Court documents reveal how MrBeast pitches brands on sponsoring his YouTube empire
- MrBeast, the world's most popular YouTuber, regularly works with brands on sponsorship deals.
- A recent court filing included six decks MrBeast's team made to pitch brands such as GM, Ford, and LG.
- The documents show how a creator with hundreds of millions of fans positions himself to sponsors.
MrBeast has hundreds of millions of YouTube subscribers to serve ads to. A new set of documents filed in court in October lends new insight into how he sells his massive audience to brands for sponsorship deals.
The documents, which appeared in a filing tied to a MrBeast Burger lawsuit, feature partnership and endorsement pitch decks meant to woo brands such as Ford, General Motors, Walmart, and CarMax. The documents are dated between December 2022 and March 2023, when MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, was represented by the talent firm Night. In a court filing, the president of MrBeast's company, Jeffrey Housenbold, described the documents as "a compilation of six slide deck presentations concerning proposed partnership deals between Beast and six different market partners."
A representative for MrBeast declined to comment for this story.
So, what does a MrBeast pitch deck look like?
Business Insider read through 163 slides from pitches for Ford, CarMax, Walmart, General Motors, LG, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie in order to better understand how the YouTuber makes a case to brands. As in most media pitches, MrBeast's team focused on his audience demographics, scale, and splashy content.
In each deck, MrBeast's team shared metrics such as subscriber and follower counts, monthly views, and unique viewers to showcase the scale of his YouTube empire.
The decks also highlighted MrBeast's stunt-heavy content style. One of the first few slides in most decks referenced a 2021 video in which the YouTuber buried himself alive in a coffin for 50 hours alongside the text "MrBeast pushes through the impossible." Donaldson later repeated the "buried alive" stunt in a 2023 video with Verizon as a sponsor.
MrBeast's pitch decks also tended to emphasize to marketers that his videos could reach people who no longer watch linear television.
"The Next Generation Is Not Watching TV," the MrBeast team wrote in many of the pitches. "Traditional media reach older audiences. Next gen consumers have drastically shifted to digital media — and specifically digital creators."
Donaldson has pushed this idea of breaking from traditional media in the past. He told staffers in a leaked employee guide that he did not want to be part of Hollywood.
That message has resonated with certain advertisers seeking to target young men, who are generally considered challenging to reach with ads. Donaldson's main platform is YouTube, but he's soon launching a competition show, "Beast Games," on Amazon's Prime Video.
Other themes and notes that stood out in MrBeast's 2023 pitch decks included:
- A focus on Donaldson's philanthropic work, such as his tree-planting and ocean-cleaning projects.
- Details on the "Beast" audience, which skews young and male.
- Charts showing the different arms of MrBeast's business, including his chocolate brand, Feastables.
- An overview of what the collaboration process would look like between the MrBeast production team and a brand, should they choose to work together.
- Case studies on how MrBeast has driven social engagement for other companies, such as the video-game developer Supercell and Illumination Entertainment.
MrBeast may struggle to court certain brands after a spate of negative press in recent months. Contestants on his Amazon show have raised safety concerns about the production, and accusations surfaced earlier this year that a former MrBeast employee sent inappropriate messages to a young teen. A MrBeast rep said in August that the Amazon show's production was complicated by weather and other factors and that it would take steps to improve. Separately, MrBeast has said that he cut ties with the ex-employee and that he didn't condone any inappropriate behavior.
While reports of that nature could give some advertisers pause, two ad-industry executives told BI plenty of deep-pocketed marketers would be happy to tap into MrBeast's reach. The executives spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect client-platform relationships.
"The content doesn't scare them," said one ad-agency exec, who said their sports and entertainment clients were interested in advertising in the show.
Cost is another consideration. A second ad exec said MrBeast was cost-prohibitive for all but the top echelon of advertisers. "That type of property has a high minimum investment; the out-of-pocket can be so high," the second ad exec said. "There's so many other places to go."
That said, MrBeast videos tend to steadily accumulate views over time — which is another selling point with advertisers.
Keep reading for more details from MrBeast's pitch deck for General Motors, dated February 2023. Note: BI omitted some slides that were heavily redacted, as well as a few slides with minimal or repeated information.
After a title page, the first slide of the deck highlighted two magazine covers that featured MrBeast, Forbes and Rolling Stone.
The slide said MrBeast was:
- The largest digital creator on the planet
- A once-in-a-generation celebrity brand
- A direct relationship to a 250M+ global audience
Here's how MrBeast identified his audience, as of February 2023:
- 600M+ 90-day unique viewers
- 2B+ views a month across all channels
- 135M+ subscribers on YouTube
- 77.2M+ followers on TikTok
- #1 trending worldwide on YouTube on every video released in 2020 to 2023
- 18.6M+ followers on X (formerly Twitter)
- 31M+ subscribers on MrBeast Gaming
- 12.2M+ followers on Facebook
- 23.6M+ followers on Instagram
- 21.8M+ subscribers on Beast Reacts
Multiple decks included in the court documents featured a slide highlighting MrBeast's viral YouTube video from 2021.
"MrBeast pushes through the impossible …" the slide said.
The deck said MrBeast "makes history" and included photos of the 2022 opening of a physical MrBeast Burger location at the American Dream megamall in New Jersey.
"MrBeast attracted a crowd of over 25,000 people for the grand opening of his first brick and mortar MrBeast Burger restaurant," the slide said.
