Creator partnerships connect brands with audiences that already follow and engage with online personalities. Brands could use the existing relationship between a creator and their audience as the framework for a campaign.

Dr. Squatch will test that model with 21-year-old creator and streamer Darren Watkins Jr., known online as IShowSpeed. Speed has 184 million followers across platforms and ranks No. 8 on the Forbes Top Creators 2026 list. He will partner with the brand on SPEEDRUN: Million Dollar Mission.

Dr. Squatch announced the nine-week competition on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube on August 31. Speed fans and broader audiences can compete online and in real life for a share of $1 million. The campaign will culminate in a final hunt worth $250,000.

The competition includes 25 challenges across the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia through social media, hidden briefcase hunts and TikTok Shop loot boxes. More than 4,000 Walmart stores and select retail partners will feature in-store displays and QR codes tied to the competition. The campaign runs through October 31.

John Ludeke, chief brand officer of Dr. Squatch, said to me on a phone call that the brand first contacted Speed’s team about the campaign in April 2025. Speed’s relationship with his audience informed the competition’s development.

Ludeke described Speed’s fandom as one that already “reacts, participates and competes.” Those behaviors guided the competition’s structure across social media, retail and real-world experiences. “He’s not being layered into a campaign simply to give us relevance or reach,” Ludeke said.

Dr. Squatch also linked the format to Gen-Z. In its release, the company said it developed the competition around its view that the generation wants to participate rather than be advertised to. Speed is also a Gen-Z creator whose audience already interacts directly with his content.

Speed said to me in an email that his community has grown alongside his career as a streamer. Viewers interact with him and each other through his content, which influenced his input on the competition format. The format “fits how my community already interacts with my streams,” he said.

Speed also considers whether brand partnerships fit his content and audience. “If I can’t make something entertaining or do something my audience would actually expect from me, I’m probably not going to be excited about it or even do it at all,” he said.

Speed launched his YouTube channel in 2016 with gaming content and later gained a larger following through viral TikTok clips. He has since expanded to soccer and travel content and partnered with Dick’s Sporting Goods, Beats by Dre and Doritos. This summer, he launched his World Cup 2026 Tour with FIFA.

Dr. Squatch developed the campaign in partnership with APPLIED MSCHF, MSCHF’s brand partnership arm, with additional creative support from director Kyle Beiermeister and Echobend Productions. Gabe Whaley, founder and CEO of MSCHF, said to me in an email that Dr. Squatch approached the company earlier this year.

Whaley described the campaign as a twist on a traditional scavenger hunt. He said its presence across social media, retail and real-world challenges reflects how culture operates across channels and mediums.

“Culture has flattened! Nothing exists in a vacuum anymore. Everything exists everywhere all at once on a single plane,” Whaley said.

Dr. Squatch will also concentrate its activity on social media. Ludeke said the brand will activate its audience alongside Speed’s without television ads or a large number of lower-funnel ads. He acknowledged that strategy carries some risk.

Hundreds of other creators will participate in challenges, host content and visit Walmart stores throughout the campaign. “Whether it works or doesn’t work is largely going to be driven by the community,” Ludeke said.

Brands have used games and competitions to involve consumers in campaigns for decades. McDonald’s Monopoly launched in 1987, connecting purchases with game pieces and prizes. Safeway later used the Monopoly format in its own grocery promotions, including in 2019.

More recently, brands and entertainment properties have given audiences ways to participate online and in person. In 2026, CBS launched a nationwide idol hunt tied to Survivor 50, while Popsicle’s Flavor Feud asked consumers to support teams led by Stassi Schroeder, Drew Afualo and Ashlee Simpson through votes, purchases and social media.

Creator partnerships give brands access to established audiences. SPEEDRUN: Million Dollar Mission will test whether using how a creator already interacts with that audience can also give brands a framework for participation across digital and physical spaces.

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