Corbett Drummey, the VP of Model Collaborations at Lightricks, brings a wealth of expertise and innovation to the world of promoting and influencer advertising and marketing. At Lightricks, Corbett serves as a part of a management group that has built-in generative AI into the corporate’s suite of visible content material creation apps, enhancing the capabilities of creators and types alike. He’s presently targeted on Lightricks’ newest creation, LTX Studio, an AI-driven internet app designed to streamline promoting storyboarding and manufacturing, providing unprecedented velocity and management in generative video.
Corbett’s entrepreneurial journey started in 2013 when he co-founded Fashionable Pays, a platform that helps the promoting panorama by connecting manufacturers with creators. Below his management, Fashionable Pays achieved many milestones, together with participation in Y Combinator, elevating Collection A and B funding, and facilitating creator-brand partnerships price tens of millions. In 2022, Fashionable Pays was acquired by Lightricks, marking a brand new chapter in Corbett’s profession.
On this interview, Corbett shares his insights on the journey of Fashionable Pays, the transition to Lightricks, and the transformative affect of generative AI on promoting and influencer advertising and marketing. He additionally discusses the moral concerns surrounding AI in content material creation, the way forward for influencer advertising and marketing, and presents invaluable recommendation for aspiring entrepreneurs within the tech and promoting area. By way of his imaginative and prescient and management, Corbett Drummey continues to form the way forward for digital promoting, driving innovation and creativity within the trade. Right here is our interview.
1. Background and Journey
– Corbett, you based Fashionable Pays in 2013 and noticed it develop into a major participant within the promoting trade. Are you able to share some key milestones from Fashionable Pays’ journey earlier than it was acquired by Lightricks?
Beginning Fashionable Pays was an exciting and life-changing journey. We had some large ups and downs between 2013 after we first launched and 2022 after we had been acquired. I’m immensely grateful for the expertise, however should admit it was additionally an extremely worrying and troublesome enterprise.
Most individuals solely discuss in regards to the starting and the tip of a startup, however typically pass over the center, when there actually isn’t a uninteresting second. It was fixed problem-solving. There was the primary Fashionable Pays workplace for me and my co-founders (our home in Chicago), stepping into Y Combinator in 2015 and transferring briefly to San Francisco. In 2017 we raised our Collection A funding after which Collection B in late 2018. It culminated in our acquisition by Lightricks in 2022 – our most definitive second for the reason that begin.
As Fashionable Pays, we’ve paid out tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to creators, which looks as if an unattainable quantity, and did seven-figure offers with large manufacturers. However in reflection, I additionally bear in mind with equal readability our first tiny campaigns that had been only some hundred {dollars} as we had been proving out the platform – which had been equally as thrilling.
2. Transition to Lightricks
– What motivated you to maneuver to your present position at Lightricks after the acquisition of Fashionable Pays? How has your expertise been transitioning from founder to VP of Model Collaborations?
The acquisition was strategic, with Fashionable Pays being energetic with model/creator campaigns, and Lightricks figuring out influencer and creator advertising and marketing as an enormous and rising trade. Turning into a part of Lightricks allowed our group to achieve extra visibility and a spotlight within the B2B sector. These synergies are much more vital with the daybreak of generative AI instruments – that are equally as highly effective for creators and customers as manufacturers and entrepreneurs.
Even throughout the acquisition, we noticed AI on the horizon, however we couldn’t have predicted the magnitude of its affect. In simply the final 12 months, my position expanded to assist with a stronger B2B rollout of our generative AI platform, known as LTX Studio. It’s been superb to get publicity to a brand new product space after a decade in influencer advertising and marketing, and I’ve discovered it energizing engaged on this cutting-edge expertise.
Transitioning away from my obligations with Fashionable Pays in some methods may be robust, but it surely’s additionally tremendous rewarding to see progress even after I’m moved off of these groups, and it provides me great confidence sooner or later.
3. Generative AI in Promoting
– Lightricks has built-in generative AI into a number of of its visible content material creation apps. How do you see generative AI reworking the panorama of promoting and influencer advertising and marketing?
Comparatively early on, the management at Lightricks noticed the ability of generative AI and targeted on leveraging it into every of our apps, from Facetune to Fashionable Pays. It gave us the momentum and expertise to finally construct new instruments with AI from the bottom up, like LTX Studio. However it may’t be understated that even simply leveraging AI for current workflows on platforms like Fashionable Pays may be full game-changers.
We first launched AI into the Fashionable Pays platform to assist entrepreneurs write briefs extra simply, taking what was once a prolonged course of and turning it right into a three-minute one, leaning on AI and our previous database of hundreds of briefs to assist flip a fast blurb into an almost-finalized draft transient.
