Pauline Malcolm: AI Innovation for Creators & Brands with BrandStory Architech | S2 Ep. 181

0:05Hey everyone, welcome back to Founder Story. Today we have Pauline Malcolm. And Pauline, you are the CEO of Brand Story Architect. And I'm excited to dive into all things tech, AI. I mean, these are huge topics that everyone is talking about and the impacts on your business, the good things, the bad things. And we're going to dive into all that. The future. What do you see in the future? Before we do that, though, Pauline, what was the inspiration behind wanting to start this company? Thank you for that, Dan. And thank you for having me. So I've been in the digital tech and media landscape for close to 25 years.

0:49I'm dating myself from Silicon Alley, starting my career in New York to Silicon Valley and also spent some time in Silicon Beach as well. So kind of did all coasts and and really, you know, through my experiences at companies like the Walt Disney Company to being the chief revenue officer most recently. at Essence and tripling their revenue. I was always fascinated by brand storytelling, as well as working with top-notch creators and influencers. And I saw a lot of white space in the creator economy and thought that, you know, through the work that I've done in helping brands build, you know, multi-million to multi-billion dollar companies through my marketing and sales efforts, wanted to do that for creators and also leverage AI in a way that can help them build their media empires as well as high impact campaigns and partnerships for brands, all sort of powered by AI and data-driven technology.

1:55So that sort of was the inspiration for Brand Story Architect. Even within the name, it's all about crafting compelling stories and connecting brands with culture, leveraging technology. Hence the reason why our brand is architect instead of architect, because it's all kind of powered by AI. There's a lot of articles I've been reading recently around, does a creator brand mean it's going to be more successful because they have an audience and they give the examples of the ones that were super successful, but then also the ones that were not successful. And what do you think gives the people the ability to be successful compared to not?

2:45Because many of these people that they gave an example, they have two people successful, not successful. They both have millions and millions of following on different platforms. What do you think separates the two? Such a great question. So it all comes down to authenticity, right? So what we do by leveraging AI, we're able to, you know, provide social listening as well as kind of drive and or tell if there is, you know, a brand affinity with that talent audience with the brand. So for instance, if Target comes to us, we can use our technology and pretty much identify talent that has spoken, that are lovers of the brand, that have a high affinity, that have shopped at Target and that have spoken about Target in a really positive way.

3:39Rather than just because someone has tens of millions of followers or even hundreds of thousands of followers, it doesn't necessarily mean that that person is going to be a good ambassador for your brand or that there is resonance with their audience. So by leveraging AI, we can match essentially the right creator with the right brand and ensure also that that story, that video or content that they're creating on behalf of the brand is authentic. And that's what makes like the best partnerships when there really is that synergy between what the talent is really passionate about, as well as, you know, the brand allowing the talent creative freedom as well.

4:25Brands are often so focused or very familiar with making commercials, but not necessarily leveraging content creators. So the affinity is definitely one thing, but also allowing creative freedom where that talent can create content that they know their audience likes. And really the brand is more authentically weed into that as opposed to creating a commercial where their audience will smell that out, stiff that out right away and say, wait a minute, that looks like a commercial. that tends to cause either friction or the worst partnerships versus like when it's authentic. And also there's creative freedom, which tends to create the best partnerships where it just looks like it's a harmonious fit for both the brand and the talent.

5:16The days of throwing spaghetti against the wall maybe are over. Hopefully you're going to help solve this because I think there is a lot of friction, like you're saying, between the two. If it doesn't resonate with the audience, the audience gets turned away and then it might even impact the brand negatively depending on who the creator is. Since you were an executive before Essence and you've been in the media space, how do you see AI and creators transforming the media landscape? Oh, my gosh. And in many different ways, you know, again, sort of like that data driven insights that, you know, AI can provide is just going to help provide a lot more precision.

