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Redpoint Ventures’ Rashad Assir and Morning Brew’s Dan Toomey speak on a panel about the creator economy in New York on Monday. Photo: Media Summit | NYC
Hello!
Next year, expect more companies to hire creators as employees, either to represent their brands to the public or run their social strategies.
On Monday I spoke to two creators who have joined companies in the past few years: Morning Brew’s Dan Toomey, who runs the media outlet’s Good Work YouTube channel, which covers business and finance topics, and Rashad Assir,the face of Redpoint Ventures’ TikTok account, where he films satirical videos about venture capital and tech. They spoke on a panel at Media Summit NYC, hosted by PR firm Haymaker.
The two companies have very different goals with their social media efforts. For Morning Brew, the videos are a way to grow the outlet’s audience and provide a combination of education and entertainment about various topics. One recent 10-minute video, for example, explains—with some humor—what Wall Street quants do.
Assir said Redpoint’s objective is to appeal to founders and people within the tech community, including by helping founders find out about the firm. While Redpoint focused on experimenting with different videos and figuring out what audiences liked during the first year of the effort, Assir said now it sets more specific goals, such as reaching 100,000 followers. (Redpoint’s TikTok account currently has nearly 40,000.)
I could see other independent creators joining companies, as an alternative to the creators' unpredictable income, constantly changing social media algorithms, creative burnout—and more competition than ever before. At the same time, companies are trying to revamp their own social strategies and better understand how to create compelling short-form videos as they see success stories like Duolingo.
John Deere, for example, earlier this year hired a TikTok creator with a $200,000 salary to run its TikTok account and help the 187-year-old manufacturing company appeal to Gen Z.
Both Toomey and Assir advised companies to focus on content that will draw their target audiences rather than getting the most views and engagement. Assir said he interviewed a TikTok-famous magician on Redpoint’s account, which led to an influx of followers—who care about magic. Companies also need to feel comfortable giving up control or being too prescriptive with social media videos, so they are not seen by viewers as cringey.
For creators, there are pros and cons about working for a company. They have greater job security and benefits such as health insurance, as well as having the support of colleagues. But they are gaining followers for an entity rather than themselves.
“If you can get to a point [independently] where you can build a team around yourself, that’s awesome,” said Assir. “But I think that that’s really, really hard to get to.”
Here’s what else is going on…
Deals & Debuts
See The Information’s Creator Economy Database for an exclusive list of private companies and their investors.
Webtoon, an entertainment company that publishes graphic novels serialized for reading on smartphones, announced a new contest called “Webcomic Legends” offering $1 million in prizes to 40 webcomics.
StreamElements, a startup offering tools and sponsorships for livestreaming creators, announced new products, including the ability to livestream to multiple platforms at once including Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. It also announced a new AI Assistant that will do things like provide content suggestions.
Audience Genomics, which offers a tool called Aggie to help small businesses with their social media, raised $3.2 million in funding led by SPO Capital Investments.
People is asking readers to vote for their favorite creators for its annual People of the Year magazine issue. The categories include “hottest YouTube talk show host,” “favorite podcaster” and “best A-lister-turned-influencer.” Alex Cooper, Alix Earle, Jake Shane, Sean Evans and others are nominated.
Offscreen Workshops, a new series of invite-only, in-person events, will kick off next year to help connect hiring teams in the creator economy to job seekers and freelancers. The effort was launched by Meredith Jacobson, a consultant and influencer marketing strategist, and media and entertainment exec Andrew Beck.
Big Number: 10%
That’s the percentage of the most popular 100 newsletters on Substack that publish AI-generated or AI-assisted content, according to an analysis from AI detection startup GPTZero.
Many of the newsletters the analysis flagged as using AI tools focus on sharing investment news and personal finance advice.
Overheard
When Google CEO Sundar Pichai called Donald Trump to congratulate him for winning the election, another person was also on the line: Elon Musk, my colleague Erin reported.
Musk recently criticized Google for what he believes is liberal bias in how the company presents certain search results, which he alleged was part of a “massive far left censorship.”
Court Docket
An influencer lawsuit centered around one creator copying another’s “vibe” can move forward, said a Texas judge. Creator Sydney Nicole Gifford claims that Alyssa Sheil, both of whom promote Amazon products,misappropriated her likeness and violated copyright law by copying her posts without including Gifford’s username.
People on the Move
Sean Kim is the new CEO of short-form video app Triller. Previously, Kim was chief product officer of online course provider Kajabi and head of product at TikTok.
Thank you for reading the Creator Economy Newsletter! I’d love your feedback, ideas and tips: kaya@theinformation.com.
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