What MrBeast taught Shopify about the creator economy

Shopify partnered with MrBeast in November 2022, when the creator opened a store on the platform selling only MrBeast-branded socks—and sold out within two minutes. Now, that partnership is extending beyond social media and into an in-person activation, with Shopify transforming its New York event space into a large-scale scavenger hunt that allows MrBeast’s more than 200 million YouTube subscribers to interact with him beyond the comments section. The culmination of this partnership in an in-person event—which saw tickets sell out in just a few minutes—comes from Shopify’s experience with the creator economy and the long-tail viewing of MrBeast’s content sponsored by the company. The “Shopify x MrBeast Heist experience,” which also doubles as a marketing push for MrBeast’s own chocolate brand, Feastables, is just one of many collaborations between the brand and creator over the past year. Shopify began partnering with MrBeast—at 24, the highest-paid YouTube creator, with an estimated net worth of $500 million—in 2022. It views him as the answer to the company’s question of, “How do we get more people to be excited about entrepreneurship, and think about it as something that’s relatable and not out of reach?” said Brennan Loh, Shopify’s director of brand marketing. MrBeast—whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson—had been using Shopify to sell his merch since 2018, when he had just 3 million subscribers, and later leveraged the platform to sell his Feastables products. “I love the goal of inspiring more people to bet on themselves and try entrepreneurship,” Donaldson said in an email. “Our partnership with Shopify has reached new heights for my content business, as well as Feastables. They really want to support entrepreneurs, so we get to do cool things that nobody else would consider, like climbing a mountain in Antarctica or promoting one of their merchants instead of themselves.” The mountain-climbing stunt was one of the first integrations of Shopify into Donaldson’s YouTube content. The video features Shopify for nearly two minutes of its 12-minute runtime, capturing Donaldson’s climb to the mountain’s peak and his naming it “Shopify Mountain” after sticking the flag in the ground. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Donaldson often incorporates brand partners into his videos in this way, weaving discussion of a brand into the action of the video, rather than setting it apart from the content in a discrete ad read in the first few minutes of the video. Similarly, another of his Shopify-sponsored videos—a massive elimination game pitting a person of each age from one to 100 against each other—positions Donaldson’s promotion of Shopify’s Shop app alongside a Jenga tournament among the game’s final 25 contestants. Those two videos alone have together amassed more than 415 million views, many of which came weeks or even months after the videos were initially uploaded, Loh said. Authentically reaching fans A growing number of brands are recognizing the power of creators such as Donaldson, the long tail viewership of their content and, consequently, the creators’ promotion of their brand. Donaldson has spurred a wave of extreme, stunt-like YouTube videos now coming from creators including Eric Decker, aka Airrack, who earlier this year partnered with Pizza Hut to create the world’s biggest pizza. More: Amazon and TikTok are expanding the reach of creator ads Donaldson’s video featuring Shopify’s Shop app included a QR code that took viewers to a digital storefront on the app selling thousands of limited-edition MrBeast collectibles—largely pieces from the set used for the age elimination game—for one cent each, Loh said. The opportunity to purchase items used in one of Donaldson’s videos led to thousands of his fans installing the app on their phones and causing the Shop app to surge to the top of Apple’s app store the day after Donaldson posted the video, he said. “It would be such an underutilization of [Donaldson’s] skills to just say, ‘Can you read this ad script?’” Loh added. “Instead, it’s about ‘how can we make this part [of the video] something so exciting that you can't help but stay tuned in—and potentially even engage with that content down the road?” Shopify’s partnership with Donaldson has extended to other social platforms, as well. Last year, the company launched its #PitchMrBeast TikTok contest urging users to pitch their business ideas to Donaldson for a chance to win a $10,000 investment. The duo has also leveraged X, formerly Twitter, to give Shopify merchants an opportunity to tell Donaldson about their businesses and have him potentially buy up some of their product inventory. @mrbeast Duet this with your best business pitch by Oct 31, post with #PitchMrBeast and @shopify ♬ original sound - MrBeast In the next few weeks, Donaldson plans to upload a YouTube video in which he will talk about a Shopify merchant ahead of Black Friday, rather than promote Shopify itself. The company is covering the cost of that sponsorship for the merchant, Loh said. Shopify will continue to sponsor Donaldson’s content going into 2024, with multiple videos featuring Shopify brand integrations having already been filmed or currently in production, Loh said. “As a brand, by being integrated in [Donaldson’s] content itself—we’re not just an ad roll, we’re not a pre-roll or mid-roll powered by YouTube, we’re part of the content—so long as that content is on the internet, the brand is going to see that long tail of views,” Loh said. Follow us on social media X Bluesky Instagram LinkedIn YouTube

What MrBeast taught Shopify about the creator economy

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