How to make $1m in passive revenue via syndication with Alex Chavez-Munoz from Wild Vision

The Business of Creators is a podcast for content creators and everyone interested in the creator economy. On this show Ian Shepherd speaks with the pioneers shaping the industry and digs deeper to get the scoop on new ways to create, distribute and monetize content.

Ian is co-founder of Electrify Video Partners,  a company investing $m in established creators to accelerate their growth. Check out electrify.video.

In the latest episode Ian speaks with Alex Chavez-Munoz, Director and Co-founder at Wild Vision and Viral Talent. We cover 

• Everything you need to know about content syndication, including how to determine which content will work and in which genre
• The huge growth in TV via OTT and FAST TV
• Lessons learned during Alex’s long career working with creators 

Please go check it out and subscribe to the show for more interviews from industry leaders shaping the Creator Economy. 

Transcript

Alex Chavez  0:00  
So on one of our pages in eight months, we took that one page and we've generated seven figure revenues in that eight months.

Ian Shepherd  0:12  
Hello and welcome to the business of creators. Podcast, your essential guide to the heartbeat of the Creator economy. I'm your host, Ian shepherd, and I'm thrilled to take you behind the scenes into the world of individuals and businesses who play a crucial role in supporting creators with their products and services. In this second episode of 2024 I'm speaking with Alex Chavez Munoz, director and co founder at Wild Vision and viral talent, we cover everything you need to know about content syndication, including how to determine which content will work and in which genre and strategies to optimize it. We also talk about the huge growth in TV via OTT and fast TV, along with lessons learned on Alex's long career working with creators via viral talent before we jump into the show. Let me tell you about electrify video partners, a business I co founded that invest millions of dollars into creative businesses. We offer large, established creators a business partner to either scale, step back or exit their business altogether. Check us out at electrify, dot video, or drop me a DM to find out more. Today on the podcast, I'm joined by Alex from Wild Vision and viral talent. Welcome to the show. Hey, man,

Alex Chavez  1:23  
thanks for having me. So

Ian Shepherd  1:24  
can we just jump into wild vision? Who are you and how do you support creators?

Alex Chavez  1:28  
We are a specialist syndication company that helps grow influencers across multiple platforms without them ultimately lifting a finger. So we will start growing their profiles across Facebook, Snapchat, Ott, platforms such as Roku, Pluto, Tubi, Microsoft, start. We're also now helping YouTubers grow across YouTube, whether that be grow, launching them on a second channel, or taking over their their current channel, and basically supercharging it through our experience of creating content and reformatting and editing content that has the ability to go viral. So we're all about, I guess, syndication. I guess to find even more video syndication, it'll be working with them on platforms that traditionally, they probably haven't known of the revenue opportunities or ultimately, just don't have the time, because YouTube is such hard graft, so we offer them the opportunity to develop and build new audiences across multiple platforms.

Ian Shepherd  2:38  
Well, that sounds fascinating, and so it's very passive. You're doing all of the editing and the production and the uploading and just taking the YouTube content from them. Yeah,

Alex Chavez  2:47  
exactly right. It is completely passive. That's one of the things that I think's been ingrained into the culture of World Vision. When I got into this industry, I was, I was a talent manager, and you know, when working with certain partners and brands. Ultimately, you're putting your your name on, not on the line, but you know, you're you're pushing this opportunity to them. And if there's certain things that they're not going to do, then it's going to cause a level of friction. So what we like to do is make this as easy as possible for the creator and the agent, if, if needed. You know, we basically download every piece of content from YouTube, so don't do anything there. We reformat it, we re edit it, we start running. We work the algorithm for that particular platform. We then upload and constantly schedule new content. Have a really big focus on the data of each of the channels, keep analyzing, test and learn in the hope that we're constantly going viral and bringing the AdSense revenue that each platform makes back to the influencer, and we do that on a rev share basis. Sounds

Ian Shepherd  3:57  
great, and I know that you're working with a number of big creators. Can you give us some of the case studies of the creators you're working with at the moment? Yeah,

