Jellysmack is a global content creator company that detects and develops the world’s most talented video creators, founded in 2016 by Michael Philippe, Robin Sabban, and Swann Maizil.
Jellysmack’s country manager of Australia, New Zealand and the Southeast Asia region, Ezechiel Ritchie, spoke to Mediaweek about the value of the platform to content creators in, the key to growth and what they hope to achieve in the new financial year.
Ritchie started his career with Google in 2012 before joining Taboola at its launch in Australia and New Zealand in 2017 and joined Jellysmack last year. He said he found the company’s vision of helping people make a living out of their passion as content creators is unique through expanding their audiences and maximising across all platforms with their technology.
The country manager jumped on board and said he saw a need for a company like Jellysmack in the Australian market. “We have some huge creators with global audiences that are not maximising all the platforms they could,” he added.
Jellysmack’s unique offering in the international market
Jellysmack began by operating in large communities on YouTube and Facebook across a wide range of categories – from gaming, entertainment, and beauty. The company then expanded to more platforms to reap bigger benefits such as bigger audiences, more engagement, and monetisation.
Ritchie explained that because the expansion was successful, the company launched Creator Program to help video content creators grow their audiences across multiple social platforms, by leveraging the company’s proprietary AI technology and first-party data.
When a creator joins, Jellysmack uses its suite of tech tools and a 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. At this stage, Jellysmack is in a unique position of having no competitors with their scale and technology.
Ezechiel Ritchie
At the heart of this company are the creators, and the Jellysmack country manager noted that it can be a difficult job, and that it takes time to master one platform. He explained that Jellysmack helps big content creators launch onto other platforms to expand their audience and generate as much revenue.
“We let them do what they do best, which is creating content, and we take care of all the rest, so they don’t have to do anything new or anything incremental. They just need to keep producing content. Our team will use that content and edit it, manage the community, acquire new audiences across the new platform, and often that will be Facebook or Snapchat or some of the big monetisable social media platforms,” he said.
The Creator Program currently has more than 650 creators globally as partners, including megastars PewDiePie, MrBeast, Bailey Sarian, and Nas Daily. Meanwhile, Australian creators who have signed on include HowToBasic, Self Sufficient Me, Vincenzo’s Plate, Whippy and Cupcake Savvy Kitchen.
Jellysmack and their place in the Australian/New Zealand market
Ritchie said that Jellysmack hopes to support as many creators as possible by helping them make a living from their passion and grow the content creator economy in the Australian and New Zealand market. He noted that the company works with all content creators – from YouTubers and Twitch streamers to traditional media companies – to drive community engagement and create a new revenue stream.
The Jellysmack country manager said that traditional media companies, such as media companies, productions studios, TV networks and radio stations, need to keep the business up and maximise their opportunity across social media platforms.
“That’s where the audience is. That’s not going to change. The shift has already happened. Traditional companies are not shifting towards that ecosystem, and they’re not building for the future. The same way that we are helping video content creators, we want to help media companies find success online, across all social media platforms,” he added.
The key to growth on Jellysmack
Many Jellysmack partner creators such as How Ridiculous and Tannar have seen a rise in audience growth, and Ritchie noted that the key to change is their proprietary tech.
“All platforms don’t operate in a similar way. They have different audiences; the user behaviour is very different. People will go on YouTube to watch long-form content, looking for something specific. On Facebook, it’s a feed, and people are laid back,” he said.
“Many creators might have tried to do what we do, but it’s different if you don’t have the tech or the data or the expertise. That’s the expertise that we bring. We have the data; we have the tech that enabled us to know which creator will do well on which platform,” he added.
Jellysmack and plans for growth in the year ahead
Looking to the year ahead, Ritchie noted that partner growth was high on the agenda for the company. He said the company will keep an eye on TikTok as they have yet to monetise.
“We know that TikTok has built a sustainable audience, and there’s a lot of discussions starting with exploring what’s new, where else can we help creators go bigger, find new audiences, drive more revenue,” Ritchie said. He added that Jellysmack will also look into other new and emerging platforms.
Ritchie also noted Jellysmack’s recent successful release of its new financing tool for creators – catalogue licensing. He explained: “Essentially, it’s for a YouTube video content creator. Instead of them waiting for YouTube to pay them over the next five years, we will essentially give them the capital upfront that they can invest in growing their business.
“It’s finding all the ways we can to support the creator economy and help creators go bigger and make a successful living out of their passion,” Ritchie added.
–
Top image: Ezechiel Ritchie