Why MrBeast, Dude Perfect and other YouTubers are adopting an upfront ad strategy

The YouTube channels of creator powerhouses such as MrBeast more closely resemble TV networks today than traditional social media accounts, with programming slates scheduled weeks or months in advance and serialized content that has become appointment viewing for Gen Z. So, it follows that those creators would adopt similar strategies to TV networks when it comes to pitching themselves to advertisers. YouTubers MrBeast (whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson), Dude Perfect, Kinigra Deon, Ryan Trahan, Rebecca Zamolo and Jordan Matter are set to take the stage at “Spotter Showcase,” an event resembling the TV upfronts, later this month. Creator platform Spotter teamed up with YouTuber duo Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry to introduce the event as a chance for creators to pitch opportunities for brand integrations or paid media campaigns within their upcoming programming. During their Spotter Showcase presentations, each creator will share previews of their upcoming YouTube content spanning the next several months; offer data points such as their audience demographics or the average watch time on their videos; and walk the audience through case studies of their past brand partnerships, Nic Paul, president of Spotter, told Ad Age. See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here “Creators don’t really have a platform where they can talk about themselves as being the new [media] networks and creating hit TV shows,” he said. “We really want to educate the advertisers and the brands on the opportunity and this seismic shift that we all have been talking about for a long time, but it’s here. It’s now.” Indeed, consumers, especially Gen Zers, are increasingly turning to YouTube as their preferred streaming platform. Google’s YouTube has consistently ranked as the top streaming platform in Nielsen’s monthly “The Gauge” report for over two years, beating out streamers such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. Just under 11% of all TV and streaming viewership in January 2025 took place on YouTube, and the platform accounted for roughly one quarter of all streaming viewership that month, according to Nielsen’s latest monthly report. Additionally, consumers globally now stream more than 1 billion hours of YouTube on their TVs each day, on average, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced last month. And in the U.S., TVs have surpassed smartphones as the most-used device for watching YouTube videos “as more creators produce content for the big screen,” Mohan said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Neal Mohan (@neal_mohan) More than 150 chief marketing officers, agency leaders and other marketing executives are slated to attend Spotter Showcase on March 27 in New York, according to Spotter. The platform shared that Publicis Groupe is expected to attend but declined to name specific brand attendees, only revealing that some people on the guest list are from Fortune 500 companies. YouTube creators such as The Try Guys and Michelle Khare will also be in the audience. The six creators presenting at Spotter Showcase collectively amassed 33 billion minutes (roughly 550 million hours) of watch time across their YouTube content in 2024, Paul said. Most of the creators also produce TV-length content, with the average video length across the group clocking in at 33 minutes, he said. Some of the six occasionally put out YouTube videos that are upwards of 90 minutes long, he said. And all of the presenting creators now see the majority of their viewership come from TVs, not smartphones, he added. More news: Creator and influencer trends to know about right now “With creators being watched on TV [and] making more and more money from advertising revenue, we have built out serious production capabilities, and we are programming a little bit more like TV,” said Rosenblum, who helped produce the event alongside Chaudry and Spotter. “We are the ones that are planning these huge moments that brands and marketers want to be a part of.” But even as more creators have grown their YouTube channels into media networks, most advertisers continue to pitch brand deals tied to that long-form content in the same way they do short-form videos on TikTok or Instagram—that is, asking a creator to turn around a sponsored segment within just a week or two, Rosenblum said. For creators like him and Chaudry, who “are programming [their content] months out,” those tight timelines mean “the likelihood that integrating [the brand] requires us to interrupt our content is really high,” Rosenblum said. Events such as Spotter Showcase will allow these creators to give advertisers advance notice of upcoming sponsorship opportunities and thus incorporate those brands more organically into their future content, he said. New: TV upfront trends—what to watch for in 2025 dealmaking Spotter and the creators presenting at the event will also unveil sponsorship packages for advertisers, Paul said. He declined to share additional details. Spotter Showcase isn’t the first event to bring the TV upfronts to the creator economy. Forbes and Walmart invited two dozen creators to pitch themselves to advertisers at the “Creator Upfronts” in Los Angeles last October, though most of those creators primarily produced short-form video content and largely discussed their current content rather than future advertising opportunities. “I do think you’re going to continue to see these events like this pop up, given the attention that these creators demand,” Paul said. “From an advertiser’s perspective, there is all this competition for attention and ‘Where can I harness attention?’ And it’s just not broadcast and cable anymore.” Become an All Access subscriber Get access to exclusive resources including Leading National Advertisers, World’s Largest Advertisers, Agency Report, Agency Review Tracker and TV Pricing Report. Click here

Why MrBeast, Dude Perfect and other YouTubers are adopting an upfront ad strategy

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