That’s the exact playbook that Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) is perfecting. Only 24 years old, MrBeast has built an enormous audience by creating viral content like re-creating Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, amassing more than 200 million subscribers across multiple YouTube channels (as of last week, his original channel – with 112 million subs – made him the most followed person on YouTube).
And now he’s selling products to that audience.
STANDING OUT WITH STORY AND CONTENT
In December 2020, MrBeast created a delivery-only burger chain called MrBeast Burger which has done sales of more than US$100 million. He did so by creating an ordering app for consumers and partnering with 1,000 locations across Europe and the US.
In September of this year, MrBeast Burger opened its first physical location at the American Dream Mall in New Jersey (around 10,000 fans reportedly showed up). Separately, in January 2022, MrBeast created a chocolate bar called Feastables, which has already generated sales of more than US$10 million.
“Distribution is the number one problem for consumer goods and services,” according to David Friedberg on All-In. “If you don’t naturally have content creation in your blood, you will have to go and buy a content business or … you will not be able to compete effectively.”
Why? Because consumer goods are so competitive – and so easily substituted in many cases – that the best way to stand out is with story and content. And social platforms like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok are where people are increasingly going to consume said content.
Traditional consumer brands without a successful content play are stuck spending huge dollars on advertising. In fact, Procter & Gamble is the world’s largest advertiser, spending US$11.5 billion in the 2021 fiscal year.