Deep Fakes vs. Look-Alikes

This Week: Imagine a battle between celebrity deep fakes and human look-alikes.  In Fortnite!  That didn’t happen, but somewhere over the Shetland Islands en-route to Dubai I dreamed that it did.  Probably because I was still writing this newsletter. Deepfakes and look-alikes first, Fortnite after!

Live or Memorex?  Alexander Wang leans into the deep-fake controversy by leveraging celebrity look-alikes for a recent video campaign.  It doesn’t make the OpenAI / ScarJo controversy any more acceptable, but it does raise an interesting issue.  Where do we draw the line?  My take: if you could reasonably assume that an image or a voice is actually a celebrity then it’s wrong.  Creator Lawyer Tyler Chou is at SXSW agrees. “Alexander Wang is dangerously skirting the line and potentially violating Beyoncé and Taylor Swift’s right of publicity by using impersonators for commercial gain, which is strongly protected in California.”  Chou goes on to explain that “the commercial gain is what courts look at very closely.”

Freezing Teslas and Laddie Sites:  Fascinating stats inside Facebook’s Q1 2024 “Views and Viewers in Feed” report detailing who posts, top domains and more.  Yahoo and TikTok are the number 1 and 2 posting domains, while CBS News had the number one story – on frosty Teslas in a Chicago winter.  And Ladbible is the number one viewed page – with Unilad close behind.  The top viewed domains and stories racked up huge numbers – but are still just a drop in the immense overall Facebook page view bucket.

• Related: Facebook lays out its future – increasing its relevance for “Young Adults” and leaning into better AI video recommendations.  They claim 100 million creators now use “Professional Mode” in hopes of getting performance-based payments.

Games On YouTube: The Big Red “everything app”- now includes 75 mobile games now playable inside its walled garden.  I just wasted 20 minutes on “Magic Cat Academy, instead of watching the latest video from The Merrell Twins.  Not sure creators would consider that an equitable trade-off.

Dudes On Fortnite: Smart move by Dude Perfect, leaning into Fortnite with “Dude Perfect Dodgeball”, a 16-player free-for-all.  It’s the first of a family of Fortnite games from Dude Perfect. Building experiences on Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft is an emerging way for creators to expand their brand and make more money.  Roblox is a great place to build – according to Fixated’s Phil Ranta and Annoying Orange creator Bob Jennings 🔜 GDC .  Alas, others tell me that Epic still doesn’t have a coherent creator strategy – so unless you’re tapped, it’s probably not worth the effort.  Want to give “Dodgeball” a try?  The Fortnite island code is: 6049-0391-0019.

What is a Brand:  Creators – especially those of us on LinkedIn – are obsessed with being a brand.  But what does that mean?  My friend (and amazing newsletter author) Brad Berens, Ph.D. just listed 13 ways to think about a brand, from marks of ownership to “a bun of novelty wrapped around a hot dog of familiarity”.  #9 explores how brands define communities - but doesn’t lean into the unique connection between fans and creators.  We self-identify as “Nerd Fighters”, “Markiplites” or a ”KSI Army” recruit – and these community exhibit reinforcing behaviors that amplify the brand as well. Worth reading for anyone polishing or launching a brand. I’m looking forward to Berens’ next piece expanding on creators and influencers (hint, hint). 

Disrupted Search Spells Opportunity for Creators:  You might wonder why I write about Google Search here.  It’s because AI will totally disrupt the internet value chain, which means chaos for most online businesses.  But chaos begets opportunity for the creator economy. Alex Kantrowitz and TrueX founder Joe Marchese explored how that chaos will unfold.  One example – Kayak and other travel brokers will be destroyed.  But that’s an opportunity – and for example, it’s one that creator platform Atmosfy is leveraging (disclosure, I am on their advisory board).  As search dissipates, creators offer an increasingly valuable pipeline to every single online industry – and now’s the time to build.

• Related: Google says eating rocks and gluing cheese won’t spell doom for AI search results.

SPONSOR:  Don’t Miss the Whalar House in Cannes!

