#TwitterChat: New age Indian content creators are quite progressive: Gurpreet Singh

Gurpreet Singh, Co-Founder & COO, One Digital Entertainment, has the inside view of the business of social media celebrity management. Most recently, Prajakta Koli (MostlySane), one of the prominent social media celebrities under his management, touched the 4-million subscriber mark on YouTube. Continuing with its #TwitterChat series, Adgully explored the growing dominance of original content churned out by social media influencers on digital platforms and their popularity with digital natives. 

The chat with Singh took place on July 3, 2019 between 3 pm and 4 pm on the official Twitter handles – @adgully and @gurpreetbhasin. A range of topics surrounding the content creator ecosystem were covered in the discussions. 

Rise of new age content creators 

According to Singh, in today’s fast paced world, with consumers having shorter attention spans, it is imperative to catch their eyeballs with engaging and interesting content. The new age content creators are quite cognizant of this and have nailed it with a bang. 

“Not only are the new age creators are creating some amazing and much more relatable content but they are going beyond just deploying content and are also putting in immense efforts to build strong connect, conversations and relationships with their audiences,” he said. 

On the other hand, traditional content creators have come a long way and have also taken necessary measures to adapt to the evolving content pattern. With the increasing penetration of smartphone, there is an upsurge in the content consumption pattern and they have adapted themselves quite well, Singh noted. 

Co-exist or compete with traditional media houses? 

He believes that not only will the two co-exist, but we will see a lot of consolidation and crossover in this space. “There are content creators today who, because of their first-hand experience with the digital platforms and with increasing monetisation opportunities each day, are now on the verge of expanding into full-fledged production houses. There are big production houses who are very keen on collaborating with the new age creators and building content for a wide range of audiences.” 

Read more: #TwitterChat: One Digital’s Gurpreet Singh on how to up your content creation game

Nurturing the content creator ecosystem 

“It starts from identifying the right talent and people who are passionate about creating content.” Singh pointed out. 

Giving an idea of how One Digital goes about its business, Singh said, “Our in-house verticals of artist grooming teams, script doctors, production and post-production teams who shoot high quality content at our studios work together as one joint team with the creators. From there on, our YouTube Certified operations team takes over to best optimise and implement SEO tools for faster discovery of content and push it across the network.” 

Adding further, he said, “Due to our wide range of clients across genres, individual and traditional content creators, record labels to Bollywood production houses, collaborations across verticals becomes very easy and play a very important role in building win-win partnerships.” 

“Our sales teams in parallel keep pitching these creators to create interesting brand opportunities and monetisation synergies. Also, as clichéd as it may sound, but content stays the king and everything works well only when good content is being made regularly. Hence, it becomes an imperative to work with the creators to keep them motivated both at good and bad days of their career trajectory,” Singh added. 

Getting the content & influencer marketing strategy right 

Just like in pre-digital era, when all major brands and content deals were riding on the reach of Bollywood/ TV/ Sports celebrities, similarly, a new category of celebrities has emerged in the digital age whom we refer to as Digital Creators or at times Influencers. On digital platforms they bring in immense engagement and organic reach for the content as well as brands. 

According to Singh, while all major deals today are definitely incomplete without digital creators, it is also imperative to build the right collaborations by understanding the audiences andvalue-adds properly. “It shouldn’t be executed in a haphazard way just to tick an ‘Influencer Activation’ box from the checklist,” he advised. 

Monetisation opportunities 

With growing number monetisation opportunities today, it has become imperative to be able to convert the content creator’s reach beyond just the views and likes and build themselves into a brand of their own. 

Singh pointed out, “The revenue opportunities are immensely huge, ranging from branded content, brand endorsements to merchandising, live events and many more. Look at @Its_Badshah, who began releasing his music and building engagement with audiences on digital platforms. Today, in addition to the traditional revenues like music royalties and live show business, he has also closed a number of high value brand deals.” 

The world is listening 

Recounting the success met by Prajakta Koli (@IamMostlySane), Singh said that she had recently hit the 4-million subscriber mark. Koli was also invited by @UN headquarters to talk about hate speech and Internet intolerance. She was also the first YouTube creator ever to interview YouTube global CEO @SusanWojcicki, and was invited by the Obama Foundation for the Town Hall meeting with former US President Barrack Obama. 

Concluding the discussions, Singh said, “New age Indian creators are quite progressive, with an amalgamation of quality content and the latest technology, they have gained a lot of popularity not just in India but across the world. Indian creators have already carved the niche in this space and there is no stopping them!”