Microdrama is central to the Australian Cairns Crocodiles
Vertical drama is entering the mainstream film industry in Australia, with Cairns Crocodiles set to host a special microdrama panel bringing together platform executives, broadcasters and content creators at the annual APAC creativity festival.
Tim Oh, managing director of leading microdrama company COL Group International, will appear at the Queensland event alongside Nikyah Hutchings, executive producer of commercials and partnerships at NITV, in a session entitled The Maestros of Microdramas. The panel will explore how the format is reshaping storytelling habits, brand integration and creative opportunities across the region.
“Australia is quietly outperforming all other markets [microdrama platform] FlareFlow has been working on revenue per user, audience depth and how quickly new users convert for a while,” Oh said. “To give you an idea of scale, the payment rate for new users in Australia is almost 20%, more than double what we see in most other developed markets.”
“Vertical is not coming to Australia,” Oh added. “It’s already here, and it works better here than anywhere else in the world. The question now is how we can build on that together.”
Hutchings recently won the Grand Prix at the B&T 30 Under 30 awards after winning the media sales and account management category. She oversees NITV’s commercial content and contributes to SBS’s ‘Australia Explored’ series. “Microdramas are changing the way culture appears on our phones and are an exciting meeting point of culture, technology and money,” she said. “I look forward to speaking with Tim Oh in Cairns about how vertical storytelling can open up new opportunities and make room for more voices, and what they really mean for creators, broadcasters and brands.”
The format is often discussed in Australian industry circles as a mobile or platform phenomenon rather than a narrative phenomenon. “Disruption is happening and the future is not yet written,” says Catherine de Clare, co-curator of the film and film track at Cairns Crocodiles. “We want creatives and business leaders to start thinking about what opportunities are out there and what kind of world we want to build.”
The panel will also look at whether brands are turning to microdrama, as some analysts expect the format to match the box office with Hollywood releases this year. Positioning itself at the intersection of the Australian and Asian media markets, Cairns Crocodiles has emerged in recent years as a venue for inter-regional deals and format development.
