Gen Z Content Studio Founders On Building a Media Business During a Pandemic
THIS JOURNAL BELONGS TO
CALEB CHURCH
After encountering what Charles Letessier calls a “reset” during the COVID-19 pandemic,
the founding group of three came together to create Plainsight Studios; a startup pumping out beautiful imagery that could even make the devil be good for a moment.
7 MINS READ TIME
Working with the likes of Hermès, Chanel, Saie Beauty, and more, Ty Gaskins, Pierre and Charles Letessier are pioneering new ways household brands can make their mark on emerging platforms.
Don’t worry. This threesome isn’t your typical gaggle of Facebook marketers overestimating their creative potential. Their process has a backbone fabricated out of deep knowledge and appreciation for fine art.
Charles Letessier began his journey exceptionally early by interning in the film industry at 16. As a quick learner, he found success there before moving on to the commercial world working on advertisements. It was then, he felt the desire to seek a more creative outlet which led him to photography and ultimately, shooting the still life imagery we see from Plainsight Studios today.
Ty Gaskins, 24, started his career at 18 when he was hired by Paper Magazine as their PR manager, along with helping with their styling department, and social rollout calendar. Having written for Harper's Bazaar, Oda Milan, L’Officiel, and V magazine, Ty brings an editorial background to the team that suits them well for today’s content first market.
Twenty-three-year-old Pierre Letessier, Charles’ brother, started working fairly young as well and comes from a background that is mostly marketing and business-oriented. Having started off at an internship for a company called Proximity Video in France, he wound up handling everything from strategy and growth to influencer activations for various clients. He was then hired by Ralph Lauren overseeing everything from the launch of regional products, to strategy design.
During our conversation, we dug into their respective backgrounds, what prepared them for where they are now, and how to get ahead on social media amid social unrest. Their passion was on full display.
Charles Letessier
Co-Founder, Plainsight Studios
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CC: How did you, Pierre and Ty decide to come together to create Plainsight Studios?
CL: Pierre and I are actually brothers. Right before the covid-19 lockdown started back in March last year, Pierre sort of moved into my apartment. We took a big dive into discovering alternative platforms and realized how powerful they were and how much potential they offer for creativity. I wanted to bridge the gap between the traditional commercial world and the newer alternative platform work. Having known and worked with Ty in the past on fashion editorials, it just really made sense.
CC: How would you define elevated content? There's a very fine line between elevated and overproduced.
CL: I think that “elevated” is something that borders on the side of art. It’s where art meets commerce. When we approach a shoot, we reference a lot of art, we reference a lot of classic photographers, and we infuse that into our work. I think commercial work is fantastic, and we do a lot of it. It's not just what we decide to promote on our personal channels or on our agency channel.
We are very selective with the kind of content that we put out and that we wanna attach Plainsight to. That’s very important to us given that we all come from backgrounds. It needs to look good and we need to feel proud of it.
CC: Where do you find inspiration from in a time like this?
CL: We're a new company, so we have a lot to prove. That's also kind of the fire that fuels us right? We want to keep pushing and show everyone what we can do. We want to cater to our clients with our full attention. We don't just take a project and template it and show it to our team that's gonna do everything that they've done for a similar client. Every client we take in is special.
Ty Gaskins
Co-Founder, Plainsight Studios
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CC: With you and your teammates having started so young, what do you think within your experience really prepared you to step into such large roles so soon?
TY: I would definitely say networking is a big part. I moved to New York when I was 18, so I started right away. I moved here for college and I would go out to parties and meet people. That's basically how I've gotten every job. I've never done a traditional “filling out an application online.” It's always been word of mouth. It's like, “Oh, we have an opening here. We would love for you to come work for us.”
Some kind of background education is necessary to function in a day-to-day work environment, but I would say networking has definitely gotten me to where I am today. It's like I obviously have the work to back it up, but networking and improving yourself and your actual work is very important.
CC: What do you think is getting done incorrectly in the advertising/marketing space? What should we stay away from? What do you want to see die on the internet?
TY: On a wide part level, we really see consumers wanting brands to also relate to morals. From my knowledge, brands haven't really talked about social issues the way they are starting to now, and it's just because the market that they were targeting before didn't really really care to see that from them. Now, consumers want to see that the brands that they're buying from are interested in normal things that are going on in the world. It’s all about relatability.
CC: What advice would you give to a brand as it pertains to participating in advocacy without worrying so much that they might say or do the wrong thing?
TY: They shouldn't participate if they don't believe it because consumers can sniff it out, and I’m sure you’ve seen it. For example, Diet Prada calling companies out for posting a black square but at their corporate structure, we don't see that yearn for change reflecting. You can't just say things without actually taking action.
Pierre Letessier
Co-Founder, Plainsight Studios
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CC: What do you think is getting done incorrectly in the advertising/marketing space? What should we stay away from? What do you want to see die on the internet?
PL: Compassion and authenticity are two things that brands seem to be lacking. I think also, just a general comprehension of your other audience. Traditional digital marketing, such as what we see on Instagram, it caters to a very general audience. It's very formatted.
Gen-zer’s are really good at sniffing out bullshit. They really are. You can't fool us. We'll call you out. We know when something is fishy, and I think brands are slowly starting to understand that.
Gen-zer’s don't want brands to push and pedal products on them. They want a little bit more, they want to be more involved. They want a connection. Ultimately, every brand wants to sell, but they have to think about how to do it in a more elegant/organic way.
CC: We're demanding that brands act like people.
PL: Which is the beauty of these alternate platforms that really humanize brands in a way that couldn't have been done on Instagram, for example.
With optimized content, you're able to give a message in an easier way just because you have so much more of an asset to leverage. For example, people are just tired of having products, and services sold directly. You have an ad in your feed if you have a code. It's like, we get it, we've seen it for years. People are craving this authenticity that comes with brands in a way where, as you say, we wanna see the brand as a person.
It's not only what you're buying, but it's also who you’re buying it from. So the deeper a consumer can connect with that brand, the more loyal they become as a customer.
CC: What do you think really are the drivers of those connections on platforms like TikTok?
PL: Well I think it’s rawness right? And authenticity. There are so many brands that have different takes on it. But [if I] think of a big fashion brand that’s naked, their TikTok is solely based on reposting user generated content. So literally, they're promoting their community making content for them, and then reposting it. They're thriving on that just because they get to show who the consumers are, how happy they are, and essentially, there's some idea that the community is part of that. The consumer is part of their company.
CC: How do you continue to tell meaningful stories on short-form platforms?
PL: It's like the content pyramid, where you take a long-form piece of content, dissect it, and distribute it as smaller pieces on a bunch of different platforms. There are a dozen topics you can talk about. There are also a dozen videos that can reach different audiences.