The Pitch by Garage: What is the secret to Hepmil's Success? (Ep 1)
THE rise of the creator economy over the past few years has shown few signs of slowing from its fast and furious pace. Ecosystem players like Hepmil Media Group close the gaps and professionalise the work in the space, where content creators are flourishing on waves of high social media traffic. Find out more about the business of memes and how Hepmil grew beyond SGAG pranks into a next-generation media group for creators and advertisers, in our new podcast series, The Pitch by Garage.
Host Vanessa Ho speaks with Karl Mak, co-founder and CEO of Hepmil Media Group, who shares about content, social media, monetisation and business expansion. Maureen Tseng, general manager of The Hoffman Agency, also gives her take on the mainstreaming of content creators, and striking a balance between going local and having a multi market presence.
Here are 3 key lessons from the episode:
Rethink monetisation
The conventional monetisation strategy for content on platforms like YouTube is cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM) earnings, which can rake in millions of dollars a year for top creators. Ryan's Toy Reviews brings home S$30 million to S$50 million a year purely on YouTube earnings. But a small market like Singapore is challenging for content creators to earn a living with the CPM model. Mak also noticed that the creators on TikTok with thousands of views were not making money from the content, unlike those on Instagram.
Hepmil monetised content with branded content as its baseline earnings for its creators on both SGAG as well as the Hepmil Creators Network that manages TikTok content creators.
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Gen Z humour and unconventional creative angles injected into the social media campaigns made Hepmil's content an effective vehicle for blue-chip companies and government agencies to reach the mass audience, especially the younger profiles.
Creators now also have a route to merchandising by launching their own brand, or even NFTs of their content.
As the industry develops, more avenues will be available, and companies have to innovate and leverage on new platforms and technology to enjoy new streams of revenue.
Advertising and entertainment
How can advertisements be turned into something the audience enjoys while benefiting commercial clients at the same time? TV advertising is a linear experience where the audience is "forced" to watch a commercial after roughly every 15 minutes during an hour-long show. Similarly, ad-blockers in Web browsers are used to shield us from disruptive ads.
Mak believes that entertainment can be put first, with commercial messages layered into it. And with the creative economy industry maturing, audience perspectives have shifted from avoiding advertisements, to accepting them as part of creators' livelihoods. With social media ads, the audience recognises that the content is branded, they engage with it, and are entertained. These reactions are measurable with metrics such as engagements with the content and Web traffic at Hepmil. With such an advertising model, the creator economy can be sustainable and every party, including the commercial clients, creators and audiences, enjoys a good outcome.
Instilling a "fail, learn, build" culture
With social media trends moving at a rapid pace, the team at Hepmil must move equally fast, if not faster, to keep up. This is done at a fundamental level - team culture. When building an organisation, having a dedicated team helps. For example, the TikTok team at Hepmil are digital natives and savvy with the use of the platform, or are even creators themselves.
Building a culture that encourages experimentation is key in a fast-paced digital environment. But this is challenging in Singapore where failure is taboo at school and work. Mak does not penalise his team for "failing". Rather, he encourages his team to learn from their mistakes.
A leader can cultivate such a culture across the organisation by focusing on learning points instead of penalising mistakes.
Highlights of the conversation:
04:32 Inception of the 'kueh lapis' strategy
07:58 Bridging the interests of all stakeholders: content creators, brands and channels
11:13 The key to engaging content
17:45 Why the 'burning and learning' business model was not for Hepmil
22:30 Pivoting to reach conservative brands
30:53 The future of content on Web3
37:30 Content is still king but mediums must evolve (and other comments from Maureen Tseng, general manager, The Hoffman Agency)
Produced by: Vanessa Ho (podcast@sph.com.sg), Howie Lim and Ang Guang Zheng
Edited by: Howie Lim
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