How Ellen DeGeneres Translates Her TV Brand to Digital

all that from her business. The Generous turns to our next guest, Michael Riley, General manager of Ellen Digital Ventures. Michael, Welcome, Thanks Andrew, and thanks very much to you and a Variety for having me here today. Excellent. Uh, what I want people to understand off the top is people might think when I read that kind of set up, oh, that's cute, she's got a website and a Twitter account, just like everyone else on Earth. But it's so much more than that. So can you lay out really what

Ellen Digital Ventures. I started over a year ago now, but Ellen and her show have been going now for sixteen years, and what's amazing is really to see over that sixteen year period how they've transitioned and how now we are transitioning sixteen years in the television space into these billions of views in the digital world. And exactly to your question, it's sort of in a what we call the Ellen Digital network is is is an amazing

amalgamation of not only across platform followers and subscribers. Were fortunate to actually just recently have achieved we have over two hundred million cross platform subscribers and followers across all of the you know, the key uh platform social media space. So that is just remarkable when you think of you know, obviously there's brands out there like I don't know of uz feed or Revice that have millions and billions of views and all that. But you're building this and I'm

even sure what to say here. Are you building it on the back of Ellen the celebrity or Ellen the show or is that the same thing? It's it's not the same thing, and it's really what it is. It's it's building an organic brand that at its core is about comedy and fun and kindness. And for the most part, it's really about authenticity. And if there's anything that Ellen really celebrates, it's being authentic. And this whole idea of belonging this and if you think about her voice over

sixteen years, her voice continues to get louder. And all of this started as an hour in the daytime world, and I feel I I think that the genius of the alchemy that we have is really the basis of the sixteen years of experience in this amazing daytime show, and it's how are we taking the talent, how are we taking the I P and the franchises that have been built over sixteen years, And that is just a

moment in an hour a day. We can take all of that I P and explode that out into the digital space available twenty four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year, and to your point, it generates over a billion views a month. The only thing that I could think of that sort of comparable

is and it's different. A pretty key way is remember Oprah Winfrey was a daytime personality who didn't build that kind of empire online, although she did some stuff there as well, but she turned all this into a cable network. You guys are really doing the same thing. You just don't have a linear cable now. And I think that's obviously we're thrilled to be in the same category as Oprah, who is obviously one of you know, you know, one

of the best brands here in the US. I think that being in that category, Ellen is unbelievably passionate about not only the digital space, but obviously who she is and the show that she's old in the show and you know, the world that she's created, and exactly to that point, what I love about this space, and particularly over the next few years, I'm very fond of talking about. You know, in the seventies and the eighties, there were basically four networks where you could put all of your

content and all of the advertising was there. In the nineties and the two thousands, a place that I existed in in the cable world that those four networks turned into four hundred networks, and it was about how are you adapting your content and your advertising to be to understand the environment that you're in and just to stop you there, what were you in the cable world? Sure?

So I started my media career with Turner Broadcasting, working in the business development on corporate strategy team building out the Turner Digital brands across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. So that's CNN International or Cartoon Network t n T. And then I moved to the Walt Disney Company to work both for Disney Channels worldwide and then for ABC Family. Now free Form is the as event of ABC Family,

Got it Um? And so for me, it's this world, uh, you know, four networks where you're building brands, and it becomes much more about the environment in the twenties. This opportunity now becomes about these wonderful brands that are being established. And how are we actually taking Ellen, not only the show and the digital brand into this limitless space. How are we creating what is what we call the Ellen

Digital network. How are we creating franchises and I P and bringing talent in there and really connecting in different ways with the consumer across all of these emerging platforms. And well, but there's a question in the in the Oprah comparison, could you argue that Ellen might have been better off going the opera channel route that maybe you don't get billions of views, but there's some cable companies probably willing to pay a lot of money. Why not

have gone that route? Sure? And I think the real opportunity over the next three to five years is looking at what the future holds and placing that. I mentioned this UH when we were talking to different groups, this idea of how are we making sure to be placing these bets in these emerging spaces because we don't know what platforms are going to exist. What we know is the platforms today are going to change into platforms of tomorrow.

And where we feel fortunate is how are we working with this strong brand in order to place that's across all of these different platforms today that doesn't preclude us from making decisions in the future. And I think that is as we look at the changing consumer habits today, as we look at the seismic changes of how people

are actually consuming content on these different platforms. We're thrilled to be working with YouTube around getting our content not only from the show, but also developing new and original I P. We have an amazing show UH called Mom's Planning led by Kristen Bell, who is a new mom who is just absolutely amazing, generated over a hundred and sixty million views. We're actually looking in the digital space

to find new talent. We have UH somebody emerging with us in our in our digital stable called Kaalen Allen, who is actually on the cusp of generating four hundred and fifty million views across all of his different platforms. And these are new voices and new storytellers that we would not always have have been able to get access to.

