|
|
TOGETHER WITH |
|
|
|
|
It’s Wednesday and Taylor Swift is taking a stand against AI deepfakes. Could trademarking her voice and likeness be the secret to stopping copycats? |
|
|
Today’s News |
⚔️ The Guild returns 📖 TikTok releases BookTok rankings 📈 This week on the branded charts… 🥗 Keith Lee comes to Tubi 🍻 TikTok embraces alcohol ads
|
|
|
|
|
TRIUMPHANT RETURN |
 |
The Guild is back, baby. |
|
Nearly 20 years later, The Guild is coming back as a movie |
The context: Nineteen years ago, Felicia Day created and starred in a show that poked fun at the gameplay and interpersonal dynamics of World of Warcraft clans. The Guild went on to become a shining example of the web series format and ultimately ran for six seasons. |
Flash forward to 2026, and Critical Role is huge on Twitch, video games like Minecraft have made it to theaters, nerdy creator groups have their own conventions, and the microdrama boom has revived the webseries format. |
The comeback: In other words, the time is ripe for the return of The Guild—and Day is delivering. The actor/screenwriter/creator is turning to Kickstarter to raise funds for a feature film that will continue the story of The Guild and reunite its principal cast members. |
Day could probably get studio backing for the film (after all, The Guild was important enough to be enshrined at the Smithsonian), but doing so would require her to sacrifice her creative vision. As she told Polygon last month, that’s a nonstarter. |
“I’m reviving The Guild to make a movie because it’s going to be on my terms, hopefully. I want to make things with and for the people who love them. So I’m very excited to do a Kickstarter, and we’ll see what happens. I have a story I want to tell, and I’ll make it in whatever format I can make it in.” |
| |
| - Felicia Day |
|
|
Day will get the chance to start telling her story on her own terms once she officially gets the ball rolling on Kickstarter. As of now, a fundraising campaign for a film adaptation of The Guild is listed as “launching soon.” |
|
|
|
|
How did the Diary of a CEO grow a new channel to 2M subs? It all comes down to OpusClip. |
The Diary of a CEO is one of the world’s top podcast brands, with 15M+ subscribers across its main channel—but when the Shorts craze hit, The Diary of a CEO team knew they could do more. |
Recognizing the growing impact of short-form content, the team launched a second channel, The Diary of a CEO Clips, to showcase highlights from full-length episodes. |
And to pull it off, they turned to OpusClip. |
OpusClip’s AI clipping technology automatically identifies the most engaging moments from long-form content and turns them into ready-to-publish clips. The result: The Diary of a CEO team was able to build an entirely new Shorts channel without adding more work to their plate. |
The Diary of a CEO Clips now claims over 2 million subscribers and has attracted more than 266 million views. |
What could you do with OpusClip? |
|
|
|
|
HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
 |
#BookTok is getting some official buzz. |
|
|
|
|
|
GOSPEL STATS 📈 |
 |
Outerspace-themed ASMR, anyone? |
|
Top Branded Videos: MrBeast, more MrBeast, and alien ASMR |
Gospel Stats’ latest ranking of most-viewed branded YouTube videos is a reminder that some formats never go out of style. At the top of the charts, MrBeast offered up a simple food challenge (and a behind-the-scenes look at one of his other, higher-stakes challenges), while a smaller creator took part in some good old-fashioned ASMR. |
🥇 #1. MrBeast x Feastables: Don’t Eat The Spicy Yoshi Egg (85M views)
Thea Booysen has been a frequent guest star in her fiancé’s videos lately. This time around, MrBeast tested the limits of their love by subjecting Booysen to the Spicy Yoshi Egg Gauntlet. The short-form food challenge featured Feastables’ Yoshi peanut butter egg, which is part of the snack brand’s collab with Nintendo for the new Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
🥈 #2. MrBeast 2 x Shopify: How I Tricked The Internet (25.4M views)
MrBeast’s #2 video might have over 25 million views to its name, but it actually capitalizes on the hype of a different video. The second-place upload—which was sponsored by longtime MrBeast partner Shopify—offers viewers a behind-the-scenes look at 50 Streamers Fight for $1 Million. |
Shopify also sponsored more than 70 other videos this week, which covered topics ranging from Star Wars to Ivanka Trump. |
🎰 #780. Amy Kay ASMR x Raycon: ASMR Worst Alien TSA Agent is Obsessed w/ You (Spaceship Ambience) (203.1K views)
ASMR has an enormous presence on YouTube, so it makes sense that Raycon (as a producer of audio equipment) would target that genre of creators for sponsorships. Add in the recent buzz around NASA’s Artemis II mission, and Amy Kay’s space-themed vid seems like a good bet for some branded backing. |
Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights. |
|
|
TUBI TIME |
 |
Keith Lee and other top creators are coming to Tubi. |
|
The next slate of Tubi originals features Keith Lee and Sofi Manassyan |
The announcement: Tubi is going all-in on creators. Last year, the Fox-owned streaming service brought in former TikTok exec Kudzi Chikumbu to forge creator partnerships, centered YouTube stars like Kinigra Deon in its film development plans, and rolled out a sprawling slate of creator-led originals. Then, early in 2026, veteran digital content exec Billy Parks joined Fox as the head of a new creator studio. |
Now, Tubi has announced another original programming slate featuring YouTube and TikTok standouts like food reviewer Keith Lee and Traitors alum Bob the Drag Queen. Lee’s contribution to Tubi will center around FamiLee Day, the all-ages event he is planning for later this year. |
“Tubi continues to be the go-to destination for audiences, where bold creator-driven content lives alongside the biggest Hollywood hits, even from the most niche corners of the internet…we’re continuing to give digital-first creators, who know their audiences deeply, a platform to go bigger and spread their original stories.” |
| |
| - Rich Bloom, Tubi GM of Creator Programs and EVP of Business Development |
|
|
The slate: Many of the newest additions to Tubi’s originals slate have previously shown up in our Top 50 charts. Multiformat survivalist Sofi Manassyan will venture into premium territory with Who Did It?, a horror-mystery anthology set to premiere exclusively on Tubi. Other notable creators coming to the AVOD platform include TikToker CelinaSpookyBoo and the stars of the web series Girl Talk. |
Tubi is also launching new projects alongside creators it has worked with in the past. After extending its Bloodsuckers franchise with a Tubi original, family channel Rock Squad is now bringing more teen dramas and occult thrillers to AVOD viewers. |
|
|
WATCH THIS 👀 |
 |
Malibu teamed up with comedy creator Sabrina Brier. |
|
TikTok is going for a booze cruise |
The alcohol ad boom: Age verification technology can be a vital resource for safeguarding vulnerable users on social media—but it can also be used to ensure that TikTok ads for alcoholic beverages reach their target audiences. |
That fact hasn’t escaped the notice of alcohol brands. A recent campaign from Malibu (aka the liqueur brand owned by Pernod Ricard) tapped comedy creator Sabrina Brier to promote its new pink-tinted beverage with a “get ready with me”-style video. |
Other alcohol brands coming to TikTok include Grey Goose, Espolòn, and St-Germain according to Fast Company—likely because it’s the best way to appeal to a rising generation of consumers who aren’t too keen on drinking. Gen Z accounted for just 4% of U.S. alcohol sales in 2025, and nearly half of adult Zoomers are teetotalers. |
If alcohol brands are going to change Gen Z’s mind about drinking, TikTok is the place to do it. More than half of alcohol ad spend comes on digital platforms, and that’s also where America’s young adults turn for product recommendations. |
|
|
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here. |
Want to introduce your brand to Tubefilter’s audience? Sponsor the newsletter. |
|
|
Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. |
