Collectively's Natalie SIlverstein on How to Optimize Creator Video Content

Summary

---

Podcast Summary: Next in Media

Episode: Optimize Creator Video Content
Host: Mike Shields
Guest: Natalie Silverstein, Chief Innovation Officer, Collectively
Date: July 30, 2026

---

Episode Overview

In this episode, Mike Shields sits down with Natalie Silverstein live at Cannes to explore how brands can optimize creator-driven video content in today’s media environment. The conversation dives into the evolving importance of creators, the integration of YouTube with linear and CTV buys, navigating social media minefields, performance measurement, leveraging AI/LLMs, the maturation of creator marketing, and the realities of shifting platform algorithms.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power Shift: Creators as the New Media Ecosystem

• Creator-Centric Strategies (02:12–03:01):
  • Natalie notes YouTube’s upfront focus on creators “signals that creators are the ones who are really driving culture” (02:16).
  • Creators are developing IP, running their own shows, and forming miniature media networks.
  • Brands need to approach creators as partners—not just ad placements.

“Creators kind of are the media product...taking creators even more seriously...signals that creators are the ones who are really driving culture.”
— Natalie Silverstein (02:12)

---

2. Scalable Authenticity: Balancing Control and Creative Freedom

• Brand Partnerships with Creators (03:01–04:32):
  • The “art of creator marketing” lies in fostering scale without extinguishing authenticity.
  • Smart briefing and flexible workflows let brands collaborate meaningfully at scale.
  • Strategies must span high-reach creators to nano-influencers, tailored for different goals.

“It is possible to do at scale...the smartest brands are figuring that out...they’re also thinking about cultural relevance and their ability to kind of show up in the right spaces…”
— Natalie Silverstein (04:01)

---

3. Navigating Social Media Minefields & Building Rapid Response Infrastructure

• Real-Time Listening and Agility (04:58–06:09):
  • With controversy constantly brewing (“flashpoints in society”), brands need advanced social listening—now powered by rapidly evolving AI.
  • Having a nimble team or partner agency is critical for agility—enabling brands to turn off/on creator partnerships or channels as needed.

“There are a lot of flashpoints in society right now...so small things can sort of flare very quickly...having a very good system for knowing what’s happening. Finger on the pulse.”
— Natalie Silverstein (04:58)

---

4. Proving ROI in Creator Marketing

• Complex Metrics & Modern Measurement (06:09–07:42):
  • Creator content for paid media channels can leverage classic digital metrics (length, timing of brand mention, etc.), but other functions (like reach or entertainment) resist simple ROI frameworks.
  • Don’t seek blanket ROI approaches; tailor to campaign goals—brand reach, awareness, engagement, or conversion.

“You really need to not think about influencer marketing ROI blanket, but rather different, slightly different strategies. Right. In the same way, we like to say this collectively that what Digital was in 2004...creator is kind of where digital was.”
— Natalie Silverstein (07:15)

---

5. Optimizing for LLMs: The New Invisible Audience

• LLMs as Content Consumers (08:18–10:22):
  • Brands should treat large language models (LLMs) as a new type of audience, requiring content structures that answer probable queries.
  • Consistent formatting, explicit mentions, and structured overlays enhance content’s likelihood of being cited by LLMs.
  • Overlap your creator-facing hygiene (clear branding, hashtags, structured scripts) with LLM optimization.

“You need to think about the LLMs as a new audience...structure that would align to the way that a human might ask an LLM about a topic. So you ask a question, your content answers that question directly.”
— Natalie Silverstein (08:18)

• The team is “hedging” that video and social content will be increasingly important to LLMs’ outputs as user-generated data far outpaces static web content.

---

6. The Maturation of Creator Marketing and Platform Consolidation

• Industry Evolution & Tech Growth (11:17–13:19):
  • Recent acquisitions (e.g., Accenture-Whaler, Publicis-Influential) mark creator marketing’s elevation from a niche to a vital component for large holding companies.
  • AI will disrupt creator marketing platforms and workflows, but human judgment—understanding cultural nuances—will remain irreplaceable.

