When “Studios” shift the burden of marketing onto indie producers, it begs a powerful question they may not want answered.
Who We’re Following
- Ben Liebmann
- Founder of Understory | Business of Culture: Media, Entertainment, Brands and Hospitality
- LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benliebmann
What’s Been Posted
LinkedIn contributor Ben Liebmann offers a candid assessment of the media marketing failures plaguing Hollywood and the wider Media & Entertainment industry. He writes “We’re opening films that have almost zero awareness.”
Liebermann is referencing an article in The Wall Street Journal arguing that, “New movies based on fresh ideas are fizzling at the box office.”
In essence, Hollywood’s old promo levers (trailers, press & red carpets) are no longer working. And it’s not just film; books, music and television also. Across categories, the spotlight has fractured.
At the centre of his critique is a growing disconnect between the creative class and the infrastructure once built to exploit them. Indie creators and emerging brands now face the additional burden of audience-building without meaningful help from the studios, labels or publishers that once took on that role.
For indie creatives and smaller brands, effective media marketing and promotion is becoming a do-it-yourself imperative.
“Increasingly, it is the filmmaker, author, musician that are expected to carry the marketing load. Build the audience. Be the brand. Run the campaign. On their own time, channels, and often on their own dollar.”
Ben Liebmann
Liebmann’s observation begs a question that he believes is not going away any time soon.
If legacy media companies continue to push creatives to do-it-yourself, then creatives and audiences alike might just question legacy media companies’ seat at the table.
In that scenario, he asks, “what, exactly, are they for?”
The post has struck a nerve.
With more than 450 reactions and over 300 comments, it’s clear that creatives and professionals across the industry see the same fault lines.
Among the comments, award-winning director and photographer, Timothy Hogan, noted that, “This new era of self-promotion can be overwhelming but also empowering for independent artists.”
Why It Matters
Liebmann’s argument reveals more than bad luck or media marketing ineffectiveness. It points to a deeper industry realignment that’s effecting more than just Hollywood.
Power, responsibility and risk are shifting away from legacy institutions and toward individual creators.
What he identifies is the collapse of centralised attention. Once, studios could command it. Now, they compete with YouTubers, TikTok influencers, newsletters, podcasts and the infinite scroll of algorithmic feeds.
This shift has fundamentally altered the economics of promotion.
In this emerging commercial environment, creators are expected not just to produce content but to cultivate audiences, tell their own stories and fund their own growth. It’s a do-it-yourself model that echoes broader changes being pushed into the mainstream by the emerging creator economy.
It explains why some creatives are beginning to question the value of legacy media partners who still expect control but no longer deliver commercial scale. At least, not for the creatives.
This is a related article you might find interesting.
Hollywood Studios’ Failure to Plan May Be Planning to Fail
The costs of competing on a level playing field might be too high for legacy Studios when technology, and creative tenacity, are finally closing the gap between artists and audiences.
From an investment and strategy perspective, the implications are serious.
Studios and publishers are increasingly failing to justify their share of the upside. This is especially true when measured against their diminishing role in consumer audience development. In parallel, tech-native and creator-led platforms offering direct-to-consumer models are becoming more attractive, not only because they work, but because they provide audience and engagement data that can be measured as performance and development data.
Liebmann’s post reflects an industry inflection point.
For media entrepreneurs, it affirms the urgency of building direct-to-audience capabilities and the growing importance of the creator economy. For executives inside legacy firms, it should raise uncomfortable but necessary questions about strategic relevance. And for investors, it’s a warning: value creation might not be found in the traditional value chain.
Further Reading
Read Ben Liebmann’s original LinkedIn post:
If this topic is of interest, this article will be too.
A Deal For Advertising Spend Will Drive A Creator Economy Renaissance
The US$13.25 billion Omnicom-IPG merger demonstrates a fundamental shift in power within a US$3 trillion industry that is re-shaping our world through behavioural economics.
Representing the entire team, posts from “The Publisher” offer deeper insights into the collective mind of the Media C-Suite. Our acting Publisher is Thomas Kingston, and you may recognise his voice and style in much of the work posted under the by-line of The Publisher.
