In this episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur, Jim James interviews Karen Tan, the founder and CEO of The Projector, an independent cinema and arts and cultural space in Singapore. Karen shares how The Projector was created to provide a mental breathing space where people can engage with interesting content and break out of their silos. The space shows alternative film content, hosts non-film content, and invites different interest groups to feel comfortable sharing the same space. Karen also shares how The Projector started, which was a crucial piece of the puzzle in getting noticed and on the radar.
Karen provides some tips on how to create a community-led business to get an entrepreneur and a business noticed. She emphasises the importance of getting the neighbourhood behind the business before opening the doors and screening films. In The Projector’s case, they used crowdfunding as a marketing tool to bring like-minded people together, raise money, and build project ownership. She encourages entrepreneurs to fill a void in the landscape and make their business community-led to attract a loyal following. By doing so, people feel invested in the success of the business, and it becomes a community effort.
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The UnNoticed Entrepreneur is hosted & produced by Jim James.
Welcome to The UnNoticed Entrepreneur. This show will tell you how to get the recognition you and your business deserve. Our guests share their practical insights and tools, which you can use straight away. Your host is International Entrepreneur, Podcast Host, and Author, Jim James.
Jim James:Hello and welcome to this episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur. Today, I'm really excited. I'm in Singapore, and I'm sitting opposite with Karen Tan, who is the Founder and CEO of the company called the "Projector." Karen, well, I'm gonna say, "Welcome to the show," but thanks for welcoming me to the Projector.
Karen Tan:Welcome to our space.
Jim James:It's beautiful and so creative. Now, for those people that can't be with me now, of course, I've got the video on so we can see. Explain a little bit about the "Projector" because I know this is a community-based sort of Theater and Cinema that you've got here. We're gonna talk about how you've managed to build probably the leading independent and Indie Film Cinema on community here in Singapore. And also we're gonna talk about how you've managed to get "Distribution Rights" and "Showing Rights" here in Singapore for movies that otherwise wouldn't be aired. So we've got quite a few things to cover. Explain to us first of all this unique space and what you do with it?
Karen Tan:So, big question is, what is the "Projector"? I suppose to loosely describe the Projector is an independent Cinema in Singapore and we're also a kind of "Arts & Cultural Space" as well. So, our tagline from the start is: "Not your average Cinema." And we are literally, we actively strive to be what it says on the tin. So yes, we're in independent Cinema. We show lots of alternative content, film content. So, anything from Art House to Indie to foreign film festivals to National Theater Live, for example. You know, to Anime, to Cult Classics like, "The Godfather" or "Saturday Night Fever." That's just the film content. And then, we are also, you know, a space for 'Non-Film Content.' So, comedy nights, film quizzes. We partner with, you know, animal charities to do like, "Cat Adoption Drives." So lots of basically Non-Film Content. We play hosts to lots of Non-Film Content as well, and that's deliberate. The whole point of the space is to sort of create a space in Singapore where it's just, I like to think of it as "Mental Breathing Space." But things aren't quite so regulated, but things aren't quite so polished and finished. You know, where it's kind of rough around the edges. It's quite relaxed, it's quite open. And crucially, you can kind of come here, be yourself, and engage with interesting content, which you may or may not be familiar with, but you know, hopefully you have a sense of curiosity. You'll come away with the sense of discovery of something that maybe you hadn't come across before. And that for us is one of the reason why we exist, you know, it's to create that sort of a space, that sort of atmosphere. A space for alternative communities and interest groups to feel at home. And we love that, you know, having them come and inhabit the space, side-by-side. So, for example, we could have, let's say, an "Eco-Film Festival" next to a Funk-Rock band performance, you know, with an Art Market happening in the lobby all at the same time. These are vastly different groups of people, but it's interesting to have them all come to the same space and enjoy it, next to each other. And sometimes they, you know, they kind of sneak-a-peek at what the others are doing, you know. That helps them break out of their own silos and just perhaps just get a bit more curious about, you know, "What else is out there?" So it's kind of, it's a long answer, it's a short question. But it really is about creating space that's open, where you're not judged. Yeah, where, you know, it's for the curious mind.
