Via Variety.com:
Maker Studios was once a sprawling agglomeration of some 60,000 YouTube channels. Now Disney, which has owned Maker since 2014, has dramatically pared back the unit’s focus — aiming to better align a roster of under 1,000 Maker creators with Disney’s family-safe brand and corporate objectives.
The Mouse House on Tuesday announced the Disney Digital Network, which rolls up all of the company’s digital-first content businesses under one roof, including Maker, which had previously operated fairly independently.
Disney Digital Network reaches more than 1 billion followers across platforms, encompassing 300-plus social media channels and editorial brands like Oh My Disney, StarWars.com, and Maker’s Polaris. Company execs unveiled the new strategy and programming plans at their Digital Content NewFronts presentation at Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers.
“This extends our stories to the platforms Gen Z and millennial audiences are on every day, with diverse editorial voices that integrate top creators and influencers,” said Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media, in the pitch to marketers and agency execs.
With Disney Digital Network, the company will more actively concentrate on bringing Maker creators into Disney-branded content and vice versa, said Andrew Sugerman, executive VP of publishing and digital media for Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. Sugerman assumed oversight of Maker Studios in a restructuring last December.
“Historically on the Disney Interactive Media side, our leaning into creators and influencers has been very light touch. We really focused only on Disney-branded endeavors,” said Sugerman in an interview with Variety prior to the event. “Whereas on the Maker side, influencers were really everything non-Disney-branded.”
Now, Sugerman said, “We’re going to infuse Maker into the Disney pieces, and Disney will be infused more into Maker.”
In the new Maker network, creators will be “curated” with an eye toward how well they fit into Disney’s overall brand identity, according to Sugerman. It’s worth noting that PewDiePie, who had been Maker’s No. 1 individual partner, is no longer in business with Disney: The company cut its ties to PewDiePie in February after he posted several anti-Semitic-themed joke videos.
“We are definitely looking to identify the influencers and creators who have the greatest appeal to [Disney’s target Gen Z and millennial] audience,” Sugerman said. “We’ll be looking for opportunities to map those influencers to the broader Disney company.”
At the same time, Sugerman added, Disney will encourage the individual digital creators to continue producing their own content – “because that’s what got them where they are. We want to be mindful that we are providing the right support, and find those opportunities to combine them with Star Wars, Marvel and other Disney brands.”
Disney Co/Op, the in-house branded-content agency, will offer marketers the ability to pair Disney and Maker “digital storytellers” with brands looking to create custom campaigns. The Disney Co/Op also leverages partnerships with social platforms including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Disney says it is actively pairing the digital content creation and programming capabilities of Disney Digital Network with The Walt Disney Company’s broadcast and cable assets across ABC, Disney Channel, and others, so that advertising partners can reach vast audiences across all media platforms.
“We have one unified, integrated digital media network for advertisers that brings everything together – with creators and influencers, in a more impactful way,” said Sugerman.
The new slate of original digital shows that will be available across Disney Digital Network starting this year includes:
“Science and Star Wars”: Series that explores, explains, and demonstrates parallels between the Lucasfilm sci-fi epic and real-world scientific breakthroughs the saga has inspired. The IBM-sponsored series, hosted by Anthony Carboni, will feature IBM researchers, science experts, guest stars, and IBM’s Watson artificial-intelligence platform. It will run exclusively on Facebook through the Facebook Anthology branded-content program.
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