IYCMI: 2025 Wrapped + Recapped
Plus, Rare Beauty Substack Secrets
Let me set the stage for today’s newsletter:
ICYMI has been around for 5 years. Thank you for making this possible!
I celebrated by reuniting with Rare Beauty’s MacKenzie Kassab on Tuesday for an update on their branded Substack, Rare Beauty Secrets that I could share with you
And I got to attend Spotify’s Wrapped party Thursday night, celebrating their 2025 report
Combine these things and you’ve got a wrapped and recapped theme, including some of the amazing insights MacKenzie shared about brand storytelling.
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
YouTube launched its first ever YouTube Recap
Spotify had its biggest Wrapped launch ever
TikTok Shop saw nearly 50% more U.S. shoppers YOY during BFCM
Meta is testing an AI support assistant to help you recover your account
Instagram orders employees back to the office 5 days a week
Facebook launched its first-ever Facebook Marketplace Holiday Shop
Starting December 10, Australia will no longer allow kids under 16 to access social media
Rare Beauty: how the beauty brand thinks about its Substack audience and how they approach writing the Rare Beauty Secrets newsletter
💻 ROADMAP
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube launched its first ever YouTube Recap, a personalized highlight reel of everything you watched in 2025.
“We’ve been hearing for many years that people have been wanting this, ever since YouTube Rewind,” Senior Product Manager Karen Scruggs told me. “We finally feel like the technology has gotten to the point where we can actually make something that feels really personal to you.”
The Recap report breaks down your top interests, the channels you binged, the creator you watched the most, and even assigns you a YouTube “personality” (eg. The Creative Spirit, The Self-Improver, The Serenity Seeker).
The team say they went through nine rounds of user research and tested over 50 different concepts before introducing Recap. Judging by the fact it told me I was, “Most likely to plan your next trip based on the best food spots you find on YouTube” — 10/10. No notes.
📲 Spotify Updates
Spotify dropped Wrapped on Thursday, marking its biggest launch ever a rep told me. Within the first 24 hours there were over 500M shares this year, a 41% increase YOY.
Two other details that caught my attention:
More than 80% of the Top 50 podcasts in the U.S. featured a video episode, up from 2024. It basically confirms what we’re all seeing — podcasts keep getting more visual.
This year also included a Listening Age category that immediately sparked some existential concerns. Depending on your listening habits — speakeasy tunes, New Wave or 2010 bops — people were alternately humbled or thrilled at their predicted ages. “When that hits a nerve — in a good way — it speaks to how people are feeling about what they listen to,” said Spotify’s Head of Creator Marketing, Nina Yiamsamatha. “In my case, it was 81. I like jazz, what can I say?”
📲 TikTok Updates
TikTok Shop saw nearly 50% more U.S. shoppers who bought something during Black Friday-Cyber Monday, compared to the same period last year, according to the platform, with sales exceeding $500 million.
TikTok announced a new Nearby Feed (starting in Europe) that connects you with local content, creators, and businesses in your area.
📲 Meta Updates
Instagram Views will now be counted when someone sees your post in their feed or taps into it from your profile or Explore, said Adam Mosseri. That reverses a recent update that counted views from Explore and Profile, even if someone didn’t tap in.
Meta published a list of Reels ad tips, telling marketers to focus on “crafting experiences that resonate” with audiences.
Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly slashing the metaverse budget by up to 30% next year, which includes Meta Horizon Worlds and its Quest virtual reality unit, according to Bloomberg.
Meta is testing an AI support assistant to help you recover your account: “This is new technology that we’re testing first on Facebook globally, and we’re exploring bringing it to our other apps in the future.” The new account recovery experience reportedly adjusts to your particular situation with clearer guidance and simpler verification, including an optional selfie video.
Facebook launched its first-ever Facebook Marketplace Holiday Shop, an in-app storefront for holiday gifting with curated collections from creators like Tay BeepBoop and April Lockhart.
📲 LinkedIn Updates
LinkedIn published a blog titled, 7 Ways to Get More Readers and Subscribers for Your LinkedIn Newsletter. And six out of the seven tips are really applicable to any newsletter platform!
📲 Roblox Updates
Roblox is hosting a Creator Showdown — its first-ever Creator Invitational tournament. Eight popular Roblox video creators will face off in a 3-hour livestreamed competition for a chance to win a $50K prize pool.
💄 CATCHING UP WITH RARE BEAUTY
[photo: Team One, Brian Mcguffog]
Back in April, Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty brand launched a Substack newsletter, Rare Beauty Secrets. It was one of the first major brands to join the platform and I spoke with MacKenzie Kassab — who runs the newsletter — when she was just three weeks in.
This month, I wanted to see how things were going. So for ICYMI’s fifth anniversary, I invited MacKenzie for a fireside chat and eight-month check-in — graciously hosted by my friends at Team One, an ad agency focused on luxury brands.
When we first talked earlier this year, MacKenzie admitted that the two months of content she’d prepped pre-launch had already been tossed aside. Reader questions were coming in so fast that she was scrambling just to keep up — and already wondering whether weekly publishing was enough.
This time around, things felt a bit less chaotic. There’s still a goal to eventually increase cadence, but with limited resources for what remains an experimental project, “70% of the time we’re flying by the seat of our pants.” To move fast, she said, the approval process has to stay minimal. Brands need to let go of the idea that copy goes through seven layers of review.
Her biggest lesson for brands considering Substack: This is not email marketing. Substack is for sharing what the community wants to see, it’s not about what you want to tell them.
