(Irene Ang, Founder/CEO, Fly Entertainment)

Q: You are known for casting but not TV production. Why are you choosing to do so?

A: It is something that I have always wanted to do but never found the time. Fly has actually pitched many ideas. This was not the first time we’ve pitched (an idea). We’ve once pitched at Asian Television Forum (ATF) and clinched silver for one of our sitcom ideas. I agree that Fly is not known for being a production company, and that is not the area that we fully intend to go into. But, there’s so much creativity in Fly. I just can’t ignore them.

Over the past 15 years of Fly, we have a made a lot of good friends. We’ve worked with many production houses. Hot Guards was the first amongst the other ideas that we have to fully roll out as a fun project for Asia. It is not our core business – which is artistes’ management and casting, so we have no pressure to churn out like a factory. We take our time to build each brand.

At that point last year, what we wanted was to find something to market a new resort called Treasure Bay Bintan. The COO actually approached me and said, “Hey, I want to do something to reach out to the young people who like sports…” because they’re going to have the biggest manmade crystal lagoon in the world. It’s going to have a lot of water sports and several hotels surrounding the lagoon. There will be entertainment, food and drinks, parties and concerts. It was a very exciting project.

He found that marketing online to the whole of the Asia difficult. The idea was to look for a programme that could grow. It’s a 20-year project. They have the wellness habitat, true cove as well as the Northern and Southern precinct.

At the time, (Singapore Zoo’s pandas) Kai Kai and Jia Jia were very popular.  I said we should have our own Kai Kai and Jia Jia for Treasure Bay Bintan and draw people in. There on, we decided to create the star of Treasure Bay Bintan.

Instead of using a famous celebrity to be the ambassador, we wanted someone that people could follow for a while and get to know them better. And so, we created this reality programme with two stars – a male and a female. With each new season, the cast can be refreshed to prolong the series. This ties back to what Fly is known for – creating stars.

The stars need to be different because they are representing a hotel/resort. Through many weeks of brainstorming, we surveyed the youngsters and they wanted to see the hunks and babes. We’ve come to realise that just the body alone is not enough. They must have the personality and skills set. If I’m going to watch a show, it needs to be able to make me learn about something too– like resuscitation, bed making, organising a banquet or engineering a proposal. These are what make a resort successful. That was how we finalised the idea for Hot Guards.

Q: How important is it to have brands in mind in this business?
A: Fly is a multifaceted company. I am a businesswoman and an artiste at the same time. When I am thinking of something creative, my mind asks, “Is this going to make business sense? If I’m going to bring this to a station, how are they going to sell airtime?”

Running a business, I often think of continuity. “Is this programme going to be a one-time thing? Is there continuity?” There are resorts developed every year. Does this show continue after this entire project is done?

This is not Fly’s main source of income so we can take it as a project that is fun to do and meaningful. The team involved in this are all very excited to run the project. The difference between us and other businesses is that we are not a production house. We are an entertainment company. We think 360 degrees – from sponsorship to airtimes to audience and even social media. It’s a very simple proposal. In fact, I didn’t even get to finish my pitch at Superpitch. We even brought in a couple of sample lifeguards to come in. When you think of a reality show, we’ve really got to think of what the audience wants, and we went with that. The other side is whether or not it’s gripping enough for investors to come in.

I think it is important that when you do a pitch to not only be excited about the idea. We have pitched many great ideas but they were not feasible. Feasibility and focus groups are very important.

(Models at Fly Entertainment’s pitch for Hot Guards.)

Q: How might you restructure your current organisation to say, open a production arm?

A: To be absolutely honest, we have attempted to open a production arm and realised that it is additional cost. You don’t necessarily have work all the time. You’re fighting with a lot of already-established companies and our clients. We closed it down after a year as it was neither lucrative nor good for our relationships with our clients, so to speak.

Hot Guards was spun off from the events department’s request. They had a client that they needed to do an event for. They brought in the marketing team and came to me together. It’s a concept that we have and then, we went on to find partners.

3 years ago, I coined this term called co-competition, because I’ve realised that Singapore is so small and that we shouldn’t fight with one another. We should instead cooperate with one another, tap on each other’s strength and compete with the world. I really feel that we are very blessed because in the last two years, it seems like more and more production companies are interested in the Asian culture, production and content. We are entering at the right time.

Asia has a very long history of TV production and is very experienced but people are not aware of it or they don’t know where to find them. Because we know everybody, our strength as to how we can contribute to this is a very specific area. What the market needs is a good production sales and marketing team. I am going to form that team this year – one that can sell sponsorship, put together a concept and pitch, knows how and where to find the right partner, source for investors to come in, and get the people doing the production to produce. A lot of those in production are very creative but aren’t good in business. This is why some programmes get into problems with cash flow etc.

Q: Do you see this as a revenue stream currently?
A: Currently, no. I think we have to start doing two seasons before we get to see the money. For the first two seasons, we would like to have people like the programme, be inspired by the contestants, entertained by the content and learn something from it.

As for online projects, as it is, we have already been doing a lot for our corporate clients – social media, viral videos and etc, which we don’t put our name to as it is their product. Like I’ve said, we worked with different production houses for different and several directors. Different directors are good with different genres. This is why we cannot have our own production arm but we will always have a producing arm – to match clients to the right kind of director and scriptwriter. It is still sort of a production but it’s not a technical production arm.

(Irene Ang (second from right) of Fly Entertainment with judge Matthew Ashcroft of Shine International at the ATA 2012 Superpitch.)

Q: Where are you with Hot Guards at this point?
A: It is going to be a bit challenging because of the venue. The developments have been delayed due to sand issues and other technical issues. We targeted to shoot August 2013 but as of now, it has been pushed back to next year. It is also good for us as we’re learning from this experience as well.

Good news is, there’s a local and regional TV that has approached us. In fact, we are very, very honoured and shocked that they want our programme. We went for the pitch to test whether people would like our programme. We truly didn’t expect to win. We were simply testing the market before we approached the channels and stations. We joined just to gain experience, with the intention to get a feel of how the industry experts would like it. The judges also gave us advice on how to improve on the programme as well as the dangers to look out for. It’s been very educational the team.

Q: How would you position Fly Entertainment?
A: Fly is a friend to many. You can come to Fly with a big budget or with a very low budget. Rest assured that we’ll always be open to listen to you and if there’s something we can help with, we will definitely step in to help. If it’s something that we cannot do, we’ll always direct you to someone we know who can do a good job. We are always honest – regardless of whether we can or cannot do a job.

We are always honest with our opinions. I generally like to work with people who share the same value as I do – who wants to create change in the industry, make entertainment more meaningful, believe in equal partnership, and respect each other’s contributions as well as space. Money has never been the number one reason to work with me. The team that represents your company is important. Money cannot buy Fly. If we have agreed to do something else for somebody at a lesser price, and you have more money, we won’t drop that project for you.

In one sentence, Fly is open to working with anyone and on any platform in the media industry. We see ourselves as a one-stop solution partner. We have partnered with people at several levels – as a vendor, consultant, marketing partner, artiste supplier, casting agency, and we are always open to try new things.

Moving forward, we hope to continue this good relationship with all of the key players and those who are fair as well as passionate in what they do.