“The power of new original voices to excite and delight the world is what I love about our business,” said Jeremy Zimmer CEO of United Talent Agency. He touched on UTA clients like Mike White and Bad Bunny that only recently rose in popularity, but continue to make the agency proud.
Zimmer sat down at the Variety Studio presented by Canva at Cannes Lions to talk about the state of the entertainment industry and streaming post-pandemic — and what this means for talent.
With the ongoing WGA strike, Zimmer believes it will be a slow year for production. “Streamers, studios, etcetera need to rethink the compensation of writers,” he said.
As for talent, he urges them to utilize these lulls in production: “My advice is to use this time to write that great script you’ve always wanted to write. Use this time to read great books that might be worthwhile turning into movies and television. And use this time when you’re not on the endless work wheel to think about the career you might want to have if you weren’t working all the time.”
Aside from individuals, UTA represents brands like Delta, Coca Cola and Google and helps match them with platforms to provide desired content, ads and support for streaming programs. “It’s connecting clients, platforms and finance, and brands have long been an important part of the financial structure of the content ecosystems and creativity,” said Zimmer.
He explains that for a long time, television was supported by brands through commercial advertising, but with streaming, that hasn’t really been so much case. “Our job is to help manifest those relationships in an optimal way,” he said.
When asked about which platforms were winning the streaming wars, he was certain that in some way, they all are. “I don’t know if there are any losers because the appetite for content on a global basis is so tremendous and continues to grow,” Zimmer said. “And as long as that audience keeps growing, the people in the business are going to have a lot of opportunities.”
