VidCon 2025, Day 1: What’s Next for Creators, Brands & Platforms

Greetings from Anaheim: I’m going to split the VidCon coverage into two emails. You’re reading the first one — a straight recap of Day 1. I’ll be sending out another newsletter on Monday with more comprehensive VidCon coverage and analyzing the most important platform updates we’ve seen over the past two weeks.

⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY

• YouTube Shorts are now averaging over 200 billion daily views

• YouTube announced Open Call, a new feature that lets creators pitch brands

• Instagram is testing the ability for users to repost posts

• Meta is bringing ads to WhatsApp

• Threads is testing a "spoiler alert" feature, that lets you blur text or images

• The potential TikTok ban has officially been pushed another 90 days

• CapCut’s terms of service haven’t really changed

• TikTok announced its Deals for You Days from July 7 to 19

• Amazon announced Prime Day from July 8 through July 11

• Adobe launched a Firefly mobile app

• Forbes released its annual Top Creators 2025 list

• Tubi launched Tubi for Creators to get digital stars into its content library

• Report: 41% of consumers send product feedback to creators, not brands*

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🗂️ INFLUENCER MARKETING REPORT

Here’s what most brands don’t realize about working with creators:

You’re not just getting reach — you’re getting real influence on how people shop.

Among the insights revealed in Sprout Social’s new State of Influencer Marketing Report, this one really stood out:

41% of consumers send product feedback to creators, not brands!

If consumers are turning to creators instead of your customer care team, that’s a signal — and a strategic opportunity.

Partnering with creators shouldn’t stop at promotion. It’s time to treat them as part of your feedback loop, product testing strategy, and even customer research.

The smartest brands in 2025 won’t just amplify through creators — they’ll listen through them, too.

*Sprout Social Partner

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💻 ROADMAP

📲 YouTube Updates

• YouTube’s Neal Mohan confirmed YouTube Shorts are now averaging over 200 billion daily views.

• VEO3 — Google’s latest video generation model — will be coming to YouTube Shorts later this summer.

• YouTube released a Culture & Trends Report to celebrate its 20th anniversary, including a timeline of key moments in the company’s history. It also reveals that the videos we watch are getting shorter (under 1 minute) and longer (over 60 minutes).

• YouTube announced Open Call — a new feature within BrandConnect —that lets creators pitch for brands deals.

• YouTube announced a new shopping sticker for tagged products in Shorts. A test showed Shorts with the product shopping sticker saw over 40% more clicks on products than Shorts with the traditional shopping button.

📲 Meta Updates

• Instagram confirmed it's testing the ability for users to repost posts. It’s unknown when or if everyone will get this.

• Instagram launched a global marketing campaign called “Anyway,” working with people like Tyler the Creator, to encourage you to take that content out of drafts and put it out into the world.

• Instagram announced Drafts, a new program for creators and artists. Drafts “will invest in emerging talent and support creators and artists at critical moments in their journey.”

• Spotted: Instagram is testing a Shared Access feature that lets up to three people help manage your account without access to change your password or key settings.

• Meta is bringing ads to WhatsApp. The ads will appear in Channels and Status but won’t disrupt people’s messaging.

• Threads is testing a "spoiler alert" feature, letting you blur text or images.

• Spotted: Threads is working on a reward program for the “culturally relevant voices”.

• Facebook announced all videos uploaded will soon be called Reels and the Video Tab will be renamed the Reels Tab.

• Meta plans to release more AI-assisted smart glasses — this time with Oakley and Prada.

• Meta is now warning users to "avoid sharing personal or sensitive information" to the Meta AI app feed.

• Meta is testing new Creative Sticker CTAs for advertisers on Stories and Reels and Virtual Try-On that uses generative AI to showcase clothing on virtual models.

📲 TikTok Updates

• TikTok announced a series of new Gen AI tools for advertisers, including the ability to create 5-second video clips with digital avatars

• TikTok is expanding its partnership with Adobe, making its Symphony Image-to-Video tool directly available within Adobe Express for desktop.