And these digital platforms are allowing us to serve that up and allowing us to work with them, and then working with those platforms to make those bets in the future. I would also think that making Ellen digital first really helps in terms of demographics, because my guess is, your daytime audience is probably a lot older than the one watching online. I think one of the things that we're fortunate about is obviously the strength of Ellen and the

strength of her brand. And so as we look at the changes in daytime television, Ellen still really is treading, you know, a great path in the daytime space. But where what we love about that digital spaces exactly to your point is how are we bringing on these new audiences gen Z, millennials, millennial moms. And we're really looking to develop Ellen as this broad national and international brand,

and these new platforms allow access to that. I mean, it's interesting if you didn't take that approach, I might say that daytime TV almost could become a graveyard for what would otherwise be a great brand, and now you're sort of realizing the full vision of that brand outside of daytime. Sure, and I actually think it's both together. So to me that when what we see the strength

around such a great brand is all boats rising. So when we have great talent or great guests on the show, or we're right in the midst of twelve days that giveaways right now, which is is a key time for us, we see not only our ratings rise, but we also see all of the boats rise across the digital space. So it's not one platform cannibalizing another platform. What we see is when we are geting it correctly, we see

all of our audiences going up. And we're building out ellen Tube as our owned and operated site, which we've had for five or six years. Now, what we're seeing is not only great audience happening on ellen Tube, but we're also seeing those traditional audiences. And when I say traditional, I mean the traditional audiences on YouTube and on Facebook and on Twitter, on Twitter still continuing to really engage

with our content. And one of the benefits we have as part of the scale that we deliver content at as we have great relationships across all of those platforms, and every day, every month, every year, we're looking to really understand that consumer on that platform and engage them in a way that makes sense and tell stories that

make sense for that platform. You mentioned YouTube. Obviously that's a place where Ellen has a big presence, But how do you manage sort of the cross platform digitally speaking thing. Do you put her out there on Facebook, Instagram, Snap all the rest? Uh, just as much or as is more of a YouTube centric play. No, we we are

absolutely looking across all of the platforms. Actually, interestingly enough, we're one of only two content providers that generate over two hundred million views across all three of the key social media platforms. And so for us that and I

believe that the other one is actually the NFL. What it means is we're developing very close relationships with those platforms, and the way we do it is by looking at our content, and I think it at its core, it's really being in business for sixteen years with the show

that's allowed us to extend that. When you see how we produced the show, how we produce digital content, it's one ecosystem and I think that's the strength of Ellen our ability to leverage what we've learned over sixteen years with true experts in their field, with a brand and a talent in l and that is passionate and authentic. And what it allows us to do is will look every day at which platforms, which stories go where, making

sure that we see all of those boats rise. And as I mentioned, having worked in television for for twenty years, I think that the part of the secret sauce of the Ellen Digital network is it's it's tied to the show itself. And I think that's a real strength for us. And I think one of the things is for us, it's leveraging the strength over sixteen years and bringing that to the space, curating that audience. Testing We're allowed to

test and innovative in a much quicker way. In that digital space we're led we can engage that audience in a much more sophisticated way. Um So to me, it's actually all together, it all works as one ecosystem. And I think that's the power of the Ellen bread And does that brand extend even globally because I wouldn't even have stopped to think of Ellen is more than an American phenomenon. But I guess digital is the very thing

it allows you to look beyond that. I think that's exactly Obviously, the show is distributed all across the world, so Ellen is very well known and recognized in most places across the world. What the digital opportunity allows us to do is break those barriers down even faster, and it allows us to touch those consumers in a number of different ways and really bring the global power of Ellen in the digital space. And it's not just about video content. It's also about how are we launching games?

