VidCon 2024 Recap: Special Edition 🥇

Where is the money?

Seriously. Where’s the money?

TikTok Shop? But what if my talent doesn’t make ‘shop relevant’ content?

Snap Stories? Am I really going to get my creators to post 50 times per day?

YouTube? Too hard to grow in the ‘shorts’ era.

Brands? They’re not even here! And there are so many big creators right now that prices are driving down unless you can guarantee conversions.

Creator services companies? Post-Jellysmack, who do I go to?

Creator investments? Isn’t that just for the super huge creators? And what would they even do with that money?

This was about half of my conversations with creators and reps.

Whereas spenders in the creator economy are business-as-usual.

They want influencers, they want to get smarter, and they are still in awe of the power of the creator economy.

Naturally I couldn’t be everywhere all at once and, admittedly, I spent more time in conversations than panels, here are some of my favorite takeaways from VidCon 2024 for talent representatives.

There are a lot of creator representatives.

Were there more big creators at VidCon or managers/agents? Honestly, I’m not sure. I met tons of ‘talent managers’ spanning college-aged hustlers to gray-haired lifers (me being the latter of course). What I found most notable was the issues most are facing:

1. When they grow a talent, the talent gets poached by the bigs (agencies, Night, Underscore, etc.). The takeaway: you can’t just roll brand deals. You need a moat.

2. There’s no easy money right now. I disagree of course, but you have to be scrappy. Twitch is far less likely to knock on your door with a $10m check. The takeaway: assess blind spots in your talent’s revenue mix.

3. You may not be ready for a big talent. Creator reps that cut their teeth camping on a big creators’ inbox may deserve to get their talent poached. Eventually, talent needs infrastructure, outbound sales, and execution around a North Star vision. The takeaway: seek mentorship and focus on growing your skills.

4. There’s no one left to sign. Most talent have managers, but when speaking to talent, it seems many are not satisfied with their level of attention. There may be few large talent who are independent, but there are mobs of talent who need help. The takeaway: start adding value and developing a relationship to expand potential future opportunities, and don’t be shy to ask for referrals.

There are a lot of options for creator fundraising.

Spotter invested in a lot of creators. Jellysmack launched JellyFi. Traditional VC firms got into the mix.

Now there’s:

• Gigastar, allowing fans to invest in and earn from their favorite creators’ growth.

• Fundmates was out in full force with their creator fund.

• Breeze appeared after their splashy Smosh funding.

• Electric Monster Media’s ‘buy and grow’ strategy was represented.

• And even institutional VCs like Slow Ventures appeared.

I’m sure I’m missing dozens more, but as someone who advises creators, there is no shortage of options to raise capital if a creator wants to ‘go big’, and all of these firms are aggressively seeking these deals.

The ‘MrBeastification’ of YouTube is a Source of Frustration.

Creators don’t feel like they can compete with the expensive spectacle of MrBeast.

Managers don’t know how to help their non-challenge creators breakthrough.

Influencer marketers all have bosses who want MrBeast but can’t afford MrBeast.

I can feel the exhaustion over this push for big, big, big content that many feel is necessary for growth.

This is the same conversation around ‘The Buzzfeedification’ of YouTube ten years ago. If you can’t compete on their level, compete on your level.

AI as Enabler and Boogeyman at the Same Time

I heard dozens of creator-focused AI pitches in the past few days. Some made me excited (check out Squad.App’s work) and some made me deeply uncomfortable. Managers hate the idea of licensing their creators’ names, likenesses, and images to a single entity. Creators hate the idea of non-creators publishing millions of AI-generated, optimized videos. Platforms hate the probable future of AI spam flooding their platform. And, likely most mentioned, everyone hates AI outreach to creators, brands, and platforms that makes DM, e-mail, and even text communication awful.

But most savvy creators are already implementing AI into their workflow with awesome tools like Opus Clip with success, and they’re interested in new AI technologies that can help them move even faster.

MattPat’s Retirement Fascinates

Absolutely mega-huge creator MattPat has spent the past 5 years planning his retirement, and as of this week, his studio finally moved out of his basement. He’s no longer on camera. But he also laid a lot of groundwork for a seamless transition. More than in past years, creators wanted to discuss what their retirement may look like someday.

All-In on LinkedIn

This may be my experience as an advisor to Brendan Gahan’s first-ever ‘influencer marketing company for LinkedIn’ Creator Authority and my somewhat large LinkedIn following, but I had a load of conversations around LinkedIn marketing.

In fact, I took one meeting with an executive of a large publisher who I thought wanted to discuss my new role at Fixated but instead honed in on the LinkedIn opportunity.

Even other execs asked me about rates I charge for branded LinkedIn posts, some of whom are likely making $500k+ per year.

There’s interest here, and plenty of mature companies and thought-leaders dedicated to cracking the code.

Shortform Sucks

Some creators grew from short form content and don’t know how to turn their audience into dollars.

There are long-form creators who feel surpassed by short form creators.

There are talent representatives bummed at the low prices of short form sponsorships.

Even some platform employees quietly told me about their hatred of pure short form spam flooding their platforms, from booty shaking to low-quality AI-with-VO videos getting millions of views.

Everyone seemed to agree that shortform content isn’t going away, but better incentives are needed to create better content.

Happy Hours over Booths

The usual mobs in the Hyatt (the creator hotel) were quiet. There were less suites. The conference floor felt subdued.

The real convention was the happy hours and parties.

Morton’s, the Westin’s ‘Rise Rooftop Lounge’, and even some private suites become the epicenter for the ‘cool kids clubs’.

When I walked around the Hyatt, I saw more old-school managers who still believed that was the place to be than actual business dealings.

The exception was the Hyatt’s Instagram lounge, which was full of the ‘in-crowd’ every day.

Brands: Sugar, Make Up, and Media

Let’s face it: VidCon is barely a creator convention anymore. That’s just the marketing.

The floor is candy, toys, soft drinks, Disney shows, and makeovers for kids.

Some video-focused brands were on the floor, but their booths were empty. The lines were for big activations with stuffed animal giveaways.

The best actual business in the convention hall was the Industry level (third floor), which felt more active this year than in years past. Not a ton of brands, as they just had their Cannes Lions festival, but plenty of platforms, start-ups, thought leaders, and creator reps.

I’m Getting Old

I met with a few dozen of the same people I met with back at VidCon 2012, and we all agreed that the industry keeps getting younger, and we keep getting older. Lots of meetings ended with, “Don’t forget: I have your back.”

I could write a book with my hundreds of other takeaways, but here’s the lightning round:

🛍️ Creators and reps need to figure out their affiliate strategy, if for no other reason than proving out conversion power.

 📱Mobile games companies are still spending big, but creators don’t always love promoting these.

🇨🇳 Many execs think the potential TikTok ban is good, but most creators think it’s bad.

👩🏽‍💼 Execs are thinking a lot more about how to build their personal brand.

👨🏻‍💻 Big tech company roles are no longer safe positions, and many of their employees are planning their exit strategies into the startup world.

🙀 All the fan screaming and excitement is happening in the autograph lines, no longer on the floors or mainstage.

Didn’t get a chance to connect at the event? Hit me up on LinkedIn and I’d be happy to continue the chat!

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Until next time, protect yo rep.