YouTube’s top creator and gaming executive wants live video moved from a side experiment to a core part of a creator’s programming mix. Speaking Wednesday at TheWrap’s TheGrill 2026 conference at the DGA Theater Complex, Kim Larson, managing director and head of the Creator and Gaming Team at YouTube, said the format does something edited video cannot easily replicate.
Her reasoning is direct: audiences are looking for authenticity, and live removes the distance between creator and fan. In Larson’s words:
Do not sleep on live.
She said creators who add live to their repertoire see it supercharge their fandom and create a close connection that is hard to quantify. Larson also warned that the format is not for everyone because there is no editing safety net, but called it a powerful medium for those who can handle it.
For entertainment marketers, that is a signal to think of live as a retention layer, not a reach tactic. The payoff may show up in comments, repeat viewing and community strength before it appears in a dashboard.
Equity deals: choose meaning over momentum
Olivia Ferney, the travel creator behind the travelwithlivii account, told the same panel that creators should slow down before signing equity deals. Ferney said she has been offered roughly 11 or 12 such arrangements and is now signing her first, with AI assistant company Tab. Even then, she separates AI as a business tool from AI in her content.
Her warning to other creators: do not take ownership in 20 companies expecting a fast exit. Ferney said some of that trade-off can mean leaving guaranteed money on the table. She urged creators to look at every agreement and to join only projects that mean something to them.
For brand-side readers, the lesson cuts both ways. Equity can align a creator’s incentives with a brand for longer, but it also ties a campaign to a startup’s survival odds. Standard fees may be safer for creators and less complicated for brands.
The gap between creator ROI and creator budgets
Jo Cronk, co-CEO of Whalar, put the commercial case behind the creator economy. Done well, she said, creator advertising can deliver a return of 2.4 on ad spend, compared with a typical 1.2 for TV. That is a two-times advantage, yet Cronk said the creator economy is tracking to be worth $44 billion by the end of this year while still representing only 3.9% of all advertising spend.
- Live: use it to deepen fandom, but expect an unpolished format that suits only some creators.
- Equity: pursue it when a project is strategically meaningful, not because it is a trend.
- Spend: measure creator buys against the 2.4 vs 1.2 ROI gap, not vanity reach.
Cronk also sees creators moving into brand consultant roles in the next 12 months, with more direct knowledge of communities than many media channels can offer. Larson said the shift is already visible: brands now come to YouTube asking which creators fit an audience and a set of marketing goals, a change she said has built over the last 18 months.
The takeaway for planners is straightforward. The creator economy is growing faster than the ad dollars following it, and live is one of the few formats that can convert reach into a more durable fan relationship.
Source: TheWrap
