The era of AI and social media platforms has blown open the marketing playbook for bringing audiences to entertainment and experiences. That was the sentiment shared by six top marketers who spoke Thursday at Variety‘s Entertainment and Technology Summit in Los Angeles. The subject of the creator economy and its impact on selling everything from soap to soap operas was a dominant theme of the day.
And it was center stage in the panel with executives from Archrival, TikTok, Spotify, Pinterest, AMC Global Media and Lionsgate, which was moderated by Dea Lawrence, Variety‘s publisher and co-president. Entertainment marketers once closely guarded their marketing materials and spooned out their campaigns with tactical precision on timing and platforms. Social media and social video in particular require studios and creatives to allow their fans to offer their takes on their favorite properties.
It’s particularly prevalent on TikTok, of course. If you consume it, you’ll know it — it’s called edits on TikTok,” McElroy said. They create these incredible visual pieces.
The temptation is to try to replicate that on our end. But we thought, why do that? If we’re talking about authenticity, the best way to do it is to let the fans themselves do it.
So on TikTok, that piece of advertising is incredible.” Ben Harms, chief growth officer at youth culture marketing agency Archrival, offered a strong point of view on what it takes to win today and in the future. He pointed to Spotify as a prime example. And what we find that’s working for brands today is when they’re building ecosystems of experiences and human connection that go far beyond attention and just getting noise out there to really building meaningful connections with consumers.” Sara Pollack, global head of consumer marketing for Pinterest, also reinforced that today’s fans often want to craft elaborate tributes and nods to favorite personalities and titles.
On the Pinterest platform, fans hunt for inspiration for expressing their love. She cited a recent brand partnership that Pinterest struck with Warner Bros. to promote the theatrical release of “Practical Magic 2.” “We saw that there’s a ton of Gen Z sourcing happening for really like specific things like herbal apothecaries, crystal meanings, tarot readings. This is all really adjacent to the film,” Pollack said.
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