The Writers Strike is a Massive Opportunity for YouTube and Creators
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The TV writers are on strike. Emily Mariko and Jimmy Donaldson are not.
The question is whether marketers will start seeing Jimmy and Emily as viable alternatives once the fresh supply of new episodes of shows like “Greys’ Anatomy” run dry.
Mariko is a TikTok cooking creator with 12 million followers, while Donaldson of course, is Mr. Beast, a YouTube with a massive following along with a series of his own brands.
Creators like Mariko and Donaldson, along with the platforms that made them famous, would seem to have a massive opportunity in front of them.
The TV networks just presented a series of NewFronts devoid of stars, and in some cases upcoming schedules, because they don’t know when they’re going to be able to make TV. Late night TV is already off the air, and New York Magazine said this summer “TV’s last gasp” for a while.
Among the platforms, YouTube seems best situated to capitalize if TV’s output really starts to show a lack of original output. The company has reported that half of its viewing occurs on connected TV sets - a factor that really seems to matter to brands.
“YouTube has quite honestly forced its way to the table,” said David Campanelli, EVP, Chief Investment Officer, Horizon Media in a recent episode of my podcast Next in Media.
“YouTube is an increasingly important piece of the streaming/CTV ecosystem. We want to look at all that video at one time and we want to buy it as close to that upfront period as possible.”
Ah, but there’s the catch. Campanelli considers YouTube ‘TV $ worthy’ because so much viewership happens on TV screens. TikTok, Instagram, Snap - despite their gaudy video numbers, are seen as something different, Campanelli said. He’s not alone.
Not only are mobile-first apps still treated by many in the ad business as something ‘lesser’ than real TV, but creator content is often labelled as UGC or non-premium.
Michael Piner, EVP, Mediahub Worldwide, told me he thinks that may be about to change.
Piner noted that in previous writers’ strikes, TV networks were force to scramble to fill their schedules, and reality TV became a remedy. Decades later, this band-aid move became a staple of TV, changing the medium forever.
He could see a similar sea change - or series of them, this time around.
“It’s just a huge opportunity for the creator economy,” he said. For example, he’s had conversations with clients in the past about the size of the audience for a TikToker like Mariko and a show such as “Top Chef” on The Food Network. Not every client is receptive to such arguments, but the longer a writer’s strike goes, that could change.
Especially as more brands seek out reliable, large audiences outside of sports, which creators have in droves.
To that point, Piner could also TV networks looking to bring on creators like a Beast to create shows for their schedules if the strike persist (Beast is already going to produce shoulder programming for Google’s upcoming delivery of NFL Sunday Ticket). While creators-to-linear moves to date have mostly been a dud, Piner pointed to shows such as MTV’s Ridiculousness and Comedy Central’s Tosh 2.0 as borrowing formats and aesthetics from the web. Why couldn’t a strike serve as a forcing function for networks to figure out how best to tap into creator talent on TV?
But in the meantime, this seems to be a moment for creators to “tap into a larger share of long form TV budgets,” Piner said.
Not everyone agrees. “We already know that broadcast is geriatric,” said Reza Izad, Co-Founder and Partner at Underscore Talent. “But people and dollars are moving to CTV. And I think the HBOs and Netflixes have more than enough library to get by for a while.”
All bets are off however, if the “strike lasts for a really long time,” he said.
However, one thing that could help move things along is - Nielsen?
Yes, as Nielsen begins to roll out its Nielsen One product, which promises to allow brands and buyers to track audiences for all of their video ads - not just ads running inside traditional TV shows, the data may prove that ads in short form content are just as potent as TV ads.
“Measurement is a key part of this,” Piner said. “There is a huge potential ripple effect.”
Indeed, the ripple effect could last well beyond this particular strike period. Which is why the TV networks may suddenly want to make their writers happy asap.
@Shieldsstrategic - Great piece and with you on the tone of this and no doubt that Jimmy and the other top creators stand to benefit from Youtube's rosy future. I would even argue that linear tv could face another existential threat that is as big as the streaming revolution. Why? because the big creators are now realizing that there is more long term opportunity on a platform like Youtube than there is in linear. And settling this strike is not going to be easy. The streamers are already under water financially and so the prospect of adding additional costs in the system has larger implications for the business model. It is showtime on a number of levels.