BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Independent Content Creators Have Earned $40M Through The Tongal Platform

Following
This article is more than 6 years old.

Photo by Stewart Volland.

Independent creative network Tongal helps brands tell their best stories while simultaneously empowering creatives to showcase their talents. In removing the gatekeepers, the company has tapped into a surplus by creating quality content better, faster and cheaper. At a time when brands are at a crossroads, Tongal is quickly rising to the top as a creative marketing specialist with a crowdsourcing platform that offers an open content production methodology allowing anyone to contribute at any point between ideation and production.

Tongal's business grew more than six-fold between 2013-2015 with an estimated $30 million in bookings in 2016. Their community will have soon earned $40 million. Powered by an online creative network of more than 120,000 Tongalers (freelance writers, directors and production companies) they’ve worked on hundreds of campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world via their proprietary development platform. Nearly 16,000 videos have been made for all platforms, from Snapchat to the Super Bowl, for numerous Fortune 500 brands.  

Friends at Boston College, Co-founders James DeJulio (President and Chief Creative Officer), Rob Salvatore (CEO) and Mark Burrell launched the company in 2009 with the goal of congregating a group of creative people to establish a springboard for careers in the creative space. There are an approximate 57 employees overall, with offices in Santa Monica and New York.

"At the time, the entertainment world was on its head," DeJulio reflects. “The writers’ strike really put things into a tailspin. It’s what kick-started this. Unscripted content blossomed and there was no going back.” 

“We saw opportunity,” said Salvatore. “Everyone was looking for something unique. It was a time of upheaval, which helped us.” The old system, he explained, corrupts the creative and underserves the audience. “How do you communicate with the people you’re trying to get through to? That’s where we come in. Tongal is an economy. We’re providing opportunity for people.”

Painted on a wall in the lobby is the company’s why: We believe that brilliant people are everywhere and that by empowering them with opportunities to use their talent, we can help the world discover its creative potential.

“Because our community self-selects into the work, they come in motivated, passionate and with fresh eyes. You cannot underestimate the value of someone raising their hand for an assignment, versus having it assigned. That’s something I’ll bet on every day of the week,” Burrell said.

Tongal Co-founders L-R: James DeJulio, Mark Burrell and Rob Salvatore.

Photo by Stewart Volland.

In total, 15,800 campaigns and videos from 150 countries have come out of this collective group. For the first time this year, a Tongal member earned $1 million, representing the inaugural member of the Tongal Million Dollar Club. With this as an exception and not the rule, it shows just how much potential exists for talented creators within the Tongal platform. The company is the go-between with the brand and creators, managing both the creative process and payments directly to the talent.  

“This is the rise of the influencer curator. We can create niche content that’s less expensive to make for a targeted audience that’s going to want to see it,” DeJulio said. Referred to as bridge content, it’s the opposite of the traditional media model. “If you’re going to entertain people, learn what they want. We want the best curators.” 

The company recently celebrated its Fourth Annual Tongies Awards with nominees selected via an open online voting process. Tongalers from 137 countries submitted 39,000 ideas and 3,500 videos and an impressive 250 community members scored their first win in 2016. 

The company, which was recently named on Ad Age’s prestigious A-List, has partnerships with Facebook and Google, as well as UTA to bring its talent network in on the development of brand content. Top innovative brands working alongside Tongal to develop breakthrough original content for digital and TV include: LEGO, Johnson & Johnson (more than 20 brands including Tylenol, Motrin and Acuvue), Mattel, Disney (GoRogue Campaign), NASA, General Motors (GMC Sierra and 2017 GMC Acadia), Nestle, New Balance, Unilever and Nissan, to name a few.

According to eMarketer, U.S. TV ad spending will grow 2% to $72.72 billion in 2017 and digital ad spending will grow 15.9% to $83 billion, surpassing TV last year for the first time. More specifically, digital video ad spending will grow 23.7% this year to $13.23 billion. Over 185 million Americans will watch YouTube and YouTube will generate $3.5 billion in net ad revenue in the U.S. and $7.05 billion worldwide. Facebook will have 1.44 billion monthly users worldwide and will generate $36.29 billion in net digital ad revenue, up 35% over last year, equaling a 16.2% share of the worldwide digital ad market and making it the No. 2 ad publisher behind Google. Additionally, Facebook will net $31.94 billion in mobile ad revenue globally, up 42.1% over last year, equating to a 22.6% share of the worldwide mobile ad market. Instagram, which expects to reach 77 million users in the U.S., will generate $3.92 billion in worldwide ad revenue, an increase of 106% over last year, with 75% of Instagram's ad revenue coming from the U.S. 

In February, Tongal surveyed 461 members of its global creative community online. Respondents included: 40% writers; 39% filmmakers and 21% editors and other creatives. Of those surveyed, 50% were 18-34 years old and roughly half were over 35. The top three qualities for creating successful branded content include an entertaining and powerful storyline (97%), funny (91%) and educational (90%). The top pitfalls include weak storytelling (30%), too promotional (23%), unclear message (18%), too long (14%) and poor production quality (11%). Just over half (51%) agree that featuring real people makes them more likely to watch a brand’s video rather than one with a celebrity. Only 30% said a celebrity or influencer makes them more likely to watch a brand’s video and 26% said the inclusion of influencers or celebrities would not make them more interested. As for length, 75% are more likely to watch a branded video that’s less than 30 seconds.  

Photo by Stewart Volland.

Creatives say the biggest incentive to taking on a branded content project is a personal passion for the brand (26%), followed by the freedom to create their own vision (24%). For only 18%, money was the top motivator. YouTube remains the top destination for online video (52%), with Netflix coming in second (25%), followed by Facebook (10%). Bottom line, people want to be entertained and informed and 67% say they’re more likely to watch a branded video if it’s educational and relevant to their unique interests.  

“Data is imperative to our business,” Salvatore explained. “It informs us what we should be making. This is how we learn our audience’s passion and it helps us make more entertaining and useful content. The most important part is quality content. Good storytelling will never go away.”

The average attention span has decreased to a mere eight seconds and viewers can self-select their media experiences with ad skipping and blocking. Per the survey, 42% use ad blockers and 46% of millennials have ad blockers on their desktops and another 31% block ads on their smartphones. YouTube, known for best integrating advertising into organic content, has introduced shorter ad formats and recently announced it will stop supporting 30-second non-skippable ads by 2018.

Consumer choice and a control over media watched has left brands challenged more now than ever, forcing brands to explore what people are choosing to consume and why. Marketers can focus on authenticity and simultaneously build a community by inviting real people who are passionate about a brand to co-create content alongside them. If a company can identify where their audiences spend their time, and develop content that aligns with their behavior and interests on these platforms, the result can be pure gold.  

“We are taking thought leadership to big brands with the goal of letting someone real and authentic tell the story for them. An inauthentic tone does not work,” said Salvatore. “We want to help growing businesses by empowering them.”  

“We represent the democratization of ideas. We believe our model can help get brands and organizations out of their echo chamber and closer to the people in order to break through and solve their real growth challenge, which is not cost, but relevance and connection,” explained Burrell.

“Each person is completely different,” added DeJulio. “Therefore, the mass media model is falling apart. We look at our audience as human beings, not consumers. Our mission has always been to give the talent an opportunity in a level playing field.”  

Every minute more than 200 million emails are sent and received, over 2.5 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook and 215,000 photos are published on Instagram. The amount of content a person sees daily is overwhelming. How does one rise above the noise? Tongal has discovered the answer.  

“Who has the best story to tell?” asked Salvatore. “We are looking for that awesome story. We connect the talent to the opportunity.”

Photo by Stewart Volland.