What is brewing at FilterCopy?

India’s ravenous appetite for content has no bottom. Encouraged by cheap internet data and a boom in affordable smartphone prices over the years, watching a movie, television show, or scrolling through short-form video on social media while on commute or during work breaks is second nature.

How else can one explain the three billion views FilterCopy, a content company, has racked up in FY23? Born in 2015 as a pop-culture blog, the Pocket Aces-owned brand soon pivoted to doling out short-form relatable and sharable content one video at a time. It has over time attracted brand interest too and has worked with the likes of Unacademy, Cadbury, Pepsi, and Hyundai.

Speaking to afaqs! during Goafest ’23 held in May, FilterCopy chief Shreya Agarwal says the nature of snackable content has diversified further from the three to five-minute sketches they released a few years ago.

“You have videos of 15-seconds and 30-seconds duration on Instagram, and it is not only creators, viewers too have started making content… snackable content has reached Bharat and they are creating snackable content in return,” she says.

Moving in tandem with the changing dynamics of video consumption, the company is curating its work as per the platform. “We package a video, when we release it, differently for a YouTube which goes in a horizontal cut, or an Instagram which goes in vertical format, on Facebook it goes 4:5 which is the aspect ratio that works best on the platform,” she explains.

Its Instagram content is not shared or uploaded on YouTube but YouTube videos go in a repackaged format on Instagram. “We make the first scene very short because the first three seconds matter the most on Instagram or Facebook as opposed to the first 30 seconds on YouTube where you have that leeway,” she says and reveals a good amount of its three billion views came from Facebook.

Along with size-fitting videos to platforms cross-platform sharing, FilterCopy has expanded its offerings. It recently launched a mini-series format with 10-to-12-minute episodes which are three in a series, and a rap-reel format which is a sub-one-minute musical rap reel based on a core insight. Its first one was on life after the board exams.

“Playing on relatability and shareability is our core strength,” states Agarwal.

Who is FilterCopy trying to relate with every day? Is it viewers from India’s urban metros or Bharat (brand speak from non-metro and rural India)? “We’d say a 40:60 split in urban and non-urban. The share button is word of mouth in today's time,” answers the content company’s chief.

She further states that content made for the urban folks definitely reaches them and the same is the case with content tailored to non-metro viewers. “This helps when we work with brands. Certain brands want to reach urban audiences, certain want to reach Tier II regions and having full control over our distribution helps us do it.”

The brands it works with come from different categories and are at different life stages. Some approach FilterCopy and say it loves their work and wishes to work with them while others reach out to the company with a definite plan.

There are bulk deals where FilterCopy ends up signing a bunch of videos  - they can be reels, rap reels, miniseries, or short videos. “We had 15-16 sketches with Unacademy.”

One of the more noteworthy bits of FilterCopy’s work is its liberal outlook towards relationships, teenage romances, and even queer identity. When asked if the last bit has ever affected brand work, Agarwal answers no.

“Most brands end up appreciating it. We believe true progressiveness lies in normalisation. We do a bunch of LGBTQ content on our channel, and we always show it in the most normalised way, the way it should be done,” she states.

“As culture creators, we have the responsibility to influence the mindsets positively as much as we can, that is what we try to do with our content,” exclaims Agarwal.