Gone are the days when big brands were solely reliant on agencies to produce high quality content. Thanks to tools like AI, creators can now get in on the action. With the rise of social media, short-form video, and the growing influence of AI, creators are now in a prime position to snag a slice of that lucrative pie. Whether through their own channels or self-made businesses, creators have become more important to these brands.
One example is Brandon Baum, otherwise known as Brandon B — the YouTuber who is Europe’s largest visual effects artist on the platform with more than 14 million subscribers and 10 billion video views.
Completely self-taught, 25-year-old Baum turned his hobby of watching YouTube videos after school from about the age of 12, about how to use special effects, into a full-fledged career. After dropping out of film school, having realized he already had the knowledge and skills needed to succeed, Baum spent four years working in TV where he learned about how productions are run at scale, working on multi-million pound sets with crew sizes of over 100. This experience led to him working with and being mentored by YouTube duo Woody and Kleiny, and subsequently launching his own production company, Studio V, now with 25 staffers, during the 2020 lockdown.
Digiday caught up with Baum to gauge his perspective on whether AI is paving the way for creators to fully replace agencies for big brands. We also delved into how this shift might be fueling the ongoing debate about the evolving relationship between agencies and creators, as well as insights into his company and why he believes YouTube is at the forefront of this transformation.
His responses have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Will creators replace agencies for big brands, thanks to AI?
Given marketers have tight budgets these days, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume that as they’re replacing agencies with creators as a cost-effective way to get the work done — especially amid the advent of AI, which promises to do more for less. Creators often come at a fraction of the cost of traditional agencies because they operate with lower overhead, and as AI tools continue to enhance productivity and streamline workflows, the cost gap will only widen, making creators an even more appealing option for budget-conscious marketers.
But Baum isn’t convinced creators will replace bigger agencies anytime soon.
“There definitely will be changes and ways that we work as creatives are going to shift,” he said. “But I think this new accessibility to technology and innovative AI tools that are coming out is only going to attract more people to create more and cooler things.”
The idea of jobs being taken away thanks to technology was a similar concern shared by photographers when mobile phones first introduced cameras to their handsets and everyone had the ability to become a civilian photographer. But what happened was the opposite, Baum noted.
“As soon as everyone got a camera, everyone really started to appreciate the art and the craft that goes into being a photographer, and understanding how hard it is to really take those incredibly stunning shots,” said Baum. “And actually, photographers became more expensive after that, and the craft of a photographer became even higher and even better.”
The lowdown on Studio V
Studio V aims to create viral campaigns for some of the most recognizable brands in the world.
One example is U.K. retailer, Marks & Spencer, which saw the team create a visual, shot from different angles that looked as though a giant bra was hanging from tourist spot Tower Bridge — all in aid of promoting the brand’s latest bra line at the time. While financial details of that partnership were not made available to Digiday, Baum did share that the campaign reached tens of millions of organic views.
But this campaign is just a glimpse of what the studio is capable of for brands, given that Studio V handles everything from in-house visual effects artists, producers, directors and writers. The other aspect of work the team does is creating formats. “We work with talent management companies like Connect Management and YMU Group, bringing their talent to social,” Baum said.
YMU’s roster, for instance, is heavily TV-based, so Studio V fills the gaps by putting the company’s talent on social media and in digital shows. A most recent example of YMU’s talent Baum’s team worked with is U.K. presenter and media personality Rylan Clark, while the next is yet to be officially announced. And when it comes to agencies, Studio V is already working with the likes of Ogilvy and WPP. Typically, these types of partnerships start off as a shorter three-month period to showcase the team’s capabilities, before jumping into 12-month or more retainer agreements.
“We want to be creating big viral assets for them every month. We want to be creating those hero pieces that really stand out amongst the crowds, the ones that make them go, ‘wow, that’s a thumb stopping piece of content,’ so we focus more on those videos,” Baum said.
Which is why Studio V uses its own paid media team to create organic, viral assets. “We then turn the highest performing and best converting assets into ad campaigns and figure out how we can actually convert those users into customers,” he added.
The key to a good campaign
Of course, this work wouldn’t be possible, without a true understanding of what sets apart a good campaign, from a great one.
“Any good marketer knows and understands that if you really want to make your audiences fall in love with your product, you need to tell a compelling narrative that makes them fall in love with not just what they’re buying, but why they’re buying it,” he said.
So Brandon and his team try to dig deeper into why they’re telling these brands’ stories, whether it be product releases or a rebrand, to get consumer buy-in.
“It’s not just, ‘hey, here’s a fun video that can go viral,’” he said. “Let’s actually understand exactly what’s going on behind this creative so we can make sure audiences are falling in love with the product so they then want to go and convert [buy] on it.”
YouTube prioritizing the living room TV, and it’s ‘flawless’ algorithm
Given Baum’s TV background, it’s no shocker that he wants his YouTube content to be viewed on the big screen. So, he’s all for YouTube’s push to make its living room experience front and center.
“I’m so excited that I can now create content knowing it can be consumed in a way I’d want the audience to watch it, which is episodically, within a season,” Baum said. “I no longer have to worry about this detached feeling between videos and my audience getting lost, not knowing what makes sense to watch next, because it isn’t that obvious and clear.”
For that reason, Baum praises YouTube’s algorithm. For the longest time, TikTok has been commended for having an algorithm that knows what its users want to watch even before they do. Baum, however, thinks YouTube has done a solid job at developing its own algorithm that understands its users, more so than the likes of Netflix and other streaming platforms.
“They [YouTube] have nailed that discoverability so flawlessly that it knows what I want to watch before I know what I want to watch, and instantly I can get straight into consuming content,” said Baum, who did not say how much revenue he earns from YouTube.