You know games obviously across both Apple and the Android platforms. Those are global initiatives, and we're in a fortunate situation where we're looking at learning from what we know and then really extending those tentacles everywhere. Before we get to the games, one question though, before I get hyped up on all the sort of digital global goodness of it all, let's not forget that even other properties that have hundreds of millions and billions of views are facing some pretty

steep challenges when it comes to monetization. It's not easy, uh too make a lot of money. So how are you guys dealing with that? Are you insulated in some way that say, a vice or a BuzzFeed is not well,

I think we're inside. And one of the reasons we talked about this ecosystem with both the show, all of the digital platforms are owned and operated and our apps that we're launching is each of those have different monetization opportunities, and as we build a portfolio of assets called the eleven Digital Network, we're also testing and innovating different monetization models. And one of the things that we talk about is

branded content in the future. And the reason I used the example of you know, back in the seventies and the eighties, the advertising was in one was in these four places, and they had a particular form. Here we are in the twenty tents and coming into the twenties, advertising and integration is in a much different form. And we spend a lot of time working with brands that we've had on our show for ten years. How do we innovate with them around branded content, around stories that

they want to tell. We again back to Mom's Planning. We were fortunate to have the new Johnson's Johnson and Johnson be integrated into the Mom's Planning episodes with Kristin bell in very innovative in different ways. We recently launched a show with Total Wireless UM called Fearless led by or Champion by Ashley Graham, and part of that was how are we bringing these advertisers into this new space.

So one is we're working with advertisers across all of the different platforms, which really allows us to be slightly insulated against the change in algorithms, whether Facebook changes their

algorithm or YouTube changes their algorithm. We're actually working across all of the social media platforms and so that allows us some protection around making sure that our views whether they come from our own and operated site, whether they're coming from YouTube, whether they're coming from Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. All of that allows us to be somewhat

protected in that way. And then as we look to innovate around different types of opportunities, we also are looking to produce exclusive content for for platforms as well, which is a different model. We had a show with YouTube which we were very proud of. We've just recently done a show with Leo Michelle and Twitter which was exclusive to Twitter UM. So we're really testing different models as we move forward. And then we want to lean into

the models that are working. And because again this whole idea of being in the business for now sixteen years season sixteen, we look at all of our different platforms and make sure all the boats arising, which insulates us over you know, different industry chanses. By the way, can't all these shows that you're developing, couldn't you be selling them back into TV? Why? Why isn't you know Ellen in Daytime? Followed by Ashley Graham one hour later. Yeah,

you're exactly right. It's it's such one of the things that I love talking about and as I said, I just joined a year ago, is the genius of the format of this show, which really is just all all of the different team members that put it together is exactly what you're talking about. There is a pipeline of talent and content that we've curated over fifteen years, and it's how do we take that talent and do different things every year? And to your point is how do

we then work with new emerging platforms. Take the ike that we own, the stories that we are telling, and then how do we turn those into longer form pieces of content. Absolutely, we would love to look at that in the future. Right now we're focused in the branded content space and working with platforms UM. But what we are always making sure is that we call us you know, the Ellen Digital Studio piece of that, which is we're very much about making sure that as we move forward

that R I P can take different forms. So let's get into gaming. Why. I mean, it's not the most intuitive move, So what are you doing in more? Why are you doing? Sure? Actually, it's as sort of as you look at the sixteen years of l in throughout the seasons in her DNA, it fundamentally is gaming. So there's always, um these amazing games that are played, and

it's much more of a casual gaming style. UM. So five or six years ago, UM, we were in a fortunate situation where we developed the mobile app called heads Up, which is now has forty six million downloads later or just over forty million downloads later, has been hugely successful. It's a game that lots of people globally absolutely love playing.

And we've followed that up by looking at games basically that we play in the show that we want to make sure, uh that we can move into that digital space. And the whole idea is about how are we taking casual game. How are we using the Ellen brand, which is steeped in casual gaming, and how do we introduce that in a world that clearly is emerging, whether it's mobile games, whether it's licensed games that we work with ailans.

We just launched a game called Ellen's Road to Riches, which is basically a slots game that has been hugely successful, and we're on the verge of launching a new app. Actually uh in uh partnership or excuse me, So we're launching a new app in coordination with her primetime show

Game of Games. So the clue is in the title where Ellen loves playing games and we're thrilled to be launching a companion app where that will be a standalone app that will have a collection of mini games and that that feels and looks both like the show as well as what we do on the Ellen Degenera show. You know, feeding all this, It must be Ellen herself as a social media presence. It's obviously, you know, a

very big one. How key is it to sort of supporting all the different pieces of the Ellen puzzle it, I would say it's critical, um and I think that part of the success of not only Ellen Digital network, but all of the cross platforms, followers and subscribers, at its core is about Ellen being authentic to to her audience. And I think one of the things that this two way communication delivers is an ability to bring that authenticity

much closer to the consumer. And clearly social media has been a very very successful tool in order to do that. And I think one of the things people and newer, newer generations as well as older generations, all of them in the social media space can sense in authenticity. And I think at its core what has made Ellen you know, successful in that space is her authentic voice in that world. Hm. Is she the kind of person who is able to really absorb all the kinds of things we're talking about

