I work in the creator economy, as do most of my friends.

I didn’t meet anyone rooting for Jake Paul in the Paul vs. Tyson fight.

‘Team 10’ and all of his controversies were just the start.

Jake’s brother Logan is trying to ‘mainstream’ his image, but Jake seems content to play the eternal ‘bad guy.’

Despite a universal panning of the actual match and (spoiler alert) Jake’s victory, the success of this match will undoubtedly change how the industry thinks about creators regarding premium sporting events.

So, are we doomed to see a future Super Bowl where the Lions take on Vlog Squad?

Also in this edition:

• Not an ‘Onion Headline’: The Onion Buys InfoWars

• Spotify Wants Your Videos

• TikTok’s Billion-Dollar Bet on LTK

• Bluesky Boom Time

• Job ops from TikTok, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Frankie’s Bikinis.

• …and a dank creator economy meme by yours truly!

Let’s get into it.

NEWS:

Paul vs Tyson: Profitable Elder Abuse

The boxing match of the year finished with very few punches thrown, no knockdowns, and a unanimous decision of a Jake Paul victory.

Plus, Netflix had many tech issues, with buffering pixelation reported often enough to trend on social media.

Needless to say: social media has made countless memes about how bad the actual fight was and how Jake Paul continues to only challenge boxers who aren’t actually… boxers (at least not anymore).

But let’s get to the critical stuff: 60 million households and a projected 120 million people watched the fight live, Jake Paul made $40m from the event to Mike Tyson’s measly $20m, and Netflix will likely continue its bull run with the sheer amount of buzz this event garnered (I couldn’t find any good information re: new Netflix signups).

So is this the new normal for live sports and creators?

My hot take: Of course! Creators are expert marketers, but to succeed, they need help with making great mass-market content.

Vince McMahon, former CEO of WWE, would be proud. This is ‘sports entertainment,’ not sports.

The Paul vs. Tyson fight was a huge bummer, but any boxing fan would know a 27-year-old influencer fighting a 58-year-old retired pro would unlikely garner top-tier product.

BUT! This was a 5.5-hour event, and everyone loved the match right before Tyson/Paul.

Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor had an absolute punch-fest of a bout with universal praise on social media.

That match would have gotten very little attention outside of core boxing wonks if not for Tyson/Paul.

And that’s good for the sport of boxing, great for Serrano/Taylor, and amazing for tune-in for the next event. Even if the main card stinks, it’s a fun hook to get regular folks to watch boxing.

Creators are expert marketers. And this was expert marketing at its expert-iest.

The Onion Does the Funniest Thing Possible…

InfoWars, the conspiracy theory-laden right-wing media brand starring disgraced pundit Alex Jones, went into bankruptcy after parents of Sandy Hook school shooting victims won a $1.5b lawsuit when Jones claimed the tragic event was staged.

So what do you do with a brand that’s completely sullied yet has tens of millions of diehard fans?

You turn it into a parody of itself. Literally.

The Onion, one of the most respected names in news-related comedy recently purchased by billionaire ex-Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, is the new owner.

My hot take: this is clearly trolling but essential stunting to revive an otherwise decaying brand.

The Onion used to be viral gold but lately has been lurking in the shadows.

When Lawson purchased the site from G/O Media in April of this year, the brand was no longer talked about.

Since then, they’ve announced a pivot to video, the return of their print edition, and now, this buzzy acquisition.

They’re announcing a grand return and showing they can still be funny.

Welcome to the 21st century, The Onion. You’re going to crush it!

Spotify Adds Creators to their Playlist

We all know Spotify has loved podcasters for over a decade, most notably with their $250m partnership with Joe Rogan.

Now they’ve announced a complete creator partnership program to court even more video creators.

Through an application process, creators with at least 12 Spotify episodes, 10,000 consumption hours, 2,000 unique listeners in 30 days, and in an eligible market can participate in a revenue-sharing program.

Does this mean Spotify is going after YouTube?

My hot take: Yes, but just for podcasts.

Spotify still earns most of their revenue from paid subscriptions, so it doesn’t need short-form ads to scale.

They need attention. Long-form attention.

And I think Spotify is right that podcasts are an excellent hook for more premium subscriptions.

Unfortunately, music is commoditized these days. You can hear Taylor Swift on every service, including TikTok and YouTube.

But podcasts like Trump on Rogan or Harris on Call Her Daddy move markets. And Spotify gets to own that story.

Without paying tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for them, of course.

And I’m sure they’re hoping this creator program is the dragnet that catches the next big podcast hit.

FAME & FORTUNE:

Growth and monetization opportunities for creators and brands.

Lemon8, the Bytedance-owned sister company of TikTok, has integrated into TikTok’s technology. Lemon8 acts as a mix between Instagram and Pinterest, so this will surely create growth opportunities for TikTokkers that are, let’s say, ‘Instagram-friendly’ (see: models).

Bluesky, a Twitter competitor for real-time micro-blogging, has consistently been at the top of the app charts, boasting as many as 1,000,000 downloads per day since the U.S. elections. Celebs on the app are growing fast, so it’s a good time to aggressively ‘sky’ your thoughts! (I have no clue if that’s what they call it, but I can’t think of any word for this but ‘tweet’.)

LTK, an affiliate marketing platform that sold $4.1b in products in 2023, is integrating into TikTok, which shows signs that TikTok plans to enter the affiliate space. If you’re a brand or creator with a female-forward, lifestyle-forward, westernized audience, you will want to start building your TikTok presence ASAP!

Views will now be a primary metric for Facebook reels, videos, posts, and stories, as explained in this exhaustive post about what a ‘view’ is. This is in line with Instagram’s recent pivot. Since a ‘view’ can be counted multiple times per user, unlike ‘impressions’, this presents a massive opportunity for content that requires a re-watch or re-review (see: aim for ‘saves’ and ‘shares’).

INDUSTRY HIRING:

Frankie’s Bikinis needs a Director of E-commerce, so feel free to submit a resume and cover letter, or as they call it, a ‘two-piece.’

Saatchi & Saatchi is looking for a Freelance Digital Strategist. But only if you correctly spell ‘Saatchi’ on your first try.

TikTok wants a Creator Operations Manager - TikTok Gaming for streaming fans who think Fortnite content should be shown in vertical video.

MEME ZONE:

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Until next time, protect yo rep.