Top Influencers’ Secret Weapon for Engagement Might Be Replaced by AI
Major influencers including Druski, Bobbi Althoff and Clavicular have relied on armies of social media clippers to maximize their audience.
Screenshots/YouTube
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It wasn’t quite The Social Network, but Evan Stanfield knew he had to leave the University of Kansas when his income exceeded a few hundred thousand dollars.
Last year, the 20-year-old dropout founded a marketing agency, Clipping Culture. Despite sounding like a barbershop, the startup focuses on slicing and dicing videos into bite-sized social media clips. Stanfield doesn’t edit these himself; instead, he pays thousands of freelancers to make shortform videos and post them to their social media accounts.
“It’s the most organic way to blow up on social media right now,” he says, redefining the word organic. Thanks to the rise of algorithmic feeds, clipping has morphed into the creator economy’s version of wheatpasting. One talent manager equated it to dishing out free samples at an ice cream store, with the hopes of convincing TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts users to try creators’ longer videos.
But what once was an industry dominated by extremely online hobbyist editors could now cut out the very people who built it. As artificial intelligence transforms labor, some marketers are relying on the technology to edit, produce and post their content — without any humans in the loop.
Last year, iHeartMedia tapped Overlap, an AI video-clipping company, to take its library and blanket social media with clips from its hosts. While clipping assignments regularly tap networks of earthlings, the podcasting conglomerate mobilized agents — the AI-powered ones, not CAA — to produce and publish clips.
Clavicular
Screenshots/YouTube
Other creators, including influencer-wrestler Logan Paul and YouTuber Mark Rober, have used OpusClip, another AI-powered tool. That service allows users to upload longform videos, instantly produce shortform clips and post them automatically.
Not everyone wants to trim human clippers from budgets. Zach Justice, a popular podcaster, says clippers’ gut instincts are often helpful for virality. “They’re digital hunters. They’re good at their skill set.”
When Justice co-hosted his podcast, Dropouts, he often used Whop, the $1.6 billion online marketplace, to recruit clippers. Beyond flooding TikTok and other social media services with his videos, the clippers’ posts allowed him to see what type of content succeeded with audiences. He used those insights to determine which clips he posted on his personal page, knowing those videos would likely have higher engagement.
The war for attention has led to a boom in clipping, with some creators vying for a Netflix-billboards-on-Sunset-level land grab. Justice once spent about $50,000 in one month for clippers to boost Dropouts. “Since it’s all algorithm-based, people aren’t really seeking out these things anymore,” he says. “It’s very hard for people to take a chance on an hour of someone they don’t know.”
Like any gold rush, the clipping boom has meant decent paychecks for little lift. Stanfield says some of his teenaged clippers have made thousands of dollars, while Whop CEO Steven Schwartz estimated his service has paid out tens of millions to these virality specialists. February marked clipping’s highest-grossing month on Whop, according to a company spokesperson.
Bobbi Althoff
Screenshots/YouTube
Stanfield and clipping agencies often post guidelines on the types of videos clippers should post in exchange for a price per thousand views. Most campaigns only pay clippers if they meet a minimum view count. Some of the creator-led projects clippers have amplified include ones led by podcaster Bobbi Althoff, former FBI director Dan Bongino, comedian Druski and radio host Bobby Bones. MrBeast — YouTube’s biggest star — launched his own clipping platform last year.
The strategy has helped turn lesser-known creators into household names. Take Clavicular, the 20-year-old chiseled livestreamer who shot to fame this year. Kick, the livestreaming platform, boosted his visibility by dishing out more than six figures per month to clippers on Clavicular’s behalf. “One day he wasn’t on our For You Page, and then the next day he was — because of clips,” says Stanfield.
What makes clipping a valuable marketing tool is that paid campaigns are often indistinguishable from fan uploads. It also points to social media’s changing role in users’ lives. Gone are the days of being friend-first platforms. “