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QUIBIS:    

YOUTUBE

• Did you get stuck with YouTube’s awful new desktop redesign?  Here’s how to circumvent it and return to “normal”.

META

• If you really want to post over 90 seconds on Reels, Meta has some tips – although they still say you won’t get a lot of algorithmic love.
• Instagram expands “limits” to let you mute everyone but close friends.  Good to see these privacy shields in action.
• Instagram explores ways to test reels without actually launching them under your handle.

TIKTOK

• New guide helps advertisers leverage Olympics and European Football to drive awareness and sales.
• TikTok building a US-only algorithm, presumably to give them something to sell.
• Turnabout is fair play – TikTok copies Snap, tests DM streaks.

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

• Tumblr launches semi-private communities, in bid to compete with Reddit and Twitter.
• Avi Gandhi makes a compelling case for why YOU should attend VidCon.  See you there!
• Wondering how 427 creator economy startups raised $1.2B – check out these pitch-decks for inspiration.
• MrBeast jumps into the crowded creator tools market with ViewStats Pro – a $50 a month suite of tools to help creators understand their stats, explore A/B tests and create better videos.  Someone needs to do a comparative review here.
• It finally happened:  Mr. Beast passed T-Series as the most subscribed channel on YouTube.  Not that it means anything beyond bragging rights, but congrats to the whole Greenville team!
• Discord cores down on multi-player games and shared interests, and backs away from general purpose communities with a new brand refresh.
• Good story on how TikToker Alyssa McKay branched out into Snap – building a new channel in case TikTok gets shut down.  
• Creators who are also investors or shareholders need to disclose too. Alix Earle, who just invested in soda brand Poppi, is just the latest to raise questions here.
• Twitch fires every member of its “Safety Advisory Council”.
• LinkedIn changes the preview image size for links in organic and sponsored posts.
• What a slap in the face - Spotify CEO says cost of creating content is close to zero.  
• The power of creator events:  I was honored to interview French beatboxers Berywam on stage at Creator Week. Their collaboration with another creator at the event – Japanese musician Nao Yoshioka – now has over 100M views!
• Creator-centric comics platform Webtoon plans to go public soon in a win for the entire creator economy.

CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE

• OpenAI launches a new safety team, led by the CEO.  What could possibly go wrong?
• Huge treasure trove of Google Search Api documents inadvertently released, analyzed by longtime SEO expert Rand Fishkin (SEO Moz).  Lots of wonky stuff inside but creators and brands should jump to the end for “Big Picture Takeaways”.
• Get ready for “Meme Tech”.
• Udio expands AI model to generate two-minute songs.
• I love this story about “The Backrooms” and the weird internet history it encapsulates.

RESEARCH: 

• Rival releases GenZ trend study focused on marketing and engagement.  Notable stats:  less than half of GenZ uses TikTok (Instagram nearly 2x TT), almost half are turned off by influencer endorsements, and sustainability matters – but it’s just one of many important brand characteristics.
• Sprout Social drops its 2024 Content Benchmark report focused on social content postings in 2023.  Interestingly their study found that consumers want more video, but only a quarter of brand posts embrace the format.  And consumers they want more front-line workers in those videos, rather than corporate drones and executive leadership.  Chick-fil-A, are you listening? 

AWARDS: We’re up for an award!  Inside the Creator Economy is one of 4 finalists in the “SOLO” category for “The Publisher Newsletter Awards”!  So exciting.  The awards are in London in July.  Should I attend?  

I’m writing this from the café in the sky on Emirates, bound to Dubai for a week of work.   Next week I’ll be running the industry day at Open Sauce on June 14th in California, and then prepping for some hosting and moderating at VidCon two weeks later!  Look for a VidCon meetup Saturday evening in Anaheim!  Then a month of sleep.

100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!).

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I've built and sold multiple creator economy startups to top media companies - including Discovery and Paramount. Subscribe here on LinkedIn to get this newsletter every Monday.

Let me know what you think – email me at jim@louderback.com. Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.