How We’re Rethinking Brand Launches in 2025

Morning, friends! Testing a different day again because why not. I wanted to send this yesterday, but I realized that it would make more sense given the significance of today’s launch that I am working on and the subject of today’s newsletter.

For the last few months, i’ve had the honor and pleasure on working with an insanely talented team to launch a company that is founded by one of the top beauty and makeup influencers in the world. Not only that, but this brand is a distribution machine (doesn’t describe it enough tbh), and is a socially first brand, but there’s one thing that I love to remind brands when working on projects like this or starting a new company: the rules and playbook to launching a brand are always changing. Nothing is a one size fits all.

Most brands are hitting the wall and are asking “What platforms are worth investing in? How do we build something that lasts? Where are we supposed to show up when everything’s in flux?”

The marketing landscape feels less predictable than ever. TikTok’s future is uncertain, acquisition costs for new customers is increasing, and the “tried-and-true” tactics don’t always deliver like they used to.

Whether you’re launching for the first time or figuring out how to evolve your strategy to how you show up online on social media or in content on other pages, the playbook is being written in real time — especially when it comes to platform selection out of the gate.

With that said, we need to keep talking about why brands need to start taking YouTube more seriously, especially with April 5th looming in the distance. 

It’s the place where creators are building deep trust with their audiences—and where viewers are spending way more intentional time. In a world of 3-second scrolls and fleeting TikTok views, YouTube is where attention spans stretch, storytelling thrives, and brand messaging actually lands. Fun fact: A 'view' on YouTube is 30 seconds vs. a 'view' on TT being <1 second.

And more importantly: it converts. Especially with mid-to-high intent consumers doing product research and discovery through creators they already trust. Just look at brands like Jones Road Beauty, Graza, Brooklinen, LMNT, Made In — they’ve all invested heavily in YouTube creator partnerships because the platform delivers long-tail results that actually compound over time and same for creating content for their own channels to treat it as a brand marketing channel.

While YouTube has historically been more time-intensive to manage than other platforms, Agentio changes the game. It takes the manual work off of your plate and makes scaling on YouTube as easy as setting up a new paid social campaign. From creator matching to communication, bidding on price, briefs, video review, and licensing— it’s all automated and streamlined in one place. So whether you’re starting from scratch or trying to scale what’s already working, Agentio makes it ridiculously easy to build a smart, scalable YouTube creator program.

Plus, a single video can drive traffic and conversions for months (or even years), unlike a fleeting Instagram Story or TikTok video. For example, this video I worked on for Graza converts to this day after being live for over a year. You can see some of the other examples here and here with Agentio.

How do you know if you’re ready to kickstart this new channel in your marketing mix? Well, if you..

• feel overly invested in Meta and stuck trying to expand into multi-channel marketing

• already have a strong multi-channel mix, but are struggling to find real scale in new programs

• have product-market fit and a clear growth trajectory—but need a better way to reach audiences with high attention and conversion potential

• are managing $1M+ in monthly marketing spend and looking to round out your funnel with more sustainable, high-impact channels

• need a platform that helps you run full-funnel creator strategies—driving both top-of-funnel awareness and lower-funnel performance (strong conversion and order value from new customers)

• want to test YouTube at scale, without the traditional overhead and manual chaos

Your solution might be just a click away. By the way, I just heard that a new feature on is that brands can get YouTube Shorts delivered from a select set of creators on the Agentio platform. From February to March, there was a 44% increase of brands on the platform booking YouTube Shorts ad reads. As a result, brands are seeing a significant amount of bonus views, lowering their CPMs and driving additional awareness that can also be licensed to leverage for ads. Sounds pretty sweet if you ask me.

If you'd like to check out Agentio for yourself, either go to their website HERE to book a demo or email their co-founder and CEO, Arthur, directly at [email protected] and tell him you came directly from my newsletter for the VIP treatment. 

Now, back to the bulk of today’s newsletter.

As I mentioned, today marks day 1 of Point of View Beauty by Mikayla Nogueira. If you have followed Mikayla, you just know the amount of power and influence she has within the beauty space. I have seen it firsthand with handling the accounts. For example, we went from 0 to 260,000+ followers on both Tiktok and Instagram in 2 weeks and almost 60,000 subs on Youtube in less than a week. Truly, I have never seen something happen this fast and with the retention to prove it across e-mail, sentiment, etc. While you’re reading this, we’re all sitting together in an office in Manhattan prepping to hit live on early access.

