This week on the Thrifty Titans Podcast, we’re speaking about the Brahmastra of modern marketing - branded content! And we have one of the OGs in the house - Tusharr Kumar, the Executive Vice President of OML, the man behind some of the most successful branded content campaigns on the planet.
We ask Tusharr about OML’s tryst with branded content, the DNA of great branded content, how to come up with kickass branded content ideas, the future of the creator universe and so much more.
We dare you to miss this valuable episode. We double dare you.
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Saikat Pyne: Hi, I'm Sekar marketer, creative and media nerd. Welcome to
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Saikat Pyne: the you incorporated podcast On this show, I catch up
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Saikat Pyne: with some of the most bad ass founders, business leaders
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Saikat Pyne: and content creators in the whole wide world. Whether you're
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Saikat Pyne: a marketer, creative or a budding founder, if you want
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Saikat Pyne: to build your brand your voice your way, you are
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Saikat Pyne: in the right place.
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Saikat Pyne: Join me on the you incorporated podcast and start building
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Saikat Pyne: your empire. Here we go.
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Saikat Pyne: Please join me in welcoming to Shark Kumar, the executive
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Saikat Pyne: vice president of O. M l. An Indian artist management
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Saikat Pyne: firm that is a content powerhouse. O M L crafts.
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Saikat Pyne: Compelling marketing content for 20 plus countries,
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Saikat Pyne: Whether you are a millennial or Gen Z in India,
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Saikat Pyne: chances are w MS pop culture content has impacted your
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Saikat Pyne: life in movies than one,
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Saikat Pyne: be it in the form of some of the country's
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Saikat Pyne: most reputed comedians. Some truly incredible O TT shows offline
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Saikat Pyne: events like N T. Seven weekender or marketing campaigns for
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Saikat Pyne: some of the world's biggest brand on this episode of
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Saikat Pyne: the U Incorporated podcast with me I catch up with,
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Saikat Pyne: and we're going to discuss about O M. L stress
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Saikat Pyne: with branded content. I'm really hyped about this one, folks.
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Saikat Pyne: Welcome to the show to
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Tusharr Kumar: Thanks for having me super excited to be on the show.
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Saikat Pyne: How did the idea to start a branded content arm
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Saikat Pyne: really come into the purview of O MLS team?
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Tusharr Kumar: That's a really interesting question. It's artist with branded content
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Tusharr Kumar: actually started a long time ago, so we've been around
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Tusharr Kumar: as an agency as a media and entertainment company for
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Tusharr Kumar: the last 20 years.
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Tusharr Kumar: We started off with artist management that was specifically in
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Tusharr Kumar: the independent music space, and we've evolved over the last
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Tusharr Kumar: 20 years to manage comedians, creators, writers, directors, illusionists and
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Tusharr Kumar: so much more, but specifically with relation to branded content.
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Tusharr Kumar: We actually did our first branded content show with a
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Tusharr Kumar: show that we had created for doers called the Tourists.
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Tusharr Kumar: This had gone on Star World, and it was a
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Tusharr Kumar: music show that we created for brand new. Interestingly, it
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Tusharr Kumar: also won our son's bronze in the year that the
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Tusharr Kumar: first branded content category started in itself and this was
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Tusharr Kumar: way back in 2012, and that was our first sort
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Tusharr Kumar: of foray into branded content, though that was on TV
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Tusharr Kumar: back then tell
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Saikat Pyne: me a bit about
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Saikat Pyne: how branded content was perceived back in the days. What
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Saikat Pyne: were the initial challenges of conceptualising? A campaign around branded content?
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Tusharr Kumar: It's been a journey both for us as branded content
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Tusharr Kumar: experts as well as a journey for brands. About 56
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Tusharr Kumar: years ago, when you were working with brands on branded
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Tusharr Kumar: content projects as they
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Tusharr Kumar: consultants on these projects, we used to have to really
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Tusharr Kumar: drive through the fact that branded content shouldn't be over
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Tusharr Kumar: branded for number one, because that's the minute you start
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Tusharr Kumar: losing audience attention because the beauty about branded content is
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Tusharr Kumar: that it's such a strong storytelling medium, and the minute
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Tusharr Kumar: any of the audiences start perceiving it as too a
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Tusharr Kumar: or 2 to 2 in the face. That's when branded
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Tusharr Kumar: content doesn't do what it was intended to do.
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Tusharr Kumar: I see that brands have evolved of in their understanding
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Tusharr Kumar: of how branded content impacts business, so they've become easier
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Tusharr Kumar: to work with. Let's not over brand the ad. Let's
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Tusharr Kumar: not make it a very Brandon narrative. If you're using
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Tusharr Kumar: creators or influencers, let them bring in their personality and
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Tusharr Kumar: their storytelling as well, while obviously keeping in mind
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Tusharr Kumar: that the brand must be represented in the best way possible,
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Tusharr Kumar: and I feel there's been a quantum jump in that space.