Alex Chavez  4:05  
of course, a couple of case studies have to start with Facebook. So on one of our pages in eight months, we took that one page and we've generated seven figure revenues in that eight months can imagine like people listening now, probably their ears have picked up now thinking, well, you can generate that level of income from Facebook. And, you know, we increased ad revenue from over 2,000% there. That was all passive. Again, you know, they focused on doing what they do best, creating content for their YouTube. We do the rest and optimize it for for the right platforms that will work for their type of content. That isn't just a one off. We've seen influencers go consistently from from three figures to six figures in the space of six months. And on the back of that, you know, right? The passive revenue, amazing, obviously. That's a great thing, but ultimately we're helping build new audiences there as well. So the influencer benefits from having engaging with new eyeballs and new audiences across these platforms, where ultimately they can sell new product to or bring them over and bring them over to their other platforms. Google foods is a great example of doing that. He's on night media's roster. So we work with night media in the US quite a lot, and one of their preferred partners in this space, he was on 400,000 followers when when we signed him in the space of three months, he's now on, you hit over 2 million 2 million followers just on Facebook. We're also building out our presence in Brazil, and we work with an influencer out there called podpa. He's in the space of, I think, just over a month, we increased revenue by 165% generated over 85 million new organic views in a month. YouTube, we recently started working, and we took on one of our existing creators, a YouTube page that's a rock and rolls candy so they're like an independent candy store in the Netherlands, and their page was on 9000 subscribers when we took it on, which was last October, and they were doing around 3000 views per month, and in the four months, so October, November, December, yeah, and it's four months we've taken it on. Here they are now on just over 2 million subscribers on YouTube. In December, we drove over 500 million views, all organic views. Everything we do is all organic that there's no there's no paid behind anything we do. It's all done just on our on our ability and our experience to really know what's going right viral and understanding the algorithms of each platform. So that done 500 million views in a month, which is crazy. And in right now, we just checked Social Blade on the page. And in the UK, it was, it was number five. So, you know, the fifth most popular YouTube page in the UK. So that was, it's great. You know, it's open up a whole new area for us on the YouTube side of things. Snapchat too. With the Discover shows that we run, they always run from a standing start, so you're always on zero, so you're always up against it a bit. But in the space of, you know, a couple of years with with Snapchat and the Dobro brothers, yeah, they're really big creators out in the US. They're now on 2.3 million followers on their Snapchat. So it's just an avenue again, probably talk about brand deals at some point, but it's another opportunity to to offer that to brands as well. You know, they're doing brand deals, and they're on the create a marketplace for Snapchat now, based on on how we've grown them, and there's a an enabler, another line of revenue for them.

Ian Shepherd  7:59  
Wow, there's some amazing results there. And obviously Each platform has its audience and a different algorithm. When you're looking at working with creators, how do you determine which content is suitable for syndication on each platform? And are there particular genres that work better than others?

Alex Chavez  8:16  
Yeah, there is. So with Facebook, you know, it's traditionally an older market, so you've got to look at content and really ask yourself, Is this going to appeal to say, like a 30 plus? So the type of genres that we're seeing work on Facebook, cooking is really good, comedy, wildlife, travel. And then you've also got to look at it and go, okay, is this content going to be absorbed by a mass audience? You know, will someone stop and watch So, for example, like vlogs or personality led content won't, won't ever really work on on Facebook and Snapchat when you look at Snapchat, it's obviously a much younger audience there. So comedy, again, still works. Pranks obviously has to stay in line with the policies of the platform. So, you know, there's a certain line on pranks sports do sports based content also does really well on Snapchat and challenges that type of thing. But we again, when we determine, I guess, if it's suitable, we also look at the channel, and there's a few fundamentals that we look at there. Have they already built a strong audience on YouTube? Are they consistently generating strong average views? Do they upload regularly? Can we as a company consistently go viral with these guys and the content library, like, is that large enough for us to have a long term partnership? Because that's what we want to do with each of our careers. It takes a lot of takes a lot of work and a lot of graphs to get these channels flowing. I've spoken about. You know how we've done it in quite a quick time period, but you know, there's, there's sometimes sort of like free uploads done a day on a certain pages and and reformatting the content, so it's going to have that right hook. It takes a lot of time and effort and a lot of learning behind it. So we, we are pretty selective on, on the influences that we work with

