Author: Seb Joseph

At least one CEO wants to talk about advertising. PepsiCo’s Ramon Laguarta used a recent appearance in front of investors to champion the company’s decision to hand its global media account to Publicis Groupe.

The move came without a formal review and pulled the business away from Omnicom, which had managed it for three decades. That is a lot of money changing hands. PepsiCo spends an estimated $1.9 billion on media a year, $780 million of it in North America, according to COMvergence. The fallout spread fast. Coca-Cola, a Publicis client in North America since the holdco won that account from WPP only last year, is now preparing a review of the business, reportedly in talks with Omnicom and Dentsu.

Laguarta had his own account of the move when he spoke to investors. He described the partnership as “an important capability for us” and said PepsiCo would be able to invest “with much more data, much more granularity,” as a result. Holdcos tend to sell themselves as partners. He spoke about Publicis the way a company talks about something it has bought. 

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Creator-led content is being pitched across the entertainment spectrum from TV to micro dramas and even theater. At Advertising Week New York, several panels explored the business stakes: are these partnerships helping creators build IP they control, or mainly giving studios, streamers and brands access to their audiences?

Digiday spoke with three agency and media execs, two creators, and a creator economy lawyer about how these deals are financed and distributed, who owns the resulting IP, and what makes partnerships work for both brands and creators. They also warn that Hollywood’s rush to replicate hits like Obsession and Backrooms could produce a spate of poor-quality, under-developed creator-led projects in the next few years.

Akshay Mehta, CEO of the Whalar Group’s creator-led Lighthouse Studios, worked with Awesomeness Films almost a decade ago, when production companies and studios were first experimenting with the creator economy. At the time, he said, studios were solely focused on renting or buying creators’ existing audiences for a movie, rather than building a long-term media brand with them.

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