her business today? She hands on has vision or is it like, hey, I'm the talent. Absolutely not thing happens that she's not aware of, and that she she is the core. She's the core of everything that we do. And one of the things that you see every day coming into work is the passion, the enthusiasm, the authenticity not only about her, but the team around her delivers every single day. And I think that's part of the

success of the brand is that sixteen years later. It's an operation that really is I think UM looking to be innovative, looking to really drive new business models and to really you know, take what has been developed over sixteen years into these new spaces. I mean, from a pure revenue perspective, is the state of this digital business

anywhere near as lucrative as the TV property. It's what we're thrilled about is we see deeper engage more and more people with deeper engagement, with revenue on the rise. And I think for us that's the exciting part is can tinuing to invest in this world. Clearly the future is in these spaces. We don't know. It goes back to one of your original questions. We don't know what the future looks like. What we know is we want to take this innovative brand into these new spaces and

we want to lean into what's being successful. We want to figure out, you know, how to make sure that we are residing at at Any brand's core is about how are you telling stories that engage the audience UM, and whether that's through technology today or whether that's daytime fifteen years ago. All of it is about understanding who you are and how you want to communicate and really, you know, you know, bringing a little kindness to every day.

You know, you say kindness and you say authenticity and comedy those are it sounds like the three stool, the three legs of the ellen Brand stool. I hear that. It says to me wholesome pg um. Is that really the essence of Ellen's success, in the sense that she represents a certain very brand safe kind of comedy. I don't think p G is the right word because I think actually one of the great things through her authenticity is that she gets permission for her to be who

she is. And I think that's one of the things and I don't think PG we don't ever really use the term PG because I think part of her is the realness that comes through. Obviously she's had an amazing career, but it's the real illness that the you know, and there's no other word than authentic. She is who she is, and I think that has allowed her voice to shine through. So as you go forward into anything that we should keep an eye out for from the ellen Brand that

will sort of represent an interesting shift and interesting expansion. Yeah, I think it's really it's we're leaning into the successes we've had in and before that. So, as I just mentioned, we're on the cusp of launching a new mobile gaming app that has an augmented reality feature attached to it, and we're excited to see how that works and how we'll work with the Game of Games primetime show. So well, that means like I can have Ellen look like she's

standing in fact, no, not quite. So it's about how can you use the content that you see on the initially in the television space, but how are we actually developing content and games that use augmented reality to move the gaming business forward? Um So hopefully in the future,

but not right now. Um. And then it's really about how are we leaning into our content studio and our branded content bringing telling stories, telling bigger stories, not only relaunching season three of Mom's Planning with Kristin Bell or a second season with Ashley Graham, but continuing to mind the digital space to find new storytellers that would not

get a voice. And I think that's one of the things that's really exciting about that digital space and Ellen at her core is really about using the show as a platform to bring new talent to new audiences. You define the brand, you define the business. I'm curious, are there things where, let's say, virtual reality that's not Ellen. This is what you know, whether it's a technology or a content format or something that represents something that Ellen

is just not her thing. There's so much I would say, there's never really a moment of no, or since I've been there and it's only been a year, I've never really seen a moment of no. What it's really about is how would we translate our brand into these new worlds or how is it that we're using this new technology or any new opportunities. How do we translate that

into you know, an Ellen world? And I think it has to be organic, it has to be authentic, and at our core, we were always looking to be innovative, to be cutting edge um and we're always open to everything. We actually just launched a podcast in September, and we did it in a slightly different way. We actually have the executive producers of the show as the hosts of it, giving a much more behind the scenes opportunity for to get a deeper engagement into the show that people have

known for sixteen years. And it's been a really fun combination of not only Ellen experiences, but now the people around that as well, and it allows real Ellen fans and actually broad fans of just you know, what we're doing to get a much better understanding. And that's just a different spin on something. You know. Obviously, podcasts are an important medium as it continues to grow. I think, you know, we're excited to be in that space and

tested out and lean into you know, these new opportunities. Well, it sounds like you've got a lot of irons in the fire. Appreciate you walking me through every piece of the Ellen Empire. It's a really exciting for us to be here. It's exciting for me to tell the story because I really do. I love this idea of limitless opportunity.

Having been in cable for fifteen years, this is something that's exceptionally new and I think that if we can be a part of this growth, we're going to take this brand into you know, uncharted territory and I think I'm pretty excited. Terrific, Thanks again for your time. Great, Thank you, Andrew. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Strictly Business. Come back next week for another podcast and Trees sit down with some of the brightest minds and entertainment