Ian Shepherd  10:22  
got it, and can you explain, maybe in a little bit more detail about that reformatting, so how you're sort of tailoring the content strategies for the different platforms or certain nuances, just to really, I guess, make it bang or go viral on a platform by platform basis? Yeah.

Alex Chavez  10:37  
Yeah, it is the hook. So the hook is so important, you've got to stop someone's you've got one to three seconds. It sounds extreme, but realistically you do. And the way Facebook watch and say Snapchat Discover is set up. It's a constant scroll. It's a constant scroll. You know that you're wanting that index finger to basically stop and watch, and you've got one to three seconds for them to stop, because we're not this isn't the content that we're creating isn't led by, you know, that personality. We're leading it because the way we're editing it and reformatting it is to tell the story and get that viewer engaged very quickly. So, you know, we it's, firstly, it's the one to three second hook, and then our, our next thing is, basically, can we keep this, you know, viewer engaged for for a minute? We want that one minute retention rate across each when, when we're doing that, you know, we know that there's a possibility of that particular video going viral, yeah, obviously, with with something like YouTube, the reformatting with YouTube, sorry, with Snapchat, the reformatting, you know, has to be done in Will it fit in a in a vertical, you know, vertical format, you know, not, not every content fits like that. But ultimately, one to three seconds, and then that retention rate, it's the big things that we really focus on.

Ian Shepherd  12:08  
Got it. Got it. And, I mean, it sounds fantastic with the sort of passive revenue for the different creators. It's January 24 as we're recording this, and there's been a lot of announcements, or a announcement from meta and the Facebook creator share of revenue evolving or changing. Have you seen that in the last few weeks with the creators that you're working with on the platform?

Alex Chavez  12:29  
Yeah, that gave me a couple of sleepless nights when I heard that in December. Ideal timing, well, they're choosing not to show their earnings. So we can't really like Facebook are choosing not to share their earnings. We can't really support that. But you know what they're saying is that every video, no matter how short, you know, we'll have an ad placement. So you know, short form videos weren't always generating that in the past. So obviously, they're looking to target potentially more short form creators onto the platform, which you can understand why, after the Tiktok and what YouTube doing, all the shorts, you know, they want those people as well on on Facebook. So I'd say it's really that it's going to be hitting content creators that do bit more long form on Facebook, so that 10 to 30 minute content. I haven't, I haven't spoken to anyone yet that's like been affected by it. But, you know, I've seen on LinkedIn a number of comments where people have said it has so they with the long form. They're obviously not gonna be getting as as many ad placements within the video as they used to, but we haven't really seen anything, you know, affect that yet January, to be honest, has actually been so far so good to touch wood on the first sort of 25 days, we've had some great virals already. You know, I think one of the virals that recently went up actually, it's on 35 million views. It's with one of our creators, xiaoma. It's xiaoma and xiaoma NYC on YouTube. I think if anyone watches Microsoft watch, they've probably seen it. It's on that the 35 million view mark, and yeah, I think it's with when we see results like that, and that's on a three minute video that we can't see. What Facebook are running on his channel, you can see there is still pushing a lot of like, three minute video content, again, that just goes to the point of like universal content on Facebook. You know that? I think that that video was white guy speaks perfect Chinese. So, you know, I guess going back to your previous questions you have just done on that point. That's got a great hook. It's quite universal. So we know that we looked at that video, we thought that is going to be a banger on Facebook, but ultimately, it's January. Is, yeah, notoriously tough, especially in this space. But what I'm understanding so far is. That. You know, the shorter form of content is getting pushed a little bit more, but we'll wait and see. You know, we haven't seen any, any huge effects on any on any creators yet. If it hadn't been changed, I don't think we would have noticed anything either. It still seems like it's consistently ticking away. And if anything, I think on Facebook and what they're doing, the ads are just way cleaner now. The way that the ad placements are on on every video, and how they're how they're working with their their brand partners, it looks really nice.

