The content creator industry continues to grow into an inescapable corner of popular media, especially as reports show how some viewers are spending more of their time with digital creators and less of it with traditional studios. And so, at this year’s VidCon, the annual Anaheim convention serving as the center of the creator industry, attendees were abuzz over how traditional and digital will continue to cross paths, clash or learn to find space together.
While many content creators seek to work alongside traditional media companies, others have begun building institutions with a sophistication and reach that can be reasonably seen as matching their more established peers.
According to VidCon Vice President and Business Lead Sarah Tortoreti Colosimo, this comparison is only to be expected given the advancing levels of quality coming from some of the biggest and most successful content creators.
“They’re building their own companies and their own studios that I think are starting, and will continue, to rival traditional Hollywood studios because of the kind of content that they’re churning out and the level of content,” Colosimo said.
So, this year at VidCon I spoke to the leaders of two of the digital world’s biggest content brands to learn more about how they see themselves, and how they view their relationship to Hollywood.
Ian Hecox, one of the famed founders of the digital-first comedy brand Smosh, tells me that when he and co-founder Anthony Padilla started things over twenty years ago, the ambition was not necessarily to build a large media company. But that was mostly because, he tells me, such a thing was hardly fathomable on early 2000s YouTube.
“There was no way to make money on YouTube when we started, so it was really just something we enjoyed doing. We did see that we were growing an audience, so we felt like there was something there,” Hecox said.
But then, as the channel grew, and as formal business structures arose, those in charge crafted out a clearer ambition for what this could be. And now, while this idea is informal, Hecox and Smosh CEO Alessandra Catanese tell me how they often bring up the idea that Smosh is the digital version of Saturday Night Live (SNL).
Today, Smosh is one of the most well-known brands on the internet, with the main Smosh YouTube channel boasting nearly 27 million subscribers, and the brands’ various spinoff channels bringing in millions more. This year, they were also inducted into VidCon’s Hall of Fame in an inaugural ceremony.
Smosh has also expanded far beyond its initial comedy duo, now regularly featuring a cast of rising digital comedians who star in videos, hone their craft and grow along with the brand much in the way that young comedians rise over on SNL.
However, while Catanese brought up the SNL comparison herself, she also made it clear that they do not view this as a competition between themselves and any traditional media counterpart. Instead, she describes how the relationship is similar to how creators often cheer on the success of other creators. And that is, rather than competition, the point: to establish themselves as true peers.
“We don’t think we’re going to ‘beat’ SNL. Our goal isn’t to be better than SNL. Our goal is to be respected and in the same rooms as those people,” Catanese said.
Now, another force in digital media, and one regularly brought up in comparisons to traditional, is of course the force that is Dhar Mann Studios.
When asked about his ambitions for his media company Dhar Mann, the brand’s founder and central face, described to me how, years ago, he’d read an article about how visitors to Tyler Perry’s studios had to use golf carts to move around due to the sheer size of the facility. And, while reading this, he recalled imagining how amazing it would be to build something like that too.
And then, Mann tells me, after years of dedicated building, one day he found himself on a golf cart navigating through his own studio. And it hit him how he’d made that dream a reality.
Today, Dhar Mann Studios operates out of a 125,000 square foot production facility in Burbank, where he and his team of nearly 200 people write, film and produce short, uplifting narrative videos to inspire viewers and impart positive lessons to his audience of nearly 26 million subscribers on YouTube. Dhar Mann also recently again earned the #2 spot on the Forbes Top Creators List.
And, for Dhar Mann, the comparisons to traditional Hollywood are not only top of mind, but key to how he defines future goals. That is, he tells me while he is honored by creator-centric milestones and awards, he also has larger ambitions in mind.
“It doesn’t escape me that in the time that we’ve sat here doing this interview, in the couple minutes we have, Disney has made more revenue than we did all of last year. So I don’t compare myself to other creators on some lists. I compare myself to other massive media companies,” Mann said.
Sean Atkins, CEO at Dhar Mann studios, leans into the Hollywood comparison as well, but emphasizes how differently they do things at their company. In particular, he points out how the speed and efficiency with which they operate outpaces the traditional Hollywood model.
“It’s just a very different velocity because of the way that they’re [Dhar Mann Studios] architected to be nimble, but also because they’re direct to their audience the entire time,” Atkins said.
Atkins describes a moment when that speed of output particularly astounded him. On one Monday in November, he pitched to Mann that they should make a Christmas film. Now, from Atkins’ experience in traditional media, this kind of initial conversation would be the beginning of a two to three year process. But things happened differently at Dhar Mann studios.
Because here, the very next day Dhar Mann and Atkins brainstormed ideas. Then on the day after they had a writer working, and after that they moved into production just 30 days later. For Atkins, that kind of ability to action on an idea and get the story to the audiences quickly makes what they’re doing different and powerful.
These are only two examples. But with the likes of Smosh and Dhar Mann Studios building systems to make quality content rivaling Hollywood, we might ask, at a certain point, where is the distinction between established Hollywood and creator-centric content? The answer, from experts of the space, might be that we have to keep watching.
“There has been and will continue to be blurred lines between traditional entertainment and the creator ecosystem, and I think it goes two ways,” VidCon’s Sarah Tortoreti Colosimo said.
That is, both sides of this are interested in learning from what the other is doing. And that is also, Colosimo tells me, a big part of why representatives from both parties come to VidCon. And that’s something she hopes will continue.
Smosh CEO Alessandra Catanese told me how, while their brand is focused primarily on expanding current efforts and serving their audience, they are also interested in working with traditional studios, and collaborating with their traditional talent teams to expand Smosh’s IP into things like animation, shows and more.
Atkins, as well, made it clear to me that this is not a case of traditional media needing to lose in order for them to win. In fact, he described how new mediums have always been erroneously pitted against each other: Theater against film, film against TV, TV against cable and others. But, he notes, in the long term all those mediums survived, they just perhaps had to adapt. And that work is what we’re seeing now.
Dhar Mann offered an analogy to describe how he sees things working. He told me he sees Hollywood, with its legacy and established infrastructure, as a river. And then, he described the content creator world, with its skills in disruption and young talent, as another river. And, for him, the mission is about combining both.
“When those two rivers come together and converge into one, the current becomes ten times stronger. And so that’s ultimately what we’re doing, is trying to become the bridge between new and old Hollywood. Because each one has so many incredible things to offer,” Mann said.
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