The End of Creator Houses

It was fun while it lasted

Author

Jim Louderback
March 31, 2025

Sponsored by Whalar Group

This Week: Creator houses are so over – and paradoxically everywhere.  OpenAI’s new image generator crushes the competition (and Ghibli Studios), Big Media wakes up, Shorts bulk up, and Billion Dollar Boy mucks up.  Plus read to the end to help out my son’s startup!This Week: Lorem Ipsum

Hi, I’m Jim Louderback and this is my weekly creator economy newsletter. If you’ve received it, then you are either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.


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💡 TOP STORIES

THEY ARE ALL CREATOR HOUSES NOW

I loved this take from @sara Wilson on how Poppi built brand value through long-term alignment with key communities – rather than drive-by spray’n’pray tactics.  She breaks down how Poppi leaned into a sorority at UT just as rush was happening – and then expanded that approach to chapters around the country.  She outlines three key tactics: crush the timing, show up to stay, and pass on fleeting trends.  

But there’s another hidden truth.  Remember Sway House, Team 10, and Hype House?  These collab houses were all the rage for a hot minute.  But with over 50% of GenZ hoping to be creators – and at least 1 in 12 social users already there — the whole “house” concept is dead.  Anytime you get 5 or 10 GenZers together, at least two (and probably more) are already creators.  We’ve moved past figuring out how to source creators – now it’s about how to authentically join them and activate their communities wherever they connect.  

College marketing has always been a holy grail for certain companies – see early Facebook or Fizz now.   But it’s no longer just about college. Lean into real communities and you’ll naturally lean into creators – whether at school, on a basketball court, at a concert, playing D&D, or on the job. 

Following memes is already a tired strategy.  Authentically joining communities for the long-haul – wherever they are and however they form – is where it’s at. Just ask Poppi.  And PepsiCo.

BIG MEDIA’S CASABLANCA MOMENT

Mega consulting firm Deloitte (motto: “We Have a Slide for That”) – whisperer to Hollywood power brokers — released a study and were “Shocked, Shocked” to discover that GenZ preferred creators to tradTV stars.  It’s no surprise to you and me – but yet another sign that creators have crossed the perception chasm in the halls of mainstream media.  And with its consulting fees in peril, Deloitte’s solution was simple: “gather larger audiences, potentially through mergers and acquisitions.” I’m sure the dinosaurs felt the same way just before the meteor struck.  

  • Related: Even “Boomers” and “Matures” – Deloitte’s terms, not mine — are tuning in, as Nielsen now says YouTube is tops for TV viewing — largely thanks to the 50+ demo. Just two more signs that the Creator Economy hasn’t just arrived – it’s taken over the Media Economy too.  

  • Shocked Again: Deadline is shocked, shocked that big movie studios are cashing in on fake movie trailers. Ever since ContentID and the failed Viacom vs. YouTube lawsuit, traditional media has grudgingly embraced – and profited – from remix culture.  The only thing that’s changed?  Big Bad AI is involved.

“Matures” and “Boomers” join the party

SUBSIDIZING CREATORS

love the idea of subsidizing creators to attend industry conferences.  So I was intrigued when influencer marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy announced a grant program called The Creator Fund, “designed to support creators in attending major creative and advertising events.”  But a closer look shows it’s not really a fund — it’s a thinly veiled promo campaign with Cannes Lions, designed to boost creator attendance.  Yes, they’re giving away a pass — and at $1,500, that’s no small thing.   But at most events the ticket isn’t the most expensive part.  At this notoriously pricey South of France event?  Travel, hotel and meals can easily top $10,000.  Want to launch a real Creator Fund? Make it all-expenses-paid. Cannes already does this with its scholarship program — so it’s not impossible. This isn’t a fund. It’s marketing, disguised as a mission.