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Tusharr Kumar: And brands brand managers and marketing managers are super aware
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Tusharr Kumar: of this now. Four years ago, it was quite challenging
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Tusharr Kumar: for
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Saikat Pyne: sure. So did you have to feel questions like, Why
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Saikat Pyne: are we just promoting content that doesn't have a global
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Saikat Pyne: plastered all across? It
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Tusharr Kumar: proven us that many times, and obviously we've worked hard
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Tusharr Kumar: and we continue to work hard to explain why that
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Tusharr Kumar: really impacts the reach or the engagement that your content gets.
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Tusharr Kumar: And we have data to back that up. And I
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Tusharr Kumar: think that's what really helps with a lot of these conversations.
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Saikat Pyne: I think a lot of newbies find it hard to
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Saikat Pyne: gauge how much branding it's too much
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Saikat Pyne: branding. It's very easy to get carried away and just
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Saikat Pyne: keep on piling your own messaging, your own logos and assets.
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Saikat Pyne: It's very tempting for marketers, so where do you draw
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Saikat Pyne: the line when it comes to branded content really
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Tusharr Kumar: varies from market to market
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Tusharr Kumar: and for audiences, so because with the Global Creator Network,
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Tusharr Kumar: which is our branded content division, We're actually doing branded
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Tusharr Kumar: content campaigns in 22 countries right now. Like, for example,
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Tusharr Kumar: we were doing a campaign for a whiskey brand, and
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Tusharr Kumar: we actually two episodes into eight part series that we
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Tusharr Kumar: were creating,
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Tusharr Kumar: realised that we had to dial up the branding significantly
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Tusharr Kumar: because audiences were very receptive to the content we were creating.
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Tusharr Kumar: But we also because we're always running a data analysis simultaneously,
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Tusharr Kumar: and that's the beauty of digital versus some of the
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Tusharr Kumar: other mediums. We did find out that,
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Tusharr Kumar: uh, brand recognition was something we had to dial up
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Tusharr Kumar: for consumers to register. And we did that in episode
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Tusharr Kumar: number three. I worked for the game show format that
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Tusharr Kumar: we had created for this brand in Kenya. The best
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Tusharr Kumar: thing about fans on Digital is that they are straight
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Tusharr Kumar: up
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Tusharr Kumar: and they don't hold their opinion back. You put out
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Tusharr Kumar: a source of F content and you have these people say, Oh,
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Tusharr Kumar: this looks over branded, or why is X y Z
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Tusharr Kumar: brand turning up all the time? Those are changes to premier.
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Tusharr Kumar: We usually recommend the brands we work with to not
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Tusharr Kumar: be in the space of logo.
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Tusharr Kumar: Yes, you know, we've realised that product and I think
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Tusharr Kumar: the beauty of branded content is you can actually get
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Tusharr Kumar: in product and product use case so much more than
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Tusharr Kumar: just logo, sonic or visual whichever way it is. So
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Tusharr Kumar: we always recommend If you want to bring your product in,
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Tusharr Kumar: let us show you case. And the beauty of branded
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Tusharr Kumar: content is that you're really able to do that in
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Tusharr Kumar: a in a really organic way.
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Saikat Pyne: You led me on to my next question to It
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Saikat Pyne: will seem very odd coming from two content guys. But
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Saikat Pyne: I assure you this is a question that I have
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Saikat Pyne: been asked by many founders and marketers. So let's settle
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Saikat Pyne: the debate once and for all. What does branded content
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Tusharr Kumar: Amazing question. Branded content lets you do whatever you want
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Tusharr Kumar: to do as your marketing objective, so I'll just go
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Tusharr Kumar: a little deeper with that. We've used branded content to
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Tusharr Kumar: launch brands in India or even overseas, where the job
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Tusharr Kumar: was to create awareness and to create brand recall. There's
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Tusharr Kumar: so many
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Tusharr Kumar: mediums as well as formats that it's amazing. Do you
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Tusharr Kumar: want Do you want to go at larger scale? Do
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Tusharr Kumar: you wanna do short form do you want to do?
