In-House Creator, Outsourced Management: The New Creative Model

[00:00:00] Adrianne: Most users aren't clicking through one ad to purchase. They're, they're seeing multiple ads. They might get a couple emails, you know, and then they finally make their decision. And so, be like when users see a consistency in the face that they're experiencing on a feed, but a diverse range of video formats, maybe the, maybe the.

[00:00:26] Creator did a product walkthrough, and then the next ad that the person saw was like an A SMR, and then the next ad was a Day in the Life, and then the next ad was like a website, green screen concept. They're being hit with four different concepts, all about the same product, all by the same person, and hearing everything they needed to hear before they make that purchase decision. 

[00:00:45] Richard: Hey folks. Welcome to the E-Commerce Playbook Podcast. I'm your host, Richard Gaffen, director of Digital Product Strategy here at Common Thread Collective. And today we are talking creative as we have been on about a monthly basis here with Adrian Barkley, who is our VP of Performance Creative here at Common Thread Collective.

[00:01:02] And she's joining us today, Adrian, how are you?

[00:01:05] Adrianne: Oh, I am doing well. Thanks, Richard.

[00:01:07] Richard: Yeah, great. I'm glad to hear it. It's a, it's a gr very, it's a great sweater tone that you have on right now.

[00:01:12] Adrianne: Thank you. 

[00:01:13] I, have you ever heard of like a color matching, like 

[00:01:16] color matching science.

[00:01:19] Richard: Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. No, no, I, I've heard of this science. I just haven't applied it to myself.

[00:01:23] Adrianne: you can go and get like consultation on what colors you should always wear and what colors you should absolutely never wear. And they do 

[00:01:31] everything. They do clothes, they do makeup.

[00:01:33] They tell you like start to finish and you learn a lot. This is one of my colors, so thank you for 

[00:01:37] recognizing that. 

[00:01:38] Richard: All right, great. Well, I'll have to check it out because I've only been wearing variations of beige, which honestly doesn't look as bad as you think it would. But I do think I need to incorporate some jewel tones into the game here. But, yeah. So, what we're talking about today, speaking of creative things like color matching, that'll be my segue.

[00:01:54] We're talking a little bit about a new service that, that you've been rolling out over the last month or so, maybe. That essentially helps, takes. A very difficult relationship sometimes, which is the sort of like brand expert creative and then makes the management of it easier. So that's my poor description of it.

[00:02:11] Why don't you tell us a little bit more about kind of what we're rolling out and the function that it serves.

[00:02:16] Adrianne: Yeah. So this is, I, I don't wanna say I'm biased. We have now like four or five creative offerings at CTC, but this is right now my, my. It's my teacher's pet. I really, really like this offering because if I were a brand, I'd be investing in this probably more than anything else. Because it checks all the boxes, it checks high quality of content, high volume of content, and high diversity of content.

[00:02:46] And I think that's what everyone's looking for on paid social these days. This is not a new to the industry. Concept whatsoever. It is new to CTC and it is a dedicated in-house creator offering that we've been really excited to roll out to a lot of our clients lately. Many brands have a dedicated in-house creator, regardless of size.

[00:03:07] A lot of them for a lot of brands, this looks like the founder, especially for smaller seven figure brands that we work with. Founders are able to pump out a lot of dedicated. 

[00:03:17] Founder content. Then of course you have the really, really large brown brands like Bobby Brown, right? And Bobby Brown has been their in-house creator since the beginning of time for that brand.

[00:03:29] And so this concept is not new whatsoever, but it is high level of management and strategy that many brands aren't able to execute in house, though it's often on their creative wishlist. So what we have been able to do is create a service that matches you with a dedicated creator. Start to finish, manages that creator's payments, use usage agreements and their content calendar as well as their product education, their voice and tone.

[00:04:01] And have them deliver a high volume of content for you on a monthly basis. That not only speaks to new customers and where they're at in their purchase journey, but returning customers as well. So, that's what it is. And I'm excited 

[00:04:17] to kind of dive into the strategy behind that, how it comes to life, as well as like some real time examples of the briefs that we deliver these, these creators to deliver content upon.

