idol Weekly 2 - 3/18/2023
Hi everyone,
First of all, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude for the overwhelming support we received on last week's article. I'm delighted to hear that so many of you appreciated the idea, and I truly hope to make these updates a regular occurrence – at least for weeks with noteworthy developments.
This week, we're going to delve into our plans for the idol Origin redebuts and offer a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes workings at idol, including what we provide to our talents.
A new chapter
Let's start by discussing "idol Origin," who were previously our "idolHE" generation. We decided to rebrand our talents from idolHE to idol Origin due to their focus on English content. The idea behind this change was to create a stepping stone before officially announcing them as part of the English generation, ensuring that people wouldn't avoid checking them out simply because of the "HE" in their name.
As mentioned in the first article, our idol Origin talents joined idol with little to no experience in streaming and content creation. Over the past year, they've been working tirelessly, honing their abilities, and showcasing their exceptional value and intelligence as content creators.
This is why we've been working diligently on building a strategy to redebut our idol Origin talents as part of our English branch. The idea behind these redebuts is to provide them with a fresh opportunity to showcase their skills, abilities, and content directions to a wider audience, in the hope that more people will check them out and give them the chance they deserve.
The redebuts will come with an array of enhancements and support, including:
A generous budget for each talent to invest in their content and growth.
New model designs that retain the original concept and appeal of the characters while featuring improved rigging and aesthetics.
A substantial marketing budget aimed at expanding their reach.
That being said, it's crucial to note that we don't treat the redebut as a "magic pill" solution. We fully understand that, for our talents to succeed over time, they require a more long-term approach. This is why we've been working closely with the idol Origin talents on their content strategy, offering training, and providing them with all the tools they need to produce high-quality content.
Our commitment to the success of our talents goes beyond just a redebut. We believe that, by continuously nurturing their growth, refining their content strategies, and supporting them in every aspect of their journey, we can help them achieve lasting success in the competitive world of VTubing.
We expect to announce our work on the idol Origin redebuts in a couple of weeks, once we've completed budgeting the project and finalizing the legal aspects. It's important for me to emphasize that both the talents are interested in redebuting, and we're actively working with them behind the scenes to make this a reality as soon as possible within a reasonable timeframe for redebuting a talent.
Our Secret
I'd like to take a moment to address some questions we often receive about idol's financial situation. People often wonder how and why we spend so much money, and how we can maintain profitability when we're clearly investing more than most VTuber agencies in our talents and marketing, especially given our relatively small size.
The secret? We're not profitable. In fact, over the past year, February was the only month we managed to see some profit. However, we immediately reinvested those earnings by hiring a team of over 15 video editors to further support our talents.
Although it might appear as if we have an endless supply of money, the reality is that we operate on a very strict and limited budget.
I believe what distinguishes idol from other small VTuber startups is the experience our team possesses, as well as our understanding of how to run startups effectively, raise funds, and allocate budgets to achieve the best results.
Our company collaborates closely with financial and fundraising experts, and we're gradually building a high-quality advisory board. Our team, including myself, comes from backgrounds in marketing and team management. By creating financial plans four years in advance, maintaining strict monthly budgets, and closely monitoring our cash flow, we manage to work around our limitations while still delivering on content and investing in our talents without the concern of running out of funds. We are also extremely grateful for our community, who have been supporting our talents and indirectly helping us gain more funds to reinvest in their growth.
I consistently use the term "investing" when discussing our support for our talents, because I truly believe that by spending money to help our talents develop creative ideas and produce better content, we're investing in their long-term success. In this way, they will feel more fulfilled, create higher-quality content, and see the value our agency provides to them. I sincerely wish that more agencies would realize this and invest more in their own talents.
Talent Freedom
At idol, we take a strategic and comprehensive approach to investing in our talents' content, with the goal of fostering growth, quality, and creativity. Here's how we support our talents:
We believe that true "talent freedom" is achieved when all the limitations to produce high-quality content are lifted, and more often than not, the biggest obstacle preventing great content creators from creating exceptional content is budget constraints.
To ensure our talents have the resources they need to thrive, we cover various content expenses, including:
Physical products that talents can use or display on stream.
Video games, consoles, and other gaming-related expenses.
Stream assets for original shows, such as backgrounds, illustrations, logos, etc.
Illustrations for character design, promotions, or merchandise.
Music mixers and producers for creating original songs or background music.
Video editors to enhance content quality and streamline the editing process.
Digital products, such as software, licenses, or subscriptions needed for content creation.
Special trainings and courses to help talents develop new skills or refine existing ones.
By covering these expenses, we empower our talents to explore their creativity and produce top-tier content without being held back by financial limitations. This approach not only benefits the talents themselves but also contributes to the growth and success of the idol agency as a whole.
Wrapping Up
I hope this week's article provided an interesting and informative look into how things operate behind the scenes at idol. We hope you're as excited as we are for the upcoming redebuts of our idolOrigin talents and have a better understanding of how the process will unfold.
In next week's article, we plan to delve into our marketing strategies (within the scope of what we can share), discuss donothons, and cover additional topics that shed light on how we continue to support our talents growth.
Thank you for joining us on this journey, and we look forward to sharing more insights and updates with you in the future. Stay tuned for next week's article!