5:57Right. And so and also what I hear from a lot of partners to this day is that there is no standardized way of really tracking performance. like is likes, views, and shares don't really tell you the full story. They don't tell you the full funnel marketing story. So I think what you're going to start to see with AI and what we're working on from a technology standpoint is to provide both guaranteed outcomes. So guaranteeing impressions is one thing, but also ensuring that you know how many people actually took action after they saw a piece of content. So following or being able to provide full funnel metrics from awareness to engagement, which I think there's a lot of tools out there that provide that, but more bottom funnel metrics as well.

6:49So you get the full story, like what was the sales lift? You know, how many people took action? Did this really drive some sort of reaction from my consumer, I think AI is going to help really transform that and make things more predictive where, you know, it will be more formulaic in terms of if I make, you know, 10 pieces of content on a monthly basis, I know I'm going to get X sort of reaction or X lift from my consumers. So I think it will also help with like recency, frequency of when content should be made, as well as what type of actions, predicting the types of actions that consumers might take from that content.

7:33I really enjoy watching comedic content. And I like when they integrate an ad. And I don't even know it's an ad. I just think it's another funny video. And then I realized that they're advertising. I'm like, that's very creative content. Very clever. I love how if a brand allows a creator. I think you can tell when the brand allows the creator flexibility to how, you know, to doing it their way versus like the brand wanting it to be their way. How do you see AI just transforming content creation, transforming brands going forward in the future, knowing that it's just been I mean, it's going at a pace that I don't think we can even keep up like our brains can't even keep up just how fast AI has been moving.

8:19even over the last only few years. Where do you see this going? Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. Like I'm seeing some really interesting sort of content creation, like models happening, which, you know, like for instance, a trend that I've been seeing is like virtual creators that are all AI driven, which kind of freaks some people out. But I think that that's an opportunity for real life creators to leverage sort of like a hybrid model where, you know, they create content where it stars themselves, but also maybe a virtual character, which could be really interesting where you're almost like an animated like avatar, just kind of creating dimensions and having some fun and innovation with the content that you're creating.

9:10So I think that like the virtual characters is a really interesting model that I've been seeing, like even brands testing. Like I saw Prada did like a collaboration with like a virtual influencer. And again, I think that there's a way that real life creators can add more excitement to their content by adding virtual or AI driven characters. I think that AI is also going to help with automation and just being able from a creator standpoint, be more efficient on how you're pushing content out, where it's a lot more automated. There are some really good tools out there, like Hootsuite and others that are all AI powered, that allows you to automate your content creation.

10:03And then just some of the innovations that I'm seeing, even with like video creation. Again, I think that this is all good for creators. I know a lot of people are scared and they think that that may eliminate their role as a creator. But I think that that human connectivity is so important and that people still want that. And that AI is just a way, again, to be more innovative and really allow you to supercharge your creativity. I never thought about the use of, like you're saying, creating a virtual version of yourself or somebody else or something where you integrate that. Because I think we're all focused on replacement.

10:45You know, what if a brain can just create their own creators, can build their own things that's like their own assets? Would they even use humans? But I like the idea that you said, I've never even thought about that, of having somebody combined. My fear is, of course, the replacement side. Why would they need somebody? Do you have any fears around AI? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, AI, it's generative AI, especially it's like it's still sort of like a somewhat average intelligence human. And I think at the height, it's going to be like the most genius amongst us. Right. So there is definitely, I know, fear around replacement, but I do truly believe that AI will be a tool that will help us be smarter, more efficient, and that will actually even allow more creativity because it's kind of taking, eliminating the mundanity of a lot of the work that we do, which will then open up our brains to be even more creative and accelerate things that have never been done before.

11:53Because with the large language models, it's kind of like working off of data points or things that have already been done. So I think that there's still room for creativity and new ways of thinking because we're leveraging sort of AI to kind of take the mundanity out of our everyday and allow for new opportunities or new innovation to transpire. I think I use AI tools like ChatGPT and others maybe even more than I use Google nowadays. I never thought six months ago if you told me that I'd say that you're wrong. But I think I do. I search more research. I mean, it's pretty, the tools are pretty amazing.