Ian Shepherd  15:32  
Got it. Got it. I guess the algorithms are going to continue to evolve, and you're always staying one step ahead of the creators in helping them and supporting them on those platforms. We've spoken about digital, social platforms, but what about AVOD and fast TV? I know that you're working with creators there as well. What are the opportunities? Yeah,

Alex Chavez  15:52  
yeah, it's improved a lot over the last five years. We start, we started testing AVOD and fast. We're not fast. We start taking testing, AVOD and the OTT arena, I guess, around four years ago. So, you know, there's a lot of learning that's that's come off the back of it, and so and this, in the last three to six months we've, we've rolled it out within within World Vision. So just in that, like the ATT space, it's all about connected TV. It's those streaming platforms that you see on smart TVs, like Roku, Pluto, Tubi, whatever ones are out there. Samsung do it for fast Comcast. And ultimately, what it what it offers, again, another revenue stream for the for the Creator, there is ads and brands spending a lot in the OTT space, and it's continuing to grow every single year. So there's decent revenue to be earned that. And it's getting the Creator into the front room. It's getting creators in front of, you know, families. So obviously, there's only select creators that would do well on this space, but it's very much viewed by, you know, kids and family, and it's getting bigger, especially out in the US. You know, I'd say at the moment, within this area, Roku is still the biggest. But there are numbers there. There are there are decent players coming through. So if any creator wants to do this, you it's a numbers game in regards amount of platforms you do, you got to, you got to build those up. Or there are existing apps that sit within these apps, for example, in the kids and family space features today, have Happy Kids TV, and there's ca doodle too. So being within those apps that are big on Roku, etc, it's also a good way to generate some revenue. You're sort of piggybacking off their viewership, because this isn't a discovery based platform. You know, you're not recommended content. You're not recommended a channel that the viewer has to find you. So being with sort of existing players and apps that have content and content channels within OTT is always a good strategy. But you know, it's, it's, it's doing well. It's, it's building up, it's getting new eyeballs. You know, the the the amount you're going to earn is still not as high as it's going to be on, on Snapchat, Facebook, or, you know, YouTube, but it's, it's revenue that, you know, will over a period of time, and it takes time to build up. You know, these OTT is, there's no live dashboards. You get results every quarter. So it takes time and understanding, you know, you put a lot of resources into it, and might get the first three months results and just think, Oh, well, you know, what's the point? But over time, it's just starts building. So, you know, you just got to be patient with it, understand how to how to really create the content that works, because ultimately, you're on TV, so it's a different type of content that sits well and kind of engage someone for 30 minutes. Again, it's part of the syndication play, you know, rather than the influencer banging their head against the wall on YouTube trying to find new audiences and growth. Let's go Facebook. Let's go snap. Let's go cross Roku, Pluto, Comcast, FiVER, fire stick. Then let's dub that content. And then the whole thing starts again. So you know, every video you have, every video a creator has, you should be looking at seven to eight revenues and really sweat that piece of content. Yeah,

