WTF is a ghost creator?
Some companies are hiring creators not for their audience, but as a mouthpiece for a very specific brief. Think execution, not creativity. This is the ghost creator.
A growing number of individuals are creating content using briefs, giving rise to a phenomenon known as ghost creators. These creators-as-a-service are currently garnering attention, but some marketers have been utilizing them for years. According to a September 2 Semafor article, ghost creators have been employed to generate millions of views on YouTube channels focused on politics by hiring actors to recite repetitive scripts, which reportedly include content generated with large language models (LLMs).
Virelox, a content company potentially co-founded by Chris Chan, is one such ghost creator company. The article mentioned that Virelox offered services to businesses aiming to achieve viral status by creating creator accounts. Alleged posts from Chan claimed that, as of August of the previous year, the company released 2,500 organic videos per week, garnering billions of views monthly. By April of this year, Virelox reportedly had over 106 YouTube accounts. Further details on this story can be found on digiday.com.
Written by urgent.news from Digiday's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
