David Page, Founder and CEO at Viewture (L) and Sam Uwins, Co-founder at Arcade
For creators who make it big on YouTube, there are lots of options when it comes to translating viewership into revenue, from sponsorships and product placements through to merchandise and brand extensions. But when it comes to YouTube Ads, the most obvious route to monetisation, creators don’t tend to have much control.
While YouTube channels have some controls around how many ads run on their videos and where they appear, YouTube retains control when it comes to selling this inventory. YouTube offers options which bundle up inventory across popular creators for advertisers, and there are tools advertisers can use to target specific channels, but creators themselves haven’t historically been able to sell their ads directly. That capability has been restricted to broadcasters and big traditional media businesses.
Now, that’s starting to change. Arcade, the management company behind popular YouTube collective The Sidemen, and creator funding business Viewture, have today announced the launch of ‘Creator Access’, a new venture which will enable individual YouTube creators to directly sell ads alongside their YouTube content. The two companies behind Creator Access say the platform will help creators maximise commercial value at a time when the sector is rapidly expanding and maturing.
Broadcaster-like commercial infrastructure
Arcade and Viewture say that through Creator Access’s integration with YouTube, brands and advertisers will be able to agree direct deals on popular creator content from Creator Access’s talent roster, buying reserved delivery of video ads alongside their YouTube clips. The platform will go live with The Sidemen, one of YouTube’s most popular channels with over 130 million subscribers. Further down the line more creators will be added to the lineup, including Arlette Amuli, Ian Bick, and Elle Swift.
As well as the control which comes from selling their own inventory, the launch should open up opportunities for creators to fold YouTube ad sales into broader partnerships with advertisers.
Sam Uwins, co-founder of Arcade, described the launch as a major step forward for the creator economy. “Now, brands can place advertising alongside premium YouTube creator content on Creator Access’s roster with the same confidence, control and sophistication typically employed by broadcasters and major media owners,” he said. “This will make a huge difference in helping advertisers benefit from the reach and engagement achieved by today’s leading content creators, who are rapidly evolving into culture-defining brands in their own right.”
Writing on LinkedIn, Uwins added that Creator Access helps bring monetisation up to speed with the maturity of the creator market itself. “Creators have built audiences that rival traditional broadcasters, but haven’t had the same commercial pathways,” he said. “Creator Access changes that – recognising creators as media owners in their own right.”
As Uwins referenced, the platform will have benefits for advertisers as well as creators themselves. Brands will get a simpler route to buy inventory directly on specific channels they want to target, which can be planned more easily alongside any other work they wish to do with those creators.
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