Only Much Louder (OML) Entertainment, a media and entertainment company that manages content creators and comedians like Zakir Khan, Sumukhi Suresh, and Dolly Singh, has built a SaaS product for creators (Hypothesis) to help them with a data-backed understanding of their followers and then customise their content accordingly.
“The Social Prediction Engine that we have built in-house and have been using for the last few years across different markets, languages and social media platforms - has been one of the core reasons that our brand solutions vertical has been able to grow at a rapid pace. We’re now building a SaaS layer on top of it, and have worked to find a way to make it beneficial and available to artists across the world first,” Gunjan Arya, CEO of OML Entertainment told BusinessLine.
While creators are engaging and building meaningful bonds with fans, Hypothesis can help them enhance it with insights for themselves and brands alike. Arya noted that the platform is built on the belief that creators are the media brands and SMEs of the future, and that future is now.
“It is now more important than ever for creators to be able to drive their own agenda, and today, no one really does that, yet businesses depend on them in such intricate ways. This is why we aim to take Hypothesis to the creator ecosystem as we onboard brands onto the service platform, with the endeavour to find win-win solutions for all in the long run,” Arya added.
OML revenue
OML has been profitable since 2019 and recorded ₹300 crore in revenue in 2022. Gunjan Arya, CEO of OML Entertainment said the company is targeting to do ₹500 crore revenue this year.
“OML started as an artist management agency 20 years ago, and since then we have built various businesses and formats keeping artists and creators at the centre of it all. The company in the past has built platforms and IPs such as Bacardi NH7 Weekender, Youtube Fanfest, and Comicstaan. The goal has always been to grow the creator ecosystem and not just take a slice of the pie,” Arya added.
She said OML has grown into a global media and entertainment organization, operating three very different businesses. First, it continues to operate in the talent management space including 90 plus comedians, creators, writers, directors, showrunners, and influencers.
Second business vertical that OML built was original content IP studio that packages and produces OTT content. Till now, the company has produced 45 scripted and unscripted shows for OTT platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar. These include long-form shows with multiple seasons such as Lakhon Mein Ek, Pushpavalli, and One Mic Stand.
The branded content practice is OML’s third and largest business that operates in 20 plus countries and has a team of over 100 members. Having delivered over 300 top trending videos in multiple foreign languages for multinational brands, its global brand solutions team has worked with over 1,700 creators last year alone.
OML has been profitable since 2019. We have grown 2x in 2022 in achieving ₹300 crore in revenue in 2022. Out of this, ₹225 crore was contributed by its branded content practice. In the past, OML has built businesses in the live entertainment (OML’s gaming and adjacent intellectual property) and ticketing (Insider) sectors - which have since been sold to NODWIN gaming and Paytm, respectively, she added.
Arya noted that OML creators will be seen launching multiple new-age ventures. As of now, Zakir Khan has launched the D2C brand Mehfil Biryani; Sumukhi Suresh, launched her content company Motormouth with the goal to tell more women-focused stories and Kumar Varun has launched a quizzing company and Larrisa D’Sa has launched her fine jewelry collection ‘Beyond Larissa Collectibles’.
With Inputs from Joshua Shahjan.