Seeing a Future for Short Films
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108 LEADERS OF TRANSFORMATION LEADERS OF TRANSFORMATION 109 VIDDSEE creating websites for them or uploading them on third-party hosts. But as someone who was neither a celebrity nor even a YouTube star, he found it hard to get his con- Seeing a future tent out to an audience. Viewership would spike upon the initial release, but swiftly tail off. He rued the brief lifespan of his short films: for short films “There’s so much work you put into one thing and it doesn’t have a life after that.” Viddsee aims to tell a brand’s story with Viddsee thus arose from the wish to bring audiences artistry and sincerity, backed with hard data to filmmakers. The site focuses on “short premium content”, including indie films, documentaries, and about what works and what doesn’t. branded content, with their bite-size nature making them suitable for social sharing. Today, some of its videos receive over 100 million views in three months. Yet when it comes to viewership, it is not mere quan- tity that Viddsee is after. Part of Viddsee’s value propo- ISIT online video platform Viddsee, and one sition to clients is being able to target the right viewers. thing that might strike you – in contrast to Building an internet television platform is one V other video hosting sites – is the utter lack of thing; developing an audience is another, says Mr Ho. ads. As a venture capital-backed firm that was pre- “I think it’s something that takes longer but will revenue till 2017, Viddsee has had the leeway to re- pay off (in terms of) loyalty and being a differentiat- ject certain commercial approaches. ing factor.” But more crucially, the ad-free approach attests Viddsee currently focuses on viewers in four mar- to the firm’s philosophy of putting filmmakers front kets: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Phil- and centre. ippines. “We have always thought of ourselves as a “We’re all about empowering storytellers,” says co- global company,” says Mr Ho. founder Ho Jia Jian, 30. Unlike cinemas, which are constrained by the The site’s proposition: “How to get good stories out need to sell tickets for their seats, international ex- to an audience.” pansion on the internet is far easier, he notes. That is not to say that Viddsee has neglected the Yet at the same time, Viddsee has a fiercely local financials in favour of its mission. On the contrary, focus, giving local filmmakers a channel through its business model is based on a longer-term concep- which to reach local audiences. tion of value. Since its founding in 2013, the site has This translates into decisions such as being mo- invested deeply in building an audience, or indeed bile-first, which Mr Ho notes is particularly impor- a community. tant in the region outside Singapore. This loyal viewership – and the insights gained Today, many young internet users in South-east from their behaviour – gave Viddsee an edge when it Asia “skip the PC stage” and access the web mainly went into content creation in 2017, creating branded via smartphones, he observes. videos for clients. Viddsee’s mobile-focused approach helps the firm In contrast to in-your-face advertising that may reach out to these audiences, “so even secondary not fly with today’s young consumers, Viddsee’s ap- school kids have an avenue to watch local content”. proach aims to tell a brand’s story with artistry and This approach does not mean keeping viewers and sincerity, backed with hard data about what works content in silos. On the contrary, Viddsee’s insights and what doesn’t. into viewer preferences have helped it push content Says Mr Ho: “We need to show people the value cross-culturally. of content.” For instance, Viddsee noticed that viewers in the Philippines were particularly keen on the romance BUILDING AN AUDIENCE genre. Understandably, this audience was mainly Mr Ho and fellow co-founder Derek Tan are both en- watching videos in Tagalog. Viddsee began recom- Building an internet television gineers by training, but also filmmakers themselves. mending Taiwanese romance-related content to platform is one thing; developing an audience is another, says Before Viddsee was founded, several of Mr Ho’s these viewers – with great success. Viddsee co-founder Ho Jia Jian. works had played at festivals. Many of Viddsee’s loyal viewers are themselves BT PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN After each event, he would share the films online, filmmakers. Viddsee nourishes its ties with this cre- 110 LEADERS OF TRANSFORMATION LEADERS OF TRANSFORMATION 111 ative community through initiatives such as its an- “It only made sense that we try to combine what- “As a filmmaker myself, I never had that kind of nual Juree Awards. ever we’ve understood (through curating content) data,” says Mr Tan. With