[00:04:30] Richard: So I mean, just to maybe summarize a little bit about what this is, it, it feels like kind of what makes this offer unique is that this is a in-house creator, an outsourced in-house creator, which in some ways sort of feels like a contradiction in terms, but what it does is it gives these sort of like the brand knowledge of the in-house creator, the dedication of the in-house creator, of course, without the difficulty of the in-house management of that creator.

[00:04:55] And then of course there's the scenario where it replaces you as the founder, let's say, cranking out a bunch of stuff yourself. So maybe just talk a little bit about how you ca sort of came to the idea of like, putting this together.

[00:05:12] Adrianne: Well, really, you know, we, we obviously have a large, a large base of UGC clients at CTC. We have about 50 clients that use us for ongoing UGC on a monthly basis across a wide network of creators. And when a creator performs or is extremely brand adjacent, it always makes the brand want more from that person.

[00:05:39] However. You know, asking for more from that person without really giving them the guidance and the product education and the deep level of brand knowledge that's required, often just results in more, you know, UGC that looks and feels the. And so it's when we come across these whales of creators that perform exceptionally well or are like such a good brand fit, or like, how can we work with this person on an ongoing basis that we that, you know, that's when, that's really where the, the impetus for this, like is born from along with just seeing so many brands do this so well.

[00:06:25] Already with their founders, employees or in-house, true in-house creators that they've hired. So it takes the idea of like, okay, like, you know, sure, you might get, you might have an agreement with a creator that is, you know, one 32nd video a month and they have an ongoing agreement with you. And that's, that's like fine and good, but what it doesn't do is ensure like a diverse range of formats.

[00:06:52] From one creator a month that hit on lots of different content styles can hit on different products can be altered seasonally. And also like ensure that every single batch that this creator sends you is is, is, what am I trying to say there? And also really ensures that every batch that this creator is sending you is strategically briefed with learnings from the previous batch. So that's what a paid media agency can do so well that, you know, and an in-house team might not be able to do as well. Like, because we're managing not only the creator and the content output, but we're also managing.

[00:07:36] The paid media and the spend and the performance and, and measuring that every month, we're able to constantly update the briefs for this person to make sure that the content pipeline is always improving. And that's a big gap that I often see, you know, is tougher folks to, to fill. 

[00:07:53] So. 

[00:07:54] Richard: Yeah. No, that makes sense. And, and one thing that we talked about, or maybe you alluded to already, or at least we talked about before we hit record, was the idea of connecting a specific personality to a brand. I mean, that's kind of in some ways the value, obviously, of the founder video and of the in-house creative is that there's a face that is representative of your brand and this is something that that provides.

[00:08:14] So maybe talk to us a little bit, and at this point we can kind of get into the examples piece about like how that actually plays out in the real world.

[00:08:21] Adrianne: Yeah, totally. I've a few examples. So one you know, the a client of ours, they sell very they, they sell animal-based supplements, so things think organs, livers, you know, a very holistic brand. And a perfect match for them that came across Our portfolio is a creator who is a postpartum doula.

[00:08:47] very deep in like the home birthing you know, world. Works with moms who are recovering postpartum and needs specific type of nutrition. Works with moms in their pregnancy and needs specific types of nutrition, and also has five children of her own, and allows us to also whitelist through her page.

[00:09:09] Which has the word doula in the handle, right? And so there's just on so many levels, so much brand adjacency there that speaks deeply to that brand customer. And is one of the reasons why her content performs exceptionally well. Because while we have to educate her on their specific products, what we don't have to educate her on is.

[00:09:35] The lifestyle. 

[00:09:36] She lives it, you know, and so she's, she's like an example of a perfect match for a brand. And we 

[00:09:42] won't ever cross utilize dedicated creators for other brands. So if another holistic brand came across our portfolio and we need to match them with a dedicated creator, we would not choose her.