Jim James:Wonderful. And yet, in a place like Singapore, which isn't famous for having centers for curiosity and creativity, I can see why it's so well from, as well in the community. Tell us, how did you start "Projector"? Because getting people to take notice of it in the Cinema venue and creating space in Singapore is not easy. And I've seen half of you come and go, when you managed to succeed here in Singapore. So, Karen Tan, as one of the Founder and the, you know, the Visionary behind this, how'd you get it started and get your initial audience to buy into this concept?
Karen Tan:I'd like to start by saying we are really grateful we're still around, especially after COVID. You know, we're really grateful for our supporters and our community that kind of stuck by us the whole time. So, I think, how we got started, I think that's actually quite a crucial pieces of puzzle if you will, in terms of getting ourselves noticed and getting ourselves on the radar. So, we've been around for about eight years now. And when we started, you know, we had just stumbled upon, you know, this kind of unused, abandoned sort of 1970s vintage Cinema, you know, in the center of town. That was in a building that was frankly a blind spot for most of the public, you know. And then the challenge was, you know, you can't be dependent on footfall, you know, just peak passes by. You've got to actually put yourself on the map, and get people into this mall that they've forgotten about, up to the fifth floor. You know, which they didn't even know exists, existed, and, you know, come to your Cinemas. So that was actually one of the bigger challenges for us when we started and we just thought, "Crowdfunding", would be a way to unlock this because it... Yes, you know, and it helped us in multiple ways, you know, of course, raising the money was great and we needed that. But also, crucially, it was a marketing exercise for us, and it was about, you know, almost bringing together like-minded individuals. You know, people from the creative community, people who were interested in film in Singapore. Basically, people just felt that we would be filling a gap in the landscape to almost come together, and almost felt like a community project, if you will. Because they were basically putting their money where their mouths were. And you know, taking ownership of the project as well. So they were then vested in its success. And I think, for us that was kind of a way of actually the first step, in terms of gathering the community of bringing people together. And you know, that was even before we opened our doors. So, in a way, the business was kind of quite "community-led." We went out and got the people behind us before we even, you know, started, opened the doors, and started screening films. And to be honest, when we started the campaign, we weren't sure if people would almost believed they would attempt something quite so at the time, 'naive' or 'crazy,' in the simple context. But, the response was really, quite overwhelming, quite heartening. And it was actually the crowdfunding response that gave us that push to say like, "Okay, let's go for it" you know. Because there is a certain amount of support. And that will be there once you've opened your doors. And yeah, it was quite touching. And I remember the first screening as well where we didn't even have... Sorry if I'm rabbiting on.
Jim James:No, no, no, not sure. I'm just listening. It's great. I think it's very innovative of what you've done.
Karen Tan:We didn't even have the capability to sell tickets yet. So we basically had, you know, an open bar and we had a cash box, and we didn't yet also have an established channel to procure films. So we just had friends who were directors and they contributed their short films or their films. And that's how we started. I remember the first week we screened two short films back-to-back by local film directors and we said, "Okay, you know, you'll come on stage and we'll just do a Q & A and we'll put it out on Facebook and we'll see who shows up," right? And my two Co-Founders, myself, and we were just like, "Oh, well, you know, we'd be lucky if we sold 40 tickets in there. Like, that'd be great." 350 people showed up, I think. And that was phenomenal because they were seated on the steps. The Theater was rammed. And it was just this whole, and I think everyone who attended still remembers it to this day. And especially... and we do, we've got photos. But it's really a special atmosphere because it was just this whole, you could feel the energy in the air and people were excited. It was just like being part of something bigger and, you know, coming together.
Jim James:Karen... I'm sorry. From a practical point of view. "Crowdfunding", which platform did you use?
Karen Tan:I think it was Indiegogo.
Jim James:Indiegogo, okay. And how many people were you able to get? I don't need to ask you how much you raised, but just talk about how many people would you have got through that platform?
Karen Tan:Not sure. I can't quite remember off the top of my head now, about a few hundred I think.
Jim James:Interesting.
Karen Tan:In terms of hundreds. And we also interestingly had people support us from abroad. Which is nice, but also strange because, you know, the tickets that we gave them that have to travel quite a fair bit to get to us. But, you know, we thought that was nice.
Jim James:But it shows how you were resonating with the concept here in Singapore. So, you've got the venue set up, obviously, "Films," and I can see here around me, you've got the "John Wick" poster here. You've got "Women Talking." You've got "A number of newest plant 75." You've got all sorts of mainstream and Indies. How are you getting the distributors to give you their films? Because I know they're normally tied into the big chains. So how did you go about getting the films?
