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Extra Value | Fred Again's Masterclass

Extra Value | Fred Again's Masterclass

PLUS: What American Eagle got wrong and Faze gets a new CEO!

Creator X & JT Barnett
July 31, 2025

What’s Hot?

Banks steps down as CEO of Faze Clan

Banks announced he's stepping away from both the organization and socials after failed crypto project. Curious to see how Faze Rug is going to turn this ship around. 🤔

TikTok’s “out of phone” strategy

TikTok’s new advertising program isn’t just stopping at billboards. They just partnered with Curb, Westfield Malls, Rockbot, and Hope Hydration to get content playing on screens everywhere. 📈

Samsung TV Plus Goes All-In on Creator Content

Samsung is bringing some of YouTube’s biggest creators like: Dhar Mann, Mark Rober, and Smosh to their TV Plus. Big bet on creator-led content to pull more viewers than traditional TV shows. And honestly? It makes sense. These names already have built-in audiences that show up.

What we can learn from Ryan Trahans new series

Trahan’s "50 States in 50 Days" series, raised over $11 million for St. Jude Children's Hospital while showcasing the coolest Airbnbs across America! A solid playbook for creators: mixing gamified chaos + local storytelling and value-driven brand collabs. It’s content that entertains and still connects. 👏

American Eagle missed the mark

Turns out Sydney Sweeny isn’t always good for business 🤷. AE’s new campaign sparked massive backlash this week. Old marketing principles not working in the new age… read more, this article goes super in depth!

Building a Brand The Hard Way

Marcus Milione of Minted NY shared a very touching YT vid. Two things about this: 1. Authenticity matters, and people can feel that through a screen, 2. this is exactly why you document your journey, highs/lows… everything!

New Style of video taking over the internet

A deep dive from the guys of MFM talking about how cinematic vloggers are the new rage.

Founder’s Corner

Fred Again just delivered one of the smartest marketing moves of the year with his new song "Victory Lap." This wasn't just a song release, it was a multi-layered strategy that had people hearing the track hundreds of times before it officially released.

Let's break it down ⬇️

The Live Creation Moment

Fred hopped on PlaqueBoyMax's livestream and produced the beat while thousands watched at home. Starting from scratch, no editing, just raw creativity and conversations on a 2-3 hr stream! 🔥

The brilliance of this livestream was in its authenticity. People crave behind-the-scenes moments that feel real! Watching Fred build the beat from scratch, witnessing the messy creation in real time. That full access creates emotional investment.

The Clip Economy

Within an hour of the stream ending, thousands of clips flooded TikTok + Instagram, creating viral organic promotion. 📈

The hack:

Zero-cost marketing: Instead of a big rollout, Fred leveraged PBM’s platform and created something with him, infront of thousands of eyes. Way better coverage than any paid campaigns.
Algorithmic advantage: Thousands of users shared the same clips, spiking engagement. Platforms identify the content as high-performing and prioritize it for more feeds.

The Crossover Effect

Fred didn't just tap into his own fanbase. He strategically chose to collaborate with PlaqueBoyMax, whose audience overlaps with but isn't identical to his own.

The result?

Two distinct waves of sharing:

1. Max's clippers shared and introduced his followers to Fred Again. Soon Fred’s own fans and the broader music community amplified those clips even further.

2. What started as a viral loop within a niche live streaming community quickly broke out into the mainstream, ultimately leading to over 46 million streams on Spotify! 🤯

The Three Marketing Lessons You Need to Steal

Lesson #1: Unexpected collabs create literal magic sometimes… start exploring people outside of your niche. That streamer, that artist, that creator who seems totally different from you? Might be worth a DM. 🤷

Lesson #2: Your Launch is your content strategy! Doesn’t matter what you’re launching: product, service, creative project… I want you to start thinking about how this can be sharable content.

Lesson #3: Plan your follow-up. Most creators nail the launch and then... nothing. They forget that the real opportunity often comes after the initial buzz. What's the next layer of content that keeps the momentum going? Think reactions, behind the scenes, fan QnA’s, more live appearances.

The Fred Again example shows us that great marketing isn't about having the biggest budget. It's about understanding:

How content moves ➡️ How audiences connect ➡️ How to create moments that people genuinely want to be part of.

I have lots more tips and advice like this for creators and brands, HMU if you want top connect. Reply to this email! 😎