Issue #19: The Creator Bowl 💎

Issue 19
February 12th, 2025

Super Bowl LX just happened. Seahawks destroyed the Pats (in a very slow, boring game). But the real game wasn't on the field, it was in the creator economy happening around the game. The NFL flew 160+ creators to Santa Clara. YouTube held a flag football game with MrBeast, Druski, and Deestroying. Roger Goodell literally told a room of creators: "We couldn't do it without you."

Meanwhile, TikTok dropped two massive announcements: a $1.2 trillion projection for creator-driven commerce and a brand new Local Feed that could change everything for small creators and local businesses.

I’m super excited with all the nuggets of information in this week's issue is packed. Let's get into it!

The Super Bowl is now a Creator Economy event. The TV ad? That's just the opening act.

Here's a number that should make every creator sit up: $43.9 billion. That's how much brands will spend on creator economy advertising this year, according to the IAB. And yet, when it came time for Super Bowl LX – the single biggest advertising moment of the year – creators were everywhere except the actual TV broadcast.

The 30-second spots? Those went to George Clooney (Grubhub), Sabrina Carpenter (Pringles), and Melissa McCarthy (e.l.f.). The big names. The safe bets. At up to $10 million per spot, brands stuck with the old playbook for the small screen.

But here's the twist… the real story happened everywhere else.

The NFL brought 160+ creators to Santa Clara for Super Bowl week, embedding them in events, parties, and branded activations spanning fashion, music, and culture. YouTube hosted a creator flag football game where Druski captained a team against J Balvin, with Deestroying and Michael Vick on the roster. Dhar Mann was named the NFL's actual "Chief Kindness Officer." And MrBeast starred in Salesforce's Big Game ad — one of the rare moments a creator broke through the celebrity barrier on the broadcast itself.

The gap between the TV screen and social media has never been clearer, or more telling. As Jonathan Chanti, CEO of Reign Maker Group, put it: "Creators are still incorrectly viewed as distribution and not as strategic partners." Nick Miaritis, chief client officer at VaynerMedia, noted that the old playbook of premiering ads on Good Morning America is fading: "Fewer and fewer people are tuning into that." Brands are using A-list celebrities for "authority" and "prestige" on TV, then leaning on creators for "relatability and utility" on social – a dual strategy that reveals both how far creators have come and how far they still have to go.

One thing that should excite mid-tier creators: this was the year the Super Bowl opened up beyond the mega-influencers. According to Lily Comba of influencer agency Superbloom, creators in the 100K–500K follower range saw significantly more opportunities than in years past. The moat around the Big Game is starting to lower.

The cultural moment mattered, too. Bad Bunny's halftime performance turned the Super Bowl into a celebration of Latinx culture, and creators ran with it. Duolingo launched a "Bad Bunny 101" Spanish course. As Deneka Dosant, group director at Kensington Grey, put it: "There are so many Latinx creators that are going… they are going to go out of their way to make so much content behind it, and so it's going to be impossible to drown out."

The NFL itself is thinking long-term. Ian Trombetta, NFL SVP of marketing, said the league is looking to partner with creators for "months or years" beyond the Big Game. "So many of our partners are now seeing the NFL tied to the creator economy in a much more intentional way," he said.

The bottom line: Creators are now central to how the NFL grows its fanbase, how brands amplify their marketing, and how culture gets made around the biggest live event in America. The only place they aren't yet? The $10 million ad spot during the fourth quarter. Give it time.

Three data points that tell a bigger story.

YouTube's new Culture & Trends report dropped some staggering numbers: NFL-related content hit over 20 billion views on the platform in 2025. Fan uploads grew by 400% in the same period. And here's the kicker — over 30% of those views happened during the offseason. A SmithGeiger study cited in the report found that 56% of U.S. sports fans aged 14–24 engage with creator sports analysis weekly. The NFL isn't just a live event anymore. It's a year-round content ecosystem, and creators are the ones keeping the lights on between September and February.

TikTok's new whitepaper, "The Art and Science of Authenticity," projects that creator-driven commercial contribution across Asia-Pacific will reach $1.2 trillion by 2030 — up 1.4x from 2025. You can download the full whitepaper here. The really interesting finding? It's no longer just beauty and fashion driving this. Gaming, financial services, apps, and consumer electronics are emerging as major growth categories for creator partnerships. Brands in these sectors are turning to creators to build trust, simplify complexity, and drive purchase decisions. If you're a creator who explains things well and your niche isn't "traditionally" creator-friendly, your stock just went up.

From the same TikTok study: three out of four consumers now skip content that feels too polished or inauthentic. And nine in ten say authentic content directly influences their purchase decisions. Chew Wee Ng, TikTok's Head of Business Marketing for APAC, described this as the "post-perfection era" — where "flawsome" content (rough edges, raw emotions, unfiltered moments) connects because "imperfections aren't mistakes; they're the texture of truth." Two in three consumers even want creators and brands to use AI-generated content — with TikTok users showing 1.5x more interest in AIGC-enhanced content than users on other platforms. The takeaway for creators? Stop worrying about the ring light. Start worrying about whether you're saying something real.

What the platforms shipped this week and why you should care.

TikTok Launches the "Local Feed"

This is a big one. As of this week, TikTok is rolling out a new Local Feed tab on the home screen in the U.S. — a dedicated space for discovering content, businesses, and events based on your physical location.

Think of it as TikTok meets Yelp meets your neighborhood Facebook group. The feed surfaces content related to restaurants, shops, events, travel, and local creators, prioritized by location, topic, and recency.

Why this matters for creators:

The feature uses optional precise GPS (off by default, 18+ only), and content from private accounts or under-18 users won't appear. It's a thoughtful rollout, and it signals that TikTok USDS Joint Venture is serious about becoming a local discovery engine — not just an entertainment feed. You can learn more about location on TikTok here.

You don't need the NFL to think like the NFL.

The NFL's creator strategy has a lesson that applies to every creator, regardless of niche. Here it is: the offseason is the season.

YouTube's data shows that over 30% of NFL views happen when there are no games being played. The league invested in year-round content — podcasts, behind-the-scenes shows, 11 YouTube channels across four languages — and it paid off in a flywheel of fan engagement that never stops spinning. As YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told Deadline: "There's no distinction between creator-driven content and 'premium content.' That is the lens through which we really look at our investments."

Now apply that to your world. Most creators think about content in terms of their "season" — the launch, the campaign, the big push. But the creators building real businesses are the ones who stay present between the peaks. The email you send when you have nothing to sell. The behind-the-scenes post when you're between projects. The relationship-building content that no algorithm rewards but every fan remembers.

Your offseason content is what turns casual followers into paying community members. Build for the quiet months, and the loud ones take care of themselves.

That's all for this week. If you found this valuable, forward it to a creator friend who needs to stay in the loop. And if someone forwarded this to you, sign up to get your own issue every Thursday.