Walter Kolm: Focusing on creating specific content for each artist’s platform

One of the responsibilities of Venezuelan Ana Tillero, Creative Director of Walter Kolm Entertainment and Walter Kolm Records, leading US music companies, is “to develop specific content for each of the platforms we use for marketing, because, after all, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok are marketing tools through which we sell content and content is my forte. I am a creative director and this is where I have to get more involved”.

Tillero designs the content together with the director of the Digital department and the director of the Marketing. “The three of us brainstorm using versions for each platform”. She explains that the idea is to feed with content, depending on the platform where the artist is strongest and if it is Instagram, TikTok, “we have to find a way for this platform to redirect to the others where the artist has presence.”

She is in charge of creating from scratch all the videos, launch campaigns, EP creative material, podcast development of both companies, which manage the musical careers of artists such as Maluma, Carlos Vives, Sylvestre Dangond, CNCO and other greats.

“My extraordinary talent and work have strongly influenced the success of Fiel de Wisin, the beginnings of Emilia’s career and the success of vaina loca remix of Fuego with Manuel Turizo and Duki,” Tillero said.

Tillero is one of the few highly successful millennial’s women in the industry and her work has contributed to publications like Billboards and Rolling Stone.

She highlights that to be a successful woman in this industry, which is 80% dominated by men, “you have to earn respect. It is a difficult challenge, but it is achievable by working and showing that you do it better than anyone else”.

During the pandemic, Tillero was the director of five of Silvestre Dangond’s new music videos; and the Maluma & Carlos Rivera 100 Años’ video went from being initially just the recording of a BTS, to becoming the official video of this musical theme, which today has more than 115 million views on YouTube.

Another challenge for Tillero’s career is that the creatives in the market are people who have studied film and production. “90% of my production team is Venezuelan, the best DPI is Venezuelan, the editor is Venezuelan. The challenge grows even more because we all know each other and compete with each other. There is no formula for video success. We don’t know how it’s going to be consumed, how Tokischa’s videos, or the one from Cali, are consumed. You are struggling with five different generations that are consuming the same musical content,” she pointed out.

She referred to the importance of technology when it comes to recording their products. “We are very careful regarding technology. For example on TikTok, we have cameras that record horizontally. When it comes to technology I am the most geek. The visual content is the main thing.”

They also are aware of the metaverse and NFTs. “We are including characters that can live in the metaverse and as NFTs. We have a team behind all of this, working with NFTs and dolls that we turn into 3D them or place in the videos. We are super into the metaverse on a musical level,” she said.