Sidetalk's Trent Simonian on building a 100% organic New York street interview brand with zero TikTok revenue

Sidetalk's Trent Simonian on building organic street media with zero platform revenue

Trent Simonian built Sidetalk into one of New York's most recognizable street video brands without collecting a dollar from TikTok or Instagram. The model is entirely brand-deal driven, and it's working.

The format is 100% unscripted. No PR pitches, no staged subjects. Simonian's argument is that the editorial discipline is simple: make something people want to send to their friends. Sidetalk created the Bing Bong trend and has become a fixture outside Madison Square Garden during Knicks playoff runs, generating what he describes as "a little bit of chaos" around the arena.

“I don't think I've ever gotten paid for TikTok or Instagram, literally, not a dime... We do a lot of branded work for companies. So we've worked with everyone from the NFL to Netflix, Nike, Google, Amazon, creating a lot of content for them.”

Monetization

Platform revenue is zero. Simonian says Sidetalk has never been paid by TikTok or Instagram. Revenue comes entirely from branded content deals with companies including the NFL, Netflix, Nike, Google, and Amazon. The pitch to those clients is formula application: they bring the product or event, Sidetalk applies its street-video approach to make something that actually gets clicks.

The Nike integration during the Knicks playoffs is his clearest example of the model working. Nike approached Sidetalk about Knicks-colored shoes, Sidetalk had subjects wear them on camera and react to them organically, and the video performed well. The integration felt native because it matched content Sidetalk would have made anyway.

A mid-roll ad format in longer videos is something Simonian is open to, though he frames natural integration as the preference over a hard sponsorship break.

Production

A shoot day is deliberately variable. Sidetalk might cover a hot dog eating contest in Coney Island, profile a random Brooklyn character, or work a Knicks playoff crowd. For the playoff games specifically, the crew arrives as the third quarter ends, can't bring equipment into the stadium, and spends up to eight hours outside before cutting down to roughly 55 seconds of final content.

The brand's durability rests on one practical advantage: New Yorkers now approach the Sidetalk microphone voluntarily. In a city saturated with street interviewers asking what song you're listening to, that self-selection is what separates the content from the noise.