Ian Shepherd  19:43  
it's amazing how you're supporting creators in that way. And I saw that you did a big piece in the UK. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Alex Chavez  19:49  
Yeah, of course, yeah. So we've been working with Ali a for quite a while now across Facebook and Snapchat, and we knew there was a bit of a demand for. His content, you know, very family friendly video game creator, you know, big name in the UK. So we actually worked in partnership with a company called Playworks and pitched his content to sky, and his content now sits within the gaming section on Sky TV. So it's just a perfect like native fit people that playing games on Sky can now watch Ali, which is obviously great for him, because, again, there's that front room play, new audiences, new revenue streams too. And with our off the back of Ali, a success and what, and what we've seen there on Sky, Eric then became the first non gaming content creator to be launched on Skype in the gaming section two. So huge play for him, you know, being on one of the biggest broadcasters, or like TV platforms such in the UK. So on off the success of sky, we then pitched both channels to the Roku channel. So they accept pitches sort of like every, like once a month. So you've got to nail down your pitch. You don't get very many opportunities to pitch and or re pitch, should I say? And, yeah, thankfully enough, you know both were accepted there too. So that roll out is currently happening, but you know, it's, again, it's that, it's that opportunity to engage with new audiences. I probably feel like I'm repeating myself a bit on that, but I think it's, it's just so important, you know, it's, it's a way to, you know, not only drive extra income, which is great, but if you're now, if Mum and Dad know you as well as the kids. It's going to be, it's only going to be a positive thing. So I'm really excited to see how this path continues and how these new platforms want a really keen to get up and coming and you know, good quality content creators, you know, on their platforms.

Ian Shepherd  22:02  
Nice, well, I mean, it's gonna be fascinating to see how it evolves and on talking about parts, I know you've been in the industry for a long time now. Where did the journey working with creators begin for you?

Alex Chavez  22:13  
Yeah, I have been in the space for like, eight years now. So me, my business partner, Laura, we launched a company called I like media. I think it's about 12 or 13 years ago, something like that. What I like media did. We're working very much within the digital space, and we were working directly with brands, predominantly within like gaming film and in the kids space, so entertainment. And we were creating bespoke digital executions that would run across a network of relevant sites. And so we did that for around six years. But the market, as it does within digital, is constantly changing, and brands were really wanting video. You know, video was big for them. They wanted it to be on mobile. So really, after mobile traffic, transparency within that, the digital banner slash site takeover space, there wasn't the transparency that all the brands wanted, and ultimately engagement, to showcase engagement rather than just impressions. You know, that's that'd be the key thing. Click throughs and impressions, but they want to see beyond that. So, you know what we're doing that then with the banners and the takeovers that we're running, they just weren't really cutting it anymore. So we turned to influencers, you know? We we saw what the side men, they were coming through at the time, what KSI was doing, and just seeing these huge numbers on on each of these videos, and it seemed to tick all the boxes that all of our brands were after at the time. And we saw a little niche in the kids and family space. And we come across an influencer, Ethan gamer, and he was just getting a million views of video. It was just crazy. And the amount of comments and everything else that he was getting, it was just, yeah, we just got super excited. We then launched viral talent and bought the influencer and I guess influencer sponsorships to market within, within the areas that we were working in. You know, within the first week, we'd signed paramount, and we were doing a sponsorship with a family channel called gorgeous movies, and basically that was to promote the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle film. They'd done, like a parody on the trailer. And it done, I think after the first day it done, like 400,000 views. We were just like, Oh my God. We couldn't believe it. The brand couldn't believe what they were seeing. And it went but it was proper viral piece of content. And then, you know, fast forward that we've been this. We've done over, like 1000 No, it's like 2000 brand campaigns, I think, now done so every influencer deal under the. Ian, and then, you know, it was, yeah, it was just a case of going in from that and just this space is constantly evolving. So it's then led us to to the syndication space.

Ian Shepherd  25:15  
That's amazing to hear. And I mean, you spoke about brands and influencer marketing, and I know viral talent is still very active in the industry today. What sort of changes have you observed over the last six or seven years from those first integrations that you were doing with gorgeous movies and Ethan gamer to where we are at the start of 2024