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Tusharr Kumar: Long form, short storytelling? And what is the narrative in
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Tusharr Kumar: all of these pieces that clearly lets you decide creating
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Tusharr Kumar: that brand recoil, creating that brand awareness? And that's something
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Tusharr Kumar: which I feel you see more often off, whether it's
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Tusharr Kumar: even with simple, influencer led marketing campaigns or with larger say,
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Tusharr Kumar: E SPS or branded content series, you might say,
00:07:51
Tusharr Kumar: But interestingly, right on the flip side, it also lets
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Tusharr Kumar: you make an impact on e commerce, right? And we're
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Tusharr Kumar: seeing branded content and commerce work really well together. Whether
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Tusharr Kumar: that's APP downloads, whether that's people reaching your store, whether
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Tusharr Kumar: that's people clicking through to an action that you want
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Tusharr Kumar: them to do as a brand branded content campaign really
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Tusharr Kumar: worked for that as well. I'm gonna actually go back
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Tusharr Kumar: to the example. I was talking to you about the
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Tusharr Kumar: campaign we did in Kenya. We created a game show,
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Tusharr Kumar: and there was a comedian who was hosting the show.
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Tusharr Kumar: And as part of the game show, there was a
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Tusharr Kumar: set of cards which let the comedian direct the entire show.
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Tusharr Kumar: As you may it is, it was a truth and
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Tusharr Kumar: their game, which he was playing with celebrities on the show.
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Tusharr Kumar: This card game was then available to buy in a
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Tusharr Kumar: combo pack with the whiskey on the E-commerce retailer. So
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Tusharr Kumar: you watch the show you click through on the link
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Tusharr Kumar: you're able to, and what's really interesting is that you're
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Tusharr Kumar: not just buying any card game. But it's this comedian
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Tusharr Kumar: who you follow and you
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Tusharr Kumar: so passionately interested in with seeing content to commerce, play
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Tusharr Kumar: out really strongly in scenarios like that and using long
00:09:01
Tusharr Kumar: form content, not performance in that
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Saikat Pyne: would say that. But if I'm diluting my brand messaging,
00:09:08
Saikat Pyne: it can also reach a point where there is no
00:09:10
Saikat Pyne: brand messaging. How do you measure impact and how do
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Saikat Pyne: you then bring those guys on your side to
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Tusharr Kumar: Absolutely. It's a question which we asked a lot of
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Tusharr Kumar: times and and brand managers are rightfully worried about that
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Tusharr Kumar: tending to happen. But the way we look at it
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Tusharr Kumar: is that while we do champion the creative first thinking
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Tusharr Kumar: or content first thinking, because the way to win with
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Tusharr Kumar: the algorithms and the beauty of having work across multiple
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Tusharr Kumar: markets is the one golden realisation that's happened is that
00:09:42
Tusharr Kumar: platforms across the world, while very varied,
00:09:46
Tusharr Kumar: worked with a very similar algorithm in the sense that
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Tusharr Kumar: day engagement helps you win at
00:09:53
Tusharr Kumar: getting the reach that you want. But then what you're
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Tusharr Kumar: coming at is, Is it the right kind of engagement? Yes,
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Tusharr Kumar: you must make entertaining content because if the content is
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Tusharr Kumar: not entertaining, no one's really going to watch it. But
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Tusharr Kumar: it's really important. And this is where, when you're planning
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Tusharr Kumar: for that content or you're planning for whatever publisher channel
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Tusharr Kumar: slash creator slash influence so that it that the channel
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Tusharr Kumar: is going to go out on
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Tusharr Kumar: to make sure that we are ensuring that that the
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Tusharr Kumar: brand objective is not getting lost in there. But we've
00:10:24
Tusharr Kumar: seen Indian brands start YouTube channels where they've enabled short
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Tusharr Kumar: stories and beautiful short stories. But the question that you
00:10:32
Tusharr Kumar: as a marketer end up thinking even though we are
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Tusharr Kumar: on the content creation side is, is the audience leaving
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Tusharr Kumar: with any recall about the brand? Because the brand doesn't
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Tusharr Kumar: show up
00:10:40
Tusharr Kumar: the storytelling at all The stories are absolute fiction and
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Tusharr Kumar: have nothing to do with with the brand or the product,
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Tusharr Kumar: and that's a question that's always been in in our head,
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Tusharr Kumar: and I think the best way again where we fall
00:10:52
Tusharr Kumar: back on is to look at data again. So we
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Tusharr Kumar: recommend doing brand lift studies after we execute the campaign,
00:10:59
Tusharr Kumar: because this really helps you understand. Did the storytelling piece
00:11:04
Tusharr Kumar: or did the branded content campaign actually create impact? Because
00:11:07
Tusharr Kumar: one thing so clear? If you're going into branded content
00:11:10
Tusharr Kumar: with big investments, it's not a short term game, right?
