Publicis Media’s Eric Levin sees creators as their own entertainment studios

Some marketing executives may not know who Kai Cenat or IShowSpeed are, but their kids definitely do.

The content creator evolution from influencer status to bona fide entertainer was a standout topic at CES. Two of the most notable examples include MrBeast’s and Alex Cooper’s respective partnerships with Amazon and SiriusXM. In fact, Publicis Media’s chief creative officer, Eric Levin, believes creators need to see themselves as their own entertainment studios.

Levin spoke with The Current Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Paterik about that transformation and how Publicis is using AI tools to support creativity rather than hamper it.

What do you think the future of an entertainment studio looks like in this age of absolutely frenzied content consumption?

The best creators, in our opinion, are the ones that recognize who their audience is and the size and scale of what it is that they deliver.

[That’s] often bigger than networks and shows themselves and an understanding that they have to elevate the role of narrative if they’re going to continue to evolve. The day of the ring light and phone is on its way out, and the idea of creating content quickly and rolling in things like social commerce into that, that opportunity taps into all of the insights, activities and behaviors that we know to be true of.

I don’t think anybody’s ever going to sit on a couch and get excited about watching somebody with a ring light and their camera, but I do think there are plenty of creators who are developing new shows, new means by which to build studios and ways in which they can develop and deploy much faster than we’re used to.

I see that as the next wave.

In a way, media has always oriented around personalities, and that isn’t quite changing.

No, no, I don’t think that’s going to change at all. And like I said, the very best creators truly understand what they have.

They have to start looking at themselves as networks and program themselves as networks, and they’re already drawing the people in. It’s just a matter of continuing to.

When it comes to creative trends, what do you think audiences are responding to these days?

It depends on the demographic and the age of the audience. You and I were just talking about our kids and YouTube.

Yes, our 9year-olds!

We often get asked by our clients, “Where is this ever-elusive younger consumer?” Right now, you see trends in terms of micro content and social commerce and ways in which creators are developing new means to put really strong narrative content out there — YouTube is certainly one of them. All of the social platforms are others.

And I think that that’s probably the most dynamic space, but probably also the hardest to create something truly breakthrough in.

What demographics along those lines are our brands homed in to right now? Like when we say the elusive younger person.

I think right now it’s a lot of Gen Z, Gen Alpha. Those are the ones that we’re talking most to. It doesn’t mean exclusively, necessarily; it depends on the brand. But I would say that that that’s the sweet spot.

AI is obviously a huge trend. As a creative chief, can you give me some examples of how you are able to ensure these tools support creativity versus hamper it?

In our world, we ensure everything has a level of compliance before we utilize any tools, period. We’re also very transparent and very careful in how they’re being utilized. And we’re always communicating amongst ourselves to our clients and to our teams what’s out there, how we should be using it and how it’s going to make things a little bit easier to understand.

For us, being able to create things that may be representative of what it is that we’ll ultimately develop without going as far as saying it’s fully AI-generated allows us to test and learn faster than we might have been able to do in the past.

Like sketching out a first idea.

Sketching out, storyboarding, seeing what works, what doesn’t, and how it comes to life. Conceptual art gives us a much better visual representation of what we think we can accomplish.

You raise such a fascinating point about the need for transparency and creativity. I think we’ve often thought about that with data, but now it really extends that transparency is such a value offer for any client.

One thousand percent, yes.