Rob Wade, the CEO of Fox Entertainment, doesn’t see much of a difference between working with content creators and more traditional Hollywood talent.
“We’ve been working with creators for 100 years, right?” Wade said during TheWrap’s inaugural Creators x Hollywood, in partnership with Whalar and The Lighthouse, on Wednesday. “I don’t think of creatives or creators as difficult. Usually, they are trying to realize their vision … These are eminently brilliant creatives who have not just an understanding and ability to create content, but to create businesses.”
Rather than how creators may overtake traditional media, the Creators x Hollywood Summit highlighted how the old media guard and the future of entertainment are working together.
Here were some of the key themes from the event:
- Issa Rae advised creators to focus on making content on their own platforms and for their audiences, rather than relying on Hollywood’s discovery process.
- The NFL laid out a blueprint for other leagues to successfully collaborate with creators, where providing more access serves as a win for both sides.
- Creator Dhar Mann, Wade and Fox Entertainment exec Tony Vassiliadis stressed the importance of learning from social platform trends and merging them with traditional storytelling, with microdramas being a prime example.
- A common theme was for creators to find and build their niche, but also to expand their presence on multiple platforms to truly scale.
Hollywood continues to contract due to the decline of linear TV, a decrease in streaming spending and an entertainment landscape still recovering from both the 2023 strikes and the residual impacts of COVID. But the creator economy has only grown. Ad spend in the creator ecosystem hit $37 billion last year, a year-over-year growth that was four times faster than growth in the media industry.
The afternoon of the summit began with a spotlight panel on Rae, an actor, writer and producer who started her creative work on YouTube before creating HBO’s Emmy-nominated “Insecure.” Rae spoke about her journey from being a creator to becoming one of Hollywood’s more influential creative voices in a conversation moderated by TheWrap’s Raquel Calhoun.
In many ways, Rae’s journey set the stage for the courtship between Hollywood and creators that the summit explored.
Representing the major Hollywood players were executives like President of Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe Sam Register, Executive Vice President of Digital Strategy and Growth at Lionsgate Brad Haugen and Partner at 3 Arts Entertainment Dunia McNeily.
On the creator side, major names like studio founder Dhar Mann, “Challenge Accepted” host Michelle Khare, comedy star Adam W, “BFFs” podcast host Josh Richards and actor Andrew Bachelor shared their stories.
The event also shined a light on the often unsung leaders who are actively connecting these separate worlds — executives like Webtoon Entertainment President Yongsoo Kim, Vice President of Creator Partnerships at Tubi Kudzi Chikumbu, Global Senior Vice President of Social, Creator and Content Marketing for the NFL Ian Trombetta and partner at Loeb & Loeb LLP John Kulback.
During a dire time in the traditional entertainment industry, TheWrap’s Creators x Hollywood Summit was a celebration of the bright future ahead.
Issa Rae’s journey from YouTube to HBO
The “Insecure” creator and star got candid in a wide-ranging chat about her beginnings, the larger creator economy and the decline of DEI.
- Rae discussed the challenges of transitioning from the internet to traditional Hollywood, including the perception that she didn’t know the television space well.
- Rae advised creators to focus on making content on their own platforms and for their audiences, rather than relying on Hollywood’s discovery process.
- She also said executives in Hollywood are actively avoiding DEI, and offered advice on how to get diverse projects through the system.
- Rae also announced that her production company Hoorae has partnered with TikTok for its first microdrama series “Screen Time.”
Sports + Creators
- The NFL’s Trombetta and creators Adam Waheed – who creates videos as Adam W – and Ross Smith spoke about the access the league affords creators and how this closer content serves as a win-win for consumers and the league.
- A major advantage of this partnership has been in welcoming new fans to the sport. Waheed pointed out how many of his viewers were not originally football fans.
Web comics thrive
- Webtoon’s Kim, creator Jessica Ramsden and Warner Bros.’ Register explain how web comics are shaping the future.
- They also broke down how individual creators were making their own content online, bypassing the traditional publishing route.
- “What is exciting is that these stories already have a blueprint, like global audience fandom and millions of global page views, which make them really compelling for adaptation,” Kim said.
The microdramas boom
- Creator and founder Dhar Mann, Fox Entertainment CEO Wade and Fox Entertainment Executive Vice President of Strategy and Operations Tony Vassiliadis discuss their new multiyear partnership to produce 40 original vertical microdramas.
- The panelists emphasized the importance of learning from social platform patterns and merging them with traditional storytelling, especially as the microdrama industry is worth an estimated $11 billion.
The business of the creator economy
- Lionsgate’s Haugen, 3 Arts Entertainment’s McNeily and Tubi’s Chikumbu took the audience inside the business of the creator economy.
- Finding a niche has proven to be key, but also establishing an audience across multiple platforms is necessary for scale.
- “You need to be everywhere. There’s 35% of Tubi users that are not on YouTube. People are like, ‘Why is Mr. Beast, the biggest YouTuber, on Tubi?’ It’s because he knows incremental audience, incremental revenue and there’s different people who go to different things to look for different things,” Chikumbu said.
- But more traditional executives are approaching their involvement with the creator economy in a familiar way: find a good, original story and a collaborator who is passionate about the work.
Creators as storytellers
- Creators Josh Richards, Andrew Bachelor and Michelle Khare go deep on the transition from social media stars to building their own businesses and IP.
- From Emmy nominations to Amazon deals, they talked about the evolving role of creators in Hollywood, and how they maintained their brand through their rise.
- They also discussed the role AI plays in content creation, with many seeing the benefits of the assistive nature of the tools, which YouTube in particular has been aggressively pushing.
About TheWrap’s Creators x Hollywood Summit:
TheWrap’s Creators x Hollywood Summit is an invite-only gathering of the top creators, entertainment leaders and brand partners who are shaping the future of storytelling and the new entertainment economy.
The event is presented in partnership with global creator agency Whalar and The Lighthouse, both part of the Whalar Group. It is sponsored by City National Bank, Fox Entertainment, Lionsgate, Loeb & Loeb LLP and Webtoon.
