A throng of screaming teenagers swarmed Vilnius on Tuesday, hoping to snap selfies and chant the name of IShowSpeed – the wildly popular American streamer whose visit to Lithuania was anything but low-key.
The 20-year-old influencer, whose real name is Darren Watkins Jr., arrived in Lithuania at 17:00 via private jet as part of a tour through the Baltics. Over 100,000 viewers followed his journey live online, while thousands more flooded social media with both admiration and outrage.
During his whirlwind visit, IShowSpeed sampled traditional Lithuanian cold beet soup, danced folk routines, tossed a discus with Olympic medalist Mykolas Alekna, explored the Vilnius TV tower, rode in a hot air balloon, and played basketball. The visit generated millions of impressions across platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
While the younger generation cheered, others questioned the decision to spend public money – €30,000 – on what some critics called a “circus”.
But communications and strategy experts are defending the move as a savvy investment in Lithuania’s global visibility.
“National awareness is a national security issue,” said Gediminas Užkuraitis, a partner at Synthesis Consulting Group. “If, for example, the American public had to decide whether Lithuania is worth defending, it helps if they’ve actually heard of us.”
Latvia and Estonia each reportedly paid the same amount for IShowSpeed’s visit. In comparison, Lithuania’s official tourism board “Go Vilnius” spent half a million euros last year on a promotional video targeting the UK and Germany that received about 324,000 views.
Erikas Murinas, head of the communications agency More, said the real reach of IShowSpeed’s visit dwarfed what traditional ads could achieve on a similar budget.
With around €50,000, including logistics and police coordination, Lithuania reached at least 42 million people, Murinas said. For that price, advertisers would barely get a few seconds of airtime during a Champions League final – and with far less engagement.
“So reaching IShowSpeed’s 42-million-audience for €50,000 is cheap,” Murinas believes.
He called the campaign “fantastic,” especially given the streamer’s core audience of 13–24-year-olds who are deeply active online.
Liutauras Ulevičius, a communications expert at Vilnius University, agreed. For him, the visit was is a lesson in media literacy – many people didn’t know who IShowSpeed was, but that says more about their media habits than his influence.
Ulevičius emphasized that promoting Lithuania abroad is vital, especially amid declining foreign investment.
“I work with different foreign companies that have suspended investments because of our image as a front-line state,” he said. “We can either feed that fear, if we want investment to stop and everyone to see us as a war zone.”
Meanwhile, “visits like this give our country a good emotion”, he added.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
