Influencers are shepherding their online followers to IRL events as they look to build communities and make money
Creators like the YouTubers behind BFDI and Inanimate Insanity are hosting in-person events to meet fans.
Inside North Hollywood’s Saban Media Center theater, a packed house of children chanted and grasped plush toys that matched the animated show playing in front of them.
No, this wasn’t a Disney or Nickelodeon event. It was an in-theater watch party for the new season of an animated show that lives entirely on YouTube.
The show, called “Battle for Dreamland” (or BFDI), was created by two brothers, Cary and Michael Huang. The July watch party, which also included content from the YouTube channel Animation Epic and its series “Inanimate Insanity,” was one of several in-person events the brothers have hosted this year.
The July event included a screening of upcoming episodes, a Q&A with the creators and voice actors, and interactive segments like letting the audience vote on the outcome of a video and chant along to viral videos they’d memorized word-for-word.
“I just love the idea of turning the microphone around and having the audience make the majority of the sound,” Cary Huang said. “It’s so core to the whole community.”
Like the Huang brothers, many other creators have increasingly been meeting with their audiences in person for live shows and community events. Not only are events a revenue driver for creators, but the chance to bring together an audience that developed virtually can be an important aspect in creating a strong community.
Creator podcasts are having a moment, and YouTube has become a top platform for listening to and watching video podcasts. The video podcasting format works well for onstage performances, where creators can essentially sit on a couch and chat with each other in front of fans. Several top video podcasts have hosted live events this year, including “Cancelled” with Tana Mongeau and Brooke Schofield, “Therapuss” with Jake Shane, and the “H3 Podcast” by Ethan and Hila Klein. Mongeau and Schofield are currently on tour performing 15 shows, including at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Also in LA, the H3 Podcast performed at the Greek Theater in June, and livestreamed the event on YouTube for fans who couldn’t attend.
“Creators are the new priests,” creator economy insider and VC Hugo Amsellem previously told B-17. “Of course, it’s not about religion, it’s about assembling people.”
Snapback Agency hosted a live event at the Mall of America with its athlete creators.
Live podcasts and themed events help creators build community
In August, the creator-talent-firm Snapback Agency hosted a basketball-themed event at the Mall of America with several of its athlete-creator clients.
Snapback Agency ran the event in partnership with Mall of America, and creators Jenna Bandy, Strictly Bball, Bree Green, and Carson Roney, among others.
“I think it’s such a powerful connection for people to show up in person,” said Alex Sheinman, CEO and cofounder of Snapback Agency.
Creators are also touring the country to cities with the most engaged fans.
New York comedians Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton host the podcast Celebrity Memoir Book Club (CMBC), where they discuss celebrity memoirs. Parker and Hamilton have taken their podcast on the road, touring cities around the US to meet their fans.
“We prefer the intimacy and the camaraderie of all being in a space together,” Hamilton said.
Curating a space where their fans can meet each other is also a driving force behind CMBC’s events.
“A major undertone of our podcast is female friendship,” said Hamilton, who became friends with cohost Claire in her mid-20s. “There is a really notable push right now, or desire from people, to make more deep friendships in their late 20s, early 30s, 40s, and beyond.”
In fact, an entire crop of startups and events in American cities are trying to tackle this hunger for adult friendship amid a so-called loneliness epidemic.
“Creating these spaces where people can gather in real life, where the common interest is our podcast, is such a great jumping-off point for helping people meet other people,” Hamilton said.
Before each live show, Hamilton and Parker also like to host meetups where they can chat one-on-one with their audience.
“We love to let people gather before the show so that if they buy a ticket alone, they can come and make friends on their way into the show,” Hamilton said.
Creators are following the steps of traditional media by bringing their audience together in person.
In-person concerts have become central to revenue in the music industry, and now entertainment companies like Netflix are trying to make in-person experiences, too. Theme parks have always been a key part of Disney and Universal’s in-person strategy.
Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton recently went on tour with their podcast Celebrity Memoir Book Club.
Creators are linking up with tech and media companies to bring fans offline
Creator-led in-person events aren’t completely new. In the pre-pandemic era, some YouTube stars would go on tours, planning shows that resembled more of a variety show. In 2015, YouTube creators Dan Howell and Phil Lester went on tour timed with the release of their book. Howell and Lester performed challenges onstage and various skits, like giving advice to audience members and reading fan fiction.
But creators are reimagining how to interact with their fans and create more intimacy with their audiences. And it takes more than just getting fans in a room for an in-person experience to be successful.
For help in putting on these events, creators have turned to companies ranging from the upstart event app Posh, to the digital-media stalwart Vox Media, to the buzzy subscription platform Substack.
Events app Posh, which recently raised a $22 million round of funding, has been used by creators to organize and monetize IRL events. Creators can organize events using Posh, sell tickets, and have their events promoted in an in-app feed of event recommendations. For instance, Ariana Nathani, the creator behind the “Drinks First” dating podcast, hosts events in NYC using Posh.
Vox Media has also doubled down on investing in podcasting and is helping its podcast creators expand into live events.
Jackie Cinguina, chief marketing officer, and Lillian Xu, executive director, spoke with B-17 about the company’s offerings for podcast creators.
Vox Media, which works with Celebrity Memoir Book Club, has a production team that collaborates with podcast talent and producers when planning a live event, Cinguina said.
Vox Media leans on specific marketing, like placing podcast talent into larger in-person events to perform, like South by Southwest. This year, Vox Media programmed the conference’s podcasting stage.
During the pandemic, Vox hosted several virtual events, but they didn’t prove to be a complete replacement for the energy created by an in-person event.
“From an audience standpoint, we thought it was really important,” Xu said about bringing back live events. “From a podcaster perspective, we saw that they’re often able to test new formats or try things out in front of a live audience and get that real-time reaction. And that gives them a lot of energy. You see them react to the audience and feed off of them when they are in front of a live audience.”
Substack, too, is finding its footing in the IRL market.
In 2024, the newsletter platform — which has worked to strengthen its podcast play this year — helped several creators host events, such as live readings hosted by writers like Delia Cai, a quiz show hosted by Hunter Harris, and a fashion week experience with Emilia Petrarca.
“Substack is fundamentally built in these direct relationships between publisher and subscriber,” said head of writer relations Sophia Efthimiatou. “It creates a very intimate and strong bond.”
While ticket sales are a clear mark of success for events like those put on by Substack (some of which have been sold-out events), Efthimiatou sees these events as a bigger project of human connection.
As Efthimiatou wrapped a Substack event earlier this year, a woman in the audience shared that she was leaving with 10 new contacts of people she had met at the event, Efthimiatou told B-17. The woman was leaving with several potential new friends.
“How amazing is that?” Efthimiatou said.
