Max Reisinger talking with Eric Wei from Karat:
Exactly, because I didn’t have a lot of great relationships with agencies since so, again, if like— you know, I didn’t feel like I was treated like a human. It was transactional, all these, like, one-night stands. You’re just numbers. You’re KPI’s to them.
So I was like, ! this doesn’t really feel good, but also as a creator, like, most of creators make their revenue through brand deals — at least the ones I’m surrounded by.
So, it’s like a core part to the creator industry is advertising. Like, you can’t really escape that right now.
But it feels like there’s this disconnect again, and so there’s a bit of, like, frustration with that, but also, like, you know, opportunity cost of like, I’m like,
- ‘You guys are doing it wrong, like, these brand briefs are probably hurting you. You’re n— you could do it better, and you’d probably make more money, and there’s a way to actually align the incentives.’
And then, it started because that first Creator Camp, we had a representative from Calm, the meditation app, come out.
And they were like, ‘We want to work with these creators, but we don’t really know how. Like, could you help us?’ And I was like, ‘Yes. Yes, I can.’
And that kind of led to Circle Park of like, ‘How could we bridge the gap between artists and brands, and make advertising like a cool thing where everyone wins, in treating both parties well?’
So, again, it was like a Utopian vision of, you know, ‘What if both parties could win? What if both parties could leave satisfied?’ Like, I think there is a way to do it well.
So, again, kind of aspirational in that capacity of what it could feel like. Say, I had been on some campaigns where like, ‘This is great. This is awesome,’ how can I create this for others?
Because the narrative is often, ‘I got screwed over. I didn’t get paid,’ you know, or, ‘This sucks.’
I don’t think it has to suck.
Unlike Max, most creators will continue to endure awkward relationships with brand partners, indefinitely.
For the more savvy creators — those who begin to prioritize platform ownership and owned product offers — the brand partnership slice of the revenue pie will become decreasingly important, over time.
— Tang
Max Reisinger’s owned platforms are: Creator Camp, Circle Park, Perspectopia, and MaxResinger.org.
Eric Wei is co-founder of Karat.