00:11:12
Tusharr Kumar: You can't try to make a make a hit right
00:11:15
Tusharr Kumar: now and then not do branded content again. You have
00:11:17
Tusharr Kumar: to be invested in it and want to do branded
00:11:19
Tusharr Kumar: content in the long term and see how those results
00:11:22
Tusharr Kumar: are panning out. We always recommend yes, up to let's
00:11:25
Tusharr Kumar: see
00:11:25
Tusharr Kumar: about what we're trying to achieve, making sure that content
00:11:29
Tusharr Kumar: is really helping drive those brand parameters or those parameters
00:11:33
Tusharr Kumar: or product parameters and then checking after to say, Hey,
00:11:36
Tusharr Kumar: did we land with this and then tweaking as we
00:11:38
Tusharr Kumar: move
00:11:38
Saikat Pyne: ahead to you are among the O. G. S in India.
00:11:42
Saikat Pyne: When it comes to
00:11:44
Saikat Pyne: content marketing, I can speak about you. I can go
00:11:47
Saikat Pyne: on about a Chopra from Mexico, right? So for the
00:11:52
Saikat Pyne: no marketer How do you really come up with Kick
00:11:57
Saikat Pyne: as branded content ideas?
00:11:58
Tusharr Kumar: Awesome. That's a really interesting question. This is something we
00:12:01
Tusharr Kumar: have been chatting a lot about internally. Even at O. M.
00:12:03
Tusharr Kumar: We started branded content with a very creative
00:12:06
Tusharr Kumar: first approach right? The thinking was very natural in the
00:12:10
Tusharr Kumar: sense that content, where are people consuming content on social platforms?
00:12:15
Tusharr Kumar: What kind of content is doing really well? Let's create
00:12:18
Tusharr Kumar: that content that's really outperforming all of the other content
00:12:21
Tusharr Kumar: out there. Let's start working with creators because they understand
00:12:27
Tusharr Kumar: how content does and how content works.
00:12:31
Tusharr Kumar: We as an agency bring in that
00:12:34
Tusharr Kumar: brand custodian narrative, or brand can be the brand custodian
00:12:38
Tusharr Kumar: there to ensure that while we're thinking create a content
00:12:43
Tusharr Kumar: first
00:12:44
Tusharr Kumar: when also really thinking brand first, because it has to
00:12:49
Tusharr Kumar: make sense for the brand. Like you said, What I
00:12:50
Tusharr Kumar: also feel has happened is when branded content and the
00:12:53
Tusharr Kumar: brand content space really blew up. There was a lot
00:12:56
Tusharr Kumar: of headway being made with the creator first thinking on it,
00:12:59
Tusharr Kumar: with some creators really leading the way on it.
00:13:03
Tusharr Kumar: But how that's also evolved now is the creative who,
00:13:06
Tusharr Kumar: like say, is either at an agency or is that
00:13:09
Tusharr Kumar: is that a brand who's been working in the creative
00:13:12
Tusharr Kumar: field in whatever way as a script writer, as a copywriter,
00:13:15
Tusharr Kumar: as a creative at a digital agency? We're now seeing
00:13:18
Tusharr Kumar: the coming together of these worlds, and I feel that
00:13:21
Tusharr Kumar: is really the most powerful way to create amazing campaigns
00:13:26
Tusharr Kumar: when creatives and creators come together to build content that
00:13:30
Tusharr Kumar: not only works
00:13:32
Tusharr Kumar: for fans but also for consumers. If that makes sense,
00:13:36
Saikat Pyne: the lines between entertainment and marketing are blurring more than ever,
00:13:40
Tusharr Kumar: absolutely. We've created this really interesting product called the Creator Room.
00:13:46
Tusharr Kumar: We said. You know what? Hold up. Let's get people
00:13:49
Tusharr Kumar: who really get content into the room. So now we've
00:13:52
Tusharr Kumar: created a creator room where we have on a quarterly basis,
00:13:58
Tusharr Kumar: one or two Genz creators come in
00:14:01
Tusharr Kumar: and help write the content for the brand social. Together
00:14:05
Tusharr Kumar: with the copywriter in our team and boom, that's just
00:14:08
Tusharr Kumar: been making magic. And I think we're going to see
00:14:10
Tusharr Kumar: a lot more of that happen as we move forward
00:14:13
Tusharr Kumar: and the coming together of these worlds really
00:14:15
Saikat Pyne: speaking about creator led content. I think Bacardi does some
00:14:20
Saikat Pyne: good branded content, and I think most of it is
00:14:24
Saikat Pyne: thanks to the kick ass branded content you need. You've
00:14:27
Saikat Pyne: got at O. M
00:14:28
Saikat Pyne: to tell me, How did that happen?
