The Kindness Influencer Biz; a Creator Economy OS; MrBeast’s ‘Survivor’ Collab
Plus: The Oscars head to YouTube!
This is a preview of Like & Subscribe, my standalone Ankler Media newsletter on the creator economy. I scooped Netflix’s podcast deal with iHeartMedia, wrote about Patreon’s strategy to poach Substack creators and interviewed two Gen Z media founders about how to win young audiences. I’m natalie@theankler.com
It’s only Wednesday but I’m already calling it: This just might be the newsiest week of the year in the creator economy. Netflix yesterday officially announced the news I broke last week of another big podcast deal, continuing its bid to challenge YouTube in the space as the streamer picks up a slate of iHeartMedia video podcasts including The Breakfast Club, My Favorite Murder, Dear Chelsea and Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know. (Of course, this is stuff you already knew if you caught my scoop about the deal last Friday!)
Netflix followed up that news with another pod deal announced today, this one for exclusive video rights to three Barstool Sports shows. But in a thundering clapback, YouTube made its own showbiz splash with the announcement that it will be the home of the Oscar telecast starting in 2029. Meanwhile, Instagram revealed plans for a TV app, and Merriam-Webster announced that “slop” is its word of the year. I’m going to dig into those stories a bit more down below, plus I’ve got a dispatch from a recent screening of the new season of Beast Games and an interview with DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish about the creator platform he built to help turn around the Faze Clan business that he’s now launching to the public.
It’s also been one of the saddest weeks of the year, with the shocking deaths of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner casting a shadow over the holidays here in L.A., so I’m kicking things off with a heavy dose of goodness courtesy of kindness influencer Samuel Weidenhofer, better known as @ItsSozer on Instagram, where he has 2.6 million followers. You might have seen his campaign to support 88-year-old veteran Ed Bambas, which has raised nearly $2 million as of this writing. We talk all about that fundraiser, why Weidenhofer decided to make kindness his calling card and how to build an audience with feel-good videos in an age when the algorithms often push us to watch increasingly extreme content.
Before all that goodness, a couple of quick announcements:
If you missed my Substack Live today with ICYMI’s Lia Haberman, where we talked about the year’s biggest creator economy winners and losers, I’ll be posting it for you tomorrow. We had a great time handing out our own totally made-up awards and sharing what we plan to leave behind as we head into 2026.
Ankler Agenda will be recording our first-ever mailbag episode over the holidays and we’re looking for your questions and ideas! Want to know how Elaine Low thinks the SAG-AFTRA and WGA negotiations will shake out next year? Or hear Sean McNulty’s prediction for the movie that will dominate the box office? Email me your questions natalie@theankler.com
Read on over at Like & Subscribe for my insights from Weidenhofer, Kalish and Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast). You’ll learn:
How Weidenhofer monetizes good deeds and what’s next for his hug-heavy brand
Kalish’s ambitions for HardScope, an “operating system for the creator economy” that already has worked with Cash App, Twitch and more
Why Donaldson relinquished some control on Beast Games season two, and why he wants to follow Survivor host Jeff Probst around
‘A Hug Can Be as Powerful as $2 Million’
It all started with a hug, or rather a lot of hugs. Four years ago, Samuel Weidenhofer went viral with videos of himself offering free hugs on a street corner.
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Now the 22-year-old Aussie literally has made it his job to make someone’s day. The kindness influencer has 2.7 million followers on Instagram (and another 8 million on TikTok) and travels the world looking for people he can help in ways big and small. He recently made headlines when he spotlighted the story of U.S. Army veteran Ed Bambas, who in spite of a long and full career at General Motors found himself working full-time as a cashier to pay the medical bills he racked up several years ago when his late wife became sick. Weidenhofer’s original video about Bambas now has more than 1 million likes on Instagram and a GoFundMe that Weidenhofer set up has raised $1.93 million.
“It’s unbelievable,” Weidenhofer says of the response to Bambas’ story, adding, “I guess a lot of people could just relate to his story.”
Weidenhofer tells me his drive to help people began after he lost his aunt to suicide when he was just 10 years old. But he didn’t necessarily think he could make a career out of it until he recorded a video of himself giving a stranger flowers at the mall. “She cried and she said, ‘You’ve made my day; you don’t know what I’m going through,’” he recalls.
These days, he’s built enough of a reputation that he regularly hears from people with suggestions on who he should help next. And celebrities also regularly reach out to him to offer their support for his mission. In one recent video, he helped a young family buy their first home. In another, he teamed with Kristen Bell to bring Frozen to life for a child with stage 4 cancer.
“Giving someone a hug can be as powerful as giving a veteran $2 million,” he says.
Though there’s the potential for this genre of video to turn from heartwarming to exploitative, Weidenhofer says he comes by his work authentically. “All of it is real,” he says. “None of it’s set up.” He adds that he earns income exclusively through revenue sharing on platforms like YouTube and through brand deals — and he never takes a cut of the money he raises for others.
Though Weidenhofer tries to cultivate a kind community, he still receives hateful comments. “Not everyone has something nice to say,” he says. “I feel like those people who are commenting and saying mean things have gone through something.”
He adds, “A lot of the time, I send love back to the mean comments. I’ve had a lot of people hate on me, and I’ve actually become friends with them.”
Clearly outnumbering the haters, though, are those heartened by his work. In the last three weeks, he’s grown his following by 1.5 million across platforms, he tells me. He hopes to take a break when he returns to Melbourne after a two-month tour of the U.S., and says he has about three months of videos banked.
Next up, Weidenhofer — who still edits most of his own videos — says he wants to hire a team so he can do more good in the world. On his wish list is a television show and a clothing line to grow his business “so we can help more people on a larger scale.”
But at the end of the day, he says, “I’m just one person, so I’m not the hero here. I think everyone who watches and likes and comments and donates, they are the real heroes.”
Helping Creators Do ‘Everything But Content’
Over the last year, DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish has been hard at work reviving FaZe Media after a failed attempt to take the esports and digital media brand public. Now he wants to help more creators supersize their businesses.
Kalish announced yesterday the launch of HardScope, which aims to bring the back-end for creators looking to connect with brands and fans. “We are a business partner to creators across every dimension other than making content,” Kalish tells me.
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