Karen Tan:It's a wild west environment in film procurement, it is. So for the large titles that comes through the big distributors and they now engage with us like the 'Commercial Big Boys.' We also work really closely with the Local Independent Film Distributors as well. And you know, they're the ones that sometimes give us 'exclusives', you know. Because they're confident that given our brand and the nature of our audience that we would be better placed to fill the Theaters with their, you know, for their films as opposed to, you know, the Commercial Big Boys. So it's interesting as well, sort of being able to support almost a local non-mainstream film ecosystem, as well.
Jim James:So Karen, that's wonderful. And then in terms of getting, if you had the "Next Generation Cohort," you had your crowdfunding sort of base, which is great. But then, obviously, films need hundreds, thousands of people coming to see you. How have you gone about marketing the Projector here in Singleton fifth floor at the capital building to get people that maybe not have been familiar with the Projector in the first place?
Karen Tan:So yeah, in terms of ongoing marketing, we quite early on decided, and this was what, eight years ago? So Facebook was still a thing.
Jim James:These things disappear so quickly.
Karen Tan:I mean, so we're still active on Facebook, but we've now got IG and TikTok and so on. But, we quite early on decided, you know, we're going to be engaging our customers and our audience via social media as opposed to traditional media channels for two reasons. One, it just social media didn't then allowed us to actually have a personality and have a voice. And the Projector has a certain voice when it speaks on our socials, you know, there's a certain irreverence. We like puns. We like trying to be witty or you know, that sort of a thing. You know, we like being silly jokes and taking a piss out of things. So, social media we figured, allowed us to project our personality. And also kind of engage more quickly and intimately with the audience, right? with our customers. And also, it was cheaper than traditional media. So, that's kind of the direction we went down and, you know, over the years we've also learned that, well, you've also got to evolve with social media trends. And so, you know, Facebook's kind of fallen back a little bit. And so we've had to kind of add Instagram and TikTok and whatnots, and Telegram and, you know. We're also learning, it's kind of like, a constant evolution. You just have to be... you have to keep up, you know. It's not a game where you can rest on your laurels if you are.
Jim James:Do you have some 'loyalty programs' as well that you've built for the Projector here in Singapore? Because that would seem also a key component. How are you doing that?
Karen Tan:Yeah, so we've got Membership Program, and you know, you subscribe, it gets you discounts, it gets you such a number of few tickets here. And we try to keep, you know, our kind of members engaged. The dream is to have enough time and bandwidth to kind of build out more kind of members events, which we will get to. All you members out there, we will. We're working on it. Just getting out of COVID, getting settled. That's on the roadmap, if you will, to kind of build out the membership program.
Jim James:Yeah.
Karen Tan:Because, you know, keeps people coming back. And also it's just like "Word of Mouth Referrals," probably the best way of convincing a new customer to come and check you out as opposed to, you could say whatever you'd like on an ad, you know. But nothing beats kind of a friend going, you know, "I was there the other night, it was great, you know, come along next time," right? So, that's kind of yeah. For us that's important. It's also coupled with, you know, just trying to give everyone the best possible set of experience and customer service. Bit old school to talk about it this way in this day and age where everything's like, you know, especially in Singapore where labor costs are high and other Cinemas are pivoting toward automation and to improve productivity, you know. But we've taken a different approach, you know. We want you to come and interact with a human that, you know, might say, "Hi, might remember your name?" "Might, you know, recommend a drink." "Might crack a joke." It's just a different experience that we're trying to craft for our customers here, and something that they will then therefore remember. And want to come back for as well.
Jim James:That's really nice. So retaining the human touch and the human experience, which is really authentic.
Karen Tan:Yeah.
Jim James:Which is why you've got wonderful company. Chance to sit around and you've got people to write on walls, I can see. Karen, you've managed to survive 8 years, including COVID, but is there something that you've done here at Projector that hasn't worked? I mean, I always like to find out from entrepreneurs. Maybe share something that they tried but it didn't get the results that they're looking for. From a you know, getting notice perspective.
Karen Tan:How long's a piece of string? Yeah. So one thing that we tried for the last, I think it would've been maybe the last six months to do, was to sort of get more mainstream audiences through our halls. Meaning, you know, to show Avatar or...
