Hollywood and Silicon Valley: It isn’t every day that the two innovation epicenters get together for a discussion on the future of talent. But on July 18 at the Churchill Club, that’s exactly what happened between Ari Emanuel, co-CEO and director of one of the world’s top talent agencies, and Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn.
Ari Emanuel
Emanuel’s work with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment has lent him a reputation as a bulldoggish Hollywood agent, a legend who’s inspired his very own character (Ari Gold) on hit HBO series, Entourage.
Since Weiner’s taken the helm at LinkedIn (think of it as Facebook for professionals), he’s seen membership triple to 100 million. He’s also brought the company through its recent IPO, garnering praise as Silicon Valley’s flavor of the month.
Moderator Kara Swisher (technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal and editor for All Things D) kicked off the conversation with an observation: Emanuel and Weiner seem odd bedfellows; why did the two decide to bring their talents together?
Both see media as collaboration between platforms and talent. LinkedIn, explained Weiner, is a platform for branding an individual’s talent for prospective employers and business partners. Hollywood, and Emanuel specifically, have been managing talent for a long time. With Amazon, Zynga and even Google wrangling stars like Lady Gaga, the line between Silicon Valley and Hollywood is already blurring.
Jeff Weiner
Ari Emanuel elaborated: For the first time, Hollywood talent agencies are looking beyond traditional networks and talking about online distribution. Today, a critical part of building Hollywood stars involves curating their audience on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.
As important a role online platforms play in distribution, Emanuel and Weiner agreed that they’re nothing without content. So, what is content today?
Both agreed that the definition of “content” itself is changing. Traditionally content was seen as a piece of entertainment – a movie, song or television show – but now “content” can refer to anything that adds value to the Web, from a YouTube video to a status update to a public profile.
Sara Swisher
But one big question remains: how do platforms like LinkedIn monetize their content to make partnering with Hollywood a worthwhile endeavor?
Jeff Weiner gave two scenarios: pay to play and free, or partially free, distribution of content. Monetization in the second scenario may not be explicit, but Weiner sees huge potential in viral content building a large audience that can later be monetized.
Ari Emanuel wasn’t so sure. He said that the idea of “freemium” distribution, where some content is given away for free, is “a very hard concept for southern California.” Although he does believe there’s a long tail to freemium programming, he’s not yet sure it’s going to be able to put his kids through college.
This is something the industry still needs to grapple with, according to Weiner. However, he was confident that the integration of Hollywood stars and online platforms should be easy enough to figure out. Emanuel agreed, pointing out that his agency and others are willing to try just about anything in the online realm at this point.