Influence and AI: Interview with Ricky Ray Butler, CEO of Branded Entertainment Network

I recently went one on one with Ricky Ray Butler, CEO of Branded Entertainment Network. In 2009, Ricky Ray founded Plaid Social Labs, one of the first influencer marketing agencies — which was later acquired by Bill Gates in 2015. Ricky is now the CEO of Bill Gates’ BEN, the world’s largest entertainment AI company. BEN is the company behind many major brands’ cameos in music videos and lyrics, Hollywood films, TV shows, and influencer campaigns, utilizing cutting-edge AI + machine learning.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Ricky Ray: I recognized the potential of influencers in the early days of social media, and I was drawn to empowering creators to continue creating meaningful art by providing avenues to monetize their content. In 2009, I founded Plaid Social Labs, a company focused on building an active community of brand advocates through trust and credibility. Through Plaid, I helped some of the industry’s biggest names sign their first brand sponsorship deals.

At the time, influencer marketing was considered unorthodox — brands and agencies frequently laughed us out of rooms, claiming the content was unprofessional and raw. Plaid helped to dispel this narrative and developed a steady revenue stream for influencers while allowing brands to expand their reach authentically and effectively. We were not exclusive to any creator and were willing to take chances on young, promising talent, which allowed us to forge long-standing relationships with top influencers, like David Dobrik and MrBeast. Forbes even referred to me as YouTubers’ “favorite rich uncle” because my work brought “brands to the table who want to sponsor YouTubers.” When our earliest influencer marketing campaigns sold out retail stores, I instantly recognized the unlimited potential held by the influencer community.    

In 2015, I sold Plaid to BEN, an entertainment AI company that integrates brands into influencer, streaming, TV, music, and film content, and was named CEO shortly thereafter. Since then, BEN has grown to be the world’s largest entertainment AI company, leveraging deep learning neural networks to help discover new, up-and-coming creators and vet established personalities to help solve complex marketing problems for the world’s largest brands. With the decentralization of content and audiences flocking to platforms, both social and streaming, influencer marketing and product placement will increasingly become integral to the future of entertainment and content creation, and I’m proud to play a role in its next iteration.

Adam: How did you come up with your business idea and know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with and test a business idea?

Ricky Ray: In the early 2000s, I was struck by the untapped potential of first-wave influencers gaining digital prominence — social content was producing millions of engaged views, but the influencer marketing industry did not yet exist. Before Twitter or Instagram had even arrived on the scene and before third-party MCNs had emerged, I started working with influencers on Facebook and MySpace to identify opportunities and develop strategies to productize and monetize their unique content.

My experience founding and selling Plaid and leading BEN has demonstrated the importance of trusting your gut and building a company you’re truly passionate about. Even when others had their doubts, I knew the potential for influencer marketing was there and trusted my instincts. That was one of the best decisions I ever made.

To bring my vision to life, I saw the potential for AI and deep learning neural networks in influencer marketing. I made investments in both technology and my team early on to test and grow that belief. Throughout my entire career in the influencer marketing space, I’ve consistently believed in the importance of a creator-first and data-driven philosophy. It’s not only proven fruitful for BEN, but has added endless impact for both brands and creators looking to create inspiring content and forge authentic connections with audiences.

Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to grow and scale their businesses?

Ricky Ray: To grow your business, you need to be certain that there’s an appetite for your offering. When I first founded Plaid Social Labs, I was confident that there were many untapped opportunities in the marketing space, especially as influencers and social media gained prominence in the mid-2000s. I knew that brands would soon need to capitalize on this growing ecosystem if they wanted to be successful. Before I even scaled my company, I had a clear idea of the problem I wanted to solve and the steps that I needed to take to make that happen. 

The other key to effectively scaling your business is to ensure that your company always stays true to its core mission and ethos, even as the landscape around you is changing. Knowing the difference between a strategic pivot and a knee jerk reaction is critical, a distinction which has enabled us to capitalize on major shifts in the industry. As our company grew and the industry evolved, I made sure that the reasons I founded Plaid Social Labs remained central to our mission – empowering creators, leaving a footprint on history, and continually innovating – are still authentic to BEN today. 

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

Ricky Ray: An effective leader needs to be authentic and bold. At BEN, we talk about authenticity a lot: to be successful, brands need to be authentically integrated into content. But I think this quality extends to leaders as well; every decision a leader makes has to ladder up to a company’s core mission and values. With authenticity, you are able to lead with boldness — exploring all perspectives and opinions, synthesizing the data to determine the best course of action, then taking responsibility for a decision, even if that decision is an unpopular one. Bold leadership requires an honest feedback loop — you can’t be an effective leader if you’re stagnant. Continue to look for ways that you can innovate, push the boundaries, and explore unconventional solutions.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?

Ricky Ray: As cliché as it sounds, open, honest communication and feedback is the backbone of a strong team. Creating a team culture around open communication is a must — team members need to feel like they can celebrate their triumphs, discuss challenges, and air frustrations in a setting that is safe and receptive to feedback. In a world where change is the only constant, it is critical to ensure that all team members, regardless of how junior they may be, have a voice and feel empowered to share ideas and perspectives. This is especially true in entertainment, where the more junior team members often have a highly discerning and knowledgeable perspective.

