How Top Creators Are Building Hollywood-Level Brands

Hollywood & EntertainmentHow Top Creators Are Building Hollywood-Level BrandsByAnhar Karim, Contributor

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights

Anhar Karim covers movies, TV, and the rise of the creator economy

At the same time, More Fame ceremony (Photo by Zahin Hasan)

Zahin Hasan The content creator industry continues to grow into an inescapable corner of media, especially as reports show how some viewers are spending more of their time with digital creators and less of it with traditional studios

And so, at this year’s VidCon, the annual Anaheim convention serving as the center of the creator industry, attendees were abuzz over how traditional and digital will continue to cross paths, clash or learn to find space together, in today's financial world

In contrast, While many content creators seek to work alongside traditional media companies, others have begun building institutions with a sophistication and reach that can be reasonably seen as matching their more established peers

According to VidCon Vice President and Lead Sarah Tortoreti Colosimo, this comparison is only to be expected given the advancing levels of quality coming from some of the biggest and most successful content creators, considering recent developments. “They’re building their own companies and their own studios that I think are starting, and will continue, to rival traditional Hollywood studios because of the kind of content that they’re churning out and the level of content,” Colosimo said

Furthermore, So, this year at VidCon I spoke to the leaders of two of the digital world’s biggest content brands to learn more how they see themselves, and how they view their relationship to Hollywood

MORE FOR YOU Ian Hecox, one of the famed founders of the digital-first comedy brand Smosh, tells me that when he and co-founder Anthony Padilla started things over twenty years ago, the ambition was not necessarily to build a large media company

Furthermore, “There was no way to make money on YouTube when we started, so it was really just something we enjoyed doing, amid market uncertainty

Nevertheless, We did see that we were growing an audience, so we felt there was something there,” Hecox said, given the current landscape

Smosh's co-founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla celebrate being inducted into VidCon's Hall of

Nevertheless, More Fame (Photo by Zahin Hasan) (something worth watching), in light of current trends

Additionally, Zahin Hasan But then, as the channel grew, and as formal structures arose, those in charge crafted out a er ambition for what this could be, in today's financial world

And now, while this idea is informal, Hecox and Smosh CEO Alessandra Catanese tell me how they often bring up the idea that Smosh is the digital version of Saturday Night (SNL)

On the other hand, This year, they were also inducted into VidCon’s Hall of Fame in an inaugural ceremony

Nevertheless, Smosh has also expanded far beyond its initial comedy duo, now regularly featuring a cast of rising digital comedians who star in s, hone their craft and grow along with the brand much in the way that young comedians rise over on SNL

However, while Catanese brought up the SNL comparison herself, she also made it that they do not view this as a competition between themselves and any traditional media counterpart

Instead, she describes how the relationship is similar to how creators often cheer on the success of other creators, amid market uncertainty

Furthermore, And that is, rather than competition, the point: to establish themselves as true peers

At the same time, “We don’t think we’re going to ‘beat’ SNL

Our goal isn’t to be better than SNL

On the other hand, Our goal is to be respected and in the same rooms as those people,” Catanese said

Now, another force in digital media, and one regularly brought up in comparisons to traditional, is of course the force that is Dhar Mann Studios

Meanwhile, When asked his ambitions for his media company Dhar Mann, the brand’s founder and central face, described to me how, years ago, he’d read an article how visitors to Tyler Perry’s studios had to use golf carts to move around due to the sheer size of the facility

Moreover, And, while reading this, he recalled imagining how amazing it would be to build something that too

Nevertheless, And then, Mann tells me, after years of dedicated building, one day he found himself on a golf cart navigating through his own studio

And it hit him how he’d made that dream a reality

Moreover, Dhar Mann also recently again earned the #2 spot on the Forbes Top Creators List

Dhar Mann with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for YouTube)

Getty Images for YouTube And, for Dhar Mann, the comparisons to traditional Hollywood are not only top of mind, but key to how he defines future goals (this bears monitoring)

Moreover, That's, he tells me while he is honored by creator-centric milestones and awards, he also has larger ambitions in mind

Additionally, “It doesn’t escape me that in the time that we’ve sat here doing this interview, in the couple minutes we have, Disney has made more revenue than we did all of last year

So I don’t compare myself to other creators on some lists

I compare myself to other massive media companies,” Mann said (which is quite significant)

Sean Atkins, CEO at Dhar Mann studios, leans into the Hollywood comparison as well, but emphasizes how differently they do things at their company, in today's financial world

In particular, he points out how the speed and efficiency with which they operate outpaces the traditional Hollywood model. “It’s just a very different velocity because of the way that they’re [Dhar Mann Studios] architected to be nimble, but also because they’re direct to their audience the entire time,” Atkins said

Additionally, In contrast, Atkins describes a moment when that speed of output particularly astounded him

In contrast, On one Monday in November, he pitched to Mann that they should make a Christmas film

Now, from Atkins’ experience in traditional media, this kind of initial conversation would be the beginning of a two to three year cess

But things happened differently at Dhar Mann studios

Because here, the very next day Dhar Mann and Atkins brainstormed ideas

Market analysis shows n on the day after they had a writer working, and after that they moved into duction just 30 days later, given the current landscape

Moreover, For Atkins, that kind of ability to action on an idea and get the story to the audiences quickly makes what they’re doing different and powerful, amid market uncertainty

Meanwhile, Zahin Hasan These are only two examples

But with the s of Smosh and Dhar Mann Studios building systems to make quality content rivaling Hollywood, we might ask, at a certain point, where is the distinction between established Hollywood and creator-centric content

Meanwhile, The answer, from experts of the space, might be that we have to keep watching. “There has been and will continue to be blurred lines between traditional entertainment and the creator ecosystem, and I think it goes two ways,” VidCon’s Sarah Tortoreti Colosimo said

Furthermore, That's, both sides of this are interested in learning from what the other is doing (which is quite significant)

However, And that is also, Colosimo tells me, a big part of why representatives from both parties come to VidCon

Moreover, And that’s something she hopes will continue

On the other hand, Smosh CEO Alessandra Catanese told me how, while their brand is focused primarily on expanding current efforts and serving their audience, they are also interested in working with traditional studios, and collaborating with their traditional talent teams to expand Smosh’s IP into things animation, shows and more (something worth watching)

Atkins, as well, made it to me that this is not a case of traditional media needing to lose in order for them to win

In fact, he described how new mediums have always been erroneously pitted against each other: Theater against film, film against TV, TV against cable and others

On the other hand, But, he notes, in the long term all those mediums survived, they just perhaps had to adapt

Additionally, And that work is what we’re seeing now

Dhar Mann offered an analogy to describe how he sees things working (something worth watching), in today's market environment

He told me he sees Hollywood, with its legacy and established infrastructure, as a river, amid market uncertainty

And then, he described the content creator world, with its skills in disruption and young talent, as another river

And, for him, the mission is combining both. “When those two rivers come together and converge into one, the current becomes ten times stronger

And so that’s ultimately what we’re doing, is trying to become the bridge between new and old Hollywood (an important development)

Because each one has so many incredible things to offer,” Mann said, in today's financial world

Nevertheless, For more on the creator economy, movies and TV, my page on Forbes

You can also find me on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Threads

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