“Creator marketing is being taken seriously...an essential part of all brands’ marketing to some extent and the tools and technology are going to be changing as well.”
— Natalie Silverstein (11:38, 13:19)

---

7. The “Reach Recession”: Navigating Algorithmic Unpredictability

• Declining Predictability, Rising Competition (13:19–15:05):
  • The “reach recession” is largely anecdotal; algorithmic experiences are now so individualized that no two creators or users have identical outcomes.
  • Increased content volume raises competition—there’s less “free” viral reach, particularly compared to platforms’ earlier days.
  • Smart practice now: Pair organic creator content with targeted paid boosts to guarantee desired reach and precise targeting.

“It’s a bit of a supply issue. So there are more content [pieces]...you’re competing with more things in the algorithm.”
— Natalie Silverstein (13:48)

“I think it’s smart practice to always have paid media behind at least some of your creator marketing...to really ensure the reach that you want and ensure that you’re specifically reaching the right people.”
— Natalie Silverstein (14:35)

---

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Creators' Power:
  • “Creators are the ones who are really driving culture.” (02:16)
• On Social Listening & Agility:
  • “Having a very good system for knowing what’s happening. Finger on the pulse.” (04:58)
• On AI/LLM Optimization:
  • “You need to think about the LLMs as a new audience…” (08:18)
• On Paid Boosts:
  • “It’s smart practice to always have paid media behind at least some of your creator marketing...” (14:35)

---

Notable Timestamps

• Creator as Central Media Product: 02:12–03:01
• Balancing Control & Authenticity: 03:01–04:32
• Brand Agility & Social Listening: 04:58–06:09
• ROI Measurement Evolution: 06:09–07:42
• Optimizing for LLMs & AI: 08:18–10:22
• Industry Consolidation: 11:17–13:19
• The “Reach Recession” & Paid Distribution: 13:19–15:05

---

Conclusion

This episode is a comprehensive discussion on how brands can best leverage creator-driven video content in an evolving, fragmented, and algorithm-driven digital landscape. Natalie Silverstein highlights the need for nuanced, agile strategies that address the creative, technological, and measurement challenges of today’s media—while also pointing toward a future where both AI and human insight shape success.

Transcript

[Natalie Silverstein]

There are a lot of flashpoints in society right now and we are interacting with social media platforms that often reward and incentivize outrage. So small things can sort of flare very quickly. And I think brands are all engaging in really smart social listening. So I think the technology for really understanding what people are saying about them on social is improving. And then I think, you know, creators can both help in those moments and it can also be the channel that you turn off.

[Alan Wolk]

Let's talk about your video strategy for a second. We all know the media landscape is incredibly fragmented right now, but one thing is absolutely certain. To win, you have to engage audiences on YouTube. It is the undisputed number one streaming platform and no video strategy is complete without it. But here's the challenge most brands face. YouTube often sits completely separated from the traditional television and streaming ad buys. That's why you need to check out KDENT View Planner. KDENT View Planner allows you to connect YouTube directly to your CTV and linear campaigns because they are an official YouTube partner. They bring advanced contextual, creative and outcomes driven intelligence to your YouTube strategy and your total video strategy. Stop buying silos. Connect YouTube to CTV and linear with Kaden View Planner and start driving real performance across every screen. Head over to kaden.com YouTube advertising to see how they can maximize your YouTube investments today. This week on Nexting Media, as part of my ongoing series on the YouTube ecosystem with my partners at Kden View Planner, I sat down and camped with Natalie Silverstein, Chief Innovation officer.

[Host/Interviewer]

Collectively, Natalie and I talked about marketing

[Alan Wolk]

at a time of constant social media minefields, the rise of creator studios and the increased need for brands to have the right infrastructure in place to move at the speed of creator culture.

[Host/Interviewer]

Let's get started. Hi everybody.

[Alan Wolk]

Welcome to Next Immediate.

[Host/Interviewer]

This is part. We're live at Cannes. I'm here with Natalie Silverstein. She's the chief innovation officer at collectively is part of my special series with my friends at Kaden View Planner. Thanks for being here, Alan.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Yeah, thanks for having me.

