MANILA, PHILIPPINES — If you were to grab Emile Tanglao’s phone from him and scroll through his watch history, you’d likely see a ton of react videos. You know the sort: videos where you can watch Gen Z listening to 90’s music for the first time, Americans trying out Jollibee, compilations of streamers screaming at video game jump scares — not exactly the first thing you’d expect coming from someone whose name is often prefaced by “COO.”
“There’s nothing I love more than seeing people experience something for the first time,” he explained in an interview with adobo Magazine.
Emile is the Chief Operating Officer of Brand New Company, a creative solutions provider with a strong focus on intellectual property development. After launching in 2022, Brand New Company introduced two in-house IPs — Irregular Programming, a show inspired by older Japanese TV comedy programs like Gaki no Tsukai, and HEYU, the Philippines’ first foray into professional vtuber management — as well as managing its own esports team, ECHO.
Together with his partner and co-founder, Brand New Company Chief Creative Officer Charles Coralejo, Emile’s drive to establish a better IP development industry in the Philippines has attracted top young creatives to the fledgling company’s team. Their Creative Director, Rob Cham, is a National Book Award-winning comics creator whose art has been the focal point of campaigns by Red Horse Beer and San Miguel Pale Pilsen. The head of their sound department, Anton Magno, is the founder of Sunny Side Sound, an audio solutions company that has serviced brands like Netflix, Globe, Shell, and Nike.
Bringing dynamic young talents into the fold wasn’t too hard an ask, as the prospect of working on wholly original, distinctly Filipino IPs is powerful catnip for many creatives.
“From a creative perspective, I feel developing new products and IPs really stimulates the space in general,” Emile said. “It forces existing groups to innovate in a space they may have gotten used to and allows new players to enter into scenes that may not have existed. This also means new things for the audiences and the market in general to enjoy.”
There’s also never been a better time than now to push for IP development, thanks to the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act opening up more opportunities for creative businesses to thrive. The final KPI of this landmark piece of legislation, according to its principal author Congressman Toff de Venecia, is IP generation, as these properties represent boundless business and investment opportunities.
“The willingness to invest and develop IPs represents an opportunity for freedom in a lot of ways,” Emile explained. “When you own and operate a mature IP, it really allows you freedom in setting the value of what you can offer to the market. There truly is power in ownership, as it opens up new business opportunities that may not have been an option previously.”
IP development also represents the ability to adapt to ever-changing audience demands. It’s no coincidence that Brand New Company’s IPs all serve current and emerging consumer touchpoints; creating something new from scratch allows them to tap into the zeitgeist without any of the baggage that pre-established branding may bring.
Irregular Programming, for example, leverages the renewed interest in Japanese gag shows (thanks in large part to clips of these shows making their way online) by featuring a cast with backgrounds in cosplay, gaming, and vlogging, among others. Its focus on sparking genuine, unrehearsed reactions from its colorful cast as the main source of comedy is very much a product of the now. At the same time, its free-flowing format also allows for greater experimentation on the production side, becoming a creative outlet for everyone involved and a uniquely positioned incubator for new entertainment.
“Currently, Irregular Programming allows us to experiment with show formats and video production techniques and see what works and what people respond to,” Emile shared. “We’re hoping Irregular Programming continues to be a platform for our talents to have genuine fun and interaction and, with time, hopefully, mature into even more elaborate show concepts we can run.”
Their other new IP, HEYU, explores the nearly limitless possibilities vtubing has to offer. Vtubing is a fast-rising entertainment medium where a content creator engages with their audience much like streamers, except they’re only seen as their virtual avatars. These avatars can take on any appearance, and are rigged to mimic the vtuber’s physical movements and facial expressions. In 2023, vtubers were responsible for over 1.1 billion hours of watch time across YouTube, Twitch, and other streaming platforms.
HEYU positions itself as a virtual talent agency, with three vtubers — Jacki3, Ru VII, and Gemi9 — as its first generation of talents. The three are also members of the Philippines’ first professional vtuber band, RE:NEGADE, underlining Brand New Company’s approach to the format: that talent and personality are everything.
“Vtubers are multidisciplinary talents that marry performance, broadcasting, gaming, singing, and various other subcultures,” Emile said. “Even though you might not see their faces, we believe the individuals we’ve chosen to work with are very special, and we’re very excited to see their growth.
“In general, I think creatives in the space will continue to iterate using the medium to bring us even more exciting ways to experience music, performance, and art,“ he added.
Brand New Company brings that same spirit of unrepressed innovation outside of IP development to its white-label client-servicing work. Its in-house creative teams produce videos, marketing materials, and various other campaigns with the zeal they bring to their IPs, utilizing its talent network to come up with ideas created specifically to excite their clients.
These client-servicing functions are also informed by the real-time results it gets from its original IPs’ performance, creating an environment where every business effort enriches another — despite what may appear to be a direct conflict between the two roles.
“I believe it’s a constant balancing act when it comes to bandwidth at the end of the day,” Emile shared. “Our client servicing functions are front and center, but we always keep our developing IPs in mind when it comes to any synergies that may present themselves when we execute. It not only provides us with real data as case studies, but informs us on how to push the IP forward in a sustainable manner.”
In this sense, IP development doesn’t just generate new business; it can also provide fuel for existing businesses. When creativity abounds after all, countless novel solutions present themselves. Emile and the team at Brand New Company fully recognize this and are constantly looking for new ways to keep innovating.
“It’s safe to say that we’re not only targeting having IPs that are only based in online digital media,” he said. “We’d love to break into having more new media options as outlets for our IPs since it runs parallel for what we want to do as Brand New. The short of it would be, nothing is off the table, especially if it’s something new and of value to people.”
In many cases, simply being new is what brings value to people. Novelty delights and inspires us at a primal level; take it from someone like Emile, who fully appreciates the joy of watching people react to something they’ve never seen before.
At its core, IP development is what the creative economy is all about, making a mature IP ecology one of the foundations of a sustainable future for our creative industries. With companies like Brand New Company shaping this burgeoning field in the Philippines, there’s definitely a lot to be excited about.