00:14:30
Tusharr Kumar: Has been working with for the last 11 years. Our
00:14:33
Tusharr Kumar: relationship with them started when we created the padi and
00:14:36
Tusharr Kumar: seven weekend music festival. It started off like that, and
00:14:39
Tusharr Kumar: the relationship we build is really it will sound super cliche,
00:14:42
Tusharr Kumar: but we're really partners, and it's amazing to be able
00:14:44
Tusharr Kumar: to work with a brand like that. Five years ago
00:14:46
Tusharr Kumar: we were having a conversation with a few people at
00:14:49
Tusharr Kumar: and they said, Guys, we need our social to do
00:14:51
Tusharr Kumar: more than what it's doing for us right now. Back then,
00:14:54
Tusharr Kumar: Social for most
00:14:55
Tusharr Kumar: alcoba brands meant having an INSTAGRAM account, having a Facebook
00:14:59
Tusharr Kumar: page posting and doing giveaways once in a while to
00:15:02
Tusharr Kumar: create a little bit of excitement. And that wasn't really alcoba.
00:15:06
Tusharr Kumar: Brands have this unique position, and they've been doing it
00:15:09
Tusharr Kumar: on ground. They've been doing it with experiential. They've been
00:15:12
Tusharr Kumar: doing it in bars and clubs. They have this unique
00:15:14
Tusharr Kumar: position of being able to really drive culture with fans
00:15:18
Tusharr Kumar: and with consumers out there. And we told them we
00:15:20
Tusharr Kumar: really need to start
00:15:22
Tusharr Kumar: being the Falcon of Pop Culture, which Bacardi is already
00:15:25
Tusharr Kumar: in India. They created the indie music scene by co
00:15:28
Tusharr Kumar: creating a festival like the seven with us. And we said,
00:15:31
Tusharr Kumar: Let's start doing this on digital. I was talking a
00:15:33
Tusharr Kumar: little while earlier.
00:15:35
Tusharr Kumar: What best way to do it on digital than to
00:15:38
Tusharr Kumar: start doing this with creators and influencers? Interestingly enough, the
00:15:42
Tusharr Kumar: first test campaign we did with Bakari was in Thailand,
00:15:46
Tusharr Kumar: a country where our teams didn't speak the language, a
00:15:49
Tusharr Kumar: country which O. M. L had not worked in before.
00:15:52
Tusharr Kumar: But what I was saying about the fact that platforms
00:15:55
Tusharr Kumar: always remain the same. The way a platform reacts always
00:15:58
Tusharr Kumar: remains the
00:15:58
Tusharr Kumar: But then you also have this mass massive repository of
00:16:03
Tusharr Kumar: data to tap into. And we literally built over the
00:16:06
Tusharr Kumar: last five years, a social prediction engine which lets us
00:16:10
Tusharr Kumar: understand how content is performing, what kind of content is
00:16:13
Tusharr Kumar: likely to do well, who are the right creators to
00:16:16
Tusharr Kumar: work with and then overlay it with our human qualitative
00:16:19
Tusharr Kumar: sort of inputs in terms of the brand.
00:16:22
Tusharr Kumar: And and that's why we created an entire model for Bacardi.
00:16:25
Tusharr Kumar: We started off in Thailand and then India, and currently
00:16:28
Tusharr Kumar: we manage the branded content mandate for Bacardi in 22 countries,
00:16:33
Tusharr Kumar: which include Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and
00:16:37
Tusharr Kumar: we've also done campaigns in countries like Latin America and China.
00:16:41
Tusharr Kumar: So it's been really exciting. You have to have a
00:16:43
Tusharr Kumar: brand and brand managers who let you make experiments who
00:16:47
Tusharr Kumar: enable you to try things for their brands.
00:16:50
Saikat Pyne: Digging a bit into the Bacardi bit of the story
00:16:53
Saikat Pyne: When you come up with the campaign, how does it
00:16:57
Saikat Pyne: as a creator or a campaign idea, pass or get
00:17:02
Saikat Pyne: rejected in the Bacardi litmus
00:17:04
Tusharr Kumar: test? So in India, the insight was music has been
00:17:08
Tusharr Kumar: a passion point for the brand. They have really helped
00:17:10
Tusharr Kumar: build the ecosystem in the indie space with the Bakari
00:17:13
Tusharr Kumar: and seven Weekend of Festival. But how do we create
00:17:15
Tusharr Kumar: this platform and let this platform enable the same brand
00:17:20
Tusharr Kumar: ethos online? So we created the Bakar House Party Sessions Property,
00:17:24
Tusharr Kumar: where
00:17:25
Tusharr Kumar: upcoming musicians who back then one of the upcoming musicians
00:17:29
Tusharr Kumar: we identified, was actually obviously now he's blown the roof
00:17:32
Tusharr Kumar: and he's like the biggest electronica musician in the country
00:17:35
Tusharr Kumar: at this point in time, and we gave him a platform.
