OML's success mantra is keeping artists at the centre of everything: Gunjan Arya

Having incepted as a talent management company in 2001 with an aim to solve one issue for artists- how can artists continue to own their music rights, to deal with content production, live events, booking and ticketing, sponsorships and branded deals as well as AI-ML driven social media trends engine amongst other things, Only Much Louder has indeed come a long way in not just India but across the globe.

Giving a sneak peek into this growth journey, Gunjan Arya, CEO, OML Entertainment, stated that whatever has happened at the entertainment company in terms of growth prospects, from the times when creator economy as a term wasn’t even coined to now, the attempt has always been to keep the artist at the centre of it all.

She candidly also shared an example of the first instance wherein OML was paid for integrating a brand in an AIB video without having any understanding of how one even charges for it since there was no set industry standard and therefore the quotations were invented on the fly.

“We went to the brand and asked them how much they were paying for each YouTube view, to which the brand responded by saying that they were paying two rupees for every view delivered. Little did we know that we’d end up delivering far more views than they had budgeted for,” she added.

She further stated that the goal for OML Entertainment is to figure out how to grow the economy as opposed to just their slice of the pie and the same is seen in their approach to every vertical that is built at OML- safeguarding the interest of artists and the platforms and brands that we work with because honestly, it has to be a win-win for all.

Upon being questioned about the challenges that she faced after she assumed the role of CEO approximately four years back, she replied that the entertainment company was lucky enough to have a business which was in a state of sufficient profitability where it could take care of its people, without having to let go of anyone or even or cut salaries of individuals, except for the management which included herself and a few other people who took a pay cut during the pandemic.

“We still broke even in the first year of COVID and since then, we've only been profitable and growing both, on the revenue and profitability side, in double digits,” she added.

Having said that, she also emphasised that the industry in which OML operates in, is only as good as the team one has and therefore, she has been quite fortunate to have a team that is able to take care of each other.

“I think we're at about 220 people currently in India. Rest, we have teams in Russia, Poland, Dubai and Thailand.  We're hiring in Japan soon,” she stated.

Commenting on how the Indian market is different from the rest of the countries where OML has its operations, she pointed out that while each landscape is unique, one often doesn’t realise that apart from the US and a few other markets, it is India that has a very developed content strategy.

“In 2017, when we started working overseas after getting the retail mandate to operate outside India for the first time, we also took it for granted that their content landscape would be as evolved as ours. At that point in time, an eye-opening instance happened when one of our artists, Kanan put his stand-up special on Insider for viewing while people in India already knew what a phone OTP was, people overseas were unable to figure out how to log into the platform since using an OTP to log in is not something that's standard across the world,” she elaborated.

While that was just one example, there have been several instances which add to the fact that every market is unique in its own way and as Arya puts it, different countries will always operate at different ends of the spectrum and that's the joy of figuring out how to work internationally.

Touching upon the three big client types for OML, Arya stated that if one looks at the three distinct lines of business of OML, it would include artist management, branded content and long-form content for platforms and there is everything from strategy to production to execution being done for them across the board.

In her view, while tackling challenges such as fake promotions for events or even not using the paid promotion tags amongst other things that tarnish the image of any creator, guidelines have been a long time coming and that being stated, one now knows that this industry is a ‘legitimate’ one.

“Simple things like saying this is an ad or a collab is just hygiene, something that we’ve been doing with our artists even before the guidelines were framed because we know that this is important to an artist or creator’s fans since nobody wants to be tricked into watching something these days.

When questioned about the prevalent challenges in the creator ecosystem, Arya replied that more than challenges are opportunities for individuals because never before have creators or artists been able to wield such influence and that's what makes it so exciting.

“Creators and platforms today share a relationship where they both need each other and it's always going to be that, but figuring out how to work better with each other is the one thing that will only continue to get refined as nothing is set in stone. Also, it is important for both platforms and creators to keep testing the waters and figure out what is working for the ecosystem which includes both them and their fans,” she added.

Elaborating on the branded content side of the business, Arya stated that while choosing between where a branded content piece goes out on the basis of the marriage of client’s demand and objectives, what OML does when it reaches out to creators is also look at what is going to help them grow as a creator and not just reaching out to them when we feel like their target group or fan base is a direct match.

This, in her opinion, is one of the reasons why the entertainment company’s global operations have also been a success, so far.

Recalling OML’s branded content piece for Dewar’s, a music travelogue titled- The Tourist, Arya stated that while they didn't go in saying that they need to win cards, they only built it because they believed that it was the best opportunity for the musicians, for the brand and for the fans and when one marries these three, One will be able to come out with a solution that is really compelling and entertaining.

“Branded entertainment is entertainment first and later can it be supported by a brand whose goals will also need to be met and that is truly the principle of branded content along with keeping the fans at the core of it,” she said.

Since the next two quarters of the current fiscal are all to do with the festive season, Arya shared the opinion that while the festive period is important to all marketers and that’s when the wallets open up since time immemorial, she feels that over time people have just gotten used to that which is why the trend seems to even out in the current times.

“There used to be a time when the festive period would mean a significant bump, or this quarter would mean a significant bump over and above the rest of the quarters of the year. And in India, the reason why that also gets exaggerated is because honestly, in June, July and August, you can't do anything because it's raining cats and dogs outside and therefore a lot of the activity gets concentrated in the festive period. But now people are shopping 24x7 which is why brands should not reduce the impact of their own material by focusing only on the festive period, but if one does, it has to be meaningful because there's never a bad time for a really creative idea,” she said.

Commenting on whether the entertainment company has begun dabbling with GenerativeAI for their routine work, Arya emphasised that not leveraging such emerging tools and technology would be a ‘disservice’ to OML because upending current media models or even understanding how tickets work or be it the rapport that the entertainment company shares with digital platforms, everything has come from staying close to technology updates.

“With generative AI, I would be surprised if it's not used in every pitch. In fact, most teams across the company today are using AI in some form or the other including our Ai-powered tool which builds on a model of machine learning to come up with the right recommendations for brands,” she added.

Moreover, she also shared that while OML has already built the brand and the agency side to its AI-ML powered platform already, what's coming next is the creator side to the platform, which will ‘hopefully’ be free for creators and will help them access intel freely and be able to plan their content journeys better as creators or influencers have grown to become media brands themselves.