[Host/Interviewer]

So we're going to, we're going to dive right into YouTube. Huge topic of late, of course. I'm curious what you thought of. They are, they're very much in their upfront this year leaned into not only are creators huge, but we're going to do a bunch of shows with creators. What do you think of their strategy there?

[Natalie Silverstein]

I think they're recognizing that creators kind of are the media product in addition to obviously all of the various ad units that they have available. So I think taking creators even more seriously than they already have been is a signal that creators are the ones who are really driving culture.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah, that is different. The creator being for a company that is like software and efficiency driven, that's a little different.

[Natalie Silverstein]

It is. And I think the fact that so many of these creators are building like truly building shows, they're developing ip. There are creators who have multiple streams of ip, multiple shows that they're doing. They're their own little media networks essentially. So allowing advertisers to have access to those creators and that kind of more from a partnership perspective, in addition to specific ad buys, I think is really smart.

[Host/Interviewer]

There's like a, there's like a two ends of the spectrum with the creator opportunity and YouTube. You have the. You want to tap into their authenticity, let them kind of do their thing, put your brand in their hands. But then you hear about brands like l' Oreal talking. We did a thousand executions with a bunch of creators.

[Alan Wolk]

Can you do both those two things effectively?

[Natalie Silverstein]

I mean, that's the art of creator marketing. It's a practice that's been established over the last 15 years or so. And that's why you hire agencies like collectively to be able to develop a strategy that enables, that enables the creativity and authenticity to be retained through really smart briefing, really smart workflow process. To collaborate with creators at scale to ensure that the content is both hitting the essential messaging, all of the creative requirements, sometimes media requirements, various. All the, all the things that big brands are doing to ensure that their investments are going somewhere with creators. But it's to do that without completely sapping the life out of the content.

[Host/Interviewer]

Right, right, right.

[Natalie Silverstein]

So it is possible to do at scale. And I think that the smartest brands are figuring that out and they're also thinking about their strategies across lots of dimensions. So scale is one part of it. But then they're also thinking about cultural relevance and their ability to kind of show up in the right spaces with maybe those are bigger creators or maybe those are creators who have a lot of clout or influence over certain communities. And those relationships and partnerships are going to look really different than the nano creators who are maybe doing like affiliate content.

[Host/Interviewer]

Sure.

[Natalie Silverstein]

So it's really about understanding kind of a bigger strategy at like kind of stepping back and seeing all the ways that creators can be contributing to your marketing and then often partner either partnering with an agency that knows what they're doing or having a really smart in house team.

[Host/Interviewer]

You've actually talked recently about your job and brand's life is getting just increasingly more challenging when it seems like controversy is around every corner. Like, can you maybe just talk about what you're seeing out there?

[Natalie Silverstein]

There are a lot of flashpoints in society right now and we are interacting with social media platforms that often reward and incentivize outrage. So small things can sort of flare very quickly. And I think brands are all engaging in really smart social listening. So I think the technology for really understanding what people are saying about them on social is improving exponentially, frankly in the last couple of years. AI being a big part of that or just like being able to kind of track what's happening and then I think creators can both help in those moments. And it can also be the channel that you turn off those moments. Right. So it's really about, I think, having a very good system for knowing what's happening. Finger on the pulse.

[Host/Interviewer]

Right.

[Natalie Silverstein]

And then having the infrastructure in place to both make quick moves, be super agile and turning off or turning on different channels or different, different creators, different activations and having a team that doesn't need to wait too long between hearing about something and making a quick. So agility, I think is, is the

[Host/Interviewer]

call getting back to, getting back to how to execute big creator partnerships at the right level. You know, there were. Everyone's talking constantly about this where this outcomes driven era, every dollar is being washed. It doesn't seem easy to apply performance marketing metrics to creator marketing. How do you think about proving ROI right now for all your clients?

[Natalie Silverstein]

Yeah, so I mean there is a place for really intense optimization. You're developing content specifically for paid media channels where we just know that there are tried and true best practices about length, about when a brand is mentioned, et cetera, et cetera. Right. And there's a lot of technology that's being introduced into the workflow for creator marketing at scale to ensure that every asset is really going to do what it needs to do, particularly in the paid media channel. So it's kind of like, I think thinking about ROI slightly differently from where it's going to show up. Like is it primarily aimed at reach in, in an algorithmic feed? In that case then you're indexing more towards entertainment factor.