Adam: What should leaders understand about AI and machine learning?

Ricky Ray: AI and Machine Learning are powerful tools that can be used across a variety of business functions and operations. But there are important considerations associated with using technology this powerful — algorithms are only as good as the underlying data, training sets, and guardrails that guide them. When working with AI and ML, it’s incredibly important to ensure that all your data and algorithms are clean and represent an unbiased view of a particular function. That requires a deep understanding of the potential implications of your technology in making decisions autonomously, and constantly iterating to make your algorithms run smoothly. Additionally, leaders should understand all that glitters is not gold — just because you may be partnering with an AI or ML solution does not mean that the solution is applicable to your business. Leaders must be wary of solutions that leverage buzzwords as a pure marketing play rather than providing true business value. This philosophy has empowered not only our clients and creators, but has been a game changer in scaling BEN.

Adam: What should leaders and marketers understand about influencer marketing?

Ricky Ray: Each year, the average audience member becomes more ad-averse, leveraging technology such as ad blockers, ad skipping, and incognito online browsing. On top of that, social media use continues to increase every year, with 3.8 billion social media users worldwide as of January 2020. 

The amount of social media content is staggering, with more than 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube each minute, and tens of millions of photos and videos added to Instagram each day. The vast majority of social media content (88%) comes from influencers themselves (not brands, studios, or networks), and far surpasses all streaming networks and television viewership combined.

The data demonstrates that influencers are tastemakers in the entertainment industry and true celebrities with serious star power. We’re also seeing the lines blur between “influencers” and “traditional celebrities,” with social media creators earning record deals and TV spots and Hollywood actors spending more time connecting with fans on social platforms.

Taken together, the prevalence of social media and the influence of the social media star mean that brand executives and marketers should focus their advertising budgets on influencer marketing across social platforms. Social media content has become a staple in audiences’ daily lives, and it will only continue to grow. 

To stay ahead of the curve, marketers need to recognize this shift in preferences and work to make influencer marketing a core component of their toolbox. They should also turn to AI technology and customized algorithms to help them make targeted, data-driven decisions on the influencers to partner with that will best reflect a brand’s voice and values. These partnerships will result in authentic campaigns that will allow brands to connect with audiences in the most effective way. 

Adam: How are tech and culture impacting the entertainment ecosystem?

Ricky Ray: Today’s audiences are watching content across more platforms and channels than ever. Instead of broadcast networks or movie theatres being the only options to see new releases, the majority of content is available on streaming and social media platforms every day. This means that content creators and independent studios have more opportunities to share their art and make a career out of their passions. Viewers are able to find any type of content across any genre at any point in time, with an ocean of options at their fingertips. These developments are all interconnected — the more audiences decide to watch a certain type of content, the more of that content will be made. This decentralization of entertainment puts the power in creator and audience hands, with more avenues to create and watch meaningful content.  

Technology has supported this rapid change in the industry by giving creators the tools they need to produce quality content, and it’s also enabling monetization like we’ve never seen. Using AI technology, brands are able to evaluate the space based on data rather than relationships. From there, they can decide the best places to execute non-disruptive advertising like product placement, supporting creators without interrupting content. When it comes to influencer marketing for brands, this AI-driven strategy helps guarantee ROI on each campaign, seamlessly connecting with viewers where they are. This is great for audiences, who are becoming increasingly ad-averse over time; for creators, who use the monetization to grow their channels and produce the content they love; and for brands, who will find fresh, impactful avenues to reach and viewers.

What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?

Ricky Ray: First and foremost, data driven systems and processes are key to running a successful organization. Businesses have unprecedented amounts of data at their fingertips, along with the technology to analyze and act upon it. I think it’s important that leaders across organizations rely on these tools and systems to ensure that the right decisions are being made based on empirical evidence, and not speculation or gut feelings. I’d also encourage leaders to listen to every idea, regardless of how junior an employee may be — each individual brings unique experiences and perspectives to the table, and their contributions can drive innovations in organizations that might have never come into fruition otherwise. In fact, the more junior an employee is, the closer to the data they often are — the best decisions will always be those that are a combination of data and perspective. Finally, I’d advise any person in a leadership position to engage in continuous conversation with their clients and/or consumers, ensuring alignment in a world evolving at an unprecedented rate of change. Through proactive engagement and ongoing optimization, we are able to unlock breakthroughs that can best serve our clients, transforming businesses and even industries.

What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Ricky Ray: The best piece of advice I’ve ever received was as the newly appointed CEO to BEN. Coming from my Plaid days as a scrappy do-it-yourself entrepreneur, I had centered my focus on growing the business and achieving profitability, wearing multiple hats and filling a myriad of roles. Once we were acquired by BEN, I learned that in order to achieve the next level of growth for the business, I needed to focus on scaling my leadership team, strategically positioning each individual to best leverage their strengths. As such, I make it a priority to empower my direct reports through coaching an effective and unique leadership structure to scale themselves and their respective business units.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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