• TikTok announced its Deals for You Days from July 7 to 19.

• The White House confirmed Trump would sign an executive order this week giving TikTok 90 more days — to mid-September.

📲 Pinterest Updates

• Pinterest teamed up with creator Emma Chamberlain and her Chamberlain Coffee brand for a limited-edition coffee blend — Sea Salt Toffee Flavored Blend. It's the first-ever co-branded product in the platform's 15-year history.

• Pinterest and e.l.f. Cosmetics partnered to create an immersive campaign experience on the platform called “color e.l.f.nalysis” based on the popularity of people getting their seasonal color analysis done.

• Pinterest partnered with Instacart to make shoppable ads supported by the grocery delivery program with a second phase expected to deliver more first-party data.

📲 Adobe Updates

• Adobe launched a mobile app for its Firefly Gen AI tools. Firefly was previously only on desktop — now the app automatically syncs with your Creative Cloud account so you can create on mobile and pick up on desktop or vice versa.

📲 Patreon Updates

• Patreon is updating its pricing plan for creators who publish a new Patreon page after August 4, 2025 to one standard 10% take rate.

📲 Amazon Updates

• Amazon announced Prime Day has extended to four days — taking place from July 8 through July 11.

📲 Reddit Updates

• Reddit is rolling out Reddit Insights, an AI-powered social listening tool that helps marketers mine 20 years of Reddit data.

• Reddit launched a new ad feature, called Conversation Summary Add-ons, that dynamically integrates positive content from Reddit users directly below ads.

• Reddit announced new comment features: turn comments into posts and comment analytics, that allow you to in track views, upvotes, replies, shares, awards, and more.

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🎥 INSIDE VIDCON 2025

VidCon kicked off its 15th annual conference for fans, creators and industry folks on Thursday. While Cannes Lions may have grabbed some of the spotlight, the conversations on the ground in Anaheim offered valuable signals for where the creator economy is headed next.

Here’s a breakdown of the people, platforms, and ideas shaping the back half of 2025 — hour by hour:

9:45am: “Beyond Entertainment: How Creators Are Reshaping Education.”

This was a panel of people who have excelled in creating educational content to attract massive audiences, like Dr Pimple Popper, Astro Alexandra and Etymology Nerd.

Favorite quote: “The role of a good educator should hopefully always be to entertain while they're educated,” says Adam Aleksic. “However, you do have to strike that balance of not just making spectacular content that deviates from your mission and what you're trying to do.”

Takeaway: Education and entertainment aren’t at odds — the most effective content blends both.

10:45am: “Creator-Led Brands: Pepsico's Flvr & Winning Gen Z On YouTube”

Flvr is PepsiCo Foods’ entertainment marketing program aimed at Gen Z, including a partnership with Smosh’s Culinary Crimes series with recipes like Flamin Hot Cheetos ramen noodles.

Favorite quote: “There’s a movement called ‘chaos cooking,’ and it describes what we’ve seen across a number of platforms where consumers are getting experimental with their food,” said James Clarke, Sr. Director Digital & Social at PepsiCo. “There are no rules. It’s leveraging unorthodox ingredients and combining them to create new dishes.”

Takeaway: PepsiCo is moving away from push-based advertising and leading with content that adds to the consumer experience.

11:30am: “Data, Discover & Monetization: What’s Next for Podcasting?”

Video podcasting is unlocking growth — but measurement is still a mess.

Favorite quote: The podcast industry needs to move away from downloads, said Jonas Woost (Co-founder at Bumper). “A download is just a file transfer, it doesn't actually mean that anyone listened. Downloads don't represent people or time or engagement. We need to measure what's important, which is audiences.”

Takeaway: The next era of podcast analytics will focus on the amount of people reached, the podcast plays initiated and the time people spent listening.

