Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: MrBeast takes on SocialBlade with new analytics site + Grace Beverly penalised in “landmark ruling” for influencer marketing

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MINI SCROLL: MrBeast takes on SocialBlade with new analytics site + Grace Beverly penalised in “landmark ruling” for influencer marketing · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space.
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  Every Monday through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll everyone.
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  Day two of this chaotic studio set up.
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  I have been busy prepping recording all of the podcast
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  episodes for our series and I had a question on what the
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  series is called. Does it have a name?
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  So it does. It is called Let the girls game
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  because it is powered by Let's sing and also let the girls
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  game. Like the whole point is like
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  women in gaming like just like let them be like let them have
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  fun, let the girls have fun. Shut the fuck up.
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  And that kind of vibe. Anyways, I have two pretty big
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  stories for you guys today, so let's just get right into it.
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  The first story is that Mister Beast has launched a new website
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  that dives into detailed stats on any YouTube channel.
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  Staying true to his obsession with analytics, Mr. Beast has
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  launched his own website called View Stats, where users can
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  quote, see views, Subs, and any advanced data you'd want for any
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  YouTube channel or video. He also wrote on Twitter.
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  I believe knowledge is power and I want to help creators of all
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  sizes improve their YouTube performance.
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  When asked how View Stats differ from Socialblade, which is
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  currently at the website that most people use to see analytics
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  on social media profiles and posts, he said.
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  We have per video data like one out of 10 daily views per video,
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  accurate top charts, AB thumbnail tracking, etcetera,
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  etcetera. So for anyone that doesn't know
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  AB thumbnail, that's basically just like a marketing term AB
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  testing. So it's like, you know, I guess
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  if a video changes out its thumbnails, I guess view stats
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  will tell you which thumbnail did better.
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  And one out of 10 is just the rating that YouTube's back end
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  gives you. When you upload a video, it will
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  give you a rating one out of 10 based on your most 10 recent
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  uploads, like where this where this video is fitting.
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  So if it's getting more views, then I guess your last 10
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  videos, like where it's sitting within that.
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  View stats was first announced in December 2023 as a
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  collaboration between Mr. Beast and his employee Chuckie
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  Appleby. This all just feels so on brand
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  for Mr. Beast. He notoriously became the most
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  subscribed to YouTube in the world with over 262,000,000
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  subscribers by being meticulously obsessed with his
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  channel's analytics. And you know, I did a deep dive
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  on Mr. Beast at the beginning of the year and I learned a lot
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  about him. And the biggest I think
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  conclusion that I came to was that Mister Beast is so hyper
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  fixated on virality. All he cares about his numbers
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  and virality. He does not really care.
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  I mean at least for the last few years he does not care about
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  building a narrative around his videos.
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  He doesn't even care about like artistic expression.
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  He is not really a creator, he is a marketer.
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  When asked about his career goals on the Colin and Samir
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  podcast, he said, quote, what's the point of making a video if
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  no one watches it? And then he also talked about
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  how his goal always is to have 70% or more retention rate on
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  his videos, which is so high for YouTube video that is so high.
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  On that same podcast and in other interviews that I watched,
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  he also discussed that first charity porn video that he did,
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  which was also his first brand deal.
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  So he was approached for a brand deal for $5000 and he convinced
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  the company to give him $10,000 because he wanted to give that
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  money to a homeless person. And he knew that having ten in
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  the like thumbnail and in the title would be much more
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  eye-catching and go much more viral than having five.
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  So everything he does, from his philanthropy to his brand deals
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  to everything about Mr. Beast is all optimized for virality.
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  Like that's what he cares about. So this to me makes perfect
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  sense. I see this as kind of like a way
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  for him to prove to the industry and to prove to himself because
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  I truly believe that Mister Beast at the end of the day,
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  like he is trying to feed some internal like little Jimmy ego
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  inside of him. And when I say little Jimmy, I
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  mean like childhood Jimmy. Everything he does seems to be
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  like an ego play. I feel like view stats.
