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At this year’s Cannes Lions, one topic will be unmissable among the global advertising community: the realignment of entertainment, creative, and shopping, with creators at the core. With the rising profile of creators at Cannes, it’s clear that there’s no longer a separate “creator economy.” Now, creators are the entertainment industry.
YouTube is at the center of the shift. According to a survey conducted by Kantar, surveyed viewers in the U.S. rank YouTube as the No. 1 platform for watching creator content, outperforming other online platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.1
As creators lead this new era of entertainment, they’re also ushering in a new era of creator marketing, one that’s built around trusted YouTube creators who foster culture and connection that drive measurable results you can’t get anywhere else.
YouTube creators are leading a new era of entertainment
Creators are coming up with new kinds of shows, rewriting the rules of audience trust, and growing audiences across every way they watch.
At Cannes, we’ll hear directly from top creators on how they’re building this new era of entertainment on YouTube.
Take Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network, a powerhouse media company that spans genres and keeps audiences engaged through hourlong episodes. You may know Cooper from Call Her Daddy and her loyal #DaddyGang fanbase. Now Unwell Network is premiering several new shows exclusively on YouTube across a range of genres, including a sabotage-style competition miniseries, “Pot Stirrers”; a scripted holiday series, “Holiday Hard Launch”; and a behind-the-scenes Met Gala docuseries, “Before the Steps.” As Cooper said, “We could be anywhere, but we showed up where [the audience] already was — YouTube.” For brands, it’s an opportunity to connect with Unwell’s audience while they’re looking to be entertained and participate in culture.
Creator Alex Cooper has developed her brand from a single show into an entire media company: Unwell Network.
Jack Goldburg is disrupting the traditional food and travel network with multiformat, episodic content that immerses millions of YouTube viewers in restaurants and culinary experiences around the world. He’s scaled from viral short-form videos into cinematic long-form shows, like his upcoming travel series “No Limits.” Goldburg both entertains and inspires his fans, who trust his recommendations because they’ve followed him long enough to know they come from a genuine point of view. That trust is a direct line to an audience that’s ready to try and discover new things, including brands’ products.
Creators have made YouTube their home. They can do their most ambitious work without waiting for a green light.
And Brittany Broski is reinventing the talk show genre with Royal Court, entering its third season. The show lets its celebrity guests, dressed in medieval attire and seated on thrones, reveal new sides of themselves as Broski tests whether they’ve earned a spot on her royal court. Broski is at the epicenter of the pop culture conversation, and brands can join her there. In a sign of the show’s cultural impact, “Royal Court” was recently submitted for Emmy consideration in the Outstanding Variety Series category.
Creators have made YouTube their home, because it’s where they can do their most ambitious work without waiting for a green light from gatekeepers. They’ve built deep trust and connection with their fans. That means when brands partner with creators or sponsor their shows, they’re brought into their communities in ways that drive unparalleled results.
A new era of sports
While they are transforming entertainment, YouTube creators are also becoming the new sportscasters and sports superstars. From established athletes to emerging voices, talent comes to YouTube to connect with fans and produce content that blends sports with lifestyle genres. YouTube is where all the voices that define the game around the game come together in one place. They’ve turned culture around sports into the main event, creating an opportunity for brands to connect with fans on YouTube before and long after the final whistle.
Creator-led sports content on YouTube goes far beyond games and races. There are also podcasts, challenges, documentaries, highlight reels, and explainers. For example, track and field champion Allyson Felix is launching her new YouTube series this fall, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at her ongoing preparation to qualify for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
YouTube creators are also becoming the new sportscasters and superstars.
Bryson DeChambeau is paving the way for a new era of golf, moving from behind-the-scenes content to producing hit shows like “Break 50” and “Course Record.” His collaborations stretch beyond the world of sports, bringing in a completely new audience.
YouTube sports creator Bryson DeChambeau and friends get together on the links to attempt an “impossible 49.”
A new era of creator marketing
We’ll be in conversation with these YouTube creators and more at Cannes, where we’ll unpack all the ways to sponsor creators’ most ambitious projects and partner with them to drive unmatched business results. According to a recent study, users are 13X more likely to search for a brand and 5X more likely to buy when creators talk about a brand on YouTube.2 Layering on ads helps build that momentum by driving incremental views to organic content about your brand. That makes the entire marketing investment more effective, increasing incremental ROAS by 16%.3 Brands that recognize this now and build their campaigns deliberately around YouTube creators will be the ones to pull ahead.
By treating creator videos as performance-driving assets, you can reach new audiences and scale your results.
When thinking about your next campaign, consider how to leverage creator partnerships across creators’ channels, and within your paid media strategy. This formula will set up results that compound over time and unlock the scale and precision of YouTube’s AI-powered ad solutions. By treating creator videos as performance-driving assets, you can reach new audiences and scale your results. According to a Google-commissioned study, surveyed high-performing marketers reported that they are 3.4X more likely to scale creator assets with boosting over the next three years compared to other marketers.4
Brands that build long-term partnerships with YouTube creators are tapping into real customer interest, leaving competitors who only chase fleeting views far behind.
To make the most of creator partnerships on YouTube, try this approach:
- Bring the best of your brand’s content and creator partnerships to YouTube to get even stronger results.
- Build strong partnerships with YouTube creators to connect with their communities.
- Boost creator content to scale your results with our best-in-class advertising solutions.
Get the full YouTube Creator Marketing playbook to learn more about how you can build creator partnerships for a new era of creator marketing on YouTube.
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