PUMPING UP SHORTS VIEWS

If TikTok and Insta jumped off a bridge, apparently YouTube would too.  Big Red just announced it’s falling into line and counting Shorts views in the same way those other platforms do – whenever a play or replay starts (automatically, in case you didn’t notice).  Revshare, however, will still be based on “engaged views” – their original metric that required a tap, click, or a watch time greater than zero. The exact threshold to trigger an engaged view varies by video.  And while “views” are public, engaged views stay private.  

So yes, Shorts views are now on par with IG and TT – but they’ve also just been massively devalued.  The same goes for a creator’s lifetime view count, which starts to mean a lot less. Still, it’s inevitable.  As short form platforms converge in features, they’re also converging in metrics — kind of like how all crustaceans eventually evolve into crabs.

DALL-E GETS UPGRADED! 

Regular readers know I do all my cover images with generative AI -- and most of them with ChatGPT’s DALL-E 3, which was getting long in the tooth.  Wednesday, I asked for a quick image and got a surprising result. Turns out OpenAI just rolled out a massive upgrade! I shared more about my aha moment in this post, but it did an amazing job on the text icon you see below.  Crisp letters, no melting.

Can you make a logo for my whatsapp group based on NAB Creator Lab?

Some were quick to predict the end of YouTube strategists and  thumbnail designers.  @Steven Bartlett, notably, was really freaked out. I disagree.  If anything, it will only make them more productive.  Many YouTube strategists advise: “make the thumbnail before making the video” – an arduous process. Now it’s drop-dead simple.  Sketch it out and make it so.  Some of the creator tool vendors, though, will need to rethink their approach.   This is all part of the theme we’ve been exploring here about how human creators can separate themselves from the bots – I posted a video last week about one way to do it – my #OneTakeChallenge.  We’re all going to have to remain nimble and adapt/adopt quickly.  

I also promised to include the best new images from my readers. Here are two before and after logos from @Liam Carmody and @Leslie Morgan.

😎 SPONSOR

How are the world’s most creative minds using AI? In collaboration with Whalar Group, Fast Company polled their “Most Creative People in Business” honorees finding that AI is now a routine part of the creative process, with a return to AI-free work almost unfathomable. Learn more about how Creators are unlocking the possibilities of AI through the full results:  https://www.fastcompany.com/91285651/most-creative-people-in-business-survey-2025.

💡 PLATFORMS

YOUTUBE

META

TIKTOK

💡 QUIBIS

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE

RESEARCH

  • Meta Wins (Briefly): New research from Columbia Business School finds that Meta saw short-term gains during the brief TikTok ban as CPMs rose 10% on Facebook and Instagram.  Although large advertisers flooded the platform, many smaller advertisers found it pricier – and less effective.   They mostly returned to TikTok after it came back.

  • Education Disruption:  A new study from Ogilvy explores how traditional education – particularly at the college level – is failing today’s students. Although not specifically focused on creators, they are an obvious beneficiary of the impending disruption.  Key data include how Fortune 500 companies are eliminating college requirements and that almost half of young workers don’t feel like college prepared them for their job.  The report ends up recommending that brands provide enhanced education to employee and customers – but also creators and influencers.  Download it here.

  • #What?  I was going to share #Paid’s new research on the creator economy but their sign-up page never sent the report, and their on-site recap has a wonky event calendar, with VidCon in July, two CES shows in January and other timing mishaps.  I’ll let you try to find it yourself.

📍 Where’s Jim? In Vegas as of Saturday, co-producing The Creator Lab at NAB Show through Wednesday, come join me and say hi (get a free exhibits pass using code “COME”)!  And check out this podcast I did with Jeff Barret of The Shorty Awards (and then give the previous episode with @Phil Ranta a listen too).  So fun!

Support Sam!  Want to show your support for my newsletter?  Vote for son Sam’s startup Splash (say that 3 times fast) to win the Sacramento Kings Capitalize startup challenge – Splash Technologies is one of four finalists!

100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!).

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Let me know what you think – email me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.