12:15pm: Speaker Break Room

I took a break in the speaker room where I ran into Jerry Won and Jim Louderback. Snap’s Brooke Berry was taking calls and etymologist Adam Aleksic chatted with a fan. There were supercharged Flvr cookies packed with Lay’s Wavy Potato Chips and Rold Gold Tiny Twist pretzels. The concept was good but the execution was mid. A better baker could have rocked a potato chip - chocolate chip cookie.

1:05pm: “Metrics that Matter in a Mature Creator Economy”

This was my favorite panel format. Each speaker had 10 minutes to share tactical, data-backed YouTube growth tips — all focused on the viewer lifecycle.

Favorite quote: “This year, your mantra should be Connected TV” said Gwen Miller. Sr. Director, Creator Growth at Mythical Entertainment. “Because more YouTube users watch on TV than mobile now. This is the predominant way people are consuming YouTube on their Connected TVs with their families.”

Takeaway: Optimize your content for TV-viewing audiences. (I’m zero’ing in on Miller’s advice because there was just too much shared across six people to do justice in a sentence.)

3:15pm: “Creator Product Trends: A Fireside Chat with Cassey Ho”

Cassey Ho, of Blogilates and Popflex fame, runs a multi-million dollar DTC and licensing business; operates as a partner and vendor to sell her Blogilates lifestyle brand at Target — and she still edits all her own social content.

Favorite quote: “Nobody touches Blogilates (social) content. People always get surprised with this, but I am still filming and editing all of my content. Nobody answers my comments for me. Nobody gets to log into @ Blogilates because I am terrified of someone hijacking me.”

Takeaway: Ho’s product development still starts with social listening. “I'm always ready to listen and ready to solve problems,” said Ho.

4pm: “Brands & Creators: New Dynamics for a Mature Creator Economy”

LTK and Northwestern University shared new research on retail marketing, followed by a panel on partnership dynamics with creators and brand leaders.

Favorite quote: “I'm starting to see my worlds come together,” said actor-creator Adam Rose speaking to the blurring between traditional entertainment and creator-led media companies. “I'm really excited that now we're going to get the opportunity to actually leverage my audience for stuff that I'm making on other platforms and other mediums.”

Takeaway: Creators are now a top digital marketing investment for 2025. On average, their content is repurposed across four channels beyond social.

5:15pm: “The Leap from Creator to Operator: Career Paths in the Creator Economy”

This panel featured creators who evolved into business operators — launching products, building teams, and scaling IP-driven ventures.

Favorite quote: “IP ownership is going to be a big conversation for creators,” said Hunter March, founder Poppies Studios. “If you have a passion project, IP ownership is remarkably valuable.”

Takeaway: The next phase of the creator economy isn’t just about reach — it’s about ownership. As creators grow into operators, controlling and monetizing their IP will be key to long-term sustainability.

And that’s a wrap on Day 1 at VidCon.

Tomorrow, I’m moderating a panel with LTK and Warner Bros on how entertainment is powering the next wave of social commerce. Then on Monday, I’ll send a full VidCon recap — plus a platform index highlighting the most important announcements from both VidCon and Cannes.

Stay tuned.

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👀 ICYMI: JUST THE HEADLINES

• Forbes released its annual Top Creators 2025 list -Forbes

• Sam Altman says Meta offered OpenAI staff $100 million bonuses, as Mark Zuckerberg ramps up AI poaching efforts -CNBC

• About CapCut's terms of service — the language isn’t new -Mashable

• Reddit is quietly becoming a more important source of referral channel for some news publishers - Digiday

• Reuters’ 2025 Digital News Report examines traditional news media’s challenges around the pace of change and the disruptive role of platforms -Reuters

• Creator marketing trends to watch at Cannes Lions 2025 -Marketing Brew

• Gen Z and Alpha are in their vulnerability-as-aesthetic era -The Guardian

• Fox made a “strategic investment” in The Lighthouse Creator Studio to find new influencer talent -Variety

• Tubi is launching a new content hub called Tubi for Creators to get big names from YouTube and TikTok into its content library -TubeFilter