Joint signings highlight growing convergence between creator and Hollywood agencies

RMG and Paradigm’s partnerships mark a shift toward building diverse portfolios that attract varying revenue models, for a more resilient creator-focused business that isn’t reliant on ad revenue or brand partnerships. Mega creators have become celebrities helming various businesses, shaping culture, crafting Super Bowl commercials, and appearing on big screens — agencies that want to push their creators to those heights have to evolve, and that includes working with more diverse talent.

“They are so multifaceted in so many aspects of entertainment that it made [the signings] a no-brainer. For us, culture is super important,” said Jonathan Chanti, CEO and co-founder of RMG.

The team hopes the newly signed talent can help shape culture rather than just respond to it. 

“If you control or influence a portfolio like this, you’re not just responding to media opportunities, you’re creating them, packaging them, and then distributing them across platforms where demand already exists,” explained Matt Barash, chief commercial officer at creative ad tech platform Nova Studio.

Goodrich (who has nearly half a million subscribers on YouTube and TikTok) makes high-quality scripted content that includes official tie-ins with Hollywood blockbusters like The Running Man and cameos by celebrities like Drake. For RMG, he’s a prime example of the kind of creator that transcends the traditional boundaries of content creation and can influence culture around him — and that kind of talent requires an agency to think outside of the traditional methods of monetization.

When asked why he signed with Paradigm and RMG, Goodrich had one word: alignment.

“I’m at a point in my career where I’m not just making content, I’m building toward film and TV. I needed representation that understood both sides of that, the creator economy and the traditional entertainment industry,” he said.

Chanti believes Goodrich’s talent has broad appeal, and that means finding the best opportunities for him, not just chasing brand deals.

“Just because he’s in the ‘creator economy’ doesn’t mean he should be looked at as someone who can only do brand deals. He can apply his lens and his experience to mainstream content that’s going to be going on TV screens and movie theaters, too,” Chanti said. “How can that talent be brought to Hollywood in a way where he can be producing content and maybe even starring in it?”

Chanti told Digiday that RMG first partnered with Paradigm to get a perspective from “the other side of the fence,” as opposed to his agency’s decidedly digital focus. “What’s been great is that they understand amazing talent will emerge from the creator economy. They want to be there to share these people through the system,” he said.

And Paradigm’s range of expertise across various forms of media (movies, literature, Broadway, etc.) means RMG can partner with an agent tailored specifically for one of its creators. “It takes a village to raise these people appropriately,” he said. 

Barash sees this partnership and subsequent signings as a redefinition of how agencies are participating in the creator economy: they’re no longer just buying into creators with large impressions or high-quality engagement.

“Agencies are investing in creators as programmable media assets. Relationships are becoming ongoing rather than transactional, often structured around output, distribution rights, and the ability to extend content beyond its original platform,” Barash explained. 

Building up and out

Flexing into different media spaces means a flexible approach to building up their talent, as well. Chanti told Digiday the team may turn down brand opportunities if they threaten to compromise how Goodrich or Boucher will be perceived outside of the creator economy.

“Let’s map your career out in the biggest way possible, but as we’re working towards making sure you’re prepared for these traditional entertainment elements, in the meantime, let’s help make sure we’re developing your social career appropriately to the point where you’re also going to be taken seriously in those rooms,” he explained. “Sometimes that’s doubling down on areas that maybe are less viral but more talent showcasing. It’s really important that when you’re shaping the career with the aspiration to cross over into traditional media that you’re thinking about all these little things now so the persona and the character that you’re shaping early on doesn’t get diluted.”

Goodrich told Digiday that signing with RMG and Paradigm will help usher him into a new phase while maintaining ties to what helped him grow. 

“I’ve been quietly developing a slate, a dark comedy, a moral thriller, a psychological horror short, while simultaneously evolving what I do on social,” he said. “RMG/Paradigm see the full picture, not just one version of me, and that’s exactly the kind of representation I was looking for.”

Though Boucher’s goals are more focused on getting longer-term brand deals, he hopes his work with RMG will get him more mainstream opportunities, as well.

“[Chanti] is a big thinker, he doesn’t think like your typical creator agent,” Boucher said.

When asked about the revenue share model, an RMG spokesperson told Digiday it’s structured as a “shared-value ecosystem where talent, media, and brand partners participate in the same economic model and are aligned around performance and outcomes.”

RMG and Paradigm are expanding the margins of these creators’ careers, but Barash says there’s an even bigger play here.

“These signings matter more than they appear. RMG and Paradigm aren’t just trying to be “modern talent agencies.” They’re positioning themselves as portfolio managers of IP and attention,” he explained. 

That changes how brands buy into these creators and the content they make. According to Barash, joint signings like this mark the beginning of a “next-gen, creator-driven world” where agencies don’t just buy into creators, but allocate capital across a diverse portfolio, designed to perform across a variety of formats and platforms, at length.

“It gives agencies something they’ve never really had at scale: supply-side leverage through talent ownership and alignment,” he said.