In the world of creative people, originality is king. A genuine connection to a topic or concept can be the difference between a show or channel that resonates with audiences, or a show or channel that viewers won’t pass on.
This applies to creator content on YouTube, and increasingly to branded content as well.
Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chowdhury know a thing or two about that. As hosts Colin and Samir showcovering the ins and outs of creators and the creator economy every week.
Now, in their latest project, they are bringing a dose of what they talk about on their show to life in a tangible way, through a partnership with automotive brand Lexus.
The duo will host Colin and Samir start over, The series has them traveling cross-country in the Lexus GX 550 and Lexus RZ 550e, reconnecting with the outdoors, and trying new things to inspire their creativity.
And yes, there is personal inspiration. Colin and Samir both lost their homes in the Los Angeles fires last year, and that trauma ultimately inspired the concept they brought to Lexus.
“I think it was a real moment of reflection that, well, our whole routine had completely changed. Were we doing what we wanted to do? Were we living every day the way we wanted to live it?” Rosenblum says in an interview Hollywood Reporter. “When we had the opportunity to showcase Lexus, we thought, can we provide a new and different experience that takes us out of our routine?”
“There is a level of authenticity that is part of this campaign that is very similar to the actual moment in our lives, and what we wanted was to reinvent it,” Choudhury adds. “When this dramatic thing happens in your life, you’re faced with this premise of what now? Who am I now? And we’ve been really honest about that with our audience. We have multiple videos on our channel that address this moment for us, and this issue of reinvention. And we just told that story to the Lexus team and said, what would I do with a car now? I was driving and doing a bunch of things that I want to do to explore my creativity again, get out of Los Angeles and just go on adventures.”
As it happens, Choudhury also had another connection to Lexus: During the pandemic, he auditioned for a Lexus commercial. “I was miserable about it,” he recalls. “I didn’t know anything about it.” He talked about his experience on their podcast, which was listened to by one of YouTube’s partner managers.
“Based on just the timing, Lexus was looking for creatives to work with, looking for creatives that had a real connection to Lexus, and aside from the fact that I auditioned for the campaign, it was also the first car I ever drove, and it was my mom’s Lexus, and I talked about that as well, and so I was speaking publicly about this funny audition story with Lexus, and that sparked something, a connection in our partner director’s head, where this request came from the other side of Google and asked us if we’d like In showing something to Lexus.
The duo also worked with Google’s Creative Works on the project. The in-house consulting firm connects brands and creatives on campaigns, a business that Kevin Babcock, head of creative partnerships for Google’s US creative business, says has boomed in recent years.
“Our team is always looking for great partnerships between creatives and brands to bring them together to really achieve the brand’s marketing goals, and partnering with Lexus has been a great partnership over the years,” says Babcock. “So, when Andrew, Colin and Samir’s director of partnerships at Google, approached us about the opportunity, we actually thought the timing aligned well with the initiatives Lexus had asked us to support.”
“At Lexus, we believe that meaningful progress comes from the courage to evolve and pursue new experiences,” says Lisa McQueen, senior director of Lexus Marketing. “Our partnership with Colin and Samir reflects a shared commitment to innovation, thoughtful storytelling, and purposeful creativity. Through this series, we explore how the journey itself can inspire new perspectives and shape what comes next.”
Lexus will release new episodes of Colin and Samir start over Throughout the year, the duo hopes it stands on its own as something fans will want to watch.
“We wanted to make something that felt very authentic on YouTube that used a lot of the same storytelling techniques we used in our videos, even down to the initial links,” says Rosenblum. “We put a lot of thought into the first line of each individual asset, so that if someone sits down to watch YouTube on their TV and an ad plays, we get their attention.”
As chroniclers of the creator economy themselves, they hope this will inspire some other brands and creators to get involved.
“I think it’s going to be a really fun and abundant time, there’s going to be a lot of experimentation and I think there’s going to be a lot of good creativity that comes out of this,” Choudhury says. “I couldn’t be more excited for creators to have a new outlet on the platform to tell stories, because not every creator, not every idea fits into what you’re distributing as a distribution platform. This content is different for us, it’s different from what we make, but expressing ourselves in this way in this context is really fun, and I think more creators want to do that.”
You can watch the first episode of Colin and Samir start over, less.