12:38I mean, it's insane. I really like the idea that it's going to open up the creativity, but it's also taking previous stuff. So there's still room for us to be the people that are creative are going to maybe even accelerate past those that are not creative. So if there's a thousand creators right now who are sitting here listening and they are like, wow, I need this. I need brand sponsorships. I want to make generate more money. I want to expand my income. Do you have any advice for them maybe before they even come to talk to you? Is there something that they should be doing or looking at or something that you're even finding what drives a brand to even want to work with a creator?

13:22Is there any tips or strategies that they can do? Absolutely. So, you know, what I recommend to all the creators that we work with, and this is a model that we apply to all of our sort of like client partners, we call them, is really thinking about yourself like a media company and almost like a network, a mini network, right? So especially for micro creators or creators that are trying to take their content to the next level, think about your content like a TV network where there's consistency with your content. So if you have a format, maybe it's sketch comedy, right? Every Wednesday, make sure that you're posting a new episode or Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you know that you can come to your channel and find fresh new content.

14:15What that's doing, it's creating sort of like consistent and repeatable behavior with your audience and, you know, and engagement as well, right? But what it's also signaling to brands is that you're becoming or you are a professional content creator, right? And you're developing formats that you know resonate well with your audience. And then you also have a consistent pattern. If you're uploading content three days a week, four days a week, and people know to tune in, you're acting like a mini TV network, which is what I think modern day creators are. They are the new TV networks. And you're creating sort of like a consistent sort of audience that's tuning in and you're getting 500 ,000 views or whatever it is.

15:05And that's something that I can take to a brand and say, X talent, they're repeatable, or they have this format three times a week, and they have a consistent audience. This is what you can expect organically. And then if we run it through paid media, then you can expect X amount of outcome. But we know this is what this brand or this is what this talent is getting on an organic basis. So that's like one of the like start considering yourself as a mini brand, so to speak, and acting like a TV channel and being consistent with your content and the formats that you create. I took a lot of things away and I really like that you're you're creating your own media brand.

15:50And part of that is it's basically your own TV channel. It gets me thinking that many creators, at least people go into it. They want to just create something. They want to dance. They want to make comedy, whatever, whatever they want to do. And then it starts to build upon something. but I don't think a lot of them fully understand the, what they're building, that it could be something big because they just want to, it's like a doctor goes into being a doctor because they want to help people, but they're not always great at business. Right. So it's just thinking about it like, okay, I need, I'm not just somebody dancing on TikTok that this is a brand in itself.

16:30this is a business. I want longevity. I'm going to make a career out of this. I need to think differently. I think that's going to this is going to help a lot of people thinking differently, even from the start or as you're going versus trying to change things and stuff when you've kind of hit some sort of peak level. But Pauline, if you want to get in touch with you, they want to find out more information. How can they do so? Absolutely. So if you want to learn more, There's a couple of ways to get in contact with me. I'm on the app intro where you can book time and learn more tips on AI as well as marketing.

17:07Also visit our website, BrandStoryArchitect.com or PaulineMalcolm.com. So that's three different ways to get in contact with me. If you want to have one-on-one advice or if you want to work with us and become a client of BrandStoryArchitect, visit us at BrandStoryArchitect.com. brand story architect Pauline Malcolm I love intro by the way it's really I've made some amazing connections on intro uh it's a really great place but I'm really excited about the things that you said today it's totally making me rethink what I'm doing and you know for myself in my mind I'm already thinking like what can I do differently how can I change things because many people obviously want to get brand deals.

17:54They want to turn it into a career, but they have no idea what to do with what's next. So PaulineMalcolm.com. Thank you so much, Pauline, for sharing everything today. All the success, everything that you're doing, it's very inspirational. And I can't wait to have you back here on Founder Story. Thank you so much, Dan, for having me. It's been a pleasure.

18:19Thank you.