That stage of exponential progress with each workflow and content material prototyping is really transformative for branded content material creation. Lengthy-term, I totally imagine that AI instruments would be the main methodology that creators use to create content material for his or her viewers or for manufacturers, and we’d see additional developments like AI influencers, hyper-targeted AI content material, and extra. However even right now, AI’s skill to make entrepreneurs 10x extra environment friendly with issues like creator sourcing and vetting shouldn’t be discounted.
4. LTX Studio
– Are you able to inform us extra about LTX Studio, the AI internet app for promoting manufacturing corporations and filmmakers? What particular wants does it tackle, and what units it other than different instruments out there?
We expect LTX Studio is one of the best platform accessible right now for fast content material prototyping. You possibly can go from a brief inventive blurb to a full venture with video, narration, and sound in only some minutes. It additionally provides you unprecedented management throughout the enhancing course of. You possibly can regulate digicam angles, add/take away objects, create constant characters, and tweak issues with high-quality element.
We designed LTX Studio to streamline the inventive course of for promoting, manufacturing corporations, and filmmakers to make storyboarding, scripting, and visible idea improvement quick and straightforward.
For the reason that launch, LTX Studio has generated a whole lot of curiosity, with a lot of folks becoming a member of the waitlist to get early entry. Lately, we launched the primary main replace, known as “Visions,” which included new workflows like “Script to Storyboard” (however sure, you’ll be able to nonetheless begin from scratch when you favor), a strong choice to export pitch decks or working video recordsdata, and a mind-blowing “Style Reference” characteristic that may mimic visible kinds all through initiatives with only a single visible reference photograph.
These capabilities enable creators to visualise and iterate on their concepts extremely quick, decreasing the time and value related to pre-production. We additionally launched a brand new tiered pricing mannequin to make sure
accessibility, with choices starting from free entry to enterprise-level plans. Extra updates are coming very quickly.
5. Content material Creation and Distribution
– With over 100,000 items of sponsored content material and 40,000 creator-brand partnerships facilitated by Fashionable Pays, what tendencies have you ever noticed in content material creation and distribution? How is generative AI influencing these tendencies?
One development we’ve noticed over time is an growing shift to video, which continues to right now, with brief type video like Reels and TikToks changing into the best partaking codecs throughout networks.
With every new community comes a shift in content material. For instance, Instagram was initially clear, fairly and aesthetic, however as Snap and TikTok rose to prominence with Tales after which short-form video, the content material panorama moved in direction of an unpolished UGC really feel – audiences proceed to favor content material that feels real and private.
Curiously, it’s extraordinarily possible that the brand new era of AI instruments will trigger one other giant shift in content material. Additionally, AI-driven analytics can present deeper insights into viewers conduct, permitting for extra focused and efficient content material distribution.
6. Influence on Visible Content material Creators
– How has the combination of generative AI capabilities in Lightricks’ apps like Videoleap, Facetune, and Photoleap impacted visible content material creators? Are you able to share some success tales or suggestions from creators utilizing these instruments?
The combination of generative AI in our apps has considerably elevated the inventive capabilities of our customers. As an example, Videoleap permits customers to create professional-quality movies with ease, utilizing AI-driven enhancing instruments that counsel enhancements and automate advanced duties. Facetune’s AI options allow customers to attain flawless photographs with minimal effort.
One success story that stands out is a creator who used Photoleap to provide a visually beautiful advertising and marketing marketing campaign for a neighborhood enterprise, leading to a important enhance in engagement and gross sales. The suggestions from our group has been overwhelmingly optimistic, with customers praising the convenience of use, velocity, and high quality of the AI-generated content material.
7. Consumer Engagement and Development
– Lightricks’ suite of apps has seen over 730 million downloads and presently exports 60 million visible belongings month-to-month. What methods have been best in attaining this stage of person engagement and progress?
Our deal with person expertise and steady innovation has been key to our progress. We prioritize listening to our customers and integrating their suggestions into our product improvement. Common updates with new options and enhancements hold our apps recent and related.
Moreover, our freemium mannequin permits customers to discover and use our instruments for gratis, with the choice to improve for extra superior options. Efficient advertising and marketing campaigns and partnerships have additionally performed a vital position in reaching a wider viewers and driving downloads.
Lastly, our dedication to staying forward of technological tendencies ensures that we provide cutting-edge instruments that meet the evolving wants of content material creators.
8. Way forward for Influencer Advertising and marketing
– In your opinion, how will generative AI proceed to form the way forward for influencer advertising and marketing? What new alternatives and challenges do you foresee?
