INTERVIEW
The Golden adventure began in 2012 under the name of Golden Mustache with youtubeurs as emblematic as Hugo alone, Monsieur Poulpe or McFly and Carlito. Since these jokes on the Internet intended for "digital natives", the studio has evolved, renamed Golden, and has embarked on a strategy of diversification of its offer, wishing to do "infotainment". This is what the director general of the studio, Adrien Labastire, tells at the microphone of Europe 1.
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"News in all its forms"
Belonging to M6, Golden is the first digital studio entirely dedicated to millennials, with ten million subscribers. For the first time, one of their creations will compete in a series festival, Série Mania. This content creation studio is aimed at new generations, whose distribution is mainly concentrated on social networks. "We mainly make videos. We started with sketches, but we also do reports, documentaries, magazines or tutorials", explains the boss of Golden.
"When I try to explain to my mother what Golden does, I tell her that we are a media for young people, which deals with current affairs in all its forms," says Adrien Labastire. "At the beginning we started with humor, with Monsieur Poulpe or McFly and Carlito, and then in 2015 we had made a first content on ecology with Nicolas Hulot. We had made a sketch to support him in his fight on the COP21: The feedback was so positive, there was so much engagement at the time that we realized that it was an opportunity, while keeping an entertaining tone because we are not journalists per se , to talk about social issues that affect us and that are those of our generation, "says the director of the studio.
This shift towards information has made Golden lose his mustache. "It was like comedy. We want to broaden the spectrum and do 'infotainment': we talk about real, serious things, but in an entertaining tone. On the internet, it's easier to grab people's attention with humor, "says Adrien Labastire.
Different consumption
Their target: millennials. "A priori, it designates people who are under 30," said the director of the studio. "There is a consumption that is different, they watch the media a lot on their phones. YouTube represents 60% of audiences. It is an audience more sensitive than previous generations to a certain number of themes, such as ecology, l 'eco-responsibility, or empowerment ", details Adrien Labastire. "We try to address them with themes that please them, in a form and a mode of consumption that corresponds to their uses," he continues. The Golden studio is associated with Facebook Watch, Facebook's video platform, to disseminate its content to as many people as possible.
For its director, the asset of the Golden studio lies in the creativity of talents. "We try to emphasize creativity and give freedom to the talents with whom we work". Among these talents, there are big names in humor 2.0. "We started out from comedy, we have a lot of people from the stand-up world. We push them towards creative freedom, without formatting them too much," says Adrien Labastire.
The Golden studio is currently producing a new program presented by the humorist Hugo alone. "One of the histories of YouTube which started with Norman, Cyprien or Kemar", explains the director of Golden. "He is very young but already has ten years of internet behind him". The program is called Fail , and offers personalities to reconsider their failures, and how to recover from them.
Two prime time TV productions to come
One of the Golden productions, the mini-series Couronnes was selected in the short format category at the international festival Séries Mania which will take place in Lille from March 10 to 28. A consecration for the studio. "We are extremely proud and grateful. Séries Mania is an incredible festival, with extraordinary diversity and quality of content," says Adrien Labastire. "The team of Couronnes is very small, it was produced with a limited budget, there is some resourcefulness. But what is nice, is that we could not see this series on television today, by its theme, its tone, what it says ", he explains.
The Golden studio has therefore largely begun its evolution towards wider content and audiences. He also produces around 200 hours of television per year, with documentaries, board games, and fiction. "We are accelerating very strongly as a producer. We are going to launch our first two fiction productions in prime time on M6", says Adrien Labastire.