The entertainment media industry is not everybody’s cup of tea. Internationally, many entertainment websites have achieved global recognition. These websites gain traction from hundreds of thousands of online content consumers that crave for all things entertainment. Based out of the UK, the USA, and Canada, these sites seem to be the leaders in this space.
But what if we told you there is a homegrown site from Lucknow that is challenging the heavyweights, beating them at their own game? Meet Amir Syed’s Animated Times — an Indian entertainment site that creates viral content right at home.
Did Amir Syed think big? Or was it a shot in the dark? When he thought about this idea, was he a visionary or a madman? Many don’t know. The one million-strong consumer base Amir Syed’s Animated Times engages with every month is sure to disagree with you. In an era where an idea is so exceedingly imitable, every Tom, Dick, and Harry can make a content page. But it takes talent, rigor, and passion to know what it takes to make things work even in the face of countless adversities ready to mimic your success.
The success story of Animated Times
How come Animated Times managed to succeed? What is the secret sauce? The truth is — there is no secret sauce. Call it chance or luck, Animated Times has a very well-versed team of writers, creators and artists. Be it the articles they write or the memes they make, all of their works are viewed and consumed by a variety of people of different age groups. The target customer is the average superhero lover, a follower of the cape and the cowl. And that leaves a wide area for Animated Times to cover in a very short time.
So how do they manage to pin down a million fans scattered all across the globe? The answer, says Syed, lies in the approach and the vision for the company. He says: “Why Animated Times is growing is because of the strong community building around the niche.”
Sounds simple at first. But the task looks ridiculously complicated to execute. To do so, the team of Animated Times banks on continuous fan engagement via social media groups. Amir Syed himself is a core member of many popular Facebook fan pages like the Official Avengers Group and Marvel, DC, and Everything Nerdy. These groups have scores of fans who flock towards good content, which Animated Times supplies in generous amounts. The fans then start discussing them in bulk, creating additional buzz.
This is a unique and time-tested strategy of entertainment media. The tactic is an example of frugal innovation at its best. The advertising costs are considerably lower. The fan engagement is higher than conventional methods. Not even the bigger players can replicate this model because of its distinctive prerequisites.
Where does the buck stop? Amir Syed says it certainly does not stop here. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was launched merely a decade ago but it has become the world’s most profitable franchise at $22.56 billion in box office revenues alone. The superhero genre is here to stay and so are the movies and shows. As long as there is smoke, there is always fire.
All that Animated Times needs to do is keep stoking those flames till those embers are visible all across the globe. “We know we have a tough journey ahead”, says Amir Syed. But he believes with a team this dedicated to a fault, there’s hardly a chance to hit anything else except bullseye.
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