Now, with all of this over the last few months, a thought hit me that there’s a common trap brands fall into during launch mode independent of who founded it:

The “strategy” becomes a game of put all your energy into Tiktok or Instagram, get a few viral moments, pray it converts —and maybe later, you’ll “get around” to YouTube when you have more time, budget, or resources.

But here’s the truth in 2025: YouTube isn’t a someday platform.
It’s a Day One platform. Note: Day One doesn’t need to mean Day 1 literally, but it should be in your more immediate mix vs. waiting five or six years for the time to be right. And the smartest founders and marketers are treating it that way.

Let’s talk about why.

YouTube in 2025 isn’t just for tutorials or comparison videos anymore.

It’s TikTok, TV, and Google Search all in one when you really break it down.

How?

Well…

• Short-form video discovery, trends, creators, and virality via Youtube Shorts. For the record, Shorts has ~2B monthly logged-in users. It’s the easiest step a brand can take to be on the platform.

• Long-form content, brand storytelling, and long “episodes” that people want to stream on their TVs and desktops.

• People search on YouTube just like Google — to learn, compare, and buy. YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine after Google. Most Gen Z and Millennials go to YouTube before they buy. You’re lying if you’re reading this and say you don’t search comparisons on products here and there.

And it’s quietly becoming one of the most important places for brands to show up—not just because of how people consume content there, but because of how long that content stays relevant.

Here’s what’s changed:

• It’s part of how Gen Z and Millennials expect to discover content now.

• If your brand solves a problem, answers a question, or needs any kind of education—you want to be searchable here.

• Evergreen content has compounding value. A product demo, founder Q&A, or raw vlog might drive traffic for years—while that viral TikTok disappears in a day or two.

With building POV’s strategy, it was mentioned before I started how important Youtube wanted to be from day one and it made me giddy. Why? Well, Mikayla isn’t on Youtube so we would be able to get all her fans and followers over to a place where they can watch her, her tips, see her building her dream company and more for longer than 3-10 minutes. With 16,000,000 followers on Tiktok, we wanted a place where we could make sure these followers could go so, especially given the April 5th deadline on Tiktok, so Youtube it is.

With POV Beauty, we’re investing in YouTube not just as a backup plan—but as a place to go deeper.

It’s a platform where:

• We can build out tutorials with more detail and with other experts in the space with Mikayla that highlight different ways to use the products she created

• Explain product launches in her own words or highlight the best use cases or how to use them

• Share the why behind the brand from moodboard content for pre-launch to how the brand started and where the products are sourced from

• Create content that lives forever, not just for the moment to be able to gain search traction and longevity on it.

This isn’t about abandoning TikTok. It’s about not only being dependent on it (or on IG, for that matter).

Let’s be real though: YouTube isn’t for every brand.

This is where most “you need to be everywhere” content loses people. So, let’s break it down with some honesty:

You probably shouldn’t launch with YouTube if:

• You have no on-camera voice or point of view

• You’re stretched too thin to show up consistently

• Your product doesn’t require explanation, education, or search-based discovery

• You’re still figuring out your customer’s language and buying triggers

And that’s okay! YouTube is a long-game platform. If you’re still in test-and-learn phase, focus where you can move faster like by repurposing short-form content on YT shorts or having others talk about your products for you via integrations with influencers.

But if you do have a founder-led angle, a compelling product story, or a customer journey that benefits from depth and explanation?

YouTube could be your most under-leveraged asset.

Examples of brands doing it right:

• Fenty Beauty – Investing step-by-step tutorials (how to choose your right foundation) , and creator-led content.

• Jones Road Beauty – Using the channel as a place for how to’s when it comes to using JRB products and Bobbi’s expertise.

• Made In Cookware – Smart use of casual, intimate content that answers real cooking questions, tackles seasonal moments whether it’s through pushing and creating content around certain SKUs, and help showcase how to use products accordingly.

YouTube + Launch Strategy: How to Think About It

So what does it look like to actually include YouTube in your launch?

Here’s a simple framework:

Phase 1: Pre-launch (Hype + Storytelling)

Examples:

Long-Form:

• “Why I’m launching this brand” (founder video) or a big mo

• Vision Board Content that supports the goal of the brand and the story behind it

• Behind-the-scenes from production, branding, product formulation, etc.