[00:09:53] She's taken right. Which also lends to a deeper level of authenticity. And what's cool about these creators is. Because they're repeatedly showing up on, on users' feeds. They, you know, obviously a user doesn't normally see one ad and buy, did this, I did that the other day, but I, 

[00:10:17] I really liked the dress.

[00:10:18] I liked the 

[00:10:19] dress a lot. I wasn't,

[00:10:20] Richard: it once. 

[00:10:21] Adrianne: yeah, we've all done it once. Most users aren't, aren't clicking through one ad to purchase. They're, they're seeing multiple ads. They might get a couple emails, you know, and then they finally make their decision. And so, be like when users see a consistency in the face that they're experiencing on a feed, but a diverse range of video formats, maybe the, maybe the.

[00:10:49] Creator did a product walkthrough, and then the next ad that the person saw was like an A SMR, and then the next ad was a Day in the Life, and then the next ad was like a website, green screen concept. They're being hit with four different concepts, all about the same product, all by the same person, and hearing everything they needed to hear before they make that purchase decision. On the flip side, a returning customer is seeing potential products that could enhance their upsell or cross sell behavior. So they may have already bought from you, but if you're able to run these ads in your retention campaign, then you're able to add layers and layers of like trust and consistency to the returning customer's ad experience by them seeing the same, trustworthy, authentic face multiple times in their feed at different points, right?

[00:11:37] So. Yeah. I'll give two more examples of like creator matches that are top of mind for me right now. Only 'cause we've recently matched them, but one brand, an apparel brand, they're very east coast kind of focused, but I mean they have like, take that, take the east coast part out. One apparel brand that has.

[00:11:59] You know, a wide range of men, men's and women's apparel. But main, most of their revenue is men's apparel. And also peak season for them is swim season. So April through July is really when they see a peak outside of B-B-F-C-M. And so they're fueling additional creative into their pipeline during those four months and basically need loads of it to be successful.

[00:12:24] And so this is a new content type that they're TA testing. Though they have run a lot of founder content in the past and it has performed really well. It's like founder kind of product education, walkthroughs reading, customer reviews, those types of videos. Right? So this brand was matched with a creator who lives by the water with his wife and baby, has a little boat, you know, runs through the canals.

[00:12:54] Everything about his day-to-day lifestyle matches the brand's look and feel and personality. And he looks great in the clothes.

[00:13:04] Richard: there you

[00:13:04] Adrianne: Another, 

[00:13:05] another is a very high-end furniture company that that you just, G's typical UGC sourcing is challenging for because the. A OV of the product is so high, and therefore the cost to gift this product to creators is quite an investment.

[00:13:26] So if you're sending out a $10,000 dining table, you 

[00:13:30] really want that creator to deliver on good content, right? And so, for this brand also, you know, while they have a lot of trust and recognition in the. Design community. They also want people purchasing from them who aren't using professional design services or they aren't professional interior designers.

[00:13:54] They just love good high quality furniture. And so, they were matched with a creator who delivered an exceptional previous round of just basic UGC to them. Has the house, guest house and yard to deliver on 

[00:14:12] any range of products. So obviously where she lives and how that looks matters. This furniture company is very you know, you have, you know, you have different categories of design.

[00:14:23] They're, they're really specific to one type of design. So her house style also matches that design. So like, she's checking boxes, right? And then she also has the present on screen to do great tiny mic videos. Great green screen, like floating head videos, great style videos. So, you know, it goes, it depending on the brand, all the way from apparel to supplements to furniture, the level of boxes you have to check to really make this a good match is it's, 

[00:14:56] it can be a challenge, but when you find that person, you're like.

[00:14:58] We want a high volume of diverse content from you every month, how can we make it happen? Right? And so 

[00:15:04] it's something I see brands not doing enough. I 

[00:15:06] wish everyone did more of this.

[00:15:09] Richard: Yeah, no, I mean, it sounds like basically what this gets you is obviously there's the sort of the repetition of people seeing the same person across you know, multiple touch points, I guess. And then also finding sort of like builtin authority as well. So it's not just you're finding like a whole range of creators.

