Airrack’s race to 1m subscribers used all the tools of the new creator economy

YouTuber Airrack -- with the help of creator economy startup Stir -- used a viral stunt to get to 1m subs.

Of all the weird things that happened on the internet last year — and there were a lot — a stunt by YouTuber Airrack (real name Eric Decker) may top the charts.

Airrack’s race to 1m subscribers used all the tools of the new creator economy

Airrack started 2020 with 0 subscribers and the goal of reaching 1m before the end of the year.

At the start of December, he was a few hundred thousand subs away. To get there, Airrack hatched a plan to strand himself on an island off the coast of Florida — and stay there until he hit his goal.

He might still be on that island…

… if not for Stir, a startup that makes tools for creators to manage their business. In the past, Stir has done viral internet “drops” like OnlyTweets, a service that lets users paywall tweets.

Airrack reached out to Stir to whip up a website that generated unique affiliate links for fans to win prizes based on how many subscribers they referred to the channel.

Airrack notched 250k subs in a 2-week span

He reached his goal on Dec. 27.

Zack Honarvar — Founder of One Day Entertainment, a digital management company which reps Airrack (as well as YouTubers Yes Theory) — tells us Decker is a “once-in-decade creator.”

Specifically, he has the key ingredients of top YouTubers: a commitment to fans and going the distance on stunts… like doing his best impression of Tom Hanks from Castaway.

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