Snap is opening up Snapchat to let celebrities and influencers to create their own shows — and make money from the content — in the same short-form, vertical-video orientation as Snap’s slate of 80-plus original series.
Creator Shows will start streaming Wednesday on Snapchat, with more rolling out through the summer. The shows include those from Serena Williams, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kevin Hart, Maddie Ziegler, Emma Chamberlain, Rickey Thompson, Loren Gray, FaZe Banks and Baby Ariel. In addition, Snap is partnering with digital studios for some of the Creator Shows, including Brat, BroadbandTV and Studio71.
Schwarzenegger’s show, for example, is called “Rules of Success with Arnold Schwarzenegger,” with motivational advice from the actor-politician.
For Snap, the Creators Shows initiative provides a way to give its most popular creators to extend to their reach — and keep them invested in building their businesses on Snapchat through monetization, as YouTube has done for years. Snap will provide a revenue share of advertising for Creators Shows but isn’t disclosing terms of the partnerships. According to industry sources, Snapchat’s standard deal with media companies is to share 50% of revenue although that can vary. Both Snap Ads and Commercials can appear in Creator Shows.
Like all Snapchat Shows, the Creator Shows will appear on the Discover page, to the right of the camera. According to Snap, over the last year, the time spent watching shows on Snapchat every day more than tripled. However, the company isn’t disclosing viewing time or other metrics.
Singer and YouTube personality Loren Gray enthused over Snapchat’s Creator Shows, saying in a statement, “Having the opportunity to convey the importance of confidence through my passion for makeup with the Snapchat community has been an amazing experience.”
Rickey Thompson, who rose to prominence with comedic videos on Vine and Instagram, added that “Snapchat has always been a place where my fans can get to know the real, authentic me. Making a show with Snap was a really fun experience, and I’m excited for everyone to see it.”
Also Wednesday, Snap is rolling out Highlights for Official Accounts. Highlights are a collection of photo and video content that creators can add to their profile from their Snap Stories or camera roll. For the first time, creators will be able to save and share their favorite creative moments with new and existing fans.
Meanwhile, Snap recently launched its first Scripted Comedy Creator Initiative, a program designed to inspire the best up-and-coming comedy writers, performers and directors to imagine what sitcoms should look like for a mobile audience. The company received hundreds of submissions and selected a group of creators to experiment with the mobile format and storytelling to produce a new type of comedy show. The comedy shows include sitcoms, mockumentaries and animation, with each episode 3-5 minutes in length and a season averaging 8-10 episodes.
Snap funded the series in the Comedy Creator Initiative, which include include “Apocalypse Goals” from Olivia DeLaurentis and Sydney Heller; “All Dog$ Get Money” from Gerald Grissette; “Relationship Goals” from Ben Waller; and “The Daily Realness” from Skyler Fulton, a mockumentary series about a clickbait-driven website.
On the heels of that program, Snap is launching a short-form Animated Comedy Creator Initiative, and plans to greenlight up to 10 series. Creators can pitch a one-page treatment (including storyboards, animatic or full pilot) for an animated comedy series. Submissions open today for creators in the U.S. (through this Google Docs form) and will be open through Aug. 26, 2019.
Source: Variety
