In this conversational episode, Eric Siu and Neil Patel examine MrBeast’s launch of 300 "MrBeast Burger" locations as a case study for the next wave of influencer marketing. They outline why traditional influencer campaigns often fail—selecting creators based solely on follower count, neglecting engagement, relevance, and the need for custom landing experiences. They introduce the concept of “clout kitchens,” where influencers partner with under‑utilized physical assets (e.g., restaurants) to create branded food offerings that are easy to produce, train, and scale. The discussion highlights how the pandemic created an environment ripe for such virtual‑to‑physical collaborations, and they predict many creators will replicate this model. The episode ends with a brief promotion for their Marketing School Pro program.
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All right, today we are going to talk about what MrBeast Burger tells you about the future of influencer marketing. So let me share a story first. Eric, what is MrBeast? Eric, I don't eat burgers. I don't care. MrBeast, this guy, he's got over 60 million, I believe close to 60 million subscribers on YouTube, bunch of followers on Twitter, all the places in the world. Super generous guy. Guy will give away Lamborghinis, $1 million in cash, gives away cars, like just normal cars. What he did recently was he opened 300 burger joints at once. And so there's, this guy's an influencer and he executed very well. These burger shops popped up all at once. He released it on the app. You can order it from DoorDash, Postmates, whatever. But I was looking at the numbers somewhere and then basically someone did a calculation. I think it adds up to about, if his business continues to maintain the numbers that it's maintaining right now on the burger side, I think it's a couple hundred million dollars a year, uh, in revenue. So the question is, what does this tell you about the future of influencer marketing? Because this is something I guarantee you a lot more people are going to try to copy. So Neil, I wanted to get your thoughts and then we can go back and forth.
Yeah. When I look at influencer marketing, I think it's going to explode and we haven't even seen it yet. I know everyone's been saying that for years, but if you look at First Form has built an army through influencers, Shreds did something similar as well. SkinnyFit Tea did. I know this is all supplement stuff, but it works for a lot of different brands. There's a health and beauty company, I'm forgetting the name, that this facial device, they've done really well too. The thing that I think people are getting wrong with influencers and why it hasn't done well yet for most companies is, A, they pick people with followers instead of picking people with followers that have high engagement and that are relevant to their business. So the second 2 are very important. And then another thing that I think companies mess up on is They just have influencers and they think they can drive them to their homepage and it works instead of them actually wearing the product, using the product, using the service, putting in time and thought and creating a video that makes sense and then driving them to a landing page that is custom and tailored to them. And I think that's where people are really making mistakes when it comes to influencer marketing.
Yeah. I just want to give some inspiration around this and you can take this idea for whatever you want. This might be something Something that applies to someone that might own a restaurant in the audience. So what I find fascinating here is that, as an example, we're still in the midst of a pandemic and there's a lot of shutdowns, at least in California, you can't go anywhere. And so there's this concept called clout kitchens, not cloud with a D, but clout, C-L-O-U-T. And I got this from listening to My First Million podcast, which I think is awesome, with Sean Perry and Sam Parr.
Yeah.
And the idea here is that let's say there is a Thai restaurant out there. Okay. You know what? Let's not use Thai. Let's use an Indian restaurant. So Indian, they sell curry. Okay. And they know Neil has a lot of influence. So what they can do, if I'm the restaurant and I'm having trouble with business right now, I can reach out to Neil and say, hey Neil, why don't we do Neil Patel's red curry? Right. Or like you be the influencer, you launch the restaurant, we will be the backend. And so there's a lot of these restaurants that are under-monetized right now where the influencers can partner up, utilize the resources, and 1 1 4. So that's an idea of a clout kitchen where you're using your clout and you're using resources that are available in the real world. And that's exactly what MrBeast did. He was thinking about this, okay, what can I do that's big? Okay, what can I, what kind of food can I make that's basic, easy to cook up, easy to train people on? And what kind of infrastructure can I leverage? And that's how all of a sudden, boom, 300 came up. Let's see how it goes. And it worked out for him. So I think that might be something a lot of people are going to copy in the future. Anything else, Neil?
No, I think that's it. Make sure you guys go check out marketingschool.io/pro and marketingschool.io. Sometimes I say .com, but marketingschool.io/pro. You can join for a trial for just $1.
Hey everyone. So Neil Patel and I are doing an education program around Marketing School Pro, and all you have to do is put in $1. For a 14-day trial. And what you will get is exclusive content. You get monthly ask me anythings. You will get an ad-free version of the podcast. You'll get monthly show notes as well, and you'll get access to a marketing community of geniuses such as yourself. So if this is something you're looking for, I always talk about the power of peer groups, then all you have to do is click to learn more. All it is is $1 for 14 days and you will get massive value or you lose a dollar. All right, so that's it for this. Hope to see you inside.
