Welcome to Created, the newsletter that's almost as good as Jessica Alba's cameo at the Super Bowl Halftime show. Here's what we got today:

How creators took over the Super Bowl

Why John & Hank Green Sold Their Company For $0

YouTube's new multilingual thumbnail tool?

The Super Bowl’s Creator Strategy, Explained

The Super Bowl is advertising's biggest stage. And this year, creators showed up more than ever before both on screen and off.

160 Creators. One Game.

The NFL invited 160 creators to the game this year, and countless others were featured in commercials each of which cost at least $14M to air.

IShowSpeed appeared in Oakley and Meta’s new glasses ad

Amelia Dimoldenberg was featured in an Uber Eats activation

Jesser dropped an exclusive tour of a $2B NFL stadium

TBPN bought local pre-game ad time in San Francisco

Breaking and Entering Media hosted post-game livestreams breaking down the ads with execs

But one activation may have towered above the rest.

MrBeast's $1M Super Bowl Puzzle

MrBeast partnered with Salesforce to launch a $1,000,000 online puzzle tied to their commercial. But here’s the twist:

Before his ad even aired, he uploaded a YouTube video telling fans to watch his Super Bowl ad for a chance to win.

He used YouTube to drive traffic to a Super Bowl commercial.

And the results were wild:

70M+ visits to the puzzle page — enough to reportedly stall verification emails

166,000+ active investigators by Day 2

Most brands buy attention during the Super Bowl — but MrBeast engineered participation.

Our Take

Working with creators isn’t entirely new for the NFL.

But this year, the league intentionally collaborated with creators who don’t even focus on sports.

Max Klymenko — best known for his “Career Ladder” street interviews — was invited despite not being a football creator at all.

Dhar Mann was embedded as the NFL’s “Chief Kindness Officer,” leading activations during Super Bowl week.

The strategy is clear: expand its audience beyond hardcore football fans.

Not by asking people to watch football — but by weaving football into the creators they alread

Why John & Hank Green Sold Their Company For $0

For 15 years, Hank and John Green owned one of the most successful education studios on YouTube.

Now, they don’t anymore.

Their company, Complexly — the studio behind Crash Course and SciShow — is now a nonprofit.

No sale. No private equity. No paywall pivot.

They donated their shares and handed the company over to the public.

Mission > Money

Complexly is massive:

70+ employees

1,000's of classrooms use it to teach

$4.8M in philanthropic funding last year

They could have built a premium subscription platform or sold to ed-tech.

Instead, they chose to keep it free — for everyone, forever.

As Hank put it: “Over the years, a lot of people have knocked on our door asking if they could maybe buy Complexly, and their prices were compelling, but the ideas interest us, not the payoff.”

Our Take

Most creator studios follow a predictable arc:

Audience → revenue → scale → exit.

The Greens just rejected the final step.

They’re betting that the future of online education won’t be built on subscriptions or ad-sales, but on public trust — especially in an internet flooded with noise.

As Hank said, “It’s never been easier to find information, but it’s also never been harder to know what to trust.”

🏈 MrBeast’s Multilingual Thumbnail Test

The week's Thumbnail Roundup is a bit different.

That's because MrBeast is leaning into YouTube’s evolving tools to expand global reach.

In his “Watch My Super Bowl Ad To Win $1,000,000” video, he tested a new multilingual thumbnail feature.

Depending on where you’re watching from, the thumbnail automatically swaps to show the prize in your local currency.

This feature builds on multi-track audio: one upload, multiple languages, global distribution without fragmenting views.

It's only a matter of time before it expands to other channels. Stay tuned.

🚀 Weekly Outlier

This video by Grant Rudow has 1.8M views, which is 16.1 times higher than the channel's average. Here's why it took off:

Shock-First Framing: Million-dollar crashes and billionaire losses turn F1 into a business thriller, not a sport.

Follow-the-Money Clarity: Complex economics become simple by tracing where every dollar flows.

Elite Scarcity Appeal: F1’s closed, exclusive system makes every number feel higher-stakes.

🎁 Forward This Email

Know someone who'd also love this newsletter? Refer them and get gifts.

Refer 1 friend: get my Infinite Ideas book, my 8 best tips to find viral video ideas.

Refer 5 friends: get my Top 50 Thumbnails book with a detailed breakdown of why they work to improve your packaging.

Copy this unique link and email, text, or post it: [RH_REFLINK GOES HERE]

🔓 See You Inside

Join our free Discord of 7,000 creators who are helping each other grow. Because nothing great is created alone.

- Jon

PS if this email was forwarded to you, join here. To advertise with us, go here. To read a past newsletter, go here.

Unsubscribe | Update your profile