Mountain Dew has built its own network of digital stars, and the apparent success of this endeavour isn’t great news for middlemen who promise to help companies find “influencers” to promote their products.

A year or so ago, as the number of companies promising to connect marketers to digital creators and influencers was pushing beyond saturation, Mountain Dew introduced the Green Label MCN (or multichannel network) modelled after the YouTube-born media companies like Awesomeness TV or Maker Studios.

Instead of running ads with hundreds or thousands of YouTube stars, like those companies often do, the brand zeroed in on four. The results have has been encouraging.

To read more about the brand’s efforts, and find out why other brands may follow suit, click here.

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