Alex Chavez  25:38  
Well, I think last year was a tough year for everyone, and I think it affected a lot of talent in regards to brand deals coming through, but ultimately, we were in there's a number of factors that we were in a recession. And when that happens, brands tend to tighten their belt, and one of the things that gets cut is advertising and PR budget. So I guess another what we've seen is we've seen talent, as I talent agencies and, you know, influencer marketing agencies, you know, unfortunately, go into either liquidation or there's joint a lot more joint ventures going on, or acquisitions. We've seen a lot of agencies, sort of partnering informally too, and sharing brand deals and talent and a lot of brands now, they have a lot of choice. You know, there's a lot of options available to them. And, you know, I think we've seen influencers who were charging quite a lot back in the, you know, a few years ago. Now, I've seen, you know, they're reducing their prices because the brand deals aren't what they what they were. And I think with the rise of new platforms and new ways that you can amplify, create a content to target audiences, you know, there's a number of ways that you can really do influencer marketing now. So, yeah, it's been, it's, it's, it's changed so much, yeah, so much. But they're still there. You know, you just got a new agencies now have to offer brands more than just, you know, your standard sponsored content. We're seeing a lot of AI involved in in branded content now as well, which is really cool to see. You know, where there is, there was always that element of potential friction that would come with certain sponsored content deals between brand and influencer. And you know there's, there's other avenues that mediate that to ensure that, you know, influencers just do one round of content, and brands can ensure that they get what they want as well. So, yeah, it's good because, you know, there's with these things just becomes new companies offering new ways to work. But I think ultimately, you know that we've seen a lot of companies trying to add software to simplify this space, but I think it still will always need that that human touch, either between, you know, between a manager, you know, or a member of the influencers team and and the brand, to ensure that, you know, each party gets what they want. But yeah, I'm excited for 2024 I think in this space, you know, I think a lot of people have learned from last year, there is loads of opportunity out there. I've had that, you know, a lot of agencies. Well, I had a good December. Decent ad budget was spent. And, you know, it's trickled into January. So, yeah, long, long way that continue, got

Ian Shepherd  28:39  
it well, I guess the sort of the evolution of viral talent and the rise of Wild Vision represents just this changing market and how you are moving with the times. Before we wrap up, can you just sort of explain for a creator, how do they get set up with Wild Vision?

Alex Chavez  28:53  
Yeah, yeah. So you know, get in contact with us via Instagram while just type in Wild vision.io type in Wild vision.io and on Google. You know, get in touch with get in touch with us via either DM us or email us through via our website, email me so you can email me at Alex, at Wild vision.io and we'll have a member of our sales team speak to speak to the influencer. We I genuinely think now we have an opportunity, a syndication opportunity, or a revenue opportunity for every influencer that can get in touch. And it's something that we've really focused on over the last 12 months beforehand. You know, if you didn't hit the criteria for Facebook or Snapchat, we couldn't do anything with you, and that's just not how we want to work now. So whether it be Snapchat stars and the mid roll program, you know, there's a lot of budget going into there, and that's open the gates up to a lot of creators that in the past we probably wouldn't have worked. With, but can now work with now, whether that be Instagrammers or tik tokers. YouTube live streaming is a really strong Avenue if you've got, like, a good YouTube channel that may not that genre may not fit with Facebook and Snapchat, but YouTube live streaming is a really good avenue that we can assist with. I can generate really good revenues, and actually a very good way to grow your YouTuber subscriber base. We work with a lot of off platform partners that will monetize your audience through other other methods. So brand army and click. You know, where you can really monetize your audiences away from the traditional platforms. You know, licensing deals is always something we do. We also offer up some some brand deals for the right partners. Dubbing and translation is also an avenue. So, yeah, you know, we want to if it but ultimately we can go for them if it's not. Right now, we always want to offer up some advice. So, you know, we'd look at your channel we want to work with, as you know, the right people, and ultimately grant our roster. So we'll offer us some advice in regards to what you can do in order to, you know, qualify for certain opportunities, and then just stay in touch, because at some point there will be a time where we can work together. So we ultimately, if we can't do something straight away, which I'm pretty sure we would be able to, there will be an opportunity to do something down the line. Amazing.

Ian Shepherd  31:35  
Well, it sounds like you've got a lot going on there and a lot of opportunities. So encourage everyone who's listening and if it's relevant to get in touch. And Alex, thank you for joining the show today.

Alex Chavez  31:44  
No, I appreciate it. Mate, always a always a pleasure to talk to you. Shep, you.