From media research to image consulting: Ormax Media’s 16 year journey

Last month, Ormax Media forayed into celebrity image consulting with its new tool, ‘Ormax Star Image Pulse’. It will assist actors in film and streaming, as well as social media influencers, in crafting their market positioning using audience intelligence. The recommendations will guide celebrities in various aspects of their careers, including project selection, personal branding, and endorsement decisions.

A week later, the media consulting firm forayed into the learning and education domain, with an online certification course ‘Certificate Program in Indian Media Business’. Available separately for students and executives, the programme will help those interested in a media and entertainment career in India to make a more informed decision.

For the last 16 years, Ormax Media has been focussing on content testing and research for television, films, and OTT. Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO, Ormax Media, says that with most companies using its testing and tracking offerings and it being well accepted by the industry, it is now looking at entering new domains. 

Consumer research veteran Vispy Doctor set up the full-service consumer research firm Ormax Consultants in 1985. In 2008, Doctor collaborated with Kapoor to establish Ormax Media, focusing on entertainment research. Prior to that, Kapoor had 10 years of experience in the television industry, working for Sahara Group's Hindi film channel, Filmy.

During the first five to six years, it was primarily focused on creating products and educating various industries, particularly the film industry, about the benefits of research. This process took time, especially in the film industry, which required more convincing compared to the more research-savvy TV industry that regularly used ratings data. 

“The TV industry was more familiar with research, although smaller players had limited experience with it. Content testing, in particular, was a new concept for many, and we had to convert non-believers and sceptics into believers in research and analytics,” he says.

A significant shift occurred in 2018 with the rise of OTT platforms. While it had been working in radio, print, and primarily TV and theatrical domains, OTT became a new area of growth. The pandemic year of 2020 was pivotal, as lockdowns halted in-person testing, allowing it to develop new tools and data points for the OTT space. 

“Now TV, theatrical, and OTT are all equally important and strong for us. Over the last three to four years, these offerings have become well understood and widely used in the industry,” he adds.

Ormax Media is also focusing heavily on the South Indian film market. During the pandemic, it worked on expanding its products, particularly in the theatrical space, to the South. It started tracking films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, analysing box office numbers and building a database to understand what genres and trends are popular. Over the past four to five years, it has accumulated significant data, and this year, it is actively engaging with producers in the South. 

“This process mirrors our experience in the Hindi market around 2010-2012 when we worked to demonstrate the value of research. We began this expansion in 2022, but this year, we've gained significant momentum, with more projects coming in from the South. It's a strategic priority for us, as our work has historically been more focused on the Hindi market, partly due to our Mumbai base. However, we're now prioritising the South, recognising its importance and potential for growth,” Kapoor says.

Speaking about the need for Star Image Pulse, Kapoor says there's a growing demand for data-driven decision-making, given the uncertainty in the Hindi film industry. The product offers three packages—Platinum, Gold, and Silver—based on market reach. The Platinum package includes research across 40-50 cities in India, while the Silver package covers the top 12 cities. 

“This tiered approach allows for flexibility, catering to different needs, such as urban-focused OTT stars or mass-market action stars. We designed these packages to accommodate various requirements and budgets,” he says.

Brands can also make use of the tool to make decisions about long-term associations, like a brand's strategic decision to continue a 10-15 year relationship with a celebrity like Shah Rukh Khan or Amitabh Bachchan. For more short-term decisions, Ormax has another tool called Celebele, specifically designed for brands to select celebrity endorsers. It focuses on matching a brand's desired image with a celebrity's personality. 

“It's a fitment tool, helping brands identify which celebrities align with their brand's image. Celebele hasn't been heavily marketed, but some brands have used it over the past couple of years. It's particularly useful for short-term associations, where the primary concern is finding a good fit rather than a deep analysis of the celebrity's image,” he says.

The certificate programme is Ormax’s first B2C venture, marking a new direction for it as Ormax aims to reach a broader audience directly. However, the company is well-entrenched in the audience’s mind, due to its mention in a past season of Koffee with Karan and its long-term association with entertainment website Film Companion. 

“So far, we haven't paid for advertising or engaged in performance marketing on social media. All our visibility has been organic, through word-of-mouth, messaging, and communication. For instance, our mention on Koffee with Karan happened without any promotion. In the film industry, experiences are shared, and word travels, leading to many referrals. 

In the B2B space, its exposure often comes from industry feedback and the use of its data in projects, reports, and articles. “While B2C marketing is different, especially with our course open to an international audience, there's an opportunity for people to discover us through this new offering,” he says.

It has developed a 10-session online course covering foundational topics in the industry, targeting students and professionals considering a career shift. It plans to start with one batch for students and another for executives in August and September. To promote the course, it is reaching out to educational institutions and using online community workshops to inform students with an interest in media. For the executive course, it will leverage its B2B relationships and suggest it as part of management training programmes.

“While some of us have occasionally taught courses or conducted guest lectures at universities, there's a clear demand for more structured knowledge about the Indian media and entertainment industry. Initially, we aim to limit each batch to 40-50 students. If there's strong demand, we can expand over three to six months, allowing the programme to grow organically. We'll assess the first responses and then decide whether to engage in conventional advertising or performance marketing,” he says.

While Ormax Media continues to explore different domains, its core has always remained content testing, which currently constitutes about 40% of its work. Over the past 16 years, it has worked on nearly 1,000 projects in content testing, including TV, OTT shows, films, and scripts. However, Kapoor envisions Ormax being recognised as the leading knowledge provider in the Indian entertainment industry, using various methods, including but not limited to testing, to deliver that knowledge.

“The essence of what we do is about gathering feedback from audiences, making us a bridge between our clients and their audiences. Whether it's through content testing, data analysis, or forecasting, our goal is to provide media consumer insights. Today, much of our work involves specialised, customised consulting projects, such as helping companies launch new apps or channels. These projects aren't publicly visible, but they still rely on a deep understanding of consumers and audiences,” he says.