Is being named Paige the key to success on social? 👀
+ your opportunity to enter the Sports chat
quick summary ⚡️
How you can prepare for basketball to dominate the social conversation over the next 2 weeks + a new Ones to Watch featuring today’s current it-girls for our premium subscribers
Cultural gems: Streamers are partnering with YouTube creators (!) and Google is testing creator partnerships on YT Shorts and more
A fun new word we just learned: SNARF
who’s ready for some basketball?
March Madness is heating up and it’s about to dominate the social conversation for the next few weeks. And you don’t need to be the biggest sports fans in the world to get in on the excitement.
[Seriously, we’ve been talking sports since last week when we heard that TV advertisers increased their spend on women’s sports 139%.]
As the tournament gets underway, we’ll be watching how brands and creators are activating against the moment. In pop culture in particular, it feels like all eyes are on the women’s teams. Here are a few moments we’ve loved so far:
TOGETHXR - the brand behind that “Everyone Watches Women's Sports” t-shirt we saw everywhere this time last year - kicked off a campaign that encourages U.S. bars around to show the women’s tournament on at least 50% of their TVs.
Apple TV+ made the well-timed announcement that they’re bringing back “Ted Lasso” and Jason Sudeikis said his character will be coaching a women’s team. [FWIW, we don’t remember anyone wearing the aforementioned TOGETHXR shirt more than Jason.]
This year’s March Madness queen Paige Bueckers has an insane amount of NIL deals; that is, a person's legal right to control how their image is used, including commercially. She’s been joking to her 3.3 million TikTok followers that more of her videos than not are ads.
Speaking of Paige, she is the inspiration behind our latest edition of Ones To Watch, which is here for our premium subscribers. Join us as we ask the question: how did all the Paiges become it-girls?
P.S. Premium subscribers also got a great new deep dive from Megan Collins on how the big sports moments can unlock content opportunities, regardless of where you [or your brand] fall in the fandom.
P.S.S Did you take our survey in yesterday’s email to help us create more content that you want to read!? (please! 🙏)
💎cultural gems💎
The moments and news catching our attention this week:
NETFLIX, AMAZON AND PEACOCK GO BIG ON POPULAR YOUTUBERS, wsj
“Amazon’s success with MrBeast’s ‘Beast Games’ has sparked interest in YouTube creators, who have built large followings.”
GOOGLE IS TESTING CREATOR PARTNERSHIPS FOR YOUTUBE SHORTS ADS, keith bendes on linkedin
“The new beta feature will allow advertisers to discover and promote UGC YouTube Shorts that feature their brand.”
SXSW ‘25 DEBRIEF: WHAT YOU MISSED & I’M THINKING ABOUT, by
“I met a mom who is secretly ‘training’ her kid’s TikTok algorithm, quickly skipping and reporting ‘the bad’ and staying on ‘the good,’ ultimately influencing what her child sees later. She’s reporting successful results.”
AI SLOP IS A BRUTE FORCE ATTACK ON THE ALGORITHMS THAT CONTROL REALITY, 404 media
“Generative AI spammers are brute forcing the internet, and it is working.”
say no to SNARF 🙅🏻♀️
Speaking of AI slop…enter SNARF.
Coined by Jonah Peretti, Buzzfeed’s founder + CEO, SNARF represents the exaggerated and highly manufactured content that creators make in an effort to “hack” social media algorithms.
“For years, major social platforms have abandoned their responsibility to content and culture, instead handing over control to deep learning algorithms that optimize for one thing: engagement at all costs.”
Jonah breaks down how users can fight back against SNARF content in his latest piece for Buzzfeed here