[00:15:26] You find one creator who really has the sort of, in terms of their persona, the authority to be the person to speak for that brand. But then, like you had mentioned before. There's the aspect of like the, of educating them on the specifics of the brand and then briefing them out on what they need to create.

[00:15:42] So obviously they're chosen for, like we said, their authority. You know, I mean, there's various things that go into it. Probably their ability to create content that works right? But then we have to like put some sort of guidance into the process. So I know that you have a couple of like real life or real world examples of briefs that you use, but let's let's jump into those and kind of give us a sense of how that works.

[00:16:04] Adrianne: Yeah, absolutely. Alrighty. Cool. So I'll go through so this is the brief format that we follow, regardless of the brand, and then obviously all of the content changes. Really, the first page is obviously about, about the brand, who they are, walkthroughs of their, you know, voice tone brands, do's and don'ts.

[00:16:27] And then you go into content guidelines for the creator, which, because we've most likely been working with this creator. They are, they know all of these things, but we're just reiterating the guidelines for all, everything they deliver to us to make sure that it's paid media ready and. And then we move into the actual concepts.

[00:16:46] So, for example each, each of these, we don't script these in detail because we actually don't want to like, take away from the creator's ability to get creative with these. 'cause they, they usually think of better ideas than we can in terms of the specifics of the script. But we give them high level concepts to follow and then we specify the product in the concept.

[00:17:08] So. Once we log in, the product mix that this creator will be receiving, we'll outline that. You can see it says hook format, direction, product, and the product says TBD. So once we select the, the skew that they'll be getting, we'll make sure it matches the concept. But basically, you know, we have eight videos.

[00:17:28] Each is a starting point for the creator. We want them to bring their personality, location, and energy and expand on these. We have this one short all day concept. Swim, swim, trunk test at a restaurant concept, recycled bottles reveal. This is a direct comparison of like what 11 recycled bottles looks like versus one pair of shorts.

[00:17:49] Get ready with me. Beach edition. So kind of more typical Get Ready with Me video, which you don't wanna do too many of those. Otherwise you really steal from like the diversity and the opportunity to like, you know. Find other winners. The dry test, three outfits, one pair of shorts. So it's more like how I styled these three different ways.

[00:18:09] The trip packing, edit date night on the coast. And then eight concepts for still images that are pretty specific whether it's a flat lay or a lifestyle shot or some sort of closeup texture fabric story, right. And so this is an example of a brief for that brand. And I would like, oh, something I wanna highlight here too is the voice that this is laid out in.

[00:18:36] So the creator is briefed as if he or she is that brand, 

[00:18:44] not, not, this brand sent me this and I'm gonna style it. It's. You know what I actually pack and wear for a full day in our gear, or could I actually wear our swim trunks to a sit down dinner? I tried, you know, and so yeah, there, the, it's a first, first person

[00:19:06] Richard: Yeah.

[00:19:06] Adrianne: approach to this

[00:19:07] Richard: Well, the idea is it's, it feels as if the creator is. Works for the brand, basically, right? Like they are a representative of the brand. And for those of you who are, are listening and don't have a video another thing that you'll notice is that the, the actual like scripting part is like really, really minimal.

[00:19:24] You kind of alluded to this earlier, but it does feel like there's certain, maybe kind of clarify for us our role versus their role. So it seems like what we say is like, we need these, these eight things talked about in some way. Here's a general idea. You, the way it plays out is completely up to you. I mean, is that essentially what the work split looks like or is there some other way it plays out?

[00:19:48] Adrianne: Yeah, that's what we want. then that's exactly, that's, that's what we found will get us the highest quality of content too. So for those not looking at the screen, I'll just read out, you know, one specific concept and this is all we include for that concept. Again, no other script. So this is concept number two.

[00:20:08] It's a swim trunk test at a restaurant. The hook is, could I actually wear our swim trunks to sit down dinner? I tried. Format is beach to dinner transition video. The direction is, you know, opens in the moment. Payoff is the fit. Check shows they don't look like swim trunks because we design them that way and product.

[00:20:25] And then that's it. And that's the concept, right? 