separate editions for the Philippines, Indone- with creating new stories,” says Mr Ho. Much of his filmmaking used to be based on sia and Singapore, the competition seeks short films First, Viddsee can target audiences who have pre- assumptions about what worked. For instance, he ranging from fiction and animation to documentaries. viously enjoyed videos on similar themes, pushing would rule out what he thought of as cliches. Yet Winners will receive production grants and work new content to them through on-site recommenda- there may be an audience to whom such “cliches” with Viddsee Studios, the firm’s content creation arm, tions or direct mailers. are still fresh, he says. in the making and distribution of their films. If a client has a specific demographic in mind, Vid- The lesson: “Don't be myopic. You have to look at This plays to another of Viddsee’s strengths: helping dsee can ensure the video gets to them. the data.” filmmakers figure out what their next story could be. Second, the team goes down to fine-grained de- By analysing viewing data, Viddsee is better able tails: from which keywords work best in snagging to offer viewers content that they are likely to enjoy. TELLING A BRAND’S STORY viewers, to which screenshots will prompt click- The viewing completion rate for Viddsee’s videos Eschewing an advertising-driven approach to rev- throughs on social media. is usually over 50 per cent, even for films lasting 11 enue, Viddsee instead went into branded content in Through analysing viewing data, Viddsee can tell or 12 minutes – no mean feat given the usual online 2017. what keywords work better for certain demograph- attention spans. Rather than acting as a production house itself, ics, and use different sets of keywords to market the Harnessing data for It also helps that the firm has earned a Viddsee Studios works with filmmakers to bring its same one film. reputation, he adds: “When you build a brand clients’ stories to life. Or Viddsee might send out several batches of better drama that revolves around storytelling, people are more The idea is for a subtler approach to branding: “how mailers about a single video, using different screen- willing to watch longer content.” can it be native, integrated”. Instead of selling a prod- shots in each one, to test which result in higher WHEN filmmaker Kenny Tan was approached to Insights from data also inform Viddsee’s content uct, Viddsee’s branded content aims to sell values. clickthrough rates. This could even inform the film- join Viddsee in April 2017, he was nonplussed. His creation services. As Mr Ho puts it: “It’s not just your typical thirty- making process itself, adds Mr Ho: “We can then tell response, he recalls, was: “I’m not really the curator If a client has a specific target demographic in second TV commercial.” the filmmaker, ‘Okay, please have a shot like this in type, I do creation!” mind, Viddsee can crunch the data to see what Such branded content could take the form of a your film’.” Co-founder Ho Jia Jian then explained that the such audiences enjoy. Says Mr Tan: “It helps you documentary, “bringing together real life stories and Viddsee tests changes to their website interface video platform was going into content creation too. target them better.” brand values”. in the same manner, by simply rolling them out and Now Mr Tan, 35, heads that new arm of the firm, Yet even as Viddsee’s filmmaking efforts are For Vaseline Singapore, Viddsee created a docu- seeing how viewer behaviour responds. Viddsee Studios, which was launched in November informed by data, the team never loses sight of the mentary series on two elderly Singaporeans who “We look at data as: How do we equip the team?” that year. heart of their enterprise: creativity. have dedicated themselves to their craft. says Mr Ho. “This may be creatively good, but what He started out in the industry years ago as a As an adjunct lecturer at a polytechnic some Or the message could be brought across through backs you to say it’s good?” freelance director and producer, before joining a years ago, Mr Tan saw students who gave up fiction. For herbal health tonic Yomeishu, Vidd- As engineers themselves, the founders are at home media company in 2014 to produce content with an creative work for corporate jobs or ended up in see crafted a heartwarming short about a mother- working with data and technology. online focus. other roles in the industry. daughter relationship. An automated content management system, for One major way in which working at Viddsee differs Part of his goal at Viddsee is “finding work for This organic approach towards branding works bet- instance, uploads Viddsee’s videos seamlessly to from his past experience, he says, is that the firm has the filmmakers” to keep their creative spirit alive, ter for millennials such as himself, says Mr Ho.