00:17:38
Tusharr Kumar: And what was really interesting was that as a branded content,
00:17:41
Tusharr Kumar: is it CEO or even as a brand, when you're
00:17:43
Tusharr Kumar: thinking a child, we've got to make a music video.
00:17:45
Tusharr Kumar: What kind of a platform
00:17:46
Tusharr Kumar: form should it go on? So you'll think music labels,
00:17:49
Tusharr Kumar: artists own YouTube channel or another musician's channel, because that's
00:17:53
Tusharr Kumar: what you are naturally gravitate to. But when we started
00:17:56
Tusharr Kumar: looking at the audiences who Bacardi was trying to reach
00:17:58
Tusharr Kumar: to and this sort of answers one part of your question,
00:18:01
Tusharr Kumar: the one thing which is really important for Bacardi is
00:18:05
Tusharr Kumar: that we're talking to the right audiences and
00:18:09
Tusharr Kumar: with the data available on on either by using apps
00:18:13
Tusharr Kumar: or by just asking the publisher creator influencer to provide
00:18:17
Tusharr Kumar: this data. Who is the target audience that their fans comprise?
00:18:21
Tusharr Kumar: Of what countries are they from? What is the age group?
00:18:23
Tusharr Kumar: Age is really important because if you don't want to
00:18:25
Tusharr Kumar: talk to people who are below
00:18:27
Tusharr Kumar: the legal drinking age, so you're able to verify all
00:18:30
Tusharr Kumar: of that, you're also able to look with the tools
00:18:33
Tusharr Kumar: that are available at the interest groups of their fans.
00:18:37
Tusharr Kumar: So if I'm working with X Y Z Channel, are
00:18:39
Tusharr Kumar: the fans interested in music? If they're interested in music,
00:18:42
Tusharr Kumar: what are the kind of channels they are also looking at?
00:18:45
Tusharr Kumar: And it becomes a media planning exercise in a sense
00:18:48
Tusharr Kumar: of choosing the live platforms. And so the Bakari House
00:18:51
Tusharr Kumar: party sessions in India. We actually did the campaign on
00:18:54
Tusharr Kumar: the EIB Channel back then
00:18:56
Tusharr Kumar: because that channel had the perfect audience who the brand
00:18:59
Tusharr Kumar: was trying to reach. And also it would have organically
00:19:01
Tusharr Kumar: worked for a music loving audience and the chat that
00:19:04
Tusharr Kumar: obviously the campaign did really well. And we achieved what
00:19:07
Tusharr Kumar: we wanted to, which was giving
00:19:09
Tusharr Kumar: an artist a platform to really express
00:19:12
Saikat Pyne: themselves. What happens more often, you start audience first and
00:19:16
Saikat Pyne: then let the channels and the audience demographics dictate the content.
00:19:20
Saikat Pyne: Or is it the other way around? Often that the
00:19:23
Saikat Pyne: creatives would come up with an idea and see if
00:19:26
Saikat Pyne: it matches the content. What happens more often, so
00:19:28
Tusharr Kumar: more often at least the way we like to work
00:19:30
Tusharr Kumar: is first build the data context of what is the
00:19:34
Tusharr Kumar: what's the what are the right platforms that the brands
00:19:37
Tusharr Kumar: audiences exist on.
00:19:38
Tusharr Kumar: B. What is the content and the kind of content
00:19:42
Tusharr Kumar: that the target audience is consuming organically once we reach it?
00:19:46
Tusharr Kumar: That is when the Data and Analytics team and the
00:19:48
Tusharr Kumar: creative team actually start jamming together to say that, OK,
00:19:52
Tusharr Kumar: while the data is saying that this target audience
00:19:56
Tusharr Kumar: likes food content the most, but does it does food
00:19:59
Tusharr Kumar: even make sense for this brand to do? And then
00:20:01
Tusharr Kumar: it's an iterative process. So yes, answering your question, we
00:20:04
Tusharr Kumar: start data first. But then there is a definite plug
00:20:07
Tusharr Kumar: in from the brand brand levels to see what is
00:20:10
Tusharr Kumar: the best way to say that story. Essentially. So the
00:20:12
Saikat Pyne: analytics team aims, and the content team shoots absolutely,
00:20:17
Tusharr Kumar: really well put. I'm gonna use that in the next.
00:20:20
Saikat Pyne: Let's speak about the O. M. L Creator Network. I
00:20:24
Saikat Pyne: think in your last tent at O. M. L. Back
00:20:27
Saikat Pyne: in 2018, you were intrinsically working with probably the first
00:20:32
Saikat Pyne: generation of digital content specialists in the country. How was
00:20:36
Saikat Pyne: your experience with the Global Creator Network and and did
00:20:39
Saikat Pyne: you presume that this would blow up in the way
00:20:42
Saikat Pyne: that it has, the digital creators would become
00:20:45
Saikat Pyne: the next generation of celebrity. You've
00:20:47
Tusharr Kumar: analysed it really well, whether it came to the creators
00:20:50
Tusharr Kumar: or whether it came to the people working in this space.
