Vice expands 5-year-old video content partnership with Intel into another 7 countries
Vice’s five-year-old video content partnership project with Intel, The Creators Project, is expanding its coverage into another seven countries following growth that has seen it reach more than 405 million video views.
Partnership: Vice and Intel came together for The Creators Project
The project, which creates “video content around people at the intersection between art and technology” and beat entries from MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum last year to win a best art website accolade, is now venturing into Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands and Spain following launches last month in Australia and New Zealand.
Having racked up more than 405 million video views and amassing 460,000 YouTube subscribers, Vice general manager Hosi Simon told The Drum that the partnership had hit an unexpected content marketing goldmine.
“At the risk of sounding a bit arrogant, it’s the kind of stuff all the people in boardrooms have been discussing for years but nobody’s really doing,” he said. “It’s become a shining example of what marketing around content could or should be.”
The latest push, according to Simon, is about ramping up scale on a model that has resulted in a strong partnership with the Intel brand.
“The expansion is just about scale,” he said. “This is really now our play for scale to grow the platform in many different languages across the world. I think the only reason this actually works so well is the very special relationship between Intel and Vice.
“This isn’t some glib stuff about how our client is the best in the world and we love them as people, all that bullshit you hear all the time. We push each other every day on decisions and we have veto rights over just about everything.”
Intel’s decision to partner with Vice five years ago surprised some in the industry on account of the potential brand risk associated with Vice’s edgy editorial style and attitude, but the deal has given Intel association with a media brand which has captured a massive international audience in recent years and resulted in content strong enough to stand on its own merits.
“The interesting thing is we have all these TV shows across the world and we don’t pay for them,” Simon went on. “TV brands in China, Australia, Brazil are taking our half hour shows that we cut out of the Creators Project and putting them on their channels with Intel branding completely intact because the content is good.
“That’s ultimately the holy grail of marketing. I’m not saying it’s unheard of, but it’s pretty unusual.”
Simon added that Vice had invested a “shit ton” of resources into the project, although the publisher declined to reveal any specific figures. Along the way the project has collaborated with Daft Punk, Ai Weiwei, Queens of the Stone Age, David Blaine and Pharrell, although Simon said that other than paid appearances at events, nobody is paid to take part in the Creators Project.
Artists who get involved, however, can tap into the “Vice eco-system” and receive creative support, which for some includes connecting with engineers and professionals inside Intel labs.
“A lot of people are trying to push into this space because some of the best art in film, design and architecture is coming out of it right now. The Creators Project has not only covered that but has supported it,” Simon added.