Making Creator Headlines · Page 9
Coulda Been Becomes More Than a Catchphrase
· New York time
Druski's path to his scheduled Saturday Night Live appearance includes viral Instagram Live broadcasts and the expansion of his Coulda Been brand into entrepreneurship, original programming and strategic partnerships. Tubefilter reports that the performer, Drew Desbordes, has 13.6 million Instagram followers, but his business now involves more than accumulating an audience on one feed. That progression gives the television booking a commercial backstory. A recognizable comic identity can become a framework for multiple projects, allowing audiences and partners to recognize a connection between appearances that arrive in different formats. It also creates a production challenge. A brand carried into programming and partnerships has to remain recognizable without becoming a rubber stamp applied to unrelated activity. Repetition can build familiarity; mere duplication can leave the audience feeling it has purchased the same joke in several different containers. For creators, the concrete example is expansion around an established identity rather than an abrupt abandonment of the work that built attention. The internet career ladder now seems to include a branding department, a production schedule and possibly a second ladder. Going mainstream increasingly involves bringing along the entire set of furniture rather than simply walking through the television studio door.
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