00:20:53
Tusharr Kumar: It was all very nascent, like even when you have
00:20:56
Tusharr Kumar: to go hire teams, we literally had to create that
00:20:58
Tusharr Kumar: skill set and that team to work in branded content,
00:21:01
Tusharr Kumar: obviously now the scenario and it's sort of blown out.
00:21:03
Tusharr Kumar: But
00:21:04
Tusharr Kumar: just from the creator perspective, I think we yes, we
00:21:07
Tusharr Kumar: did see the shift and we realigned the way the
00:21:11
Tusharr Kumar: kind of things we started focusing on O M. L.
00:21:13
Tusharr Kumar: Based on that, we did see creators. We definitely saw
00:21:17
Tusharr Kumar: creators having great ideas and great understanding of how content works.
00:21:22
Tusharr Kumar: We did see content becoming and digital content really picking
00:21:28
Tusharr Kumar: up because where brands which were more traditional, suddenly started
00:21:32
Tusharr Kumar: sending briefs for branded content, though very advertising oriented in
00:21:37
Tusharr Kumar: the beginning, and that's now evolved and we started seeing
00:21:40
Tusharr Kumar: that happen. The pandemic obviously came in and supercharged everything right?
00:21:43
Tusharr Kumar: Brands who were not thinking of doing branded content at all,
00:21:48
Tusharr Kumar: suddenly started doing branded content. Uh,
00:21:51
Tusharr Kumar: three years ago, if you would ask Who's a brand
00:21:54
Tusharr Kumar: who's really got a publisher first, thinking you could possibly
00:21:57
Tusharr Kumar: just name maybe one or two people, like, say, on Netflix.
00:22:01
Tusharr Kumar: Or maybe Zama, who started doing this really early in
00:22:03
Tusharr Kumar: the day. But now you talk to brand managers and
00:22:06
Tusharr Kumar: everyone wants to do their social, you know, editorial content,
00:22:10
Tusharr Kumar: first way and not as an advertising mouthpiece. And that
00:22:14
Tusharr Kumar: shit has happened. And that's, I think, fairly. It's been
00:22:16
Tusharr Kumar: a combination of us recognising some of it, but it's
00:22:19
Tusharr Kumar: also been a luck in how things have been over
00:22:22
Tusharr Kumar: the last two years, where people or brands desire to
00:22:26
Tusharr Kumar: really get into the medium has been strengthened and supercharged.
00:22:31
Saikat Pyne: How do you see new celebrity standing shoulder to shoulder
00:22:36
Saikat Pyne: with TV celebrities and the movie celebrities? How do you
00:22:39
Saikat Pyne: see the meaning of the word change in the next
00:22:43
Saikat Pyne: 5 to 10 years?
00:22:44
Tusharr Kumar: Really interesting topic you brought up and again something we
00:22:47
Tusharr Kumar: talk about a lot. I think both the worlds have
00:22:49
Tusharr Kumar: come together and are working really well
00:22:52
Tusharr Kumar: together. You see celebrities turn creators or whether that's Jacqueline
00:22:56
Tusharr Kumar: Fernandez with her YouTube channel or you started her YouTube
00:23:00
Tusharr Kumar: channel and really merely turning Vlogger in that sense, right?
00:23:04
Tusharr Kumar: All celebrities are not going to try to be creators,
00:23:06
Tusharr Kumar: but we're going to see a lot of celebrities enabling
00:23:09
Tusharr Kumar: their creator universe themselves over the next few years. What's
00:23:14
Tusharr Kumar: also interesting is how intrinsic and how how both these
00:23:19
Tusharr Kumar: worlds are now working together.
00:23:21
Tusharr Kumar: So, for example, if any movie or any show, whether
00:23:25
Tusharr Kumar: that's on O TT or on television or in cinema,
00:23:28
Tusharr Kumar: is coming out at AOL as well, we work on
00:23:31
Tusharr Kumar: a lot of title marketing campaigns. Title marketing now doesn't
00:23:35
Tusharr Kumar: exist without the Creator universe, and you put out a
00:23:37
Tusharr Kumar: show which is really interesting on on on an O. T.
00:23:40
Tusharr Kumar: D platform. But if you do not have surround sound
00:23:44
Tusharr Kumar: branded content where you're working with creators influencers to build
00:23:49
Tusharr Kumar: this content,
00:23:51
Tusharr Kumar: you're not bringing that relevance game to the audiences anymore.