Jim James:Blockbusters.
Karen Tan:You know, a blockbuster, a typical sort of...
Jim James:Yeah.
Karen Tan:Something that would do well in the mainstream Theaters. We thought, "Okay, well maybe let's try and get a little bit of that pie," you know, in addition to all that we have. Could be a good, you know, supplement to revenue. And to be honest, when we first thought about it. We thought, "This will be a piece of cake, right?" We offer you, you know, a better experience. We offer you the best Cinema food you could want in Singapore. It's a better vibe. Like, you know, if you wanted to watch 'Antman,' like, "Why not come here? Why go to other commercial operators, which shall remain unnamed, which will just serve you overpriced coco nachos." And we thought this is gonna be a 'shoeing.' But then when we tried it, for some reason it just hasn't worked, you know. And we've been trying to unpack or we've been trying to pass out like why that's the case? And we're not entirely sure yet, but I think one of the hypothesis that we have going at the moment is that perhaps we are, in this respect, a victim of our own brand success. In the sense that we're known for "Alternative Content." Stuff that's not mainstream, you know? So, I guess, let's say a Cinema goer. If you think, "Oh, I'd like to watch Tar or The Whale or something." That's non-mainstream, you'd be like, "Ah, the Projector. That's a natural place to go." But if you're like, "You know, I'd like to watch Avatar." They just think at the moment, Golden Village or Shore, one of the big boys, right? And we haven't somehow been able to kind of break out of that or somehow change the way they think about it. Yeah, it's been a lot more sticky than we anticipated so...
Jim James:Well, although it sounds as though even the origin story of the "Projector" here in Singapore has been around that person who's looking for a creative, a very authentic experience, rather than a generic sort of Goldy surround sound, sit amongst hundreds of people. So I can really see why. For the fellow unnoticed Entrepreneur, like you Karen, Karen Tan here in Singapore, what would you say is the number one piece of advice you give to anyone that's trying to get their business noticed? What would you say has really worked for you, the Projector, that someone else could apply?
Karen Tan:I mean there are loads of, you know, lots of things that you could do and tricks that you could pull bells and whistles and all that. But, you know, fundamentally, I think it really is about getting people, your customers, or your audience, whatever you like to call them behind you. You know, to get them to feel like they're part of whatever you're creating. To have a sense of ownership of the brand almost, or you know, you made a sense of pride that they're part of the community, you know? And I think, they're going to be the strongest advocates. You know, that a brand ambassadors, you will, whatever you wanna call them, technically, that a brand could have. And it's really, so then therefore thinking about what they want and allowing them to also somehow shape whatever you're creating. So, you know, by way of example, we've done two pop-ups in Singapore, in addition, to our flagship over the last two years during COVID. And we're currently sitting in one of them. And when we were crafting this space, we took over an existing cineplex that had kind of shut down in the center of town. When we were crafting the space, for example, we engaged with our supporters to come down and, you know, help us paint the ceilings black and string up light bulbs and like, you know, contribute art and all sorts of things, right? And, you know, they could then sign their names on the central pillar. And it's just, it's not a huge thing that, you know, it doesn't amount a massive savings, but what it does is, it does give them a sense of ownership, right? And they literally, DIY the space. And it's just, you know, a different sort of engagement with your community and the audience and you kind of build it that way and there have a sense of pride after that get them behind you.
Jim James:Yeah, I'm sure you are justifiably proud of what you thought rejected. If people want to find out more about you, Karen Tan, here in Singapore, and the Projector, where can they find you?
Karen Tan:So head us up on "theprojector.sg." That's our website. Everything's on.
Jim James:Okay, perfect. Karen, thank you for joining me today on The UnNoticed Entrepreneur in your amazing venue. People have been coming out of Cinemas. I can see people are coming in. So it's getting kind of busy so it's really time for us to say thank you very much for joining me on The UnNoticed Entrepreneur show.
Karen Tan:Thank you for having me.
Jim James:It's been my pleasure. You've listened to Karen Tan. I'll put her details in the show notes as always. And thank you for listening to this episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur. And I will ask you to review this show and please share with the fellow unnoticed Entrepreneur because this is the way that we will all get our businesses noticed by sharing best practice between us. Until meet again, I just encourage you to keep on communicating.