About nine years into their video journey, the two men behind Singapore-based Trevmonki are about to become – officially – mentors to Singapore’s next generation of social video wannabes.

From June, Trevor Tham and Leonard Lau, with 230,000 YouTube subscribers, will share their experiences on the coalface of a noisy and crowded industry far removed from anything their parents initially envisioned for them. 

The inaugural batch of wide-eyed budding social-first content creators gather next month as part of Singapore media company Mediacorp’s first accelerator programme, Bloomr.sg MCN Accelerator. 

The programme follows a month-long search backed by Mediacorp, which launched the Bloomr.sg multichannel network in August last year, in collaboration with YouTube and regulator, the Infocomm Media Development Authority. 

The idea is to equip newbies with practical skills and support they need to populate Bloomr.SG. The platform aims to house up to 1,000 content creators over the next decade.  

The accelerator training programme runs from June to November, and will be followed by backing for specific projects and IP co-creation. Somewhere in there is the opportunity to be involved in producing commissioned content for Mediacorp’s platforms, including streaming service meWatch. 

But probably more important for now is creating and strengthening the bridge between what creators want to make and someone to pay for it. 

“We struggle a lot when we talk to clients,” Tham says in answer to a question about where he thinks influencers need the most help. “We need a bridge between [advertising/brand] clients and influencers.”

No one in the content space needs Trevmonki (or anyone else) to outline the challenges of talking to brands in Asia about “content”.  

Bloomr.sg’s co-founder, team lead and senior manager, Diogo Martins, says Bloomr.sg is careful about pairing content creators with brands, and helps craft video that matches specific audiences. “We do the early vetting,” he says. 

Bloomr.sg also translates between brands and creators. “Translating the language between the media industry and the influences has been one of the toughest issues,” Martins says. 

Monetisation, he adds, starts to build up because the industry has started to understand content creators, not just influencers”.   

Trevmonki, which started making videos for YouTube about nine years ago, has been part of Mediacorp’s universe for three or four years. 

The pair were discovered online by Mediacorp’s digital team with not a day’s formal training in media or video production. Lau studied business management and Tham studied science. 

“My parents were at first shocked that people would pay us to make funny videos,” Lau says. 

Tham’s parents weren’t sure about his choices; “it wasn’t about the job, but about making money for the future”. Digital content is now a full time job for both. 

Which means that somewhere between what they love and earning a living, a balance has been reached and brands are on board.   

“They don’t pressure us to make content that is different from when they signed us and there is no restriction or limitation on what we can put on our channel,” Tham says. 

“Are you making commercials or entertainment?”, I ask. 

“It has to be entertaining,” Tham replies, adding: “When Leonard and I write the script, we have to satisfy the client and be true to who we are. From a tech point of view, we shoot as a commercial.” 

Lau says expectations are managed on both sides. “We try our best to fit in with brand guidelines, but we don’t let these become restrictive,” he says.  “Bloomr acts as a filter,” he adds.  

Martins steps in on the ad versus entertainment question. “The more involved the client is, the more it can look like an ad versus entertainment, he says. 

Lau says their work has changed enormously in the past nine years, shaped by both YouTube shifts and their own evolution as creators.  

Along with expanding into reality and lifestyle content recently, the two now run a short-film channel.  “We like to tell stories... to uncover stories that people need to see,” Tham says, talking about finding meaning and fulfilment as content creators. 

The Bloomr.sg accelerator is perhaps something of a coming of age moment for them. As Lau says: “We are not jut two guys making funny videos in our bedrooms anymore”. – Janine Stein