Arcade runs Europe’s first creator upfront. 150 brands came to London

Arcade, the London company that manages the Sidemen, held an invite-only showcase for brands on 17 September. It billed the event as the first creator upfront in Europe.

Arcade brought 150 brands into one London room on 17 September

An upfront is the event where television sells next season’s advertising slots before the season starts. Arcade copied the format for online video. More than 150 advertisers, brands and commercial partners turned up. They saw what the firm’s creators plan to publish and the audience data behind it. Arcade already works with Virgin Media O2, Formula E, Unilever, Lego and Papa Johns.

Matt Elek left Vice Media in July to run Arcade

Elek ran Vice Media in Europe, the Middle East and Africa before he moved. He took the top job at Arcade in July 2026. The company also took seven-figure funding from Lumina Media, set up by Thomas Benski, who used to run Pulse Films. Co-founder Jordan Schwarzenberger says the pitch is access to Europe’s largest creator brands. That framing matters, because research now places creators close to Hollywood names on recognition.

Creator slots never sell out, so the TV calendar does not fit

The format has one weak point. Television sells a fixed number of slots in a fixed season, and scarcity sets the price. Creators do not work that way. Lauren Lyster, who runs social media at the agency Go Fish, told Digiday that creator inventory is “neither finite nor seasonal”. Thousands of channels each sell their own space. So a brand can buy in March as easily as in September.

Max Fosh and Friends From Work joined before the showcase

Arcade signed six new acts in the days before the event. They include Max Fosh, the Fallow chefs, John Nellis, Faith Kelly, Generation Football and the group Friends From Work. Arcade is not alone in trying this. The IAB runs CreatorFronts, Spotter held a connected-TV event this year, and Forbes and Walmart have run their own versions. Platforms are pushing the same way, and Meta now bundles creator search with ad buying in one place.

Open your media plan and find the line where creator spend sits. If it still hangs off the social budget and gets signed one campaign at a time, a showcase will not change that. Ask what an annual commitment would cost, and what discount the seller gives for it.