The week I got into streaming
"What started as a little bit of research, turned into me watching for 2-3 hours every day."
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I’ve spent the last few months hearing from various industry insiders that streaming is the future. They’d rattle off numbers and show me viral clips, but I didn’t have much to add to the conversation. For someone who writes about social media for a living, it’s admittedly a blind spot.
Two weeks ago I was invited to the premiere of Speed Goes Pro, a series that follows IShowSpeed, a streamer with over 44M YouTube subscribers, as he sets out to prove that he could make it as a professional athlete. I RSVP’d yes.
I spent the week leading up to the premiere deep in Speed’s world. Lucky for me, he was in the middle of a 35-day live marathon tour of America. Each day was a livestream from a different city, with drop ins from people like congressman Maxwell Frost, NBA athlete Devin Booker, rapper YG, and San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie.
What started as a little bit of research, turned into me watching for 2-3 hours every day. I was hooked in a way I hadn’t expected. Where are they going next? Who will show up? How many fans are waiting outside? Is he actually sleeping on camera?
While watching, I wondered how brands might fit into this ecosystem. At the premiere, it became clear. Speed Goes Pro is in partnership with DICK’S Sporting Goods and produced by OBB Pictures. (If OBB sounds familiar, that’s because co-founder Michael D. Ratner is also the co-founder of rhode.) Naturally, the final day of the marathon livestream ended at the premiere, which was fully branded by DICK’S. Kim Kardashian, Suni Lee, and Justin Bieber were in attendance. The first episode of the show, featuring Tom Brady, has been live for seven days and has over 5M views. The entire season is narrated by Liev Schreiber.
When I asked James Rowe, President of Bolded, OBB Media’s branded content and entertainment studio, what he’d say to convince a CMO to partner with a streamer, he shared, “I’d tell them this: streamers are the new appointment viewing. They’ve built communities that show up for them daily, not because of algorithms but because of genuine connection. If you’re a brand trying to break through with a certain audience, that level of trust and consistency is gold.” He goes on to say, “What’s different about streamers is that they don’t perform for their audience — they share with them. That creates a depth of engagement that traditional talent or even short-form creators can’t easily replicate. So for a brand, the opportunity isn’t just exposure, it’s integration into an ongoing dialogue between streamer and audience.”
According to Streams Charts, livestream platforms collectively generated ~29.6 billion hours of watch time in Q2 2025 alone. More than 40% of Twitch users are between the ages of 16 and 24, according to Business of Apps data. There’s a streamer for any topic—from food to lifestyle to news to gaming.
A big piece of a streamer’s success is their relationship with their audience. You’ll notice in Speed’s streams that he has a phone strapped to his arm at all times—it’s displaying the chats from both YouTube and Twitch. It’s clear their opinion means a lot to him and that any partnership would need to feel genuine. I asked Speed how involved he is in the creative process of the ads and partnerships he works on. He told me, “I’m super involved. If I put my name on something, I want it to feel like me, not just an ad that gets thrown on the stream or my feed. A lot of times I’ll bring my own ideas about how we shoot or how it fits into the content or just making sure it’s natural. My community can tell immediately if something is a force so I always want that stuff to be authentic to me.”
Some brands might shy away from a streamer just because they don’t have quite as much control over every output. They are live—and they are going to say what they are going to say. How do you get comfortable with that? Culture marketer Byron Stewart has covered the intersection of brands and streamers quite a bit in his newsletter TAPPED IN. When I asked him about this, he advised, “Brands must become comfortable with the uncomfortable. On stream, your product isn’t the star — the creator is. Set high-level guardrails and trust the reason you partnered with them in the first place. The moment you overdo it, the audience can feel it.”
I can’t talk about livestreams without also talking about clipping. So much of how audiences interact with streamers is through bite-sized cutdowns from different moments of a longer stream. These clips, posted to platforms like YouTube Shorts and TikTok, regularly go viral. When I asked James from OBB if that’s something they account for when filming longform content for brands, he said, “Absolutely — clipping isn’t just a byproduct, it’s part of the creative plan. When we concept something like Speed Goes Pro, we think about the ‘core moment’ that’s going to live beyond the livestream, content or live experience — the piece fans will grab, meme, and share.” He goes on to say, “In a way, clipping is the new syndication. It’s how live moments find new audiences across platforms. So we design for it: pacing, reactions, and narrative beats that work both live and in the chopped-up, replayable world of social.” This TikTok clip that ESPN shared from Speed Goes Pro has over 6M views.
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Finally, Melissa Christian, VP Global Brand & Category Marketing at DICK’S Sporting Goods, told me about the impact their partnership with Speed has had on the brand. “The overarching partnership with Speed has been a huge success. From the Speed Shopping campaign in March to the star-studded premiere event of Speed Goes Pro at LA Memorial Coliseum last week, the response from our customers, who we call athletes, and Speed’s engaged audience has been tremendous. What we see with Speed is an opportunity to introduce his highly engaged audience to DICK’S, if they aren’t already familiar, reach a younger demographic, and further cement ourselves in sports culture, something that Speed has a significant influence on.”
Since attending the premiere, I can’t help but notice streamers everywhere. Gavin Newsom played Fortnite with ConnorEatsPants. Adidas featured Tota in a TikTok that has 3.6M views. TBPN announced they are having Sam Altman on their show tomorrow. The landscape is clearly huge and I’m excited to keep exploring it. When you work in social media, it’s easy to use your own viewing habits as a barometer for what’s big. That’s a trap. Interrogate your blind spots and see where they take you.
A few favorite posts
Gap tapped artist Annie Choi for their Sandy Liang collab announcement posts. One commenter wrote, “seeing a brand use animation when so many are using gen AI is such a breath of fresh air”
Figma bought Times Square billboards for artist NBA Paint. It’s been interesting to see how brands signal their values through who they buy billboards for. Like when Sweetgreen put a farmer up or how Karat Banking frequently buys them for creators.
Topicals’ latest campaign will donate $10,000 to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF). The video clips in the carousel are beautiful. Also this podcast clip with their founder Olamide Olowe is really great.
I made myself merch. I’ll sell it if LinkedIn promises not to sue me.
Amelia Dimoldenberg’s new show with F1 looks really good. She doesn’t know how to drive and is having different F1 drivers teach her.
The Buffalo Bills are my favorite NFL team on TikTok right now. Didn’t know I needed football players to explain ornithology to me.
Aerie announced they will never use AI-generated bodies or people. I was waiting for a brand do officially declare that they won’t use AI on social media. It has over 17K likes and was only posted a few hours ago.
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson did an “overheard” style video at the VAQUERA show during fashion week. Looks like she worked with Sarah Lou Kiernan on it. I want more!
A creator made a cinematic series about wanting to buy a clutch from the brand Cult Gaia. It’s perfect.
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Finally, I sent out the Brand Social Trend Report: Q3 2025 on Tuesday! If you missed it, you can dig in here.
Not surprised most media sleep on streamers because they were not degenerate gamers (i was one so i dont say it disparagingly)/youtubers.
Even Hasan who has gotten a lot of media lately is dwarfed by the largest streamers on twitch/youtube. Its nuts.
GO BILLS!!!