Substack is for sharing what the community wants to see, it’s not about what you want to tell them.
Here are three of the best anecdotes MacKenzie shared with me that show how Rare Beauty thinks about its Substack audience and how they approach writing the newsletter — funnily enough, two of them take place in bathrooms.
People don’t want polish, they want real
“The biggest surprise for me was the interest in our bathroom at work. I asked a question, ‘What do you guys want to see? And the common response was the restroom. My husband’s an architect. So I was talking about this with him this morning and he asked, ‘Is it a cool bathroom?’ No, it’s not. And I actually showed him a picture. He confirmed, ‘No, that’s actually not a cool bathroom. It’s just a normal bathroom.’ But I think it’s symbolic. People just want to see the nitty gritty. They want to see the behind the scenes. They want to see the unpolished part. And the restroom is a perfect example of that.”
Create moments of genuine connection
“I think of it as like when you’re in your 20s and you’re in the club and you’re in a restroom. You meet someone in the bathroom and tell each other how beautiful you look. You share your lipstick. You have this moment and it’s really special. You leave the restroom and you remember it, but you probably wouldn’t recognize that person tomorrow. But you had this moment where you felt like best friends. That’s what we’re trying to create with each newsletter. You may meet Judith, our director of inclusion, for one brief newsletter but in that moment, you guys feel like you are best friends.”
Small details have the greatest impact
“I remember sitting with a friend, and they said, ‘No matter how serious the story is, when you’re going to write the story, always think of the moment or the tidbits that you would tell a friend over drinks after the interview.’ So you interview a politician and they stick to their talking points. It’s a very serious topic and they’re a very important person. But you notice at the end of it that they’re wearing flip flops. So you leave and go to have happy hour drinks with your friends, and you say, ‘I just did this insane interview. And they said all these things about whatever’s happening in the world, but also the guy was wearing flip flops.’ Those moments are the moments that give color to the story, that keep it interesting. And I think that’s the approach that has served very well on Substack, it’s those happy hour anecdotes you turn into entire stories.”
*The full interview will be published later this month.
2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ ICYMI WRAPPED
This is a combo year-in-review and five-year retrospective — to celebrate ICYMI turning five.
How many words did you read this year: 74,160 — or the typical length for a YA novel
How many times did ICYMI hit your inbox: 89, which is about a dozen more than I meant to send but I’m a curious person and there were interviews I couldn’t resist doing, like the one about Microsoft and Alix Earle’s collab, or talking to the Beyond Meat Threads guy, or the YouTube social team and my friend at KFC
This year’s best launch: IMO, it’s a new hive mind-series that tapped social leaders in specific fields (higher ed, community apps, nonprofits). This might be my favorite thing all year so expect more in 2026. And if you have an idea for the next hive mind newsletter, let me know!
The newsletter you engaged with most: Your 2026 Predictions on the Social Platforms + Content Formats Driving Results
The most popular newsletter:
Did Social Just Self Destruct? (based on open rate and engagement)
followed closely by Social’s Batshit Weekend. January 2025 was a wild — not very good — time
The best compliment I received: I was called “the platform whisperer” during the Creator Spotlight podcast
Where are you located: 52% of the ICYMI community are in the US but we’re a global bunch, showing up everywhere from Brazil and Indonesia to Nepal and Serbia. Shout-out to the solitary ICYMI subscribers — literally, one person — in Laos, Angola, Zambia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo
How many newsletters have you read in 5 years: 325 newsletters since launch
What was the first newsletter: the creatively labeled Social Trends & Tools, Dec 18, which was sent on December 18, 2020
What has been the biggest traffic driver to ICYMI: After Substack and Google, it’s Buffer. Much gratitude to Tamilore Oladipo for including me in Buffer’s best marketing newsletters blog
Which platform topped your list: Instagram. Three of the top 10 ICYMI newsletters of all time included Instagram in the subject line
Which tech exec did you spend the most time with: Adam Mosseri. He’s been name dropped 107 times over 5 years, more than any other platform executive
🧮 SEARCH STATS
In 2025, the following phrases entered our consciousness. For the first time, we searched for:
According to Google Trends
👀 ICYMI: JUST THE HEADLINES
Instagram orders employees back to the office 5 days a week - CNBC
Grindr released an Unwrapped 2025 report - Grindr
Apple Music released its 2025 Replay report - Apple
The future of social media: 7 expert predictions for 2026 - Sprout Social (including me!)
The rise of the neighborhood influencer — trusted locals who recommend businesses in their communities on sites like Nextdoor and Reddit - Collabstr
MrBeast is building out a global creator platform, matching creators with Fortune 1,000 marketers - Business Insider
Starting December 10, Australia will no longer allow kids under 16 to access social media — also referred to as “behavioral cocaine” - SBS
Russia banned Snapchat and FaceTime - Bloomberg
Creator, founder and ICYMI friend Andrea Casanova launched Ginger for Creators, which sorts and negotiates creator deals directly from their email inbox.
Pantone announced its color of the year. People had feelings. King Arthur Flour made it work.
💌 PLEASE SUPPORT ICYMI
If you liked this post, please repost, give it a ❤️︎ or leave a comment. It helps and it costs $0.00.
If you’ve got the budget, you can Buy Me a Coffee or upgrade to a paid member subscription.
Or you can shop from my Bookshop.org or Amazon storefront for recommendations of the social and creator marketing books I’ve read recently.
OG subscriber here! Congrats on 5 yearssss! Here's to 5 more. My takeaway from today's newsletter is that your social media manager age is 84 lolll