Week of March 25, 2026

Good to see you again, friends! After a period of winter hibernation, our newsletter is back in your inboxes, jam packed with news stories from across the creator economy. We have a new look and a brand new data deep dive into the YouTube trends our data has surfaced for us.

This week we're diving into how dynamic sponsorships allow creators to make money from their back catalogue, looking at why the YouTube numbers are the real win that matters for SNL's UK debut, and watching a new wave a love for K-Pop demon hunters following their Oscar win. There is so much happening across YouTube at the moment that we are excited to take a closer look at it all. Let's dive in!

- Shoshana, ThoughtLeaders COO

This week's deep dive

Dynamic Sponsorship Slots Are About to Change Everything

Here's a question: what if every video a creator has ever published could generate brand revenue forever? That's the promise behind YouTube's dynamic sponsorship slots, a feature now rolling out in early testing that could fundamentally reshape how creators and brands think about sponsored content.

The concept is deceptively simple. Instead of permanently "burning in" a sponsor segment, creators will soon be able to insert brand segments into swappable slots within their videos. When a deal expires, the segment can be removed and replaced with a new brand, without re-uploading or re-editing the video. The same slot, in the same video, can be sold to multiple brands over time or even to different brands in different markets simultaneously.

The revenue implications are significant. YouTube estimates creators could earn up to 3x the revenue from the same piece of content. Think about a creator with hundreds of videos in their back catalog, many still pulling tens of thousands of views per month. Right now, those old sponsor reads are promoting products from deals that expired years ago. With dynamic slots, every one of those videos becomes a live advertising asset.

For brands, the upside is equally compelling. Instead of sponsoring a video and hoping it performs well long-term, advertisers can now buy into proven inventory: videos that have already demonstrated sustained viewership. They can run time-limited campaigns, target specific geographies, and rotate messaging seasonally, all within the same creator relationship. Each brand pays for strategic timing rather than permanent placement, and viewers see relevant sponsorships instead of outdated campaigns.

This is something we've been tracking at ThoughtLeaders for a while. Our Evergreen Score metric measures the long-tail value of YouTube videos by comparing views in the first 30 days after publication to views in the period that follows. A score of 1.0 or higher means a video accumulated more views after its initial window than during it, a strong signal that the content has lasting discovery value. Our data shows that fewer than 7% of YouTube videos qualify as truly evergreen, but the ones that do can see their effective CPM drop from $0.04 to as low as $0.01-0.02 as views keep compounding over time. Dynamic sponsorship slots are the natural evolution of this insight: if you can identify which videos are still growing, you can now actually act on that information by placing fresh brand deals in proven, high-performing content rather than letting those views go unmonetized.

The feature is currently in limited testing with select creators, with a full platform rollout expected later in 2026. YouTube is also pairing this with AI-powered automatic product tagging and clickable brand links in Shorts, signaling a broader push to make every piece of content on the platform a potential commerce touchpoint.

Zooming Out

Dynamic sponsorship slots are a big deal for the entire influencer marketing ecosystem. For creators, it shifts the economics from one-and-done transactions to recurring revenue streams, making a creator's library of content a genuinely compounding asset. For brands and agencies, it opens up a new category of inventory: back-catalog sponsorships in videos with proven, sustained traffic. That's a fundamentally different value proposition than sponsoring a new upload and hoping it performs.

The strategic implication for marketers is clear: start thinking about creator partnerships as long-term media buys, not one-off campaigns. The brands that build ongoing relationships with creators and lock in recurring slots in high-performing videos are going to have a serious advantage over those still doing the "one video, one check" dance. And for agencies, the ability to identify which back-catalog videos are still driving real traffic, using metrics like our Evergreen Score, is about to become a critical competitive edge. We've been building the data infrastructure to surface these opportunities for years. Now YouTube is building the monetization layer to match.

The story behind the numbers

From Our Data

SNL UK Just Broke Sky TV's YouTube

Saturday Night Live crossed the Atlantic last week, and YouTube noticed immediately. The premiere of SNL UK on March 21 triggered one of the most dramatic channel-level viewership spikes we've tracked this quarter. Sky TV's YouTube channel went from background noise to must-watch overnight.

The numbers tell the story

Sky TV's channel sits at 363K subscribers with a median of 7,595 views per video. Their usual fare (Cinema trailers, panel show clips) rarely cracks five figures. Then SNL UK dropped and the numbers went vertical. Tina Fey's monologue pulled 2.18M views (287x the channel median). The "Sir Keir Makes a Difficult Phone Call" cold open hit 1.48M (195x). "The Last Supper" sketch grabbed 1.12M (148x). Total across 7 SNL UK clips: roughly 6.5M views in 4 days, on a channel that typically generates under 100K per week.

