Mr. Beast is the biggest story in media you probably aren't paying enough attention to
Should traditional media companies even try to replicate this? What about brands?
Before I start - I’m close to wrapping up what has been a terrific podcast sponsorship program on the future of TV with OpenAP. We’ve had guests on from NBCU, dentsu, Molson Coors, CBS, etc. Check it out here on Spotify. If you’re interested in such a sponsorship, please get in touch at mike@shieldsstrategic.com
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The other day at the Code Conference - former Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked about the potential for streaming to deliver the kinds of cultural breakthrough moments that were once limited to theatrical movie releases. Iger mentioned shows like The Mandalorian, and House of the Dragon as evidence that yes, streaming can deliver huge hits. As for theaters- well, the movie business just saw some of the worst box office weekends in recent history.
Yet ironically - it was streaming that actually drew massive crowds in the physical world over Labor Day Weekend.
It was during that holiday weekend that thousands of people lined up at an indoor mall featuring a ski slope and wave pool - during the unofficial last weekend of the summer, when it was gorgeous in the North East - for hamburgers.
Not just any hamburgers - Mr. Beast Burgers.
I mean, look at these pictures.
It says something that so many people would skip the beach, movies, and certainly linear TV - to pile into a mall that is near nothing else, built in an area of the country seemingly designed specifically to create bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Despite having graced the cover of Rolling Stone and appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Mr. Beast, and his audience, influence and business impact may be the most underrated story in media.
Let’s just go through some of the numbers.
I remember when it was a big deal that PewDiePie hit 20 million subscribers on YouTube, back in 2014. In July Mr. Beast joined him by crossing the 100 million subscriber mark.
Invidualy, Beast’s videos average 43 million views each, according to CreatorIQ.
Bloomberg reporter Mark Bergen, who has just written an awesome new book on YouTube, joked that when looking at YouTube trends, the top categories that pop up are “music, gaming and Mr. Beast.”
YouTube creators are “.the most influential body of people on the planet probably, said Bergen earlier this week on on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast. In this case, the influence is astonishing. Not only is Beast able to drive massive viewership, but with Beast Burgers he’s driving real world behavior, and has even built a brick and mortar business in a way that I’m not sure we’ve seen from the creator economy, or even regular media industry.
Even in an era where TikTok is increasingly the driver of such trends, YouTube channels like Beast don’t get enough credit for their consistency, audience size, and cultural resonance.
That said, Beast doesn’t just live on just YouTube. Per Tubular, he has 211 million connections overall on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter - all of which he used to drive people to the Beast Burger location in Jersey.
As CreatorIQ put it:
Mr. Beast took to YouTube the day before the opening September 3, posting a promo video that has amassed more than 25.5M views, 1.5M likes and 46K comments and counting. He also revealed in the video that he would be working there opening day, which started to stir up buzz.
On opening day, Mr. Beast leveraged the “real-time” elements of Twitter to actually drive fans to the opening, which drew more than 10,000 people. His four Twitter posts garnered more than 781.2K likes and 20.3K retweets, playing an instrumental role in the influencer driving consumer behavior and breaking the world record for most burgers sold in a day by a single restaurant.
The question I’m asking is, what does this mean - for the traditional media business?
Consider that according to Tubular Labs, MrBeast was ranked No. 33 in minutes watched across YouTube & Facebook in July 2022, with 3.2 billion minutes - that includes big media companies, gaming companies, music artists - everybody!
Can the NBCUs and WarnerMedias of the world foster or engineer this kind of talent and influence? Should they even try?
Can Google do more with Beast - who feels like could command his own upfront and maybe even become a human brand incubator?
What about marketers themselves?
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It’s not as though some of biggest players in media haven’t tried to wed themselves to digital creators. Until recently Warner Media owned Fullscreen, which was home to YouTube big names such as Grace Helbig and Devin Super Tramp. Do they matter anymore?
To its credit, NBCU gave a late night show to YouTuber Lily Singh. It didn’t last - which may have a lot more to do with linear TV’s decline and the fact that it was on at 1:30 am.
Paramount and Disney occasionally put these kinds of creators on reality shows like The Amazing Race and Dancing with the Stars - and that’s as far as it goes.
Is it fair to wonder whether big media could ever birth a talent like Beast?
“Look at Moonbug exploding right under their noses at Paramount,” said Jason Krebs
Chief Business Officer at StreamElements. “These companies, it’s not just the lack of will, it’s the people. Beast is bigger than a cable network right now by far - but big media is not equipped to act this way.”
Could marketers? Krebs predicted we’ll see more brands try to let influencers help them build a new products lines.
Will you line up for Beast tacos? Beast sneakers? Beast Insurance? Or is this just another fad?
To be sure, it’s not as though we’ve never had teens lining up up to see talent that a few years later wouldn’t draw anything resembling a crowd. At one point the New Kids on the Block couldn’t walk through the food court without causing hysteria. I’m pretty sure Jason Priestly can roll through JFK without getting his shirt ripped off, but there was a time when he had to worry.
So maybe Mr. Beast eventually fades away - or keeps building a media empire.
“The difference now is that Beast has the pipes and the product,” said Krebs. “Now yes, he’s a unicorn, but there are a lot more influencers like him.”
Will any of this have staying power? Is Beast closer to Tiffany, or Dave Portnoy?
“The truth is nobody knows,” said Krebs.
he made so much money
Thanks for writing, Mike. Mr. Beast is a fascinating case study, but my question with "new media" sensations is staying power and crossover potential. "Traditional" media and entertainments draws usually do well in new media, but the inverse is not often true. Social/new media stars sometimes see their influence wane overnight, as when a platform disappears (Vine) or when monetization is crippled due to an algorithm change (YouTube et al). To be fair, Mr. Beast is more diversified than some who have succumbed to those industry whims. And the more social/"new" consolidates, the less volatile those pursuits will be. None of this is a challenge to your post, which I agree with. I'm just curious what long-term short-form content creator success looks like. I once heard Brendan Gahan of Epic Signal say (and I'm paraphrasing, not quoting) that the less a consumer has to invest (not financially) in content (Vine), the less they'll be invested in the content creator in the long term. I'd be interested to hear what you think about that perspective.