Global creator company Jellysmack has announced two new senior appointments to its Australia and New Zealand team as the company continues to grow in the region.
Bec Hodges has been appointed Jellysmack’s marketing manager ANZ and Alex Vans-Colina joins as partnership manager ANZ.
Hodges joins Jellysmack from fin-tech start-up, home loans specialist Lendi Group, where she was brand and acquisition specialist across the Aussie and Lendi brands. She has a strong background in the tech and gaming industry, spending more than five years with video games company Ubisoft, most recently as brand manager.
Alex Vans-Colina
At Jellysmack, Hodges will lead marketing in the region supporting the growth and success of the Creator and Media Partner programs, as well as the company’s newly launched Catalog Licensing for Video Creators, the largest program of its kind offering upfront capital to fuel a creator’s new business ideas, brand growth, and content creation in exchange for licensing videos from the creator’s YouTube library.
Vans-Colina has spent the better part of a decade forging and managing key relationships for some of Australia’s top record labels and joins Jellysmack after more than six years at Warner Music Australia, where he was most recently partnership manager. He managed partnerships with YouTube, TikTok and Spotify, as well as leading Warner Australia’s first programmatic YouTube offering. Prior to Warner, Vans-Colina worked with Universal Music Australia in digital account management. His passion for innovation and technology has also seen him develop partnerships in esports, influencer marketing and NFTs.
In his new role at Jellysmack, Vans-Colina will work in the Partnership team to identify and sign the most influential video content creators and media companies across Australia and New Zealand.
In October 2021, Jellysmack launched its popular Creator Program in Australia and New Zealand and prioritised the region as a key growth market within the $US100 billion creator economy. The VC-backed technology start-up is building a team to raise brand awareness and sign the most influential creators to its growing roster.
Bec Hodges
Jellysmack has already signed many of Australia’s top video content creators to its Creator Program, including: HowToBasic, JoshDub, How Ridiculous, Self Sufficient Me, Tannar, Vincenzo’s Plate, Cupcake Savvy Kitchen, and SAMMIT.
Jellysmack ANZ country manager, Ezechiel Ritchie, said: “I’m delighted to see Bec, and Alex join the growing Jellysmack team, and both bring a range of music, gaming, tech and digital skills and experience that align perfectly with our business here. Our intention is to create the region’s biggest and most influential content creator community and also work with media companies to help expand and monetise their content.
“We will soon announce more Australian content creator signings as local creators look to realise their global and multi-platform appeal.”
The Jellysmack Creator Program leverages the company’s proprietary AI technology and first-party data to help individual video creators grow their audiences across multiple social platforms. Once a creator joins, Jellysmack uses its suite of tech tools and team of experts to edit, optimise, and distribute videos onto Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube on behalf of the creator, thereby establishing new revenue streams. The Creator Program currently has more than 500 of the world’s most influential creators as partners, including megastars PewDiePie, MrBeast, Bailey Sarian, Patrick Starrr and Nas Daily.
Jellysmack announced its international expansion strategy in May last year, after the company secured funding from leading tech venture capital company, SoftBank Vision Fund II and is building a presence in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.