Chanel Simmons has joined Motion Society as the company’s new U.S. boss, taking on the role of Managing Director, U.S. The company represents roughly 650 creators and delivers over 30,000 videos per month, among them Jesser, Stephen Sharer and Lizzy Capri.
With a decade behind her in the creator economy, Simmons has moved through digital channels at Fullscreen, Meta and Spotify. At Fullscreen, she took charge of YouTube syndication before turning to FaZe Clan’s owned channels business and a 50-strong creator roster.
She went from Meta to Spotify, where her work centered on digital content partnerships, onboarding creators, and assisting creator service providers in expanding their YouTube video programming onto Spotify.
The Role At Motion Society
Simmons takes charge of a content lab business at Motion Society that evaluates concepts to pinpoint where a given piece of content stands the best chance of making an impression. The firm employs a proprietary operating system to hasten the processes for its 50+ staff. This arrangement is meant to free up their time for creative and strategic planning on behalf of Motion Society’s creator partners.
To shape its OS, the company draws on performance data from platforms, giving staff insight into how thousands of videos have performed across each one.
Why Simmons Chose Motion Society
“During my time at Spotify, Motion Society consistently stood out,” said Simmons. “The team understood the needs of both creators and platforms and came to us with a deeply informed point of view on how creator content could succeed on Spotify. What impressed me most was the combination of strong creatives, platform expertise and the technology they built that allows their team to focus more time on strategy and the content itself.”
Founding The Company
Thomas Subra leads Motion Society as its CEO, with Jean-Loup Fraudin serving as COO and Lucas Falga working as CPO and engineer. The company was established in 2022 by Martin Belotti, who created LADB Restoration.
Belotti was joined by Subra, Fraudin and Falga, who gave up their work in finance and engineering to found the company. The three of them secured seed funding for the development of the proprietary operating system that now runs their business.
“Motion Society was inspired by a problem I ran into while growing my own channel,” said Belotti. “Even as I reached more than one million subscribers, I was still mostly operating it on my own. I could see more value in the content I had already made, but expanding it across platforms required the time and expertise I didn’t have. I wasn’t willing to give up quality and control of the content just to grow. So we set out to build the partner I had been looking for.”
The Numbers Behind The Hire
- Founded: 2022
- Staff: 50+
- Creators served: Around 650
- Videos distributed monthly: More than 30,000
- Notable creators: Jesser, Stephen Sharer, Lizzy Capri
- Former employers: Fullscreen, Meta, Spotify
What The Hire Brings To Motion Society
Motion Society gains a leader who has spent years working with the very platforms her new job will involve distributing to. Simmons’s time at Fullscreen, Meta and Spotify gave her hands-on familiarity with the syndication and partnership systems that Motion Society already runs.
After Subra, Fraudin and Falga left finance and engineering, they built the company with Belotti, and seed funding helped create the proprietary operating system that powers Motion Society’s operations. That system draws on performance data from platforms to shape its workflows, letting staff see how thousands of videos have fared across each one.
Simmons’ role is to oversee the U.S. operation and the content lab that tests ideas for where content cuts through. The goal is to give Motion Society’s 50+ staff more time to focus on creative and strategic plans for its creator partners.
A Problem Belotti Solved
The tale of how Belotti began is one that creator economy circles know well: a creator reaches a limit — millions of subscribers, one person managing everything — and concludes that the answer lies not in hiring more people but in building better tools instead.
He sought to retain command over the material he produced even as he spread it across various platforms. He discovered that the effort and skill required to accomplish that task exceeded what he possessed. Instead of surrendering authority, he constructed the collaborator he had long been searching for.
Simmons is joining a company that has already built a partner relationship, and her role involves expanding it into the U.S. market. The operating system she will be working with came about through seed funding that followed Subra, Fraudin and Falga leaving finance and engineering to build the company with Belotti.
A veteran manager joins the team, bringing with it a resume that includes time spent at several of the largest players in digital distribution.
KEY FACTS BOX
– Founded: 2022
– Staff: 50+
– Creators served: Around 650
– Videos distributed monthly: More than 30,000
– Notable creators: Jesser, Stephen Sharer, Lizzy Capri
– Former employers: Fullscreen, Meta, Spotify
“During my time at Spotify, Motion Society consistently stood out,” who spoke about Simmons, is quoted as saying: “The team understood the needs of both creators and platforms and came to us with a deeply informed point of view on how creator content could succeed on Spotify. What impressed me most was the combination of strong creatives, platform expertise and the technology they built that allows their team to focus more time on strategy and the content itself.”.
See the video the story is built around at Deadline.
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