The Corbett Drummey Interview
Corbett Drummey, the VP of Model Collaborations at Lightricks, brings a wealth of expertise and innovation to the world of promoting and influencer advertising and marketing. Corbett’s entrepreneurial journey started in 2013 when he co-founded Common Pays, a platform that helped the promoting panorama by connecting manufacturers with creators.
Underneath his management, Common Pays achieved milestones, together with participation in Y Combinator, elevating Sequence A and B funding, and facilitating creator-brand partnerships price hundreds of thousands. In 2022, Common Pays was acquired by Lightricks, marking a brand new chapter in Corbett’s profession.
At Lightricks, Corbett has been instrumental in integrating generative AI into the corporate’s suite of visible content material creation apps, enhancing the capabilities of creators and types alike. His present position leverages his intensive background in influencer advertising and marketing, specializing in the event and deployment of revolutionary instruments like LTX Studio. This AI-driven net app is designed to streamline promoting manufacturing, providing unprecedented pace and management in content material creation.
On this interview, Corbett shares his insights on the journey of Common Pays, the transition to Lightricks, and the transformative impression of generative AI on promoting and influencer advertising and marketing. He additionally discusses the moral issues surrounding AI in content material creation, the way forward for influencer advertising and marketing, and provides priceless recommendation for aspiring entrepreneurs within the tech and promoting area. Via his imaginative and prescient and management, Corbett Drummey continues to form the way forward for digital promoting, driving innovation and creativity within the business. Right here is our interview.
1. Background and Journey
– Corbett, you based Common Pays in 2013 and noticed it develop into a major participant within the promoting business. Are you able to share some key milestones from Common Pays’ journey earlier than it was acquired by Lightricks?
Beginning Common Pays was an exciting and life-changing journey. We had some large ups and downs between 2013 after we first launched and 2022 after we had been acquired. I’m immensely grateful for the expertise, however need to admit it was additionally an extremely aggravating and troublesome enterprise.
Most individuals solely speak concerning the starting and the top of a startup, however usually omit the center, when there actually isn’t a boring second. It was fixed problem-solving. There was the primary Common Pays workplace for me and my co-founders (our home in Chicago), moving into Y Combinator in 2015 and shifting briefly to San Francisco. In 2017 we raised our Sequence A funding after which Sequence B in late 2018. It culminated in our acquisition by Lightricks in 2022 – our most definitive second for the reason that begin.
As Common Pays, we’ve paid out tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to creators, which looks like an not possible quantity, and did seven-figure offers with large manufacturers. However in reflection, I additionally bear in mind with equal readability our first tiny campaigns that had been only some hundred {dollars} as we had been proving out the platform – which had been equally as thrilling.
2. Transition to Lightricks
– What motivated you to maneuver to your present position at Lightricks after the acquisition of Common Pays? How has your expertise been transitioning from founder to VP of Model Collaborations?
The acquisition was strategic, with Common Pays being lively with model/creator campaigns, and Lightricks figuring out influencer and creator advertising and marketing as an enormous and rising business. Changing into a part of Lightricks allowed our crew to realize extra visibility and a spotlight within the B2B sector. These synergies are much more necessary with the daybreak of generative AI instruments – that are equally as highly effective for creators and customers as manufacturers and entrepreneurs.
Even throughout the acquisition, we noticed AI on the horizon, however we couldn’t have predicted the magnitude of its impression. In simply the final 12 months, my position expanded to assist with a stronger B2B rollout of our generative AI platform, referred to as LTX Studio. It’s been wonderful to get publicity to a brand new product space after a decade in influencer advertising and marketing, and I’ve discovered it energizing engaged on this cutting-edge know-how.
Transitioning away from my duties with Common Pays in some methods will be robust, nevertheless it’s additionally tremendous rewarding to see progress even after I’m moved off of these groups, and it provides me great confidence sooner or later.
3. Generative AI in Promoting
– Lightricks has built-in generative AI into a number of of its visible content material creation apps. How do you see generative AI remodeling the panorama of promoting and influencer advertising and marketing?
Comparatively early on, the management at Lightricks noticed the facility of generative AI and centered on leveraging it into every of our apps, from Facetune to Common Pays. It gave us the momentum and expertise to ultimately construct new instruments with AI from the bottom up, like LTX Studio. However it may’t be understated that even simply leveraging AI for present workflows on platforms like Common Pays will be full game-changers.
We first launched AI into the Common Pays platform to assist entrepreneurs write briefs extra simply, taking what was a prolonged course of and turning it right into a three-minute one, leaning on AI and our previous database of hundreds of briefs to assist flip a fast blurb into an almost-finalized draft temporary.
