Adgully Exclusive | Lift your eyes from bottom line, look at relationships: Kwan's Blah

Kwan is one of India's leading sports-marketing and celebrity-management companies. From its intrigue-stoking name to its cutting-edge practices, Kwan does most things differently from its peers. Adgully spoke to Anirban Das Blah, Kwan's managing director, to track its dizzying trajectory.

We first asked Blah to explain the name. "Kwan is derived from the movie "Jerry Maguire', which describes a relationship between an athlete and his agent," Blah said. "The agent tells the athlete that a lot of people have a coin but not the Kwan. Often, when you are working, you are in a financial and transactional relationship that is about the coin. And Kwan is about building relationship, fostering a sense of love, respect, understanding and community-building." Blah explained that his company consciously looked beyond the bottom line. "It's not about making money," he said. "It's about building a relationship; and at Kwan, all of us adhere to that principle."

Schematically, Kwan has four functional spheres: Bollywood, music, sports and fashion. "The way Indian households are structured, they can choose either the IPL or the movies," Blah said. "Our role is to help a brand reach out to consumers using entertainment platforms." The services that Kwan provides encompass a range of brand-outreach options. "Our clients could want a brand ambassador, a model, sponsorships, an entertainment-based event activation or a movie placement," Blah said. "Now, within our four verticals, we work with talent, content providers, engagement agencies and we marry the elements according to the client requirements." He said that since the industry was somewhat unstructured, there was a need for a professional set-up like Kwan to act as an intermediary.

Currently, Kwan exclusively represents Genelia D'Souza and Ranbir Kapoor. "In music, we represent Sunidhi Chauhan and Frida Pinto on the international level ” both celebs are represented exclusively," Blah said. "There is lot of non-exclusive representation in our business; for example, if there is a celebrity required for a brand campaign, based on the requirement, we source the celebrity for a specific timeframe and help the client or the brand to execute the project. In sports, we represent Cheteshwar Pujara." He said that in sports, other than Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Sania Nehwal, no other figure afforded the stability factor. "Consumers have a volatile relationship with cricketers because of the variation in performance," he said. "In sports, our objective is more engagement-oriented¦we work with the NBA and we execute a series of programmes for them. We work with football clubs, and with IPL teams. We deploy our expertise in so many areas and hence we are able to provide the best to our clients."

As for commissions, Kwan takes about 10-15%. "We have an upper hand if someone, say, is looking for Ranbir Kapoor; they have to come to us," Blah said. "So we are on the seller's market, not buyer's."

And what does Kwan give back to the celeb? "With any celebrity, our 1st step is to create a powerful brand and then look for monetisation opportunities," Blah said. "For a movie star, it could be endorsements, movies, appearances, shows, merchandise etc. We look at every revenue opportunity that makes sense at that point of time. For cricketers, it's IPL contract¦bat sponsorships etc. Ultimately, there are five or six revenue streams, and our job is to activate all these to get the best out of them."

Central to Kwan's approach is its mission to market celebrities and create a brand out of them. "For example, Genelia ” when she debuted ” had to compete with other woman actors like Asin and Deepika," Blah said. "Compared to these stars, she had a smaller film and hence a smaller platform. So at that time, when others were talking about their beauty and glamour, we felt it was important for Genelia to tell the world who "I am'. Therefore, we consciously worked on Genelia's image strategy. She has been chosen as the brand ambassador of the year by CNBC TV18 and this happened because of our conscious marketing efforts."

Not surprisingly, Kwan eschews the one-image-pleases-all tactic. "For Shruti Hassan, we are working on her image as an edgy and contemporary sort of a girl," Blah said. "She has attitude, personality and spunk. With Kalki, the positioning is that of an alternative fashion icon. With Ranbir, the positioning is of a youth icon."

Another Kwan trait is its farsightedness. Blah says the company has always spotted talent much before they became media darlings, and cites the cases of Genelia, Mugdha Godse, and Frida. "Now we are very bullish about Sarah Jane and Esha Gupta; and in sports, on Pujara," he said. "In fact, in the case of Pujara, we worked on his image before he was selected for the IPL."