Why it matters

This is a textbook case of franchise IP bringing a sleepy YouTube presence back to life. Sky TV's channel had settled into a rhythm of low-engagement trailer dumps, and a single programming bet changed everything overnight. For brands eyeing YouTube sponsorships in the UK entertainment space, this is signal: the SNL UK audience is showing up, they're watching full sketches (6+ minutes), and they're doing it on YouTube, not just linear TV. If the show sustains even a fraction of this premiere energy, Sky TV just leapt from filler to one of the UK's most relevant comedy destinations on the platform.

Links Roundup

Quick hits from across the web

→ YouTube is testing video previews so you can see what you're actually clicking on. RIP clickbait thumbnails.

→ YouTube is expanding its deepfake detection tool to politicians and journalists. Creators got it first; now the public figures are catching up.

→ YouTube's new co-author feature lets up to five creators share a single video. Collabs just got an algorithm boost.

→ 58% of Americans now listen to podcasts monthly, a new record. YouTube owns 39% of weekly listening time. Spotify, you okay?

→ YouTube Shorts gets "Add Motion," an AI feature that animates photos using Google's Veo 3. The Shorts creation toolkit is getting seriously powerful.

→ Creators can now switch live streams to sponsor-only in real time. Membership perks just got a lot more compelling.

→ Clickable direct links are back in YouTube Shorts. Creators and brands, rejoice. This was the most-requested feature reinstatement of the year.

→ Over one million channels used YouTube's AI creation tools in a single month. The AI creator toolkit is going mainstream fast.

→ 70% of brands now prefer working with nano and micro-influencers for sponsorships. The era of "bigger is better" is officially over.

Add to your watch list

Creator on the Rise

SleepyCrafter

2.8M subscribers · 3D Printing / Treasure Hunts

Here's a format we haven't seen before: SleepyCrafter 3D prints intricate handmade creations, hides them in real-world locations, and films the entire treasure hunt for fans to follow. Think geocaching meets maker culture meets YouTube. Since launching in late 2024, the channel has exploded to 2.8 million subscribers by turning every video into an interactive event. The community engagement is off the charts, and the format is practically built for brand integrations. One to watch.

Watch their channel →

Advertiser Spotlight

Brand Strategies Worth Stealing

Apple

Apple's "Smart Group Selfies" campaign for the iPhone 17 is a masterclass in showing, not telling. Instead of spec sheets and tech jargon, the ad features the Compton Cowboys, the staff at Katz's Delicatessen, Jeju Island's Haenyeo divers, Japanese cosplayers, and Brooklyn nonnas, all demonstrating how the upgraded Center Stage camera automatically widens and rotates the frame as more people step into a selfie. The strategy worth stealing? Apple didn't just demo a feature; they built a campaign around the feeling of inclusion, making the camera's AI capabilities feel human and warm rather than technical. For brands working with creators, it's a reminder that the best product marketing happens when the product disappears into the story. Every group in the ad is a community with its own identity, and Apple let each one shine without forcing a script. That's the kind of authenticity creator partnerships should aim for.

Trending on YouTube

What's going viral right now

BLACKPINK Hits 100M Subscribers

First artist ever to reach the 100 million subscriber milestone on YouTube, earning the platform's Red Diamond Creator Award. 3.3 billion views in the last year alone. See the channel.

Brainrot Goes Mainstream

The absurdist, surreal visual style that started in niche corners of YouTube has become a universal language, showing up in everything from Roblox UGC to music videos. Down the rabbit hole.

Pokémon 30th Anniversary Content

Pokémon's 30th anniversary dropped unique logos for all 1,000+ Pokémon, and creators are going wild with tier lists, reaction videos, and nostalgic deep dives. Watch them.

Kiki's Delivery Service IMAX

Studio Ghibli's classic is getting an IMAX remaster and the nostalgia wave is hitting hard. Fan tributes and reaction content are flooding the platform. Feel the feels.

K-Pop Demon Hunters' Oscar Win Sparks YouTube Flood

"Golden" became the first K-pop song to win Best Original Song at the Oscars, and YouTube lit up. Reaction videos, dance covers, and fan edits have surged since the March 15 ceremony, with Oscars-related content hitting 3B+ views on the platform. Watch the wave.