At content showcase Mipcom on Sunday, creator Dhar Mann – who has 170 million followers on YouTube – spoke about his partnerships with Hollywood studios, how he intends to launch one new series every single month on his YouTube channel, and his vision for Creator City in Los Angeles.
In some respects, Mann’s production company Dhar Mann Studios is starting to resemble the legacy studios whose foundations are being shaken by creators like him. It is, for example, making five half hours a week of scripted shows. Now, he moving to the next step.
Eight years ago, Mann started his business in the living room of his apartment and was shooting on iPhones. Now, he has just purchased a four-acre campus with nine sound stages. “We’re going to have about 175 sets. It’s going to be able to have about 15 concurrent productions happening at the same time. It’s called Creator City, and it’s basically where creators, brands and culture all come together in one place,” he explained.
“All the sets that we have in our current studio right now are unbranded sets because five years ago nobody was taking me serious, nobody was taking YouTubers very serious, but now all the sets are actual brands. So, when you see content being created, it’s not just a random coffee shop – it could be a Starbucks. It’s not just a random retail store – it could be a Target. And we’re working with a handful of brands that are going to be founding partners that are going to launch with us.
“When all these creators come, because this is going to be the place that the top creators in the world come to make content, when they’re shooting content, it’s with actual real brands that live in the real world. This talks about the brands not interrupting storytelling, but being a part of it. The commerce doesn’t have to be the opposite of creators; it could be a part of it. So you’re going to start to see all kinds of storytelling around real brands coming out of that studio.”
The “rather grand” opening of Creator City will be during Super Bowl week, he said.
Dhar Mann Studios’ CEO, Sean Atkins, who joined Mann on stage, said he was drawn to Mann, in part, because he was “so mission-driven.” He added, “He’s like, ‘I want to communicate to other people, share my story, help them learn,’ and then that started to become a company […] He did not know the rules and when you don’t know the rules, you’re not then beholden to them.”
Mann commented that one of the differences between his approach to content creation and the legacy businesses is the speed of development and production. “Dhar Mann Studios goes from script to screen in a matter of seven days for an hour of digital content, and on the longest episodes, it takes us about 21 days. So, whatever I’m working on today, I can actually see come to life and get the audience’s reaction on it.”
He added, “So I think speed is a big part of it. Also, understanding that different audiences live in different platforms, and so a lot of times creators will just have one type of format, and they’ll have one specific audience. But, for us, because we have a studio, we put out so many different types of content. We’re able to put out long form, mid-form, short-form. We’re able to create different genres of content. We’re able to do scripted. We’re able to do unscripted. We’re able to go now beyond social with our partnership with Samsung, where we’re in over 100 million households as the first original creator for Samsung TV Plus. We’re able to partner with companies like Fox to go into the vertical drama space, where we’re doing 40 vertical dramas with them. And we are in partnership with Disney+, reaching 135 million subscribers.”
Mann revealed that he’s agreed a deal for a new scripted show for Samsung TV Plus, “Unlikely Families,” which follows Dhar Mann Studios’ first original scripted series, “Unlikely Romances,” which was launched on Samsung TV Plus in June.
Mann outlined the concept for the new show, which is coming out in the next couple of months. “When it comes to family, it’s not always about blood. It’s often about love. And there’s been so many times in my life … you know, I don’t live close to my parents … there’s so many people that became like brothers to me or father figures to me. Sometimes it was a teacher. Sometimes it was a friend. Sometimes it was a boss. And so this whole idea, this whole series, this is about families that come together due to unlikely circumstances, and they seem like they would never work out necessarily, but against all odds, love is more important than blood.”
Mann is committed to working with the traditional media and entertainment sector. “I think the people that win in the space are the ones that actually create the bridge between traditional and creator, and that’s what Dhar Mann Studios is all about,” he said. “We’re always trying to find ways of how can we work with traditional [companies], and so when we do have deals with Disney and Samsung and Fox and big brands, what we always have to remind ourselves is they’re not hiring us because they want more of what they’re doing. They’re hiring us because they want what we’re doing. So that’s the reminder that we always have to anchor ourselves in.”
Outlining his thoughts on his approach to production and platforms, he said, “So how I look at it is, each different type of audience has different types of content that they resonate with. But our biggest advantage is because of the economics, we’re able to create so much content that we can resonate with different audiences and create platform-native content for them, and then, number two, the speed at which we’re able to operate gives us that in real-time.”
Atkins added, “I think it’s a misnomer to say creators are making cheap content. What I think you need to say is that creators are making content that is the right size for the audience’s expectations and the economics of that platform.”
Looking ahead, Mann said, “The future is definitely building IP. Starting in December, every single month we are launching one new series on our behalf. How we see it when we sit down with big studios, the old way was like, ‘Hey, we are going to spend millions and millions of dollars on pilots and see if it works, and if it works, then we’ll order a series.’ Now it’s like, ‘Hey, give us that same budget, and we’ll build not only that whole series, we’ll build multiple series, and one of those is bound to work. Right? And so, the thinking is just different for us. Because of the low-cost model, because of the speed, we’re able to just continue to throw as many darts on the wall and see which one sticks. We had the realization as we were working on pitching all these different platforms, ‘Hey, let us develop new IP and see what works.’ And one day I had a conversation with Sean. I was like, ‘Why don’t we just do that ourselves, like on our own YouTube channel?’”
Mann paid tribute to Atkins’ efforts to diversify the revenue streams for the company. “When Sean started with us two and a half years ago, 95% of our revenue was between our YouTube platform revenue and our Facebook platform revenue. Think about what happens if you have a bad month on those platforms or the algorithm changes. So many issues. So now, less than 40% of our income is coming from those two places, and next year it is expected to be around 30%.”
Mann spoke about one the challenges of being a creator was how to evolve. “You try to stay in your lane when you’re a creator, but if you stay in your lane for too long, you become irrelevant. Then you want to go in the next lane, but if you go in the next lane, you lose your audience. So, the challenge as a creator is how do you stay in your existing lane while extending it at the same time.”
Mann closed the session with some words for those who are anxious about their jobs in these uncertain times. “I just want to acknowledge those feelings are bad, and I don’t want to minimize them in any sort of way. But what I will say is, every time in my life I’ve ever felt like I was somehow leaving my comfort zone, that’s always when the biggest opportunities came to me in life, and sometimes on the other side of fear is opportunity. And if you just embrace it, don’t get married to your job title, get married to the skills that you have, and develop those skills. There are so many people out there, such as myself, that really value those skills and are looking to work with folks like you. So while I understand there’s a lot of doom and gloom, there’s also so many exciting opportunities that are happening if you’re open to it.”