Why Constant CMO Turnover is Bad For Creators
Made By All CEO on the fundamental differences between old and new Hollywood
We’ve talked for years about how CMO tenures are shrinking - and turnover in the marketing world is only accelerating, as many brands seemed lost as to how to staff accordingly in an outcomes-obsessed, AI-is-looming era.
While this lack of continuity is a challenge for so many aspects of the advertising business, it’s a particular problem in the creator world, as many brands are aiming to significantly up their spending with creators. The most effective partnerships between a brand and a creator require a deep commitment, and a level of intimacy that gets lost when CMOs and other execs get shown the door after 15 months.
That’s the assessment of Leanne Perice, founder and CEO of digital talent management agency Made By All, who I interviewed on this week’s episode of Next in Media.
Made By All has worked with the likes of Kevin Hart, King Bach, Amanda McCants and more since the company was founded.
“We’ve worked with [execs] across maybe 20 of our clients over the past seven years, some on multi-year relationships, some on one-offs,” Perice said. “And the brand executives, they shift so often that it’s hard. We’ve gone deep with them and I’ve done such impactful campaigns with them, but there is such turnover, even when you catch momentum, it changes so fast.”
As a result, “people run and then they walk again.”
That’s not ideal in a business that is still grappling with the shrinking power of linear TV, and the need to draft off of the unique connection between creators and younger audiences.
“I believe in relationship building,” Perice said. “And I think the executive team that invests in meeting creators that they’re going to spend a lot of money with, it should be treated like a relationship. We’ve had creators who show up to events, meet the executive team, and then they’re selected to work with that brand because of the foundation they’ve established. And I think a lot of companies don’t do that. It’s like simply a churn-and-burn revenue deal play.”
Jim Louderback of Inside the Creator Economy wrote about this churn and burn mentality last week. “Current metrics [for creators] prove content performance, not business impact. Engagement and views are vanity metrics, while last-click attribution dramatically under-credits creators.”
Yet many are pushing the scale game. Perice isn’t so sure that’s the way to go. Her company recently rolled out Made By Us, a new division aimed at helping brands master cultural connections - all connected to a larger funding round for Made.
“Some of my creators, while they’re the biggest creators on the internet, they also are geniuses at recognizing how to write briefs and how to help anyone go viral,” she said. “So now I’m positioning them as creative directors for brands and using their production facilities to go to a brand and say, ‘listen, your page has no storytelling. You’re investing all of this money into celebrity and creator, which is wonderful and we’re happy to do that business. But now the next evolution is for the brands to recognize that they too can become distribution centers.’”
This is part of the push-and-pull right now in creator media, where you see brands wrestling with whether to treat this category as an alternative media vehicle (like TV) or an extension of (or replacement for) the creative department. It will be fascinating to see the role that companies like Made play. For her part, Perice is happy to be deeply involved in brand integrations, something that Hollywood companies don’t always seem wild about.
“Finding the right creators for the right brands. I absolutely think there needs to be better processes. But right now, it’s such a fragmented business. And I think that’s also the beauty of the creator economy and social media is that the power isn’t concentrated in a sense. So I think there’s just pros and cons. But I think the evolution of the process absolutely needs to evolve.”
In the meantime, Perice is watching her current industry completely transform - sometimes reluctantly.
On how well Hollywood is responding to the rise of creators and YouTube:
“It’s two separate financial models and two separate worlds. I think a lot of the legacy media companies are recognizing that they need to shift. And so many changes are happening in real time right now. This period of time will be studied in history in the media books.”
I think even beyond the financial models, the actual engines and processes that fuel both are tremendously different. Creators move at an alarming speed versus Hollywood. AndI think there’s pros and cons to both, but when the worlds actually do collide, which is our goal and vision, it will look much different.”
"Some will hold on as long as they can until they really have to shift.”