 stations to all major social platforms
Accelerate time from live programming to social distribution
Scale output without exponentially increasing expenses
Focus on content outcomes, not just stream management

That's why Audacy turned to OpusClip.

As the world's #1 AI video clipping platform, OpusClip has helped millions of creators and brands create and distribute viral content in record time.

While other broadcasters over-indexed on one or two platforms, OpusClip allowed Audacy to expand its content output and generate 1B+ views by posting at scale across all major platforms.

Learn more about OpusClip →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

The Cleos are more creator-y.

In 2026, the Cleo Awards are getting a new media reinvention. An event called Clio Creators will honor shining examples of sponsored creator content across all major social media platforms. (Tubefilter)
A U.S. District Judge has dismissed Elon Musk's lawsuit against a group of advertisers, who he claimed broke antitrust laws by colluding to boycott X. (Ars Technica)
Netflix is once again raising the cost of monthly subscriptions. A $1-$2 price hike will affect the streamer's ad-supported tier, as well as its premium and standard ad-free plans. (TechCrunch)
Spotify and three major record labels are suing Anna's Archive for $322 million over allegations that the website scraped millions of music files from Spotify's streaming service. (Ars Technica)

GOSPEL STATS 📈

MrBeast smiling, presumably because of all the brand deals he's done.

Top Branded Videos: Love and hate (the MrBeast way)

Gospel Stats' latest Weekly Brand Report offers up a double dose of reality TV. Among this week's top five most-watched branded videos, we have both an episode of Druski's Coulda Been Love and a MrBeast challenge featuring two Temptation Island stars (who also happen to be exes).

🥇 #1. MrBeast x PUBG Mobile: Survive 30 Days Stranded With Your Ex, Win $250,000 (104M views)
PUBG Mobile made the #2 spot last week thanks to a tournament put on by Ludwig and his other sponsor, Samsung. This week, the battle royale game celebrated its 8th anniversary by paying to trap one dude in the wilderness with five of his exes. The central couple in all that drama proved to be Grant and Ashley of Temptation Island fame. Grant cheated on Ashley during the show…so, not the ideal camping scenario.

🥈 #2. Druski x T-Mobile, Buffalo Wild Wings, PrizePicks: Coulda Been Love 2 Episode 4: Crashout Tranquilizer (8.3M views)
We said last week that Druski's reality show (a classic "who gets the guy" competition) feels like old VH1. This week, two of the series' sponsors—T-Mobile and Buffalo Wild Wings—are legacy brick-and-mortars, the exact kind of companies that would have sponsored a VH1 show back in 1998.

🎰 #3. Marques Brownlee x Ridge: Macbook Neo Impressions: Reincarnated! (7.2M views)
Marques Brownlee became Ridge's Chief Creative Officer in 2024 and now enjoys frequent sponsorship from the RFID wallet company. His latest Ridge-backed video offers viewers a review of Apple's new MacBook Neo—a topic likely to appeal to both Brownlee's typical fans and the kind of techy consumers who might go for an RFID wallet.

Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

AD WORLD

Meta is also saying it can put advertisers "at the center of culture".

Meta is taking a page out of TikTok's tentpole playbook

The pitch: Meta's 2026 NewFronts presentation revealed how the tech giant aims to keep up with the Joneses.

New ad formats on platforms like Facebook and Instagram will help Meta channel TikTok's cultural relevancy while tapping into YouTube's creator economy prowess and the ongoing AI frenzy.

One of the focal points of Meta's NewFronts pitch was its effort to put advertisers "at the center of culture." To further that mission, the Reels trending ads Meta announced a year ago are getting a makeover. Those spots (which bear a strong resemblance to TikTok's Pulse suite) run during important dates on the calendar. They'll now be active during Fashion Week, F1, Black Friday, and NFL games.

Meta shared some stats to explain the importance of tentpole events as marketing opportunities. Attention spans have shrunk 69% in twenty years, but the human brain now needs less than a half-second to register an ad. Taken together, those data points show that brands need to make an immediate impact at the exact moments audiences are locked in.

The AI aspect: Other aspects of Meta's presentation seemed to pull from YouTube's playbook. Both Meta and YouTube are redesigning their creator partnerships hubs to help brands connect more easily with like-minded influencers. In Meta's case, a new platform will let users coordinate campaigns across Facebook and Instagram, evaluate results, and turn organic posts into paid media.

Advertisers can also employ new AI tools, including one that generates product videos inspired by catalog listings and an automated video voiceover product. Meta's latest tech has a lot of potential for ad partners—and given how quickly those brands need to act, we're guessing they'll appreciate all the automated assistance they can get.

WATCH THIS 👀

This is YouTube Jeopardy!

Jeopardy! is coming to YouTube—and putting creators in control of the board

The YouTube edition: An iconic game show is dipping its toes into the creator economy. Come March 31, a trio of creators will have control of Jeopardy!'s iconic, blue-tinted game board.

On that date, Ken Jennings is set to host a livestreamed "YouTube Edition" of the show featuring creators-turned-contestants Rebecca Black, Monét X Change, and Brennan Lee Mulligan.

Check out a trailer for the special episode here, and head over to youtube.com/jeopardy next Tuesday to catch the show.

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