The collaboration between Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry and the carmaker Lexus began with their podcast. A person at Google heard it and at the same time knew that Lexus was looking for creators. Matchmaking of exactly this kind is becoming the new margin for media.
It began with listening to a podcast
During the pandemic Chaudry auditioned for a role in a Lexus commercial and told the story on his podcast. “I was miserable at it. I didn’t know anything about it,” he recalled. The episode was heard by their partner manager at Google at the moment when Lexus was looking at Google for creators with an authentic relationship to the brand. The request to propose something to Lexus came from Google.
Only then did the duo bring a concrete concept. “And when we had the opportunity to pitch Lexus, we thought, can we pitch an experience that is new and different and takes us out of our routine?” said Rosenblum.
Google turns it into a business
The connection was arranged by Creative Works at Google, an internal consultancy that links brands with creators. Kevin Babcock, head of creative partnerships for U.S. Creative Works at Google, described the core of that business in these words: “Our team is always looking for great partnerships between creators and brands.” He added that the business has been growing in recent years. According to him, the trigger came from the duo’s partner manager at Google.
Lisa McQueen, senior manager of Lexus marketing, confirmed the collaboration on the brand’s side.
Creators supplied the concept and control
The duo’s work came after that connection. Colin & Samir Start Over follows a personal turning point. Both lost their homes in last January’s fires in Los Angeles, and the idea for a series about a fresh start grew out of that shock. “There’s a level of authenticity that is a part of this campaign that’s just like the actual moment in our life, and what we were desiring was reinvention,” Chaudry said.
The series has four episodes, in which the pair drive across the United States in Lexus GX 550 and Lexus RZ 550e cars. Lexus will release new episodes through the year. The first episode can be seen on the duo’s site, startover.colinandsamir.com. The format was written to feel native to YouTube. “We wanted to make something that felt very native to YouTube that used a lot of the same storytelling tactics that we’ve used in our videos, even down to the initial hooks,” said Rosenblum. The creators kept control over the result. Anne Marie Nelson-Bogle, Vice President of Ads Marketing at YouTube, summed up the role of Lexus with the words, “From conception to execution, the creators were very much in the driver’s seat.”
Platforms are building matchmaking as a product
Other platforms are now building the same layer, though without a personal coincidence behind it. LinkedIn opened a creator marketplace directly in the tool that brands use to buy advertising. YouTube brought a Brand Deal Desk and a space for creators to Cannes, where brands come to meet creators, and Gap showed a network of 1,300 creator partners there. What began with a chance podcast listen is becoming a product with a catalogue, filters and a sales team.
The connection keeps the budget on the platform
Distribution of content is open to anyone, but the value lies in a platform recognising both the offer and the demand and bringing them together. Creative Works is precisely such a layer, and according to Babcock it is growing. “Creators spend years building trust within their communities, which means they have a deep understanding of who their audience is and what resonates,” wrote Nelson-Bogle. The audience and the data about it stay with the platform. Companies do not say how much Google charges for the matchmaking, but it does get paid for it in another way. The series was made as native content for YouTube, and Lexus’s media budget goes with it. Whoever holds the connection between supply and demand also holds the budget that follows it.
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