In conversation with Shahir Muneer, Divo

Shahir Muneer is the founder & director of Divo. With 8 years of experience in marketing and project management in the media and entertainment domain, he moved on to start his entrepreneurial journey in  2012 with Divo and has built it into other areas across online video, music, and digital content marketing. 

Agency Reporter- Congratulations on Divo’s expansion! What motivated you to foray into digital, content and influencer marketing?

Divo has been a key player in the south regional content as a leading enterprise partner (formerly referred to as multi-channel networks) with various video platforms like YouTube, etc. since 2014. And having one of the largest content creator networks in the south coupled with being a digital partner for various studios and music labels in the south, we always had the best relationships with creators, talents, influencers and have been one and possibly only for some revenue source to help them monetize their content. By 2017 we started getting enquiries from the market for branded content and influencer marketing requirements. In fact, between 2017 and 2019 we had already executed over 100 such requirements for over 40 brands, and all were reactive deals and nothing that we went and got in the market.

Seeing the immense growth in enquires and witnessing the market landscape we understood there were gaps for advertisers, and it required a specialized agency with expertise not just in the domain, but also have creative ability to bridge the gap. This is where our strengths lied, being one of the few or only companies from the South to be able to deliver solutions that will address challenges of vernacular, creative, communication, etc.

AR- Since influencer marketing is witnessing massive growth, where does the market stand currently?

From a brand or advertiser perspective, the early adopters are the app/digital-driven businesses who have been regularly using influencer marketing and continue to do so. They are also driving the maturity curve in this business. But now there is an onset of multiple traditional advertisers, especially from FMCG, that have made the foray. So, we will have multiple new entrants including regional advertisers who will adopt this medium and will be wanting to understand how to use it effectively. 

From an agency perspective, there was and to some extent still is a large, scattered set of providers that have popped up all over the nation, resulting in duplication of work, subcontracting, and so forth, resulting in the brand to some extent, and content creators and influencers at a large extent, getting affected.  There is a consolidation and awareness now in the market from brands and advertisers what each agency has to offer and bring to the table, and will see growth propelled for agencies with long-term strategies compared to ones working on the short term.

AR- What are some trends in the influencer marketing industry you expect to witness in 2021? 

There will be more scrutiny on engagement and performance apart from stronger creative and content by the influencer from brands and advertisers. Also going forward more traditional advertisers will be seen adopting this segment as one of their key digital activities.

AR-– You have also established Divo strongly in the music publishing business. Could you please shed some light on its evolution over the years? 

Just like how we have derived the digital and influencer agency business from the enterprise online video division, the music distribution and publishing business too were derived from it. Serving various studios as their digital and online video partner, we saw multiple production houses having various pain points in their music rights sales and also the inability to build their brand using their content as they end up parting up with its rights.

This combined with the music industry moving away from physical and mobile VAS business, online video and audio platforms like YouTube, JioSaavn, etc. were the key revenue streams. We had a very strong distribution focus not just on generating new clients labels and artists, but also forging distribution contracts with all music platforms be it digital, publishing, performance, etc, and not just limited to India, but in multiple other countries as well where Indian music gets consumed. We have been able to avoid using any aggregators across our distribution network and hence able to deliver higher revenue returns to our clients. This is why we have been able to move forward much faster across our service. Just like how we have derived the digital and influencer agency business from the enterprise online video division, the music distribution and publishing business too were derived from it.

AR- With everything shifting to digital, online streaming must have changed the music IP game drastically. What is your take on the same?

We are definitely one of the key disruptors to this. Way back in 2013-14 itself, one of our initial and still current client, Actor/Producer Dhanush, was convinced digital is the future and was looking to make his banner be the forefront property or brand where all his film’s promotional content like trailers, etc and music content gets consumed. Our partnership enabled us to go beyond what traditional labels were doing then. We enable UGC campaign in 2013 and 14 itself which was never the norm and saw huge traction from not just India, but multiple countries including non-Indian audience from Turkey, Korea, Taiwan, etc We knew we were on the right track and was able to make case studies with the kind of revenue generated to various studios and production houses to partner with us. And eventually, even decades-old labels saw value in partnering with us for their distribution as well. Music will continue to be dominated by film music but there will break out songs and artists every year in the non-film segment as well. However we feel brands and advertisers do not look at music as an ideal space in terms of branded content and are possible areas with lower revenue for music creators compared to comedy, beauty, lifestyle creators, or vloggers.

AR- Is there a particular reason for focusing on operations majorly in South India?

We started our business to cater to the Tamil market and that naturally expanded to other regions within South India. Our key USP has been our specialization in the market being able to understand content, audience, platform, creators, content owners, the entire spectrum needs specialized focus. Which we have seen even in traditional media where regional vernacular specialized media houses were able to get market leadership versus a national or North based media house operating in South. Sun Network, Asianet, Maa are all such successes where they still continue to dominate the market. While of course Asianet and Maa are now part of Star, but that acquisition would not have happened had it not been for their market strengths.

So we are clear on the strengths we wanted to develop, and today across our 3 offerings of online video aggregation, music distribution/publishing, and digital/content/influencer agency, we are among the market leaders in the South across all three. However, having said that, we have slowly been spreading to the national market and have made inroads. 

AR- What are your future plans for Divo? 

While we have been working as one entity offering various digital solutions to varied type of clientele, we are clearly demarking our 3 divisions with its own set of leadership and business teams so that they grow independently and is not dependent on either. We already have a presence across the South and now in Mumbai and Delhi as well to ensure we grow beyond the South markets. One such project which will be launched in 2021 will be our music distribution and publishing service, which would be a unique and first of its kind of monetization offering from an Indian company to music labels and artists regardless of whichever part of India they are from.