[Host/Interviewer]

That. That is a different kind of performance.

[Natalie Silverstein]

It's a different kind of performance. Right. Buy something right now. Exactly. So there is unfortunately, unfortunately, fortunately, unfortunately everything is becoming more complex and more complicated. So I think you really need to not think about influencer marketing, ROI blanket, but rather different, slightly different strategies. Right. In the same way, we like to say this collectively that what Digital was in 2004 where it's like sort of this emergent space.

[Host/Interviewer]

Embryonic.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Yeah. It is kind of like it's your digital strategy becomes just like. No, no. That's just how you market. And in some ways, creator is kind of where digital was. Where it's like, okay, it becomes something that is like, there's a lane of creator across almost everything that you do. It's going to be differently. Right, Exactly.

[Host/Interviewer]

What about. This is something that's come up recently. I think you've talked about it and now Google is even talking about it more. Where creator content is becoming more and more important for the.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Yes.

[Host/Interviewer]

Is that something that you are trying to influence? And can you. Can you do both when you're trying to just execute a classic marketing campaign? But then also think about that. Are they really two different things?

[Natalie Silverstein]

I think you need to think about the LLMs as a new audience.

[Host/Interviewer]

Interesting.

[Natalie Silverstein]

And you optimize for different audiences. You relate to different audiences differently. So what the LLMs like currently, I'd hate to anthropomorphize them, but whatever the math likes, essentially, is structure. So very specific structure that would align to the way that a human might ask an LLM about a topic. So you ask a question, your content answers that question directly.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Natalie Silverstein]

And again, if you kind of break it down to what are the elements, literal script elements in a piece of content, what's in the caption, what's in the text overlays? Are those all tuned for the LLM to read and recognize it as a signal that this is something that we should cite when we're thinking about how we respond?

[Host/Interviewer]

But if you're a brand that you almost don't have too much structure when you're working with a creator.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Right.

[Host/Interviewer]

Like, it's got to be.

[Natalie Silverstein]

It's not. But you have to think about it. It's like it's kind of not. It's. It's kind of not for people. It's kind of. It's kind of for the model.

[Host/Interviewer]

Right.

[Natalie Silverstein]

More than anything. So. And it's. I think this is where we're really helping brands innovate here, is thinking about what's the Venn diagram of optimization. That's just good practice. Like, brands should be consistent in how every creator they're working with is. Is literally doing hashtag brand or brand or whatever it may be and how they're talking about products. That's super consistent. It's like the hygiene dimension. Right. That's something that is. You want to be buttoned up on that no matter what sure. But that also helps with LLM citation. So what we're doing is looking a lot at kind of overlapping strategies like where is something specifically for people, specifically for LLMs and where are we able to kind of do both? And it's really an emergent space. So we'll see kind of how these optimizations that are happening right now are going to be impacting the models over the next couple of years. Because it's not like a one to one like you, you post a YouTube that's optimized for an LLM and it's going to show up in every single query.

[Host/Interviewer]

It's evolving over very quickly.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Totally. And every time, you know, you ask a question to ChatGPT, I ask the same question. We're sitting in the same room, you're going to get a slightly different response than I am. So it's a totally new space. But we know that social and video content is going to be a bigger part of the just the kind of accessible data.

[Host/Interviewer]

Right.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Social is one of the engines where there actually is a lot of people created content and we think there will continue to be, you know, there's the kind of dead Internet theory that the vast volume of web pages they already

[Host/Interviewer]

write already, they're already written by LLMs.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Right. So we know that social is where people are making content. Yeah, obviously there's AI content there now as well, but that's happening. So we're kind of trying to read the tea leaves of like, all right, over the next couple of years, are we going to see social platforms become a bigger part of Overall citations and LLMs? So that's kind of, we're kind of hedging in that direction.