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  This is like the perfect reason for that, right?
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  Like this is the perfect solution to that.
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  He can basically put his videos and his channel in and compare
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  them to every single channel and every single video in like a
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  detailed stats and analytics. Like in a such a granular way,
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  he can compare his content and his growth and his channel to
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  everyone else's. That's exactly what he wants.
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  Like that's his end goal. And you know, obviously he is
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  the most subscribed to YouTube, but at any given point, you
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  know, there's probably videos that are going, quote UN quote,
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  more viral than his if he hasn't uploaded in a while.
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  There's probably videos that are getting more views per hour per
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  day than his. You know, there's probably
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  channels that are growing percentage wise at a faster rate
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  than him at any given time. So now he can have all that data
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  and he can ensure that he is always number one in every
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  category. And that is terrifying.
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  And I feel like there are some ethical implications to a
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  YouTube making this platform. I'm interested to see how it
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  goes. All right, Speaking of ethical
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  implications, the next one that I have for you guys, this one
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  actually came out at the end of last week, but I didn't see it
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  until today. So influencer Grace Beverly has
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  been penalized in a quote landmark ruling for influencer
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  marketing. So British fitness influencer
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  Grace Beverly has been penalized for six videos that she posted
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  advertising her own clothing brand.
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  Grace has over 1,000,000 followers on Instagram and over
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  150,000 followers on TikTok and she is one of the most high
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  profile influencers in the world like fitness influencers
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  worldwide. In 2019, Grace launched her own
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  clothing brand called Tala, and it got in some hot water at the
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  end of last year. So back in October, Grace shared
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  two Reels and four Tik Toks promoting a new coat from Tala.
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  Those posts received over 50 complaints from just general
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  like users, people that saw them about deceptive influencer
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  marketing. As Grace did not disclose that
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  the posts were ads. One creator at Alice's Gratified
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  on TikTok made a video about Grace's videos, calling them out
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  as undisclosed ads given Grace did not openly say that she
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  owned the company. Tala, Grace's lawyers,
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  threatened to sue Alice with a defamation lawsuit, and Alice
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  took down some of the videos that she made on the situation.
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  At the time, Tala argued that Grace was quote, synonymous with
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  the business and that her followers would know that.
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  I think that's not really the issue here though.
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  Like if you think about the TikTok for you page and how
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  content is literally, I mean, in Reels too, but like especially
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  TikTok, it's just fed to you. You have like no perspective on
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  what you're seeing or who you're watching.
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  And according to the BBC, they reported quote It said her
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  connection to Tala was also made clear in her TikTok and
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  Instagram BIOS, and pointed out references in the videos to the
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  coke being made in factories. We literally had to beg at the
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  door to get into. These reels were posted jointly
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  with Tala's Instagram account, while the Tik Toks were shared
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  in a playlist Grace had labeled aggressive marketing.
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  Tala made the case that all these factors combined would
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  have made it clear to users that the posts were for marketing
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  purposes. Despite this, on May 22nd, the
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  situation was resolved as the ASA, which is the UK's
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  Advertising Standards Authority, ruled that Grace did break
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  advertising rules and was ordered to take those six videos
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  down from October. In a follow up regarding this
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  resolution, Alice made a video saying that she initially called
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  Grace out on TikTok to show consumers how social media
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  influencers quote, are using their personal social media
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  accounts to advertise their business products without
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  disclosing them as commercial communications to their
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  audiences. And the director of complaints
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  for the ASA called this case precedent setting quote, social
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  media influencers who are also brand owners must now mark their
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  brand related content as ads, says the ad watchdog as it
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  cracks down on unlabeled cross pollination rights marketing
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  week about this resolution. So this is really interesting
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  because there are so many mixed opinions when it comes to this
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  situation in general, not just the ruling, but like the fact
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  that they entertained this. Because I agree with what Alice
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  said where she called it like commercial communications.
