YouTube creator Kinigra Deon is used to churning out videos quickly. But when she made Speed, a seven-episode Tubi-exclusive series about street racing, going fast took on a whole new meaning.

In December, Deon and Tubi, with the help of creator platform Spotter, released the original show as part of the Tubi for Creators program, which rolled out in June 2025 in an effort to expand the free streamer’s original and creator-led programming. Deon was one of six creators part of the program’s initial cohort, and Speed is her first Tubi-exclusive project. The opportunity arose when Tubi identified a gap in its programming, and Spotter founder and CEO Aaron DeBevoise, who has previously worked with Deon as one of the investment company’s spotlighted creators, realized that Deon could provide the content to fill it.

The only obstacle? Deon had an approximately 40-day timeline to shoot, produce, and deliver the final product.

“In my view, that’s unheard of, but that’s the power of Kinigra and her studio and just how creatively focused she is,” DeBevoise told Marketing Brew. “I know she wished she had more time to do [quality control] and all those things that you would do, but it’s just an amazing thing to know that this is why they’re such great partners, creators, and ad-supported platforms.”

Continue reading here.—JN

After a yearslong saga, TikTok’s US operations are now under new management.

The $14 billion deal that was signed last month to form the TikTok USDS Joint Venture was finalized late last week after the US and Chinese governments gave it the green light. Moving forward, Oracle, Silver Lake investing, and the Abu Dhabi–based MGX investing will own just over 80% of the company’s US operations, with 19.9% of ownership remaining in the hands of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.

Adam Pressler, the former head of operations, trust, and safety at TikTok in LA, was appointed CEO of the joint venture by its board of directors.

In a post to Truth Social not long after the deal was finalized, President Donald Trump wrote that he was “so happy to have helped in saving TikTok,” despite playing a major role in setting off the movement to ban the app with an executive order signed in 2020. After that movement gained bipartisan support, a divest-or-ban law passed under President Joe Biden, was upheld by the Supreme Court, and was subsequently delayed multiple times, per Trump’s orders.

Now, it seems unlikely that TikTok will go dark in the US again—like it did this time last year—but questions remain about what the US TikTok experience will look like for users going forward.

Read more here.—KH

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Isha Patel is the co-founder and CEO of Kale, a creator rewards platform. Prior to co-founding Kale, she worked at LinkedIn.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? IRL community building in NYC with marketers. I have the privilege of meeting amazing, smart marketers every day, but they often feel lonely in their jobs. We started inviting people to our HQ casually for breakfast and coffee and turned that into a regular series this year. We curate a group of 20 individuals, invite them in, discuss a central theme, and just chat. These no-frills conversations have forged meaningful relationships where people lean on each other professionally. We now call this group the Kale Collective. We’ve found this to be a really great way to get to know our community: what they’re looking forward to, what they’re frustrated with and what they need to level up themselves and their brands.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? The MTA did a fantastic job ahead of the retirement of the classic yellow MetroCard. They invested in a holiday merch drop with the Transit Museum, partnered with neighborhood favorites like Stretch Pizza and Gong cha tea, collabed with national gems like Carvel, and even showed up at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade with floats. The MTA is the connective tissue for the iconic New York City, so it was a fitting farewell tour that has evoked feelings of both nostalgia and city pride across all five boroughs.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I love creating stuff with my hands: clay, watercolor, woodblock printing. Most recently, I painted a series of landscapes of my favorite hiking trails. Making something from nothing has always felt very magical to me. I’m lucky that Kale is a digital manifestation of that—a white canvas that our team gets to paint.

Continue reading here.

Real jobs, shared through real communities. CollabWORK brings opportunities directly to Marketing Brew readers—no mass postings, no clutter, just roles worth seeing. Click here to view the full job board.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Jeep is serving as the presenting partner of the X Games as part of an expanded sponsorship deal.
• Celsius inked a multiyear deal with the Aston Martin F1 Team after working with Ferrari since 2023.
• Chipotle partnered with Indiana University head football coach Curt Cignetti on a custom bowl, making Cignetti the first coach with a Chipotle menu item.
• SailGP tapped MikeWorldWide for PR in the US.