For years, the advertising industry has complained that the creator economy operates like a particularly disorganized flea market — lots of interesting merchandise, but no standard weights and measures, no reliable inventory system, and certainly no way to know whether the antique you just bought is worth what you paid for it.
Jimmy Donaldson, the YouTube star known as MrBeast, appears to be building the infrastructure to change that.
A job listing that briefly appeared on the Beast Industries website — since removed, in the manner of these things — sought an "ad tech trailblazer" to help construct what the company called a "groundbreaking AI-driven intelligence engine." At a presentation to advertisers on May 12, Jeff Housenbold, the chief executive of Beast Industries, confirmed the company was creating a two-sided marketplace to connect creators with major brands, along with a distribution system called Vyro that works through more than 100,000 smaller creators across TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
"We are no longer just a YouTube channel," Mr. Housenbold said. (What they are, exactly, depends on whom you ask.)
The timing is not accidental. Television networks are making their annual upfront presentations, retail media companies are holding their NewFronts pitches, and creator-focused firms like Spotter have begun hosting their own upfront-style events. Beast Industries, which claims to reach 1.3 billion people over a 90-day period, would like a seat at that table — one with better measurement and the kind of data advertisers have long demanded from traditional media.
"The amount of money being spent on creators is great, but if we compare it to the amount of money spent in media as a whole — there's still so much more money in traditional media," said Matt Grandchamp, senior vice president and head of revenue at NowThis. "The creator economy needs the same measurement."
Kevin Blazaitis, president of Creo, the influencer marketing arm of the Omnicom Group, said Mr. Donaldson's moves reflect how major creators now view themselves. "They themselves are platforms, brands and commerce channels," he said.
The introduction of programmatic advertising to the creator world carries some historical baggage, of course. When programmatic took over digital media, it offered efficiency but ultimately drove prices down in ways that wounded legacy publishers. But several executives who spoke to Digiday suggested that Mr. Donaldson's premium inventory — content that people actually watch — would insulate him from that particular race to the bottom.
Aaron Francois, an independent creative strategist, put it more bluntly: if Beast Industries succeeds, the company would stop being a media company with technology and become a technology company that understands media. "That's a different valuation conversation entirely," he said.
Whether the machinery will work depends on factors that cannot be programmed. Jonathan Chanti, chief executive of Reign Maker Group, noted that the creator economy runs on relationships, culture and trust — forces that do not always respond well to optimization.
"The platform only works if creators trust it," Mr. Francois said, "and right now, the creator economy is full of skepticism about who's actually building for them versus extracting from them."
Mr. Donaldson has spent a decade building an audience. Building their trust in a two-sided marketplace may prove to be the harder trick.
Original story published in Digiday: "MrBeast's creator platform signals a more programmatic creator economy"