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It's Tuesday and an eclectic group of bow, whip, and sword-wielding creators have raised over $100K to bring their dream D&D campaign to life—starring themselves, of course.

Today's News

🎁 TikTok Shop's got gift cards
📈 Reddit's AI ad revenue
🗓️ Brandz
🎥 Google's creator chatbots
🌲 How many trees are in Skyrim?

TIS THE TIKTOK SEASON

With TikTok's U.S. deal approved, Shop is tempting buyers and sellers

The deal: TikTok just announced its planned sale to a White House-approved group of buyers (which, btw, includes Silver Lake, the private equity firm that just bought Electronic Arts in partnership with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners).

The ink's not dry yet (the deal is slated to close January 22, 2026), but TikTok's acting like it's business as usual. TikTok Shop, fresh off $500 million in Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, is rolling out new features to lure both buyers and sellers.

The buyers: First and perhaps biggest is the debut of TikTok Shop gift cards.

Just in time for the holidays–although a little late for folks who actually have their lives together enough to buy gifts before the last minute–consumers can now send each other digital gift cards with values between $10 and $500.

And, because this is TikTok, the cards are gamified: Right now, users can outfit them with a variety of animated designs. But in 2026, TikTok plans to release updates that will let users attach video messages to cards, and will turn receiving the cards into an "interactive unboxing that captures their reaction in real-time," according to a TikTok spokesperson.

The sellers: People need places to burn all that gift card money, so of course TikTok Shop is also seeking more sellers. It's offering to subsidize their costs with no joining fees, up to $6,000 in coupons, and up to $22,800 in some sort of bonus or rebate tied to sales performance.

The reasons: TikTok's current pitch is simple. Selling here now costs less. The company's betting that cheaper entry and fresh gift-card money will kickstart a cycle of new sellers and more spending.

Not all that money will circulate immediately, though. Starbucks reports there's about $1.7 billion unspent on its store gift cards at any given moment. Data from Bankrate shows 47% of U.S. adults have at least one unspent gift card, with an average value of $187.

All of which means that as TikTok Shop sales continue to likely climb, the company has added another lucrative revenue stream. In the gift-card business, even unspent money has a way of paying off.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

Google is experimenting with AI avatars of real-life YouTubers. They're designed to look and talk like the actual creators, and will chat with fans. The future is here, we guess? (e)
Brainrot hits the marketing world in Colgate's latest ad campaign, where claymation toothpastes take the stage in their very own minidrama series. (DesignRush)
Is ragebait marketing really working? Maybe. Maybe not. (Marketing Brew)
Just days after its video podcast deal with Netflix, which sent some of its top series over to the streamer exclusively, iHeartMedia has announced it'll let creators start uploading video podcasts to its own platform, too. Intriguing. (The Hollywood Reporter)

REDDIT'S AGE OF ADS

As traditional search engines see trouble, Reddit is making more ad money than ever

The schism: Overwhelmed by Google Search results condensed with AI and stuffed with SEO slop, people have increasingly added "Reddit" to the ends of their queries, hoping to reach a place where real people can answer their questions.

Now, that's not to say Reddit is some kind of AI-free utopia: It's signed deals with Google and OpenAI to allow scraping of users' content for LLM training. But its 400+ million monthly active users still make it one of the internet's largest forums, with real humans (including a fair amount of subject matter experts) asking and answering questions about literally every topic you can imagine.

The growth: Gaining that reputation has pushed Reddit's traffic to new levels—and helped its ad revenue grow 46.3% from November 2024 to November 2025.

For reference, Reddit's Q2 2025 ad revenue was $465 million. A year earlier that figure was only $253.1 million. The company's YoY growth percentages were greater than every other major platform, including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, and Snapchat.

Reddit sees this trajectory, so it's been pushing advertising hard, including introducing AI ad tools to ride that buzzword wave. And, even more than that, it wants to truly challenge Google and other search engines in their own territory:

❝

During the platform's Q2 earnings call, CEO Steve Huffman said that Reddit is "positioned to become a true search destination. We offer something special, a breadth of conversations and knowledge you can't find anywhere else."

The payoff: Moving forward, Reddit wants to expand its AI-powered Reddit Answers feature globally and merge the product into its default search bar. This creates a single space where users can search for answers and information and choose between AI-generated results or human discussions. It's a combination no other platform can match at the same scale.

Like many other companies throwing everything at AI, Reddit is doing well right now. But what happens when the bubble bursts?

GOSPEL STATS WEEKLY BRAND REPORT

MrBeast ft. his meat

The latest top videos: After a rare week absent from our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report top 5, MrBeast returns in form, sweeping not one, not two, but three spots on this week's list—two of which bring eyeballs to his ongoing brand partner Jack Link's.

Here's the top 3 for the week—and for the rest, you'll have to check out our full lineup.

🥇 #1. MrBeast x Slack: How IShowSpeed Almost Ruined My Video (15.4M views)
Hey, you know content? You like content? Well, what if we made content…of content

That idea has carried MrBeast's secondary channel MrBeast 2 for a while now. It's become a pretty dependable pattern: He puts out a video on his main channel, and then, a few days later, the behind-the-scenes video hits MrBeast 2, capitalizing on the original video's traffic and bringing yet more views (and ad revenue) to the Beast empire.

This #1 video this week is a behind-the-scenes of another #1 MrBeast video from early November, 100 People Vs World's Biggest Trap!. The meta-hit also showcases MrBeast's real production workflow, featuring sponsor Slack as a key part of his tech stack

🥈 #2. MrBeast Gaming x Jack Link's: 1 Pro vs 500 Hunters (15.2M views)
This video is possibly the quintessential MrBeast content. Mass competition? Got it. Someone being chased? Check. Huge cash prize? Yup. Like MrBeast 2 has become a sort of behind-the-scenes channel, MrBeast Gaming is the home for typical MrBeast-sized challenges in virtual worlds.

In this Jack Link's-sponsored video, one Minecraft expert could walk away with a crisp $25K if he can avoid 500 fellow players for a whole hour. No spoilers!

🥉 #3. Dawson DIY x Craftsman: TRASH TO TREASURE! #diymirror #furnitureflip #christmaspresentideas (13M views)
As we noted last week, smaller channels are increasingly being tapped for Shorts partnerships–especially partnerships that revolve around housekeeping and DIY improvements. That's the case with Dawson DIY, which has 100,000 subscribers and snagged a deal with Craftsman to help turn an old mirror into a classy Christmas gift for his mom.

This partnership is well-timed not just for holidays, but because everyone's feeling the financial squeeze right now—and it's nice to have a reminder that there's nothing wrong with thrifting or re-gifting. (Just make sure you take the price tag off.)

WATCH THIS 👀

This is very important scientific information

A new hand touches the beacon: Any Austin wants to know exactly how many trees are in Skyrim. Actually, he wants to know a lot of things, like if the airport signs in Grand Theft Auto are accurate, and if settlements in games like Fallout and The Legend of Zelda have sustainable local economies. Also, where do the birds in Red Dead Redemption 2 go?

Austin has answered all of those questions with dauntingly thorough investigations, but this latest premise was perhaps his most daunting of all. And, in recognition of just how freakin' difficult it is to count every single tree across an enormous digital map, he called in some help.

In this video, MatPat, hbomberguy, and more all lodge their guesses—some supported by evidence, some full seat-of-the-pants. Whoever gets closest (Any Austin left no stone unturned and tapped someone to get into the game files and find the correct answer) wins a donation for their preferred charity. 'Tis truly the season of giving.

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