Vertical drama is entering Australia’s mainstream screen industry conversation, with Cairns Crocodiles set to host a dedicated microdrama panel that brings together platform executives, broadcasters and content creators at the annual APAC creativity festival.
Tim Oh, general manager of leader microdrama company COL Group International, is scheduled to appear at the Queensland event alongside Nikyah Hutchings, executive producer of commercial and partnerships at NITV, in a session titled The Maestros of Microdramas. The panel will examine how the format is reshaping storytelling habits, brand integration and creative opportunity across the region.
“Australia has been quietly outperforming every other market on [microdrama platform] FlareFlow for some time now, in revenue per user, in audience depth, and in how quickly new users convert,” Oh said. “To give you a sense of the scale, Australia’s new user payment rate is close to 20%, more than double what we see in most other developed markets.”
“Vertical is not coming to Australia,” Oh added. “It is already here, and it is working better here than almost anywhere else in the world. The question now is how we build on that together.”
Hutchings recently claimed 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 slate and contributes to SBS’s “Australia Explained” series. “Microdramas are changing how culture shows up on our phones and is this exciting meeting point of culture, tech and money,” she said. “I’m looking forward to sitting down with Tim Oh in Cairns about how vertical storytelling can open up new opportunities and make space for more voices, and what they really mean for creators, broadcasters and brands.”
The format has tended to be discussed in Australian industry circles as a mobile or platform phenomenon rather than a storytelling one. “Disruption is happening and the future is not yet written,” said Catherine de Clare, co-curator of the film and screen 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 address the question of brands moving into microdrama, as the format is projected by some analysts to reach box office parity with Hollywood releases this year. Cairns Crocodiles, which positions itself at the intersection of Australian and Asian media markets, has expanded in recent years as a site for cross-regional deal-making and format development.
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