Welcome! I’m Simon Owens and this is my media industry newsletter. If you’ve received it, then you either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.
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Are creators struggling to find repeat customers for their products?
We’re in an era where nearly every high-profile creator is launching a product designed to stand on its own, separate from their media business. Whether it’s MrBeast’s Feastables, Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime, or Emma Chamberlain’s Chamberlain Coffee, these brands have achieved remarkable success almost immediately, selling millions of units within weeks of launch.
But those splashy debuts might be masking a larger problem facing creator-led brands: they struggle to find repeat customers. After achieving a whopping $1.2 billion in revenue during its first year, Prime’s sales dropped by nearly half in 2025. Recently, Business Insider reported that MrBeast’s Feastables, while still technically growing, has largely stalled out in its sales, falling far short of MrBeast’s stated goals of dominating the chocolate snacks market.
Chamberlain Coffee has run into its own problems. Its efforts to significantly expand its coffee flavor lineup led to some pretty scathing taste reviews from TikTok influencers. It also didn’t help that Chamberlain largely stopped posting to both her YouTube channel and Spotify podcast.
In a recent podcast interview, she summed up the problem pretty succinctly. “This brand has to exist outside of me,” she said. “People aren’t going to return if they don’t like the product.”
Creators are great at producing entertaining content, which makes them especially adept at launching new products. When Ryan Trahan announced a new flavor of his Joyride candy, for instance, he hired professional filmmakers to script and shoot an entire action caper that generated over 6.8 million views on YouTube.
But there’s a reason the largest consumer packaged goods companies collectively spend tens of billions of dollars a year on brand advertising: product categories like coffee, energy drinks, and candy are highly saturated, and it takes a lot more than a single purchase to drive brand loyalty. You have to remind consumers over and over and over again that a brand exists. And while creators are extremely good at forming parasocial relationships with their audiences, that doesn’t mean those relationships will be top of mind when someone’s at the grocery store looking to stock up on coffee or snacks.
ICYMI: Can a hit YouTube channel thrive after its founder departs?
The King of Random had 8 million YouTube subscribers when Grant Thompson suddenly decided he didn’t want to create videos anymore.
How do Substack and Beehiiv’s new features stack up?
I recently went on the excellent Letterhead LIVE show to discuss Substack’s salvo against AI slop and whether Beehiiv’s new slate of product features can lure more creators and publishers onto the platform. You can check out the conversation on YouTube.
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Behind the paywall
Here’s what I have on deck for paid subscribers:
Traditionally-published authors shouldn’t be spending their own money on marketing
The perils of building your media business on rented land
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