Disney’s Maker Studios to feature Marvel characters and partner with ESPN and ABC

Maker Studios’ recently unveiled plans for upcoming content illustrates how The Walt Disney Company plans not only to leverage its digital audiences, but also how popular characters, such as those from Marvel, fit into its content strategy.

I wrote about Maker Studios back in February when its co-founder, vlogger Shay Carl Butler, was in Orlando to attend Playlist Live 2015, a three-day convention that started as a way for attendees to learn more about video production from experienced creators.

Maker Studios is a multi-channel network and YouTube video supplier. It reportedly gets about 5.5 billion views per month across its 55,000 YouTube channels. The Walt Disney Company acquired Maker Studios in 2014 for a deal that potentially could be worth almost $1 billion.

In its presentation to potential advertisers this week, Maker Studios revealed that it is working with Disney’s Marvel division to not only promote current releases, such as this week’s ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron,’ but also original content based on the ‘lore’ of the comic book universe.

According to the Los Angeles Times, ‘Maker’s pitch is aimed at advertisers who want to reach millennials, age 13 to 34, who spend an increasing number of hours watching video online and on mobile devices. Sixty percent of that age group visits YouTube at least once a day, according to the company’s data.’

Maker Studios encompasses far more video channels that have nothing to do with Disney than those that do. But clearly, The Walt Disney Company is going to make access to its properties more readily available to those under the Maker Studios umbrella.

It also was announced that Disney’s ESPN and X Games will partner athletes with content creators and “deliver cutting edge content year-round,” according to Deadline.com. The site also reported that Maker will “collaborate on nonfiction storytelling around politics and culture” including an original, American Women, with ABC’s Lincoln Square Productions. Plus, among Maker’s large catalogue of upcoming original content is ‘Maker Tales,’ fairy tales re-imagined as music videos.

“Before the Mickey Mouse Club, kids’ shows were only hosted by adults with other kids solely used as the in-studio audience. In the 60 years since then, technology has completely changed, but the desire for young people to connect directly with their peers has not,” Erin McPherson, chief content officer at Maker, said in a recent USA Today report.

Want to hang out with the blogger stars from Maker Studios? Dates for Playlist Live 2016 in Orlando already have been announced. The conference will take place April 22 to 24 at the Orlando World Center Marriott. Tickets, with early-bird discounts, are on sale now at https://www.playlist-live.com/orl-tickets/products

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