[Host/Interviewer]

Stepping back a little bit. You've had like this gold rush going on. Right. Where the whole incubator is kind of snatching up. You had Publis just grab influential and now Whaler just grab, I mean, sorry, Accenture just grabbed Whaler. Where is this headed? Like, it seems like there's an effort towards almost turning creator marketing into more of a software business. I don't know if that's possible, but where do you think this is we're going?

[Natalie Silverstein]

Yeah, I mean, I think it's number one, the fact that creator marketing is being taken seriously as an important dimension of any Holdco or large marketing entity. They have to have creative marketing covered. It's like a non negotiable.

[Host/Interviewer]

That's a good thing.

[Natalie Silverstein]

That's a good thing. I mean it just, I think it speaks to the maturation of the space again. This idea that what digital was sort of one little thing and now it's sort of everything is kind of digital or there's a digital dimension to just about everything. I think creator is becoming that there's sort of a blanket of creator. No matter what type of activation you're doing, there's an opportunity to engage with creators and the tools and technology are one part of it. And I think the creator technology space is being disrupted in the same way that every SaaS company is being disrupted by AI where it's like to be moved from, you know, interfaces with, you know, paying per seat or are we talking about an mcp, just a data feed and you have AI agents. Like it's all kind of changing. But regardless, you know, there's, there's a lot of human judgment that still goes into creator marketing because as much, you know, as trite as it is to say it's like art and science, science is important of just like what's the data? Can we predict if a piece of content is going to be successful or our collaboration is going to be successful or are we so tapped into our. And I guess it is, are we so tapped into our audience and how they're consuming media, what's hot in their various niche, whatever it may be. And there's a cultural relevance dimension that's just human judgment and that a machine would never predict that. Right, Right. So it's, you know, I think it's again, it's like the industry is maturing. It's just becoming an essential part of kind of all brands marketing to some extent and the tools and technology are going to be changing as well.

[Host/Interviewer]

Last one, there's a been a lot of chatter recently around like creators feeling that like there's a reach recession or they're, they're not seeing the, it's not their, their reach is not as predictable as it used to be. Are you feeling that is there. Does everything kind of have to have a boost nowadays?

[Natalie Silverstein]

I mean there's a lot of theories about that and depending on what platform you're talking about and what the dynamic.

[Host/Interviewer]

It's very theoretical.

[Natalie Silverstein]

It seems like it's very theoretical because it's hard to like it's quite anecdotal. Everybody is sort of having a different experience. Everybody's feed is totally different.

[Host/Interviewer]

Right.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Like, I think that's, that's one of the interesting challenges for any brand communicating today is that we're all in our completely individualized algorithmic seeing everything is very different. Yeah. Like what I, the way I see the world is going to be really different, like literally will be different than you see it because of what you're being served. So I think that it's a bit of a supply issue. So there are more content means that you're competing with more things in the algorithm.

[Host/Interviewer]

So that's, yeah, naturally, so much stuff that can.

[Natalie Silverstein]

I think in the days, I imagine you're probably hearing that coming maybe from like TikTokers who had just outrageous virality in 2021. But there's a lot less content on TikTok at that point. There are a lot fewer creators. The algorithm was different. It was. It's just a different time.

[Host/Interviewer]

Right.

[Natalie Silverstein]

So I think that there could be some more, you know, other dynamics at play where, you know, the algorithms are able to recognize that it's sponsored content. Therefore, you know, positioning stuff to get some ad dollars behind it. Sure, maybe. I mean, I think it's smart practice to always have paid media behind at least some of your creator marketing. Not every single place by any means necessary, but to really ensure the reach that you want and ensure that you're specifically reaching the right people. That's. I think it's become very standard.

[Host/Interviewer]

Makes a lot of sense.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Yeah.

[Host/Interviewer]

Natalie, awesome conversation. Thanks so much for your time here.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Appreciate it.

[Host/Interviewer]

Again someday.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Yeah. Enjoy your cam.

[Alan Wolk]

He's here.

[Natalie Silverstein]

Stay cool.

[Alan Wolk]

Thanks again. And my guest this week, Collectively's Natalie Silverstein and my partners at Kaden View Planner. If you like this week's episode, please take a moment to rate and leave a review. We have lots more to bring you, so please hit that subscribe button. We'll see you next time for more on what's next in media. Thanks for listening.