{"id":2883,"date":"2026-06-24T17:39:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2883"},"modified":"2026-06-24T17:39:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:39:18","slug":"strictly-business-cannes-lions-edition-foxs-rob-wade-and-billy-parks-bet-on-bringing-scale-to-the-business-of-creators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2883","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Strictly Business\u2019 Cannes Lions Edition: Fox\u2019s Rob Wade and Billy Parks Bet on Bringing Scale to the Business of Creators"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tOn a special Cannes Lions edition of <em>Variety<\/em>\u2018s \u201cStrictly Business\u201d podcast, Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade explains why the company is going all-in on the creator economy, launching a division to develop     content and businesses with promising creators who are eager to grow.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2881\">\u2018Ladies of London\u2019 Reboot on Pause at Bravo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nBilly Parks, head of Fox Creator Studios, also lays out the vision for tapping into the very targeted, high fan engagement and influence that creators enjoy but marrying it with the scale and reach that Fox is known for in TV. The effort will incubate talent and concepts for Fox-owned platforms, but the central mission is for Fox to use its heft and expertise to help creators make more money on YouTube, TikTok, in consumer products and all manner of ancillary opportunities.<\/p>\n<p><iframe allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"pmc-protected-embed\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"180\" id=\"pmc-protected-embed-2\" loading=\"lazy\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/strictly-business\/strictly-business-cannes-lions-edition-foxs-rob-wade-and-billy-parks-hope-to-bring-scale-to-the-creator-economy\/embed?media=audio&amp;size=wide&amp;style=cover\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\n\tWade explains that he was inspired to move in this area in part by the prowess that Gordon Ramsay has demonstrated with his many millions of social followers. For Wade, the key is to understand each creator as a mini media empire unto themselves.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI saw the possibility of having revenue in a [production] business rather than just spend, and from there we started to think about other ways we could get revenue: Brands, products, services, IRL events, all of these things,\u201d Wade tells \u201cStrictly Business.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve been very fortunate to have worked for the last 10 years with Gordon Ramsay. Gordon, as well as being a very prolific television producer and host, has a phenomenal amount of social followers. And he creates original content for YouTube. His shows are taken to YouTube and clipped up, and then we distribute them on YouTube. So there is a whole ecosystem of Gordon business on that. On top of that, we we made an investment in a pots and pans company called Hexclad \u2014 which is a phenomenal product if you haven\u2019t tried it.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cWe saw the way that we could use our content to promote and help grow that business. So all of a sudden we had all these pieces falling together. It was content, but there were businesses around that content, and although it felt like there was still a lot of gap to bridge between the two worlds, it felt like the right time to me,\u201d Wade says.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tBefore Parks took the job, he test-drove the business plan by a few sharp creators. <\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI said, \u201cWould you be interested in this?\u2019 And I was so pleasantly surprised by the responses I got from great creators who had really great businesses and were really interested. I didn\u2019t expect them to be but they actually would like support with development of ideas,\u201d Parks says. \u201cWe had a great creator who came in and had a game show idea. They came in with this evidence like \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve tried this on my channel, I\u2019ve tried that on my channel. It\u2019s blown up. It\u2019s been great.\u2019 And they come with a game show idea. Rob and about four or five other people at Fox have a hundred years between them of making these game shows. And I said, \u2018Hey man, do you want to walk down the hall and talk to these people who have all this experience? They\u2019re not here to tell you how to make your show, but they understand the mechanics of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2879\">Ex-Disney CEO Bob Iger Stands by Jimmy Kimmel Suspension and Denies It Was Politically Motivated: His Charlie Kirk Comments Were in \u2018Bad Taste\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tWade and Parks sat with <em>Variety <\/em>on the opening day of the Cannes Lions festival of creativity, where the rise of creator marketing is the single-buzziest topic of the event. While Wade and Parks were being interviewed at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, they were paid a visit by a creator who has recently aligned with Fox Creator Studios. Josh Richards, who was featured on <em>Variety<\/em>\u2018s 2019 Power of Young Hollywood Impact List, explains why he sees value in teaming with Fox even after he\u2019s been building his own platform since he was 13 \u2014 he was even on the forerunner of TikTok.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tDespite the power and immediacy of social media, Richards says he sees \u201ca massive stamp of approval\u201d coming from his association with Fox. He has grand ambition to further develop the sketch comedy series, \u201cRead the Room,\u201d that he has produced for his YouTube channel. And Richards humble about what he doesn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cMoving into the traditional space that Fox [represents] adds that massive stamp of approval that people are looking for,\u201d Richards says. \u201cPeople know Josh Richards and they know Josh Richards for going and filming videos on TikTok or doing a podcast. But when it comes to something like this sketch show and getting into higher production value content, getting into scripted content, there\u2019s a little bit of Josh Richards needing to prove himself to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n<em>\u201cStrictly Business\u201d is\u00a0<\/em>Variety\u2019<em>s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (<strong>Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.<\/strong>) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\n<em>(Pictured top: Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade and Fox Creator Studios head Billy Parks)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2877\">\u2018Supergirl\u2019 Review: Milly Alcock Takes Charge in a Dystopian Superhero Movie So Flat It\u2019s Super-Horrendous<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade and Fox Creator Studios head Billy Parks explain in a Cannes Lions interview why the company is all-in creators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[2436,365,775,2437,2438,2439],"class_list":["post-2883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biz","tag-billy-parks","tag-cannes-lions","tag-daily-variety","tag-josh-richards","tag-rob-wade","tag-strictly-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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