Mainstage

Mainstage is a creator-campaign platform founded in 2026 by Elliot Padfield and Brandon Hwang. It coordinates campaigns from the initial brief through creator recruitment, submission review, payment and reporting.^[1][2]

The company covers two kinds of work: short-form clips made from existing media and original posts created for a brand. Both use the same campaign system, allowing brands to pay for approved production, eligible views or a combination of the two.^[2][3]

From clipping to a broader creator campaign

Mainstage launched as clipping was becoming a more visible part of creator marketing. In a clipping campaign, a creator or brand supplies footage from a podcast, livestream, interview or other long-form production. Editors turn it into short posts and distribute them across social feeds, often earning a set amount for every thousand eligible views.

Digiday reported in 2025 that clipping had begun moving from private Discord groups into dedicated platforms used by creators and advertisers. Mainstage applies the same performance-priced structure to original work such as product demonstrations, reviews, skits, street interviews and talking-head posts.^[4][2]

One system from brief to payout

A campaign begins with the brief. A brand sets the format, creative direction, claims, disclosure requirements, usage rights and posting window. It can invite specific creators, open applications, bring an existing roster or ask Mainstage to source participants. Submissions can be reviewed before publication or after a post goes live.^[2]

The payment structure changes with the work. A fixed post fee pays for production once a submission is approved. A view rate rewards distribution. Hybrid campaigns combine a production fee with a performance bonus, while bonus pools distribute a fixed campaign budget according to stated results.^[3]

Mainstage holds the campaign wallet and administers creator payouts. Reporting brings together the approved posts, views, spend and campaign CPM, giving the brand one record of the campaign from brief to result.^[2]

Software, services and campaign spend

The product is built around the operational work created by volume. A campaign involving many small creators generates briefs, applications, approvals, links, performance checks and individual payments. Mainstage puts those tasks inside one campaign workspace.

Mainstage says its view measurement uses Influship Analytics. Padfield and Hwang also founded Influship, a creator-intelligence company that sells discovery software, developer tools and datasets. The relationship connects Mainstage's campaign workflow with a related creator-data business.^[2][5]

Mainstage charges brands a percentage of monthly campaign spend, with creator payouts funded separately. The public fee falls as spend rises. The company also sells Mainstage Studio, a managed service covering campaign strategy, creator recruitment, approvals, payouts and reporting for a management fee plus the campaign wallet.^[2]

Position in the creator-campaign market

Mainstage sits between creator-reward marketplaces and influencer-campaign software. Whop Content Rewards helped formalise clipping through public bounties that pay creators according to legitimate views. Vyro also operates a public marketplace for short-form creator campaigns. Influencer platforms tend to organise creator discovery, outreach and negotiated brand partnerships, while UGC marketplaces commission creative assets or posts for fixed fees.^[4][6][7]

Mainstage combines performance-priced distribution, fixed production fees and the roster, approval and reporting controls expected from campaign software. Its product is aimed at brands that want to run many pieces of short-form creator content under one set of rules.

Founded in 2026, Mainstage is building around two related changes in creator marketing: brands can buy short-form distribution by the view, and campaigns increasingly need systems for coordinating people, content, rights and payments. The company's product brings those jobs into one campaign.