‘Right balance of voices between brands, content creators must for strong partnership'

Building a successful brand-content creator partnership requires a delicate balance of voices, ensuring both the content creator and the brand shine equally, Emma Chamberlain, content creator, said at Cannes Lions 2023. 

During a masterclass, titled 'Building a Brand is More Than Meets the Eye...and Ear', on Day 1 of the festival of creativity, industry experts emphasised the importance of finding natural alignment and fostering collaboration to create something fresh and authentic. Trusting each other's expertise and avoiding overshadowing can lead to remarkable results, as per them. The experts also spoke about how owning your craft takes dedication, consistency and commitment. 

Chamberlain, Charlie Smith, CMO, Loewe and Taj Alavi, Vice-President, Global Head of Marketing, Spotify, shared their approaches to what they create, their style around partnerships and projects, brand building, and brand positioning and how to engage the next generation of streamers.

Chamberlain said, "The thing that makes the connection between a brand and a content creator so special is the meeting of two unique voices but at times one voice may be overshadowed in a way. At times a brand can overshadow the voice of the creator and at times the creator can also overshadow the voice of the brand. The key is to find someone who naturally aligns with the brand in a way that feels sort of obvious.”

“Finding the obvious brand-creator partnership is step 1. Step two is making sure that both voices are heard equally and they together create something brand new in a way that feels exciting and fresh, yet still authentic to both audiences. Putting a little bit of trust into each other can go a really long way,” she added. 

Smith, on the other hand, said, “The first thing about not overshadowing, that Chamberlain spoke about, is so important. Most recent collaborations have been very successful. I have been with Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation house, which has shared values with us. Honestly, working with them was an incredible experience because they were so detailed. The other thing which is so true is this idea of kind of letting people express themselves.”

Talking about her journey as a content creator, Chamberlain said, “When I was 16, I was going through a hard time. I was really focused on school and I didn't have any way to express myself and it was destroying me mentally, without any realisation about it. I was not doing anything for myself. Because I used to play around with editing so casually, my dad suggested that I try being a YouTuber and I agreed to it. So, I made a YouTube channel at 16 and by some miracle, people enjoyed it and moreover, I enjoyed it. I went with the flow, and here we are.”

Smith said that he began his career at different advertising and marketing agencies in London and Los Angeles, with a particular focus on technology brands.

Alavi said that when fans watch or listen to Chamberlain’s content, regardless of format, it's undeniable that she is incredibly authentic. Furthermore, she asked Chamberlain how does she bring that personality to the forefront and how does she maintain that authenticity?

Chamberlain responded by saying, “It can be so hard not to cover up your voice because when you're looking online, there are so many personalities that are big and that are succeeding in a lot of ways and I think something that many creators struggle with is, without even realising it at times, with emulating someone or something else. For me a lot of it is when all cameras are off, really working on myself and staying in touch with who I am so that when the camera turns on, it's just automatic, here I am.”

Furthermore, she added, “However, it's not easy. It was easy for a period of time when no one was watching and then when things started to build, my brain was struggling with continuing to be myself. You constantly fight to stay true to yourself because there are so many things coming from every angle trying to kind of steer you away from that but it's a lot of work when the cameras and microphone are off and no one's looking.”

Speaking about how Loewe maintains its authenticity, Smith said, “We spend a lot of time thinking about our core DNA. Loewe was actually founded in 1846, a very long time ago. It's one of the world's oldest luxury brands in Madrid as a collective of leather-making artisans. So, it's always had this concept of collaborative craft at the centre of the brand. When Jonathan Anderson took over in 2013, he really saw a connection between this kind of history of craft and his passion for craft as well.”

“He is an obsessive collector of ceramics and other art and he went to visit the factory and saw these amazing artisans making all these pieces by hand and thought that this is how I can create a new modern craft movement with webbing. That is what we try and think about in everything that we do and when it comes to marketing and communication, we often think, what's the most crafty and analogue thing that we could do in digital channels?” he added. 

Further, Alavi asked Chamberlain what has shaped a distinctive voice and realness in the content that she makes. While answering this question, Chamberlain stated that for her it’s feeling her voice which makes her feel distinct or consistent.

Chamberlain went on to say that she has always shared what's on her mind, including some complex topics, during the podcast.

“I also feel as I am growing older I am getting inspired to talk about things that are uncomfortable in order to hopefully make someone feel more comfortable about certain things. I do want to push myself to find what that value is and that's what has been exciting about talking about these more serious topics,” she added. 

Further, Smith said, “If everyone is pronouncing our brand name differently, then it's going to be very hard for us to grow. So, we look at any different opportunity we can to say Loewe over and over again to try and get it into people's heads, whether that's at the end of videos or we have actually done pieces on how to pronounce Loewe in a tongue-in-cheek type of way. We did one video with Jodie Comer, where she was using all different emotions to say the word. So, while saying the word she was crying or screaming or laughing.” 

For Loewe, collaboration is really important as a brand and it is how everyone connects themselves to culture. 

“We were thrilled to be able to dress Rihanna for the Super Bowl this year when she revealed that she was pregnant. It's a huge moment for the brand. Similarly with Beyonce being on her recent tour, particularly there was a dress with her hands on it,” he added. 

“We don't just work with celebrities on these custom-dressing moments. We also feature a lot of people in our campaigns. But it's always people who have a connection to the brand, who share our values in some way. I think Jodie Connolly was a great example of that. We recently shot a campaign with Aubrey Plaza, who I loved, and who I think is an amazing personality. And then also, we work with a lot of content creators as well, in terms of people on TikTok, on Instagram. We just did a Home Sense campaign with Charlie McCormack, who is a gardener in the UK. So that's how varied the ranges of people that we work with are. I think it's all of those people from diverse backgrounds and industries, we really kind of make up the WebA creative community that we're trying to build,” Smith stated.