That stage of exponential progress with each workflow and content material prototyping is really transformative for branded content material creation. Lengthy-term, I totally consider that AI instruments would be the major technique that creators use to create content material for his or her viewers or for manufacturers, and we would see additional developments like AI influencers, hyper-targeted AI content material, and extra. However even right now, AI’s capacity to make entrepreneurs 10x extra environment friendly with issues like creator sourcing and vetting shouldn’t be discounted.
4. LTX Studio
– Are you able to inform us extra about LTX Studio, the AI net app for promoting manufacturing firms and filmmakers? What particular wants does it tackle, and what units it other than different instruments available in the market?
We expect LTX Studio is one of the best platform obtainable right now for speedy content material prototyping. You’ll be able to go from a brief artistic blurb to a full challenge with video, narration, and sound in only some minutes. It additionally provides you unprecedented management throughout the modifying course of. You’ll be able to regulate digicam angles, add/take away objects, create constant characters, and tweak issues with advantageous element.
We designed LTX Studio to streamline the artistic course of for promoting, manufacturing firms, and filmmakers to make storyboarding, scripting, and visible idea growth quick and simple.
For the reason that launch, LTX Studio has generated a whole lot of curiosity, with a lot of folks becoming a member of the waitlist to get early entry. Lately, we launched the primary main replace, referred to as “Visions,” which included new workflows like “Script to Storyboard” (however sure, you possibly can nonetheless begin from scratch for those who choose), a strong choice to export pitch decks or working video information, and a mind-blowing “Style Reference” characteristic that may mimic visible kinds all through initiatives with only a single visible reference photograph.
These capabilities permit creators to visualise and iterate on their concepts extremely quick, decreasing the time and price related to pre-production. We additionally launched a brand new tiered pricing mannequin to make sure
accessibility, with choices starting from free entry to enterprise-level plans. Extra updates are coming very quickly.
5. Content material Creation and Distribution
– With over 100,000 items of sponsored content material and 40,000 creator-brand partnerships facilitated by Common Pays, what traits have you ever noticed in content material creation and distribution? How is generative AI influencing these traits?
One development we’ve noticed over time is an growing shift to video, which continues to right now, with brief kind video like Reels and TikToks changing into the best partaking codecs throughout networks.
With every new community comes a shift in content material. For instance, Instagram was initially clear, fairly and aesthetic, however as Snap and TikTok rose to prominence with Tales after which short-form video, the content material panorama moved in the direction of an unpolished UGC really feel – audiences proceed to choose content material that feels real and private.
Curiously, it’s extraordinarily seemingly that the brand new technology of AI instruments will trigger one other giant shift in content material. Additionally, AI-driven analytics can present deeper insights into viewers habits, permitting for extra focused and efficient content material distribution.
6. Affect on Visible Content material Creators
– How has the combination of generative AI capabilities in Lightricks’ apps like Videoleap, Facetune, and Photoleap impacted visible content material creators? Are you able to share some success tales or suggestions from creators utilizing these instruments?
The mixing of generative AI in our apps has considerably elevated the artistic capabilities of our customers. As an illustration, Videoleap permits customers to create professional-quality movies with ease, utilizing AI-driven modifying instruments that counsel enhancements and automate advanced duties. Facetune’s AI options allow customers to realize flawless photographs with minimal effort.
One success story that stands out is a creator who used Photoleap to supply a visually gorgeous advertising and marketing marketing campaign for a neighborhood enterprise, leading to a major enhance in engagement and gross sales. The suggestions from our neighborhood has been overwhelmingly optimistic, with customers praising the benefit of use, pace, and high quality of the AI-generated content material.
7. Consumer Engagement and Progress
– Lightricks’ suite of apps has seen over 730 million downloads and at present exports 60 million visible property month-to-month. What methods have been best in attaining this stage of person engagement and development?
Our give attention to person expertise and steady innovation has been key to our development. We prioritize listening to our customers and integrating their suggestions into our product growth. Common updates with new options and enhancements hold our apps recent and related.
Moreover, our freemium mannequin permits customers to discover and use our instruments without charge, with the choice to improve for extra superior options. Efficient advertising and marketing campaigns and partnerships have additionally performed a vital position in reaching a wider viewers and driving downloads.
Lastly, our dedication to staying forward of technological traits ensures that we provide cutting-edge instruments that meet the evolving wants of content material creators.
8. Way forward for Influencer Advertising
– In your opinion, how will generative AI proceed to form the way forward for influencer advertising and marketing? What new alternatives and challenges do you foresee?
