Authentic lands in your inbox every Tuesday, with the deals worth studying, the strategies worth stealing, and the shifts worth watching… all from the people building the brand-creator economy from the inside. If someone forwarded you this newsletter, you can find us at liveauthentic.io.
Tickets to the Brand-Creator Summit are now live at events.aivanta.io/e/authentic, including a limited Shantell Martin package with a signed copy of her book, Shantell Martin: Lines. Early bird pricing is available for a limited time, and we'll be announcing new speakers here and on the ticketing page over the next month.
Trending The Market
OpenAI Generates A Brand-Creator Strategy
OpenAI has hired Patreon co-founder and CTO Sam Yam as the leader of its newly-formed Creator Product Division.
The Big Pitch: OpenAI is looking to expand the influence of its products not just in the tech ecosystem, but within culture at large. But the biggest hurdle may be getting creators to trust the AI giant to not disrupt their work. By hiring someone who has spent the past decade building bridges in the community, OpenAI may be on the road to becoming a flagship tool for cutting-edge creators.
Between The Lines: After 13 years, Yam is moving from Patreon to OpenAI.
Here’s what to expect:
According to Tubefilter, Yam will “build an ecosystem that makes offerings like ChatGPT work harder for creators and their partners.”
And he won’t be alone in the endeavor since he’s bringing with him two colleagues from Patreon — SVP of Product Drew Rowny and engineering lead Shannon Ma.
More details will be shared at OpenAI’s annual DevDay event taking place today.
The Analysis: OpenAI knows that creators are the next battleground for increased adoption of its products.
Meta is already ahead of the curve in working with creators across all its systems and devices.
Microsoft is trying to get ahead by offering deals worth half a million dollars for long-term creator partnerships.
Google struck a wide-ranging deal with MrBeast to promote Gemini and several of its other products.
OpenAI has already dipped its toe in the creator world when it acquired livestream talk show TPBN earlier this year. With Yam at the helm, expect for OpenAI to develop some cutting-edge products that lead the way to a lot more dealmaking in the brand-creator economy.
Together with Consumable
Audio For The Outcomes Era
Most media plans treat audio as a few line items: a streaming buy, maybe a podcast sponsorship. But the audio ecosystem is far bigger than that… and much of it is going untouched.
Mobile apps, addressable podcast audiences, and creator-led content extended across platforms — these are spaces where attention is intentional and trust already exists.
Consumable opens up that ecosystem.
The tool helps you reach 210M+ Comscore-verified monthly users across formats and channels.
It’s powered by listener intelligence, precision targeting, and modern identity infrastructure.
Every audio impression is measurable, addressable, and tied to real outcomes.
Consumable lets brands reach audiences wherever they listen, with the same precision and accountability marketers expect from their best digital channels.
Through immersive ad experiences that combine audio, visuals, and interactivity, brands can finally turn listening into engagement and business impact.
Building The Stack
101 Studios Cooks Up Yes Chef Studios With Creator Jack Goldburg
101 Studios, the production company behind TV hits like Yellowstone and Tulsa King, is partnering with Goldburg’s hugely-popular food and travel channel Jack’s Dining Room to launch a new creator-led foodie outfit, Yes Chef Studio. 101 is committing $25 million to the project, which will develop both scripted and unscripted programming and even incubate fledgling foodie influencers. With this deal, it looks like 101 Studios hopes to launch the creator version of The Food Network.
YouTube Joins The Microdrama Trend
Microdramas are already huge in Southeast Asia and are blowing up in popularity in the US, so YouTube doesn’t want to see upstart studios like aTwist and GammaTime pass it up. So, the Google-owned video giant is letting creators organize their vertical videos into microdrama episodes. It’s a savvy UX change that turns the average video playlist into something a little more addictive.
Every TikTok Is Now A Sponsorship Opportunity
If you’ve been scrolling TikTok lately, you may have noticed that nearly every user-generated video evolves into an ad. That’s no fluke — brands have realized that seemingly everyday videos seem more trustworthy than overly-produced content. So, they’re leaning into the trend and brokering deals with UGC marketplaces like Sideshift to turn creators into a grassroots campaign. So far, both creators and brands have loved the arrangement.
Do you think AI can supercharge authentic creators?
Social Updates
Meta rolled out its new consumer AI agent, Muse, and it’s already a major hit.
Meta also unveiled a new generation of VR glasses that can finally take the tech mainstream.
YouTube is allowing users to tweak their algorithmic recommendations via AI prompts.
YouTube will let everyone make reaction content to longform videos.
Spotify is also allowing users to adjust their algorithms to better fine-tune what music is filtered for discovery.
Wrapping Up
That's it this week. Before you close out: tickets to the Brand-Creator Summit are now on sale at events.aivanta.io/e/authentic. Early bird pricing is up for a limited time, so if you have been planning to be in the room with us, now is the moment to move.
A limited number of Shantell Martin packages are available, each with a signed copy of her book, Shantell Martin: Lines. Once those are gone, they’re gone. Newly confirmed speakers will be announced here in the newsletter and on the ticketing page as the program comes together over the next month. It’s going to be a good room.
— The Authentic Team