Here are all the brands the slide lists:
- Walmart
- Current
- Discord
- Socialpoint
- PayPal
- YouTube
- Crash Bandicoot
- Epic Games
- Coinbase
- Microsoft
- Tencent
- Hi-Rez Studios
- Mattel
- Chipotle
- Hasbro
- EA
- Honey
- Verizon
- NordVPN
- TikTok
One slide said MrBeast "is on a mission to make the best videos in the world & make the world a better place."
"Your next 100M customers watch MrBeast right now," the slide said. "Join the largest show in the world with an audience of 200+ million unique monthly viewers."
MrBeast's team cited data about the median age of viewers for different TV networks.
They also quoted a General Motors blog post on electrification: "When it comes to a world with zero emissions, we refuse to be number two."
In several of the pitch decks included in the court filing, MrBeast's team quoted messaging from the brands that it was pitching.
In another slide, MrBeast's team again highlighted how large its audience was across all of its platforms — specifically citing that it generated more than 2 billion monthly views at the time the deck was made.
The slide also included a screenshot of one of Donaldson's tweets and a link to a sizzle reel.
"MrBeast directly reaches and influences the next generation of global auto consumers," the slide said. "Showcase your EVs on a global, unrivaled platform and in a way no one else can."
This slide said nearly one in five teens were "almost constantly" on YouTube and featured a related chart from Pew Research Center.
"Fortune 500 companies are finally recognizing the value MrBeast brings to brands," the slide said. "MrBeast serves as a trusted voice and helps translate brand messaging into digestible concepts to the everyday consumer."
"These next two years are pivotal in the EV race as legacy automakers gear up to take electrification for all," the slide said. "Even though the majority of auto sales skew largely gas-powered, now is the time to build consumer mindshare and differentiate from competitors to capture market share."
The page cited statistics from The Wall Street Journal, Statista, and the International Energy Agency.
"Let us help you take the front seat," a slide said, citing projected annual electric-vehicle revenue.
"A highly engaged, mass following is our unfair competitive advantage for fast, efficient growth and provides the coveted digitally native demo of the future," the slide said.
Like many other pitch decks or media kits used by content creators, MrBeast broke down his audience demographics: For instance, the audience was 70% male and 30% female at the time of the deck.
This was the breakdown of the audience's age, according to the MrBeast deck:
- 13 to 17: 25%
- 18 to 24: 33%
- 25 to 34: 18%
- 35 to 44: 16%
"When it comes to a zero-emissions future, we're in it together," the deck read.
It shared three examples of MrBeast's philanthropy projects:
- Launched #TeamSeas in October 2021 and raised over $32 million with the goal of removing 30M pounds of trash from the ocean
- Jimmy launched a full-fledged 501c3 charitable organization to make kindness go viral, to inspire the best in a new generation, to "make the world a better place"
- Launched #TeamTrees and raised $22M in 60 days, with 1 tree planted for every $1 raised
The slide included an image of MrBeast standing next to GM vehicles.
"Partner with MrBeast and win over Gen Z & Gen Alpha … or your competition will," the slide said.
Here's what the slide said:
- Dedicated brand integration moments read to camera by MrBeast
- Optimized for high retention and engagement
- Designed to be natural and organically part of the story
The MrBeast team included a chart showing Donaldson's career trajectory over the past decade.
It began with the creator uploading his first YouTube video in 2012 and included other key moments, such as expanding his content into other languages in 2021 and creating the Feastables brand in 2022.
The team included a view of some of MrBeast's 2022 projects, including taking the crown for the YouTuber with the most subscribers. Here's what the slide said:
- Jan 2022: Feastables — launches better-for-you CPG snack brand
- June 2022: Chocolate Factory — giveaway for lucky Feastables customers
- Sept 2022: MrBeast Burger brick-and-mortar — in NJ, together with over 1,600 delivery locations
- Sept 2022: Feastables — hits retail in all 4,700+ US GM stores
- Nov 2022: #1 YouTube most subscribed creator — passing PewDiePie & reaching 112M+ subscribers
- Dec 2022: Most TikTok followers gained — MrBeast had the most net gained TikTok followers in 2022
Here's what the slide said:
EVs - The Future of Transportation Today, Jimmy drives a Tesla and has featured the brand extensively in video content so much that viewers associate Jimmy with the brand Tesla - U.S. Market Leader Currently, Tesla is the frontrunner in U.S. EV sales. Not only have they captured sales, but consumer mindshare — Tesla is sexy, exciting, and sophisticated. Most Popular Show In The World Reach the largest audience of emerging car buyers on the most popular show in the world. Align with the creator brand who is inspiring millions to make a positive change in the world Official Vehicle Partner Frequently featured in video content with exciting car giveaways, stunts, & chases - endless content opps! Join the secular shift to digital media. Capitalize on the superpower Tesla doesn't have — MrBeast.
Here are the bullets from the slide:
- EVs are the future of transportation
- Tesla was the first mover, but the mainstream consumer is still up for grabs
- These next 2 years will be pivotal in deciding who wins and who doesn't. MrBeast directly reaches the next generation of global automotive consumers
- Partner with MrBeast and win over Gen Z and Gen Alpha. (Or your competition will.)
"Over the Years, MrBeast has featured and given away hundreds of vehicles in videos, specifically Teslas," this slide said.
Donaldson gave away 26 Teslas in May to celebrate his 26th birthday.
It's not clear whether MrBeast has had a paid partnership with Tesla.
"And as you know, MrBeast has a goal to make the world a better place," the slide said.