Our first public event, Verified Live: Creators & Campaigns, is this Thursday in D.C.
Four creators break down their brand partnership wins and icks
Registration for our event, Verified Live, is now closed but we’ll be covering it on our socials[instagram.com] and in this newsletter next week.
The blurry line between creator and journalist
By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Nazanin Nour started her career as an actress, model and artist. But you might recognize her more for lighting up your Instagram feed with the latest news about Iran, which she posts from her home in Los Angeles.
Nour, an Iranian American, built an audience of more than 500,000 followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube — a size that many traditional journalists, and even news publications, would love to have.
She’s an example of how the nature of news is changing to become a blend of traditionally trained journalists and creators who have subject-matter expertise. A recent Reuters Institute for Journalism survey found that 54 percent of global citizens cite online video or social media as their top source of news, and a separate survey from Pew Research Center found that young adults trust information from social media as much as traditional news.
“I do consider myself a creator. It's like journalism-adjacent work because I try to do my best with informing the audience with the knowledge I have, and then also fact-checking and talking to people and interviewing people,” Nour said in an interview. “I think the creator [label] has also been like some sort of stigmatized dirty word. It's like, no, there's also this other side where people really do like to get their information from people they trust. I built an audience that trusts me. And so, I take that responsibility seriously.”
The Takeover: How creators flexed their power this week.
SNL is getting its first digital creator host (Puck)
Are 60-second microdramas the future of Hollywood, or the end? (New York Times)
The future of socializing will be sponsored (The Atlantic)
An influencer’s punishment is a pinned Instagram post (New York Times)
These influencers are on a mission to stop people from paying medical bills (Wall Street Journal)
What do health and wellness influencers post about? (Pew Research)
YouTube overtakes TV as top source of political news (Syracuse University)
Hillary Clinton steps to the podcast mic as midterms approach (New York Times)
Creator Q+A: What makes a winning brand partnership?
Courtesy of Female Quotient
Last week I moderated a conversation for the Female Quotient at Advertising Week with four creators about what makes for the best brand partnerships. The panelists — E! Host Erin Lim Rhodes, Mary & Pip founder and CEO Mary Holland Nader, author and Rewired Talent Management founder Jason Tartick and lifestyle creator Madi Webb — had great perspectives and I wanted to share with you some of the highlights of the conversation, which can be viewed in full here.
Dylan Wells: Brands are often reluctant to give up control, but doing so often leads to the best creator partnerships. Maddi, where do you think that briefing should end and allow creators to innovate and show their ideas?
Maddi Webb: What is the goal of this partnership? That is a huge question that I love to ask brands. … It's so funny when brands email me, “We want your authentic voice. We want you to be creative. And also put all 50 of these points in, and make sure it's 45 seconds, and add the product in the first three seconds, and also don't make any jokes.” If I know the goal, I can tailor it to what you're looking for. But I've worked with a lot of brands where I get the brief, I think I did an amazing job, I'm really proud of the ad, and they're like, "Oh, we were looking for something a little bit different.” And I'm like, I would love for that to be communicated, so that I can do my job. I want to make the brand happy. I want to be the easiest and best partner to work with, and I can only do that if I really understand what the goal is.
And also, long-term partnerships. If the goal is ROI, you can't expect me to post it one time on my feed and sell out your product. That's just simply not the land that we live in on the internet anymore. People don't want to be influenced. And what's the statistic? People have to see a product seven times before they even consider buying it, but you're expecting me to post one video and sell out?
DW: Jason, what about you?
Jason Tartick: On the long-term partnerships, you will get so much bang for your buck per item that you're putting in a contract because an influencer will take [on the] identity of that partnership, they will speak to it on podcasts, they will be saying that I'm with you for the long haul. You're going to get so much more bang for your buck on long-term partnerships.
I always start the conversation. My manager calls me. I will say, "Who is the agency, or is it brand direct?” Because a lot of things from brand to actual creator get lost in translation based on the agency, and specifically which agency. And the other thing I'll want to know is exactly what they're trying to achieve. Because if it’s shares, if it's comments, if it's likes, if it's follows, the whole creative is going to be night and day of what we're going to do and why we're going to do it, and getting that information is super helpful.
The Platforms:
Meta and OpenAI use cutesy agents to lure early adopters
States now have to decide how to spend Meta’s settlement billions
Got a creator story? Drop us a line by replying to this email, or follow me at @dylanewells. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to subscribe.
