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In 2025, creators aren’t just competing with publishers — they’re building media empires of their own.
“Creators are building an attention inventory that rivals yesterday’s version of "unique visitors,” says Lars Bengston, Chief Content Officer at Havas. “They’re not just influencers anymore. They’re running the new era of publishing media companies, production studios, even branded content labs.”
As a former Vice Media storyteller turned global content lead at one of the world’s largest agency networks, Bengston has a front-row seat to the shifts in branded content — and he’s bringing those insights to Branded Content Days 2025 in New York.
Here he’ll unpack how the creator economy is redefining not just native advertising, but how brands and publishers allocate attention, talent, and trust.
A frontline view of the branded content evolution
Bengston’s journey into branded content began at Vice in the early 2010s — a time when YouTube was still new and “content” hadn’t yet become a marketing buzzword.
“At Vice’s peak, we were winning Cannes Lions alongside Emmys and Peabodys,” he says. “It showed that great storytelling — even the kind done in service of a brand — could still be award-winning, emotionally resonant, and deeply journalistic.”
Vice’s early blend of editorial energy and brand storytelling laid the foundation for what Bengston sees as a timeless truth: “At the heart of every single great brand, there is a story worth telling.”
Watch time is the new currency
Today, Bengston believes the metric that matters most in native advertising is no longer reach or impressions — it’s watch time.
“Over 10 seconds of active viewing can lead to a 30% lift in purchase intent and brand favorability,” he notes. “That’s a material increase no matter which tactic you use. And it’s why we see platforms — and increasingly brands — prioritizing time spent over traditional exposure.”
He points to Vodafone Germany, which optimized its media for attention over impressions and saw a 77% higher sales conversion rate. Or Unilever, which recently announced that 50% of its marketing budget is now going into social media and influencer-led content.
“This is a clear signal,” Bengston says. “Watch time isn’t a soft metric. It’s performance. And creators have figured out how to earn it.”
Thinking like a creator, not just a publisher
For brands — and even more so for legacy publishers — Bengston sees a powerful lesson in the rise of serialized creator content.
“Creators today are building recurring formats that drive audience habits. Weekly shows. Multi-episode storylines. They understand the algorithm — and they build for it.”
He believes this approach to content architecture — consistency, serialization, and editorialising expertise — is the future of branded storytelling.
“I used to say brands should think like publishers. Now I say they need to think like creators.”
Creator partnerships aren’t just scalable — they’re strategic
What excites Bengston most isn’t the mega-creators like MrBeast or Marques Brownlee — it’s the niche creators, the types that can hover around 20,000-100,000 highly engaged followers whose community can spill out of the comments and spark Subreddits and Discord debates.
“Those are 10x more valuable to a brand or publisher than someone with a million disengaged followers,” he says. “That’s where publishers have a huge opportunity — not to compete with creators, but to collaborate with them.”
Publishers are already testing the waters: bringing creators in as columnists, podcast hosts, even co-creators. Bengston believes this kind of co-education — where publishers help creators sharpen storytelling craft, and creators teach publishers new audience dynamics — could be a rising tide that lifts all boats.
A case study in serialized expertise: Shape Shifting
To prove the model, Bengston helped launch “Shape Shifting”, a serialized YouTube series from Havas focused on the white-hot topic of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy.
“We saw this massive conversation unfolding online — but it was full of misinformation,” he says. “We realized what was missing was a science-led, fact-based series that explored the topic from multiple angles: body positivity, fitness, pharma, even food culture.”
The results speak for themselves:
- 2.6 million views in just three months
- An average watch time of five minutes per episode
- Over 1,000 subscribers by episode seven
- Two-way conversations in the comments with health-conscious viewers
“This was our way of showing that if you follow creator principles — optimize for search, serialize your content, and speak with authority — even a relatively unknown (to consumers) health network can build a successful audience across social platforms like YouTube from scratch,” says Bengston.
With thought leaders like Lars Bengston driving the conversation, Branded Content Days 2025 promises to be a must-attend event for anyone serious about the future of branded content and how the creator economy is reshaping native advertising.
Want to hear more? Join Lars Bengston at Branded Content Days 2025 in New York City.
