Maker Studios boss to adland: Stop making ads, start making content
The head of content at Maker Studios, the biggest producer of content on YouTube, called on the advertising industry to “stop making ads” and “start making content”.
Talking to an audience at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, Erin McPherson, chief content officer at Maker Studios, revealed a year-long deal between her company and Pepsi to create a content series for the soft drinks brand.
The series, the former head of video at Yahoo! said, will give Pepsi access to Maker’s creators across a range of genres and supplement the brand’s TV campaigns.
She then told delegates: “Stop making ads, start making content.”
McPherson called Maker’s Epic Rap Battles series for gaming company Ubisoft as her company’s answer to “House of Cards” for brands. An average episode of the series generates around 30 million views. One of the most popular recent episodes was Miley Cyrus vs Joan of Arc.
On how best to match brand and YouTube talent, McPherson said authenticity was key. “But being authentic doesn’t necessarily mean being edgy. It means being true to the talent’s voice.”
McPherson was on a panel hosted by the global chief content officer of Zenith Optimedia’s content arm Newscast, Mark Waugh, and featured YouTube stars Kassem Gharaibeh, better known as Kassem G, and beauty video blogger Camila Coelho.
Gharaibeh: “There’s a big disconnect between what we’re trying to do, and what you’re trying to do. We need to work on how we can work better together.”
In the introduction to her talk, McPherson said her five-year-old company generated 6.5 billion views per months for 450 million subscribers with a talent pool of 50,000 creators.
The Disney-owned company opened an office in Singapore a little under a year ago, and is looking to launch next in Hong Kong as a springboard into China and Australia.
Robin Hicks in Cannes
You would think Pepsi would have learned their lesson after the ‘Refresh’ debacle, which cost them market share.
User ID not verified.