Generative AI will revolutionize influencer advertising and marketing by making content material creation extra accessible and environment friendly.
It’ll allow influencers to provide high-quality, personalised content material at scale, which is essential for sustaining engagement with their audiences.
New alternatives embrace the flexibility to create extremely tailor-made advertising and marketing campaigns that resonate deeply with particular viewers segments. Nonetheless, challenges akin to sustaining authenticity and transparency will must be addressed. Moreover, whereas AI output is spectacular and bettering, it’s vital to acknowledge that it nonetheless has some option to go earlier than totally matching the standard of human-created content material for remaining or broadcast-quality initiatives.
9. Model Collaborations
– Because the VP of Model Collaborations, what are among the most enjoyable model collaborations you’ve overseen at Lightricks? How has generative AI enhanced these partnerships?
Some of the thrilling collaborations was with Amazon and PepsiCo Meals US. Fashionable Pays facilitated a marketing campaign to convey social media content material to Hearth TV by way of FLVR, a brand new meals leisure channel. The objective was to drive model consciousness amongst dwelling cooks and youthful demographics by that includes recipes with Frito-Lay merchandise.
We engaged standard content material creators to provide branded movies, ensuing within the creation and launch of 15 new Hearth TV movies in lower than a month. The marketing campaign achieved exceptional outcomes, together with 9.6 million complete impressions, a 64% video completion charge amongst all audiences, and a 50x benchmark for return on advert spend (ROAS). This collaboration showcased the potential of mixing inventive content material with strategic placement to succeed in new audiences and drive full-funnel affect.
Generative AI is simply growing the potential for model entrepreneurs to suppose extra out of the field in regards to the content material they will create, the campaigns they will develop, and the effectivity of constructing model applications.
10. Moral Concerns
– With the rise of generative AI, there are additionally moral concerns concerning authenticity and transparency in promoting. How does Lightricks tackle these considerations?
It actually is a problem, however at Lightricks, we take moral concerns very critically. We imagine in transparency and attempt to make sure that our AI instruments are used responsibly. Our apps embrace options that enable creators to reveal the usage of AI of their content material, selling honesty and belief with their audiences.
Moreover, we’re dedicated to enabling open creativity whereas sustaining a robust deal with empowering and defending creators. By offering complete tips and finest practices for utilizing AI in content material creation, we encourage customers to keep up authenticity and integrity of their work.
We additionally prioritize information privateness and safety, making certain that person information is protected and used ethically. I discuss with a whole lot of manufacturers and creators who care deeply about that. Our strategy is to steadiness innovation with duty, making certain that our instruments improve creativity with out compromising the belief and authenticity that creators and types have with us, or that they’ve with their audiences and clients.
11. Recommendation for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
– Given your expertise founding Fashionable Pays and now main model collaborations at Lightricks, what recommendation would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs within the tech and promoting area?
That is an fascinating one. From my perspective, there’s by no means been extra change within the promoting and content material area – and AI has impacted content material greater than every other area.
I would definitely suggest that folks “skate to where the puck is going,” and even construct merchandise with the data that AI will solely get exponentially higher. If one thing with AI sort of works right now, it would have the potential to work amazingly effectively in a 12 months.
Keep curious and adaptable, however actually deal with what drawback you’re fixing and decide one thing actual. It’s good to work backwards from an issue, not attempt to take an answer and discover an issue. You all the time should care deeply about your founding group as effectively, as choosing the right cofounders can be about half the rationale you’ll succeed or fail.
Lastly, suppose huge. Most issues are much less dangerous than they appear. Plus, laborious issues are motivating and appeal to expertise. It doesn’t matter what you begin, it’ll be laborious, so goal excessive!
12. Future Imaginative and prescient
– Wanting forward, what are your targets for Lightricks and its suite of generative AI instruments? How do you envision the corporate evolving within the subsequent 5 years?
Our objective is to proceed pushing the boundaries of what’s attainable with generative AI in content material creation. We goal to make our instruments much more intuitive and accessible, empowering a broader vary of creators to convey their visions to life.
Within the subsequent 5 years, I envision Lightricks main the trade in AI-driven creativity, setting new requirements for innovation and person expertise. We plan to develop our suite of instruments, discover new markets, and forge extra strategic partnerships to reinforce our choices.
It’s vital to notice that whereas AI is advancing quickly and producing spectacular outcomes, there’s nonetheless a journey forward earlier than it may totally match the standard of human-created content material for remaining or broadcast-quality initiatives. We stay dedicated to bridging this hole and repeatedly bettering our expertise to fulfill the best requirements. In the end, we need to allow creators and types to inform their tales in essentially the most compelling and impactful methods attainable.
