Jordan Schwarzenberger has spoken to NME about content-creating, his career and his experience managing the YouTube collective, the Sidemen.
Earlier this month, the successful creative strategist was interviewed as a part of Confetti Institute of Technologies’ annual Industry Week, bringing together experts in music and technology to share their stories with the next generation of creatives.
The 26-year-old started as a Junior Creative at youth-focussed media platform VICE at age 17 and spent his summer after secondary school working there – where he realised he didn’t want to go to university because he “felt it in [his] bones, it was going to be a waste of time.”
“All the way through my time at school [I did stuff] on the side, like I built projects, I started a clothing brand, I’d launched a music thing,” he explained. “I’ve done all sorts of creative projects, so it seemed perfect.”
He later began working at LADbible and helped launch their creative agency JOYRIDE. At the latter, he led the creative content strategy for many brands including Amazon, Activision, Pepsi Co. and Sony.
In April 2021, Jordan co-founded Arcade Media with former talent director Aaron O’Neil to manage the Sidemen, a digital YouTube group consisting of Josh Bradley, Simon Minter, Tobi Brown, KSI, Ethan Payne, Vikram Barn and Harry Lewis. Since then, Schwarzenberger has helped the biggest creator collective in Europe create several seven-figure businesses such as an alcohol brand (XIX Vodka), a fried chicken restaurant called Sides and their membership platform Side+.
“In the UK, management [seems] very transactional, all about brand deals, how can you make the quickest buck?” Schwarzenberger revealed. “But for the Sidemen, they don’t really need that. These guys obviously have a lot of money, they’re cash-rich. So how can you do something more? How can you build a legacy with them?”
Speaking of how the UK was still feeling the after-effects of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Schwarzenberger said: “The conversations we had with the guys on Zoom [saying], ‘Look, there’s an opportunity for you guys to do something a lot more than what you’re currently doing. You’re smashing it on content [firstly] like eight million [subscribers] at the time, and you’ve also got your amazing merch brand [called] Sidemen Clothing; killing it.’ Don’t get anything wrong on that. It was amazing, but that was it.”
He went on to reveal that before going ahead with the planning of their now fruitful business ventures, the Sidemen had to consider “how do we think bigger? How do you apply intellectual property and brand-building into this mix?”
The Sidemen recently dropped a new breakfast cereal called Best and attempted to get a UK Christmas Number One in 2022 with the drill-inspired ‘Christmas Drillings’ that featured grime legend JME that December.
Check out our full interview with Schwarzenberger below, where he shares his advice for the next generation of content creators.
NME: Hello Jordan. How do you manage to juggle so many disciplines?
Schwarzenberger: “For me, it was a case of experimenting a lot when I was at school. I think it starts earlier than we all think. A lot of the time, it’s from university onwards for people to be like, ‘Oh what am I doing?’ In reality, school is the biggest waste of time for most people in terms of the opportunity to get good at things.
“I think kids these days are realising that: you see 14, 15-year-olds winning Fortnite competitions, making millions or [are] YouTubers. They understand [the belief of], ‘Actually, why wait?’ So you got to try loads of different things, figure out what you’re good at, what you really love doing, and then you double down on that and get good at it.”
How does this translate into you managing the Sidemen?
“Managing the boys is a combination of everything that I’ve ever done personally. It’s everything from networking and building relationships with people in business, because that’s how you access opportunity, to then creative ideation and design strategy. How do you take a concept and develop a critical path to go and execute it? Do you know the right people to pull in? Can you delegate? All those things are really skills that I’ve been building for the last how many years.
“The best definition of management came from the former CEO of YMU (a big management company in the UK). He said that management is about making things happen that otherwise wouldn’t. In other words, you need to be proactive and turn nothing into something – that’s what a manager does. A manager isn’t somebody who just checks your inbox, replies to brands and negotiates fees because you can pay a lawyer or anyone to do that. A manager is somebody who can truly create from nothing and [I believe] that’s why creativity is at the heart.”
What’s your advice for navigating the internet?
“So from a professional perspective, I think [you should] navigate the internet in a discerning way. Don’t just take everything as truth. There are a lot of people out there trying to build personal brands and careers as experts in things, so follow the people who’ve actually gone and done it rather than the people who are just saying, ‘This is how you do something’.
“From a personal perspective, it’s just about limiting, staying in the real world and realising that the digital world online is, in many ways, a distraction from growing and actually developing as a person.”
What tips do you have for people who want to get into the media industry?
“I’d say you need to have skills. It’s not enough to want to get in, you actually have to work at building a skill set in something and multiple skill sets in intangible things. For example, [with] creativity, ideation isn’t about necessarily the ideas, it’s about how do you communicate those ideas in a way that others can understand – whether you’re an editor, a music artist, whatever it might be. All of the networking and everything you do to help you can only amplify what you have in terms of your raw skills.”
What is the best thing to do to get yourself out there?
“Networking is the number one thing. Try and make yourself present at events. It’s hard and I know it’s expensive with train fares and everything else, but try and get down to a few a year if you can. It’s a better investment than going out on a Friday night, I can tell you that much.”
In your presentation, you said that it’s important for creators to adapt, and that if you don’t adapt you’re going to get left behind. Can good management help those unable to adapt fast enough?
“Ultimately, if they can’t do that themselves, they shouldn’t have management. I believe that 95 per cent of creators don’t need management. Most creators need an agent. Somebody can make them brand money, but management is only when you’re really in that top tier. That’s when it’s properly justified. At Arcade, we’re 100 per cent in on the Sidemen. We’re fully exclusive both ways. It’s a full-on relationship, it’s a marriage there [and] it’s because they’re just that big that they warrant it.”
Is AI something creators should be scared of?
“It’s not like anyone’s going to be replaced by it as such, it would just be that the people using it will accelerate and become faster than everybody else. So I would use it as an efficiency tool. I don’t know why anyone would not want to be more efficient in their job, especially when everything’s digital and you can speed up efficiency by using platforms like Descript or whatever for podcasting, as an example. I think just use it and make the most of it because it’s great to have all these tools for free off and online that can make you so much better at your job.”
You spoke about the creator economy – what is that?
“The creator economy is still the brand economy. It all comes back to brands, fundamentally, and that’s where it falls down because the minute brands start to spend less, the whole economy starts to fade away.
“The reality is the only true businesses are the ones that have a direct relationship with their consumer. And when you have that direct relationship and the ups and downs of the brand economy [don’t] dictate your business, then you have value.”
What’s next for you and the Sidemen?
“We’re launching a venture capital fund. The idea [for it] is to invest both the Sidemen’s capital as well as other creators and other funds into exciting businesses that the Sidemen can add value to and that they can hopefully help. So that’s coming (I think) at the end of March.”
NME also spoke to world-renowned songwriter-producer Guy Chambers at Confetti’s Industry Week, where he discussed his experience working with Robbie Williams. Additionally, the broadcasting champion Trevor Nelson shared his tips on how to get into the industry.