[00:20:28] So it's really straightforward, allows the creator to run with it. And I, I prefer that if you're having to script the creator, they're probably not a great dedicated creator.

[00:20:39] Richard: Right. Yeah. Yeah. No, that makes a ton of sense. And like that's, that's what we've talked about a million times too, is like having them use their voice is the way to. Develop creative diversity. Now, in this case, of course, it's like it is the same creator. And so there is some sense of like, well, we need to brief out a few different types of ad maybe.

[00:20:58] But like you're saying, if they're a good creator themselves, they'll already have that. Maybe intuitively down this idea of like all the different ways to present this that are gonna

[00:21:07] Adrianne: For sure. For sure. 

[00:21:08] Yeah. Totally. And like this is I, I won't get into a totally different brand in depth, but what you didn't see on that example were like green screen style videos or tiny mic, 

[00:21:22] like more just like, you know, talking to camera. We love those types of concepts for brands in general and especially for brands that, that have really high a OV product and maybe can't ship out eight different products that month, or, you know, need us to come up with other creative ideas to limit the amount of product directly that they have to send to the creator. So, you know, for maybe for a furniture brand, you could do like a color swatch concept where they just, they all they get is like a little batch of color swatches and they, they talk through those or.

[00:21:58] Maybe it's a green screen video on on, you know, one of your new collections walking through, like how to make a decision on the best outdoor patio furniture for you. Or maybe it's simply a tiny mic video with product pictures coming into screen, you know, like overlays, right? And so there's a lot of ways to do this, even if you have product limitation.

[00:22:23] Richard: Hmm. To what extent do you do either us or the brand touch the creative after it's, after it's done?

[00:22:30] Adrianne: For the most part, the creative, well, the, the brand has access. The, the creator delivers both the final assets and the raw files. And the, the brand has usage to all of those period. So, we are able to use the raw files to create other. Edits or improve on the creator's edits. But the final videos that the creator delivers is the first thing we test in the ad account.

[00:22:57] And because they're briefed specifically on guidelines, like the two thirds rule, adding captions, adding text overlays making sure to use any, like if they're adding music, making sure it's royalty free. Like we don't run into any issues like, but if they do deliver creative that. Has, you know, maybe something we'd wanna change or we don't like the headline or the captions need to be a different color or a different font.

[00:23:22] They're not readable. We have the team to edit that so that they're 100% ad ready before they go live.

[00:23:29] Richard: Yeah. So you've given given us several examples here. Tell us a little bit about like what the through line is, by which, I mean, who, like, who is this for? Like who is this a best fit for

[00:23:40] Adrianne: Mm-hmm. 

[00:23:41] Oh yeah, I love that question. So, this is a great fit for brands that know that Lo-fi iPhone UGC style content performs at a baseline, you know.

[00:23:56] Richard: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:21] Adrianne: package before I tested this, if that makes sense.

[00:24:24] And then if I was a brand who like, I'm like, I know UGC works, it crushes it. I know founder content works. We've tested that before. This is a definite winner, like a home run. We're gonna invest. We need it, we need more volume and we need more ads. So we're gonna invest in this creative type instead of just, you know, doing more of what we're already doing.

[00:24:44] Richard: Right. So I mean, yeah, it sounds like it's, you know, UGC works and you need something new, which you always do because that's the nature of this. Right. Then this is gonna be a fit. So, any, any other things that you wanna kind of hit on the, what's part of the service or any other sort of aspects you wanna tease out here?

[00:25:03] Adrianne: No, I don't think so,. 

[00:25:04] Richard: , So if you are one of those brands and chances are you are, hit us up. Commentary co.com, hit the highest button, let us know that you're interested in this service. What are we calling it?

[00:25:13] What's the, what's the title here?

[00:25:14] Adrianne: Oh, this is our dedicated creator offering.

[00:25:17] Richard: Dedicated creator offering. Let us know you're interested and Adrian would love to talk to you. All right, that's gonna do it for us for this week, but until next time, folks, take care.

[00:25:26] Adrianne: Bye.