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  And when you think about Grace and her company as separate
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  legal entities, it makes sense because Grace, I guess
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  technically, even if she wasn't being paid, directly paid for
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  those videos, let's say through Tala, which I'm assuming she
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  wasn't. Like, you know, obviously if she
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  drives traffic to Tala and people buy that, like that's
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  money that's kind of indirectly in her pocket because she owns
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  the company, but they are legal entities.
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  So she is doing advertising for a different brand for someone
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  that is not her. You know, she would have
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  something around herself. Like I don't know what it would
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  be in the UK, but here in Australia, it's called an ABN,
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  which is basically what you have.
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  It's like you're not like a company when you're a sole
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  trader, but it's like how you work as a sole trader and it's
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  how you get paid as like a freelancer and stuff like that.
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  So she would have something like that related to like her person
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  for brand deals, I presume. And then tall is like a
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  completely separate like actual incorporated company entity.
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  I mean, she might be like her own like brand deal stuff might
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  be incorporated and stuff too, but like they're separate,
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  right? So yes, it is, I guess
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  technically an ad even if she's not being directly paid for it
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  and even if it is like the brand that she owns.
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  However, on the flip side of what people are saying is like,
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  OK, so then, and obviously this is in the UK, so it's different
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  in every country. But like, if we're going to take
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  this as like precedent setting, why can't I say that precedent
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  setting? Then, you know, if Rihanna is
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  talking about Fenty Beauty on her Instagram stories, for
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  example, does she then need to disclose that that's an ad
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  because she owns a share, a stake, whatever a Fenty, it's
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  not clear that she owns it. Like there's tons of people in
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  the world that probably have no idea Rihanna is associated with
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  Fenty. So how does that work?
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  Or if you're posting about your own company on LinkedIn, do you
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  need to say that it's an ad? Or like me, like I make TikTok
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  day in the life videos. I have less than 1000 followers.
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  I just kind of got back into it and I talk about Centennial and
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  I talk about this podcast. They are separate legal entities
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  to me and someone might find it on the free you page and I don't
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  know, subscribe to the podcast or want to work with Centennial
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  or something because of my content.
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  I guess it's a little different 'cause I'm not selling like
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  direct to consumer, but still do I need to disclose when I'm
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  sharing like a day in the life and I'm like showing the office
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  and talking about the business, Do I need to share that That's
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  an ad? Like that's where people are
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  confused is like there's a lack of clarity now about like what
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  the guidelines are then. So I think that's the main
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  criticism is like, if the ASA is going to say this is like a
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  landmark ruling, this is setting a new precedent, then there
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  needs to be much clearer guidelines about like what those
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  precedent, what that precedent is like, what does that actually
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  mean? And I don't know, like I talked
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  about this a little bit. You guys will hear the episode
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  on Friday, but I talked about this with my guest for my Friday
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  episode, Meredith Lynch, who's a TikTok star, obviously an
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  influencer creator. And we talked about different
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  like scams that influencers get involved in, including affiliate
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  links and all that stuff. And one of the things we talked
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  about was that like early days of influencing, definitely
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  different now, but early days, like people probably had no idea
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  influencers like Jaclyn Hill was always called out for not
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  disclosing affiliate links. I know that's been an ongoing
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  problem, but in the early, early days, like people probably like
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  who were influencers, probably actually just didn't know.
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  And I know that Grace has been an influencer for a long time,
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  but I think there is such a Gray area between like what is
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  considered an ad when you own the company as an influencer
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  versus, you know, what is just you promoting a company that you
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  own. Like, I don't know, it's it's
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  very confusing. So that's the biggest criticism
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  against this is like we need now more clarity on what all of this
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  means. Anyways, guys, that's it for
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  today. Thank you so much for listening
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  to mini scroll. Please rate review and
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  subscribe. It helps me so much.
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  It helps me grow. I love you guys and I will talk
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  to you tomorrow. Bye.