The overwhelming number of creators on YouTube make very little from digital ads interrupting their content. If a creator makes $3.50 per 1,000 views, the revenue on 400,000 views is only $1,400. That's a lot of work for very little money.
Here's the fundamental problem: creators aren't getting paid for their work. They're getting paid by the ads that interrupt their work. There's a reason movies don't have commercial breaks in the middle.
YouTube, TikTok, Instagram—they're all designed around the same model. The platform captures attention, sells ads against it, and gives creators a small cut. The platform's incentive is to keep people scrolling, not to help creators build sustainable businesses.
Meanwhile, creators work incredibly hard to build audiences. They're effectively outsourced creative departments for brands. On YouTube, creators receive 55% of net ad revenue from long-form videos. But that's 55% of revenue generated by interrupting their content with ads their audience didn't ask to see.
What if it worked differently?
What if brands paid creators directly to make content that audiences actually wanted to watch? Not product placement shoved into existing videos, but genuine partnerships where the brand is integrated into something worth making.
This is what we proved with Gutted. 75+ creators, 35+ brand partners, 500+ attendees. Brands didn't pay to interrupt—they paid to be part of something people chose to engage with. Creators got resources and compensation that reflected the value they were creating.
The creator economy needs a new model. One where creators are paid for the quality of their work, not the quantity of ads stuffed into it.