Listen to your audience
The term “content creator” applies to the makeup tutorial on TikTok, the podcaster breaking down Succession’s finale, the producer making shorts of VFX explainers—and also the director of a TV show or feature film. When everything can be a channel, worry less about where you find your audience and more what will genuinely resonate with them on the platforms upon which they consume.
In 2019, a fan of the classic sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air uploaded a short film to YouTube, reimagining what the show might look like modern-day, and racked up significant views—one of which was from Will Smith himself. Smith, alongside the teams at Westbrook and Universal Television, saw an organic opportunity in one arena, YouTube, and from there sought ways to amplify and empower what was already working. Fast forward, and the fan, Morgan Cooper, is an executive producer on and creator of Bel-Air, and the show is being renewed for its third season on Peacock. The series’ success has led to a nostalgia clothing line, Bel-Air Athletics, a reunion of the original cast of Fresh Prince and a collaboration with Airbnb to open up the original Fresh Prince Bel-Air Mansion to visitors.
While The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air already represented highly valuable IP, it had not yet been translated to new generations. That value exploded when the creative team listened first to where their voice already showed up culturally and then built out the opportunities where audiences could engage with the nostalgia Bel-Air offered.
Make it messy
Sometimes the best campaign is no campaign at all. People want messy, candid and authentic storytelling. And the best voices to deliver that resonance are creators given the space to freely create.
On TikTok earlier this year, nearly 4 million viewers watched and over 200,000 engaged with a 10-minute long ad from Hilton—an eternity in scroll time. How did they do it? By giving creative reign to influencers like Chris Olsen, Kelz Wright and Baron Ryan—talented professionals who have amassed huge followings because they already understand what works on the platform. Hilton gave their partners space to lean into their existing voice and engage with the campaign’s core messages in their own creative style. Instead of something that felt scripted, viewers had self-deprecating humor, seasoned cuts and stylized editing optimal for TikTok, and a more believable story about what it means to “stay” with Hilton.
Similarly, AMC Networks recently partnered with the whiskey brand Johnnie Walker to launch You Are Here, a four-part travel series hosted by Colman Domingo. Leaning into the brand’s tagline “Keep Walking,” the branded show takes us to cities of personal importance to Domingo for conversations with other creatives and friends that reside there. When audiences tune in, they’re not being asked to buy Johnnie Walker; the goal is to give a no-strings-attached viewer experience that seeds the association between the product and a moving entertainment experience.
