đĄ Brands learning from creators
Issue #397
This week Iâm in China, in Guangzhou. The presence of the creator economy is everywhere. Walk down any street and part of the scenery is people with phones, often two or more, creating content. The aunties and uncles exercising and dancing by the river in the morning are filming themselves, during the day and night people are performing in front of their phones around all the tourist sites. Self expression is everywhere and being shared in new and interesting ways. The creator economy is a great enabler of this fundamental human need. Happy Thursday, Simon.
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Brands embrace the creator mindset
Remember years ago when brands started creating in-house social teams? Well, theyâre now building in-house entertainment studios. It appears theyâve realised that today, buying ads to interrupt social feeds isnât enough, they want to create the content people are actually watching, i.e. original IP. Just look at whatâs happening. Gap is hiring a VP of Development to report to their new Chief Entertainment Officer. Meanwhile, Saint Laurent co-produced an Oscar-winning film, P&G earned an Emmy nomination, and companies like Starbucks, Chick-fil-A and Davidâs Bridal are rolling out original content thatâs pretty entertaining. As brands seek to become the destination not the sponsor of content there are opportunities for creators to pitch directly to these brands (or even get hired by them).
Building the creator economyâs missing infrastructure
Mario Joos (MrBeastâs strategist) and a group of major creators are investing in back-end operational tools to boost the creator economyâs infrastructure. These arenât creative apps but tools to help handle the business side of things. A new AI-powered platform called Deaku has just raised ÂŁ480,000 in pre-seed funding from this investment. The platform offers a single workspace to handle ââstrategy, analytics, team collaboration and AI. Basically the tasks that get in the way for creating. Built by creators and backed by some of the biggest names in the economy the platform looks to be the beginning of many platforms introduced to help creators scale.
Welcome to the participation era
Diana Marshall, Executive Vice President and Chief Experience Officer at Samâs Club/Walmart, argues that the creator economy is not a tech trend, but a fundamental return to human behavior where âpeople choose peopleâ. Dubbed the participation era, it describes the shift in how audiences participate with brands. They donât want to be marketing to, they want to be included in the messaging by either commenting, shaping or influencing it. For big brands it means moving away from a transactional model to a relational one. This means the future of business is building with your customers rather than continually telling them to buy more. This pivot puts creators in the front seat - who else builds trust and relationships with an audience?
AI for Creators by Erik Magelssen
I've been saying for a while that the real AI race isn't about the models anymore, it's about who builds the better ecosystem around them. Anthropic's Claude Partner Network feels like a direct response to that, committing $100 million to connect enterprises with certified partners who handle implementation so companies don't have to build that expertise internally. The model is becoming the platform and that's a different business entirely.
Cool Tools
I have a soft spot for audio gear that doesnât demand a permanent home. Sonosâs new Play is a portable speaker built for exactly that, 24 hours of battery, Bluetooth and WiFi, waterproof enough to survive a location shoot, and a detachable strap for wherever the day takes you. For creators who want reference-quality sound without being tethered to a desk itâs worth a look. Sonos has been through the wars lately but they still know how to build a speaker.
Hot Tips
A creator made the argument this week that weâve been reaching for the wrong thing. While everyoneâs busy optimising their content with frameworks and five-step guides, the actual shortcut has always been art. A novel that wrecks you, an album you canât skip, a film that changes how you see something ordinary. Thatâs the stuff that fills the well. And you can tell, pretty quickly, which creators have been drinking from it.
Viral Hits
Iâm not sure what says more about where we are: that AI is now generating pet soap operas, or that 150 million people watched one. The trend started in China where short AI-generated videos of cats and dogs navigating workplace rivalries and romantic betrayals have taken over Douyin and Xiaohongshu. Now theyâre spreading across Southeast Asia with Thai audiences watching Mandarin-language clips they donât fully understand because apparently melodrama translates without subtitles. A ginger catâs rags-to-riches redemption arc shouldnât work. And yet.
Stuff from us
Building a podcast from scratch means making decisions that most people never see and that's usually where the work actually lives. For Visa's In Conversation series across Asia Pacific we handled everything from the visual identity and format to the production approach, with the goal of creating something that worked as a premium knowledge library and a branded content platform at the same time. Leaders from across the payments ecosystem, full episodes, and social-first edits that carry the conversation further. When the infrastructure is right the content tends to follow.