Short-Form:

• Repurpose and re-edit long form content into shorts introducing the vibe, mission, and more.

Phase 2: Launch week (Education + Demonstration)

• Product tutorials + How To’s

  • How to Use [Product Name] for the Best Results

  • The Right Way to Apply [Product] (Most People Get This Wrong)

  • 3 Ways To Use POV Beauty’s ____________

• Problem and solution storytelling

  • Nothing Worked for My Dry Skin… Until This

  • I Hate _________ —Here’s What I Use Instead

  • This Product Fixed My ________ in ___ Days

• Full breakdown of Hero SKU(s)

Phase 3: Post-launch (Evergreen Growth + Repurposing)

• Create content around FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) and Customer Education

• Invite creators for content takeovers by filming content or owning verticals under the channel (more coming soon as I test this).

But, won’t this be… a lot of work?

Yes. But it’s work that lasts.

Once again, just because Youtube could be in your mix. If you don’t have your foundations down first across product-market fit, finding where you shine best, don’t just hop into this. Be thoughtful. Baby steps.

But remember that even as a founder or working on a social team that it’s time we stuff huffing and puffing when someone says Youtube as an option.

One great founder intro video might serve your brand for 2+ years.
One “how to use” demo can live on your product pages on your website, in your email flows and be cut down to support other channels or initiatives.

One short-form tutorial can drive thousands of views monthly—on autopilot.

The same can’t always be said for that TikTok that hit 200K and fell off the planet 48 hours later.

Am I against short-form platforms like Tiktok and Instagram? HEEEEEECK NO. However, Youtube is the new TV. If you’re simply giving it the boot without even considering it, whether as a tool for leveraging influencers to talk about your product or you leveraging the platform to create content that can heavily win on SEO, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

It’s time for Ahead of The Trend.

A quick, snappy ode to the fun things I’m seeing online across creators, social, and brands. Sometimes, it’s a trend. Sometimes, it’s just a tip I want to share about marketing. TL;DR: just cool things I’m loving right now or things you should know.

Products of the Week That I Can’t Stop Using, Eating, Reading…You Get The Point:

• Using: Normalize always being on DND tbh. Best button ever created. Shoutout to my friends who deal with me, but ok, but actually, I have to be biased and say the POV Beauty “Whip It” which is a moisturizer that I cannot get enough of. I ran out already.

• Eating + Drinking: TBH when I get overwhelmed with work my appetite is the first thing to go or I just rather order food so lately for me, it has been a lot of Sweetgreen and I must say that I am impressed with their new Ripple fries and the pickle ketchup. When it comes to a bev, the new Explorer Cold Brew RTDs have been helping me stay caffeinated.

• Reading:  Hannah Baxter’s Subtack, Anxiety Beer

A Random Mix of Things You Should Definitely Know About: 

• Threads is working on an option to replicate your Twitter followers (via Social Media Today). I will die on the hill that Threads is so underrated if it’s a space that makes sense for your brand.

• I need AI to politely GTFO. Community used to mean something, but now you can just have AI do it for you. Ugh (via Social Media Today)

• Are you even #LOCKEDIN? Well, Ashton Hall went from 0 to 100 of taking over timelines of everyone with his insane morning routine (via Fast Company). With that, Saratoga Springs water has risen to the top enough that even grocery stores started merchandising it and brands like Sweetgreen are getting in on the action. However, guys like this have taken over my FYP for years and I hope they are all okay.

That’s a Wrap!

As always, thanks for spending some time with me this morning. If you liked it, I would love to hear more about you, what you’re working on and any questions you’re dying for answers to whether you’re launching or been around the block a few times.

My goal of this is to similarly take feedback (like you should be doing on social media) and making sure you get something in your inbox every week that you want. Sure, I have tons of ideas, but it’s a team effort.

If you have a friend or coworker who you think would love to join over 3,000 other awesome folks, just shoot them this link - would mean a lot 🙂 https://kendalldickieson.beehiiv.com/subscribe

See you soon!

-KD

P.S. If you’re seeing this. Life question. I turn 30 in exactly 2 weeks. Is it true that life gets better when you turn 30? Hit me back, folks.

This edition was proudly brought to you by Agentio