00:23:55
Tusharr Kumar: Going back to how branded content is a very interesting
00:23:58
Tusharr Kumar: art of media planning. And I think if we look
00:24:01
Tusharr Kumar: at celebrities, creators, influencers as media vehicles, they are always
00:24:07
Tusharr Kumar: going to work in a mix together, and this is
00:24:09
Tusharr Kumar: a very
00:24:10
Tusharr Kumar: sort of numbers driven look at it, but even creatively,
00:24:13
Tusharr Kumar: I think both are really feeding off each other and
00:24:16
Tusharr Kumar: we're going to see a lot more of that. I
00:24:17
Tusharr Kumar: also feel while India has not been as
00:24:21
Tusharr Kumar: fast in the game in terms of creative commerce or
00:24:26
Tusharr Kumar: even celebrity commerce is something we've seen pick up over
00:24:29
Tusharr Kumar: the last 33 or four years with the HR X
00:24:32
Tusharr Kumar: with private labelled co branded brands happening on Nico,
00:24:36
Tusharr Kumar: we're gonna see a lot of that percolating even into
00:24:39
Tusharr Kumar: the creator universe. Yes, there are a few creators in
00:24:41
Tusharr Kumar: India who are doing it right now, but those are
00:24:44
Tusharr Kumar: the megastar creators. But I feel that is going to
00:24:47
Tusharr Kumar: grow more and more. And we've seen that happen obviously
00:24:49
Tusharr Kumar: in China and the United States, really well. But we're
00:24:52
Tusharr Kumar: going to see more of that to come. And again,
00:24:53
Tusharr Kumar: I feel the world of celebrity and creator is gonna
00:24:56
Tusharr Kumar: come together in that space. If
00:24:59
Saikat Pyne: I am a content creator starting out today, what are
00:25:03
Saikat Pyne: the couple of things I should be doing
00:25:06
Saikat Pyne: and what are the couple of things I should stay
00:25:08
Saikat Pyne: away from?
00:25:11
Tusharr Kumar: A few things which we would always recommend to a
00:25:14
Tusharr Kumar: creator is stay true to your content creation journey while
00:25:18
Tusharr Kumar: it's really important to analyse and look at what competition
00:25:22
Tusharr Kumar: is doing. I know there is competition, so it's very
00:25:25
Tusharr Kumar: important for you to be aware of not just your
00:25:28
Tusharr Kumar: intent creation journey, but you have to be super aware
00:25:30
Tusharr Kumar: of what your competition is doing. But don't be swayed
00:25:33
Tusharr Kumar: by them just because something is working for them.
00:25:36
Tusharr Kumar: So to stay true to this space, whatever that space
00:25:39
Tusharr Kumar: that you've decided to take on consistency is the only
00:25:42
Tusharr Kumar: thing that pays off for people who are looking, coming
00:25:45
Tusharr Kumar: in and winning in their content creation journey overnight it
00:25:48
Tusharr Kumar: happens for
00:25:50
Tusharr Kumar: 2% of the entire population. Everyone else has put in
00:25:53
Tusharr Kumar: a lot of hard work and consistency to get there.
00:25:56
Tusharr Kumar: When you talk to the successful creators, they'll talk about
00:25:58
Tusharr Kumar: the days where they stand at their view, count or
00:26:00
Tusharr Kumar: listenership numbers and just felt really low about it. But
00:26:04
Tusharr Kumar: that's a part of the journey and stay true to
00:26:06
Tusharr Kumar: that journey. And the third is don't put out any
00:26:09
Tusharr Kumar: content that you yourself wouldn't be proud of. It's really
00:26:12
Tusharr Kumar: important to put out great content all the time.
00:26:15
Tusharr Kumar: Uh, great content, obviously is the barometer of it is subjective.
00:26:19
Tusharr Kumar: Always make sure that you are proud to put out
00:26:22
Tusharr Kumar: any kind of content you are putting out, whether it's
00:26:25
Tusharr Kumar: a story or whether it's real or whether it's something
00:26:27
Tusharr Kumar: that's sitting all wrong format. Always make sure you're proud
00:26:30
Tusharr Kumar: of what you're putting out. I think those are the
00:26:32
Tusharr Kumar: would really recommend for any creator who
00:26:34
Saikat Pyne: starting off. So that was very helpful to share. And
00:26:37
Saikat Pyne: with that, it's a wrap. Thank you so much for
00:26:41
Saikat Pyne: being on the podcast to guys, Please tune in next
00:26:44
Saikat Pyne: week for the next episode of the U Incorporated podcast.
00:26:49
Saikat Pyne: See you.
00:26:55
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