Night Light | Kai's That Guy

Author

Reed Duchscher
December 09, 2022

The Reed of the Week

Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed get their flowers at the StreamysThis year's Streamy Awards were notable for a few reasons: Jimmy and his team took home their 3rd straight Creator of the Year Award and Night clients took home 6 awards total. I wanted to highlight two wins that I think are particularly notable because they represent a giant step forward for creator diversity: Kai Cenat for Streamer of the Year and iShowSpeed for Breakout Creator. XQC also ended up winning the award for Just Chatting, but admitted that the award should've gone to Kai (I fully agree).

There is no more denying that there is a new wave of young, Black creators taking over on YouTube and Twitch - Kai and all of AMP, Speed, Jidion, Courtney Adanna and CoryxKenshin to name a few of individuals who are already stars in the digital space. Creators like Kai are bringing a whole new element to content creation and inspiring a new generation of creators, and you don't have to just take my word for it. Let's look at some monumental moments for Kai and Speed this year that show they wield cultural influence like very few creators do:

Kai Cenat | 2022 Streamer of the Year- Became the #1 streamer in the world on Twitch, eclipsing 100k subs- Released "Bustdown Rollie Avalanche", which has been streamed over 100M times and was a top trending sound on TikTok- Became one of the most relevant late night talk shows in the country. 21 Savage didn't bother to go on Jimmy Fallon after he dropped his sure-to-win a Grammy collab album with Drake, but he did go on Kai's show that same week- Appeared in Lil Uzi Vert's "Wanna Rock" music video, arguably the hottest song in the country right now

iShowSpeed | 2022 Breakout Creator - Became the #1 full-time streamer, measured by subs, on all of YouTube- His "World Cup Anthem" song has over 100M streams, was acknowledged by FIFA directly, and was played in stadiums in Qatar- Stole the show in the Sidemen Charity March and made appearances on UK local TV networks-Began hosting massive stars, such as Lil Nas X, on his streams

Creator Culture

Ludwig's creative agency, Offbrand, brings chessboxing to YouTubeChess, boxing, Smash: what more do you need? I love seeing the creativity and cross-pollination of mediums in events like this. Sure to be a banger.

Inside the podcast network at Tiny Meat Gang StudiosI think building compelling and value-additive platforms is the key to achieving scale and influence in the creator economy, and TMG is the best example of that in the podcast space.

Rhett and Link exploring sale of stake in Mythical With Spotify, Roku, and Candle Media rumored to be interested in the acquisition, it's clear that traditional capital believes in the viability of networked digital content as a means of value creation. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more aggressive aggregation of content like this.

Can't Miss Clips

How Danny Duncan is disrupting backyard sportsThe king of merch with a creative twist on household games. Love it.

Speed and his secret serviceSecurity fit for the artist behind the World Cup's (un)official anthem.

ChatGPT provides potential for AI content creationNight Light by ChatGPT, coming to an inbox near you.

Business & Entrepreneurship

Forever 21 launches Roblox fashion lineIt's notable to see fashion brands interacting with the digital world in ways beyond influencer marketing. Between this and Burberry x Minecraft, I'd guess we'll see many more fashion x virtual media collaborations down the line.

Amazon launches a TikTok-inspired live shopping feedAn adaptive algorithm trained to show you what you already want to buy should make for a dangerously addictive shopping experience.

Creative Juice offers flexibility in funding options for creatorsAn interesting alternative to Spotter and Jellysmack. Content licensing remains a compelling way to jumpstart growth for creators, and it's great to see increasingly flexible financing options to consider.

Jobs