LA’s pocket.watch has added teenage magician Dan Rhodes to its roster of content creators as it seeks to break into a new category.

Rhodes already has 16 million YouTube subscribers and 10 million TikTok followers, and pocket.watch is looking to apply its franchise formula to expand his personal brand through distribution deals, original content, consumer products and live events.

Rhodes’s popularity is due in part to his strategy of showing kids how to do tricks instead of simply blowing their minds with them. This approach has helped him build an audience and sets him apart from other magicians, according to Kerry Tucker, pocket.watch’s chief marketing and franchise officer.

“Magic is an unexplored franchise opportunity, and there are no major kids and family brands doing it,” she says. “It’s also empowering because Dan is self-taught, and now he’s showing kids that they can practice, learn these skills, and perhaps also get a huge following on YouTube.”

Rhodes represents a lot of firsts for pocket.watch, which built its business by partnering with major YouTube channels such as Ryan’s World (33.5 million subscribers) and Kids Diana Show (101 million subscribers).But unlike the company’s other creators, Rhodes started out on YouTube Shorts, a platform for vids that are under a minute long. Pocket.watch has seen a surge in popularity for creators operating in this space, a sign that can’t be ignored, says Tucker.

The plan for moving Rhodes beyond YouTube Shorts is to create compilation videos and build a package of longer-form content that pocket.watch can distribute on YouTube proper but also sell to other buyers, says Tucker.

And she adds that there are natural opportunities to explore consumer products extensions, such as live events and magic-themed activity kits. Pocket.watch is also developing two long-form original series concepts for the brand—an animated series and a mixed-media variety show.

Rhodes started posting videos on YouTube Shorts about a year and a half ago. He has six times more monthly views than the top five influencer magicians on YouTube combined, according to pocket.watch. He also has more subscribers than renowned magician David Blaine (1.83 million subscribers). This data illustrates how hungry viewers are for magic, which can surprise and teach, said YouTube’s development partner manager Andrea Donovan in a release about Rhodes being signed by pocket.watch. “His incredible rise to 16.7 million subscribers proves the global appeal of magic.”