reInternet stardom is being more and more common these days, with superstars rising amidst such sites as YouTube and Twitch with just a few simple (and well-placed) broadcasts. However, Fullscreen CEO George Strompolos believes there are still ideas that need to be followed when it comes to being an online celebrity, according to Re/code.
Fullscreen is a site devoted to the Internet mainstream, with video financing for over 50,000 creators and over five billion views on a monthly basis. “We have a lot of teenage millionaires at Fullscreen,” said Strompolos, while speaking at the Code/Media event in San Francisco earlier this week. And most of them are “personality driven,” he admits.
He also believes a connection with an audience makes all the difference, compared to people on television. “I think the new breed are going to be people who developed an audience, and they will continue to feed that audience,” he explained.
In addition, sponsorship deals don’t always equal “selling out,” as it might have in the past. “If you grow up online, the fans say, ‘We’re so glad we got you to the level where advertisers want to work with you.'”
Strompolos also admitted that having a site that shoots with such superstars provides a way to reach out to advertisers, with a distribution system built in for good measure. “A lot of advertisers come to us saying, ‘How do we reach millennials ‘” he explained. “The truth is, they don’t. Instead of interruption, we help them be part of this world.”
Fullscreen has recently taken its outreach to other countries, including Brazil and India, in the hopes of breeding new stars – because there’s always room for more. “We overfund and over-promote certain creators,” he concluded. “Because as soon as one person breaks, everyone else says, ‘That’s really cool and I want to do that too.'”
