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Is YouTube now Big Media — being usurped by platforms more
on the button for today’s youth? Seems that way at VidCon, where the
conversation and the panels leaned heavily toward the shorter-than-YouTube
content formats of TikTok. The Bytedance-owned company has had a meteoric rise
and is poised to triple ad revenue to $11.6 billion this year,
surpassing Twitter and Snapchat combined.
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Executives at VidCon explained how old and new media
companies should think about bridging the gap between various audiences and
platforms: giving more power and even control over IP to top creators.
In a piece for The Wrap, Harper Lambert and Brian
Welk round up the five biggest TikTok related trends.
To start, TikTok is the undisputed short-form star to such
an extent that other video driven social media platforms are concentrating much
of their energies on copycat services: YouTube Shorts, for instance, and
Instagram Reels.
“Clearly, short-form content is here to stay, and both new
and old platforms — as well as brands and other entertainment sectors — are all
vying for a piece of the pie,” Lambert and Welk say.
Given the ubiquitous nature of news — and the fact
that nearly half of American adults get theirs via social media — an
ad-based model may be more effective than a subscription-based one.
“The nature of what we make is actually meant to be free,”
Chris Berend, EVP of Digital for the NBCU News Group, said at VidCon. “As
opposed to other news streaming services, which have frankly been more
lifestyle adventures.”
If news networks are to make the leap to streaming and
remain competitive, they’re going to have to get creative, assert Lambert and
Welk.
MSNBC president Rashida Jones said, “You can throw some
spaghetti at the wall and see if it sticks, but bring in new voices, new
perspectives, people who look more like America and that’s really what we’re
focusing on.”
Platforms need to adopt a “creators first” mentality to
compete, and that means spending money on them. For example, Snapchat announced
that it will put $3 million into a program geared toward amplifying Black
creators, similar to initiatives at YouTube and TikTok (although TikTok
committed to investing $200 million in content creators back in 2020).
When it comes to creator funds, many platforms have opted
for capped amounts rather than revenue-sharing. In the case of Meta, Instagram
and Facebook won’t start taking a cut of their creators’ profits until 2024. As
these funds continue to generate major business for TikTok and its
rivals, creators are finding new ways to make the most of them. Since traditional
advertising can be trickier with short-form video content, brands are exploring
ways to forge innovative, long-term partnerships with creators.
Hollywood is reconsidering its highly protective approach to
IP, according to Lambert and Welk. Where studios once tried to keep copyrighted
material off of digital platforms, many are now starting to open the gates.
“Though there are some exceptions, allowing creators to
repurpose IP for memes and video shorts drives engagement and awareness [to] a
whole different level,” said Michael Scogin, VP of Strategic Partnerships at
NBCUniversal. “The goal is to make IP-sharing easier by resurfacing old clips
and making editing tools more accessible.”
Scogin added that platforms like TikTok represent an
“opportunity” to reach new and multigenerational audiences.
TikTok’s recent partnerships with “old media” include with Paramount for Top Gun: Maverick, the Academy for the Oscars, and with NBCUniversal for the Beijing Olympics.
The final trend we’ve heard a lot of before. Successful
engagement with the younger demos of short form video sites requires an
authenticity of interaction. As Hello Sunshine COO Liz Jenkins put it: “People
don’t want to be sold to all the time.”
“Giving influencers a script to read and pumping various
platforms with as much advertising content as possible doesn’t cut it in the
digital entertainment space,” say Lambert and Welk. “What does work is organic,
creator-driven content that truly connects with audiences.”
Sarabeth Oppliger, director of influencer marketing at
Warner Bros., said that giving influencers creative control has a better chance
of resonating with their followers.
“Expect to see much more of this anti-teleprompter,
pro-creator approach in digital campaigns,” Lambert and Welk predict.
Or, as one speaker put it, “Don’t make ads, make TikToks.”
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