Generative AI will revolutionize influencer advertising and marketing by making content material creation extra accessible and environment friendly.
It’ll allow influencers to supply high-quality, customized content material at scale, which is essential for sustaining engagement with their audiences.
New alternatives embody the power to create extremely tailor-made advertising and marketing campaigns that resonate deeply with particular viewers segments. Nevertheless, challenges resembling sustaining authenticity and transparency will should be addressed. Moreover, whereas AI output is spectacular and bettering, it’s necessary to acknowledge that it nonetheless has some approach to go earlier than totally matching the standard of human-created content material for closing or broadcast-quality initiatives.
9. Model Collaborations
– Because the VP of Model Collaborations, what are among the most enjoyable model collaborations you’ve overseen at Lightricks? How has generative AI enhanced these partnerships?
One of the vital thrilling collaborations was with Amazon and PepsiCo Meals US. Common Pays facilitated a marketing campaign to convey social media content material to Hearth TV by way of FLVR, a brand new meals leisure channel. The aim was to drive model consciousness amongst residence cooks and youthful demographics by that includes recipes with Frito-Lay merchandise.
We engaged common content material creators to supply branded movies, ensuing within the creation and launch of 15 new Hearth TV movies in lower than a month. The marketing campaign achieved exceptional outcomes, together with 9.6 million whole impressions, a 64% video completion price amongst all audiences, and a 50x benchmark for return on advert spend (ROAS). This collaboration showcased the potential of mixing artistic content material with strategic placement to succeed in new audiences and drive full-funnel impression.
Generative AI is simply growing the potential for model entrepreneurs to suppose extra out of the field concerning the content material they’ll create, the campaigns they’ll develop, and the effectivity of constructing model applications.
10. Moral Issues
– With the rise of generative AI, there are additionally moral issues relating to authenticity and transparency in promoting. How does Lightricks tackle these considerations?
It actually is a problem, however at Lightricks, we take moral issues very significantly. We consider in transparency and try to make sure that our AI instruments are used responsibly. Our apps embody options that permit creators to reveal the usage of AI of their content material, selling honesty and belief with their audiences.
Moreover, we’re dedicated to enabling open creativity whereas sustaining a robust give attention to empowering and defending creators. By offering complete tips and finest practices for utilizing AI in content material creation, we encourage customers to keep up authenticity and integrity of their work.
We additionally prioritize information privateness and safety, making certain that person information is protected and used ethically. I speak with a whole lot of manufacturers and creators who care deeply about that. Our method is to steadiness innovation with accountability, making certain that our instruments improve creativity with out compromising the belief and authenticity that creators and types have with us, or that they’ve with their audiences and clients.
11. Recommendation for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
– Given your expertise founding Common Pays and now main model collaborations at Lightricks, what recommendation would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs within the tech and promoting area?
That is an fascinating one. From my perspective, there’s by no means been extra change within the promoting and content material area – and AI has impacted content material greater than another area.
I would definitely suggest that individuals “skate to where the puck is going,” and even construct merchandise with the data that AI will solely get exponentially higher. If one thing with AI form of works right now, it’ll have the potential to work amazingly nicely in a 12 months.
Keep curious and adaptable, however actually give attention to what drawback you’re fixing and choose one thing actual. It’s good to work backwards from an issue, not attempt to take an answer and discover an issue. You all the time need to care deeply about your founding crew as nicely, as choosing the right cofounders will probably be about half the rationale you’ll succeed or fail.
Lastly, suppose large. Most issues are much less dangerous than they appear. Plus, laborious issues are motivating and appeal to expertise. It doesn’t matter what you begin, it’ll be laborious, so purpose excessive!
12. Future Imaginative and prescient
– Wanting forward, what are your objectives for Lightricks and its suite of generative AI instruments? How do you envision the corporate evolving within the subsequent 5 years?
Our aim is to proceed pushing the boundaries of what’s potential with generative AI in content material creation. We purpose to make our instruments much more intuitive and accessible, empowering a broader vary of creators to convey their visions to life.
Within the subsequent 5 years, I envision Lightricks main the business in AI-driven creativity, setting new requirements for innovation and person expertise. We plan to broaden our suite of instruments, discover new markets, and forge extra strategic partnerships to boost our choices.
It’s necessary to notice that whereas AI is advancing quickly and producing spectacular outcomes, there may be nonetheless a journey forward earlier than it may totally match the standard of human-created content material for closing or broadcast-quality initiatives. We stay dedicated to bridging this hole and repeatedly bettering our know-how to fulfill the best requirements. In the end, we need to allow creators and types to inform their tales in essentially the most compelling and impactful methods potential.