On the latest episode of Variety‘s “Strictly Business” podcast, Bill O’Dowd, founder and CEO of Dolphin Entertainment, offers a deep dive into the art and science of the creator economy.
The leader of the parent company of PR heavyweights 42West, Shore Fire Media and a host of boutique firms explains how the heat among social media personalities is changing everything about marketing and advertising, and how it has bulldozed traditional barriers to launching consumer products.
Dolphin Entertainment began in the mid-1990s as a production company behind such Nickelodeon series as “Zoey 101” and “Ned’s Declassified.” A decade later, as O’Dowd saw the power of online communities and the emergence of social media platforms, he repositioned the company to focus on celebrity and influencer marketing, the creator economy and the development of consumer products.
“The first 20 years of Dolphin, we were a production company and we’re probably most known for a long, great relationship with Nickelodeon. We were putting clips of our kids shows on online. We were making original content for AOL and Yahoo and Facebook, long before streaming. I only say that to put in context what led us to to bet on what’s now called the creator economy — back then was called mommy bloggers,” O’Dowd says. “We were in the kids business and we were in the young adult business, and we saw how they interacted with this medium. The mobile internet democratized the launch of consumer products. You no longer needed to have tens of millions of dollars of a paid media campaign to launch a consumer product.”
O’Dowd points to the success story of beauty influencer Susan Yara.
“Susan was one of the O.G. makeup influencers. She has a channel on YouTube called Mixed Makeup, and she launched [skin care produc Naturium] in the summer of 2020, in COVID. Three years later, she sold it to e.l.f. Beauty for $350 million — with nothing but an influencer marketing campaign and a dash of PR. There was no paid media,” he says.
O’Dowd explains how he strategically acquired firms to create a flywheel effect in which Dolphin represent creator clients and do work on behalf of brands.
“When you can see it from both sides, what each side is trying to accomplish to serve in that matchmaking role, it’s just one of the great advantages that the company has,” O’Dowd says. “Traditional celebrities want to play in the influencer space and certainly in the brand space, if they feel like they can communicate authentically to their audience.”
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.