MANILA — One year after Kroma Entertainment started bringing "tradigitial" (traditional and digital) experience to the public, the rising powerhouse in the entertainment industry continues to offer meaningful and innovative content to the public.

Helping Kroma CEO Ian Monsod stir the ship the past year are five heads of its business units – all ladies.

“On a personal note, I also grew up with four sisters,” Monsod told ABS-CBN News. “So working with our business unit heads came in easy for me. Talk about diversity.”

Anima is Kroma’s production studio committed to quality storytelling headed by Bianca Balbuena. To date, Anima Studio has garnered critical acclaim and won numerous awards for the production of visually stunning and compelling stories that cut across genres.

“We tell stories through conversations and that is through Anima Podcast that offers thought-provoking and insightful conversations around culture, featuring a diverse range of voices and perspectives,” Monsod informed.

“We also tell stories through our partner brands infusing our brand of storytelling to champion their brand narrative for our audiences. We do this through Secret Menu, a full-service creative and production house that offers brand content solutions, commercials, live videos, event coverage and music videos.”

Culture, content, conversations, community and commerce are some of the words that represent Kroma PubCo, our digital publishing network that is home of new culture and great content.

“Under Kroma PubCo are our own publishing brands Complex Philippines, FreebieMNL that offers an intriguing glimpse into the glamorous lives of favorite celebrities, and Wonder,” Monsod offered.

Kroma PubCo also launched Co:Lab, a creative agency and community aggregator that takes brand stories and explores innovative ways to tell them using the lens of media specialists and communication solutions by digital publishing experts. The business unit is represented by Sarah Santiago.

PIE (Pinoy Interactive Entertainment) Channel is Kroma’s ultimate watch and win network, the first and only tradigital entertainment channel led by Jill Go.

The new programs that PIE recently launched are Ogie Diaz’s “Kung Saka-Sakali,” Charlie Dizon’s “Mga Kwento ng Dilim,” Angeline Quinto “TCO (The Chosen One): Kakatacute” and Melai Cantiveros’ “Ur Da Boss.”

LiveMNL is Kroma’s event agency that curates and creates on-ground, on-time, online, on-budget or hybrid world-class and breakthrough events. To date, it has mounted drone shows and events using XR (extended reality) technology, virtual stages to music festivals like “Head in the Clouds Manila,” that featured 26 international and local artists staged last December.

The unit is represented by Denise Seva, who also heads Paradise Rising, the Filipino sister label of an Asian-American music company, 88Rising.

NYMA, short for Now You Must Aspire, is Kroma’s talent management agency and production house that offers key talents content and reach across all digital platforms.

Represented by Kat Bautista, NYMA also offers strategy consultations for executive clients and local representation for established international artists.

NYMA proudly introduces its newest talent, TikTok star and lumpia queen Abi Marquez, whose viral cooking videos on social media are redefining food content creation in the country.

Kroma had a “good year” crafting experiences, building communities, attracting audiences and led a few events the last 12 months that set standards for their consumers and business audiences.

The company’s leaders and 160-strong workforce helped Kroma push the envelope for its success on its first year.

“In our portfolio company, each unit has its own, unique way of measuring success, but it always has something to do with some kind of engagement or reach metric,” Monsod explained.

“It’s tricky to measure success especially in a platform that has been democratized by technology. Before, there were just a few things to measure. Audience size, reach, technology. Now, there are so many other things. Engagement comes into play.

“At this point, with the infinite supply of content around, the challenge is to rise above the clutter. How do you distinguish yourself? All of them have to come down to some kind of reach or engagement metric.”

Monsod cannot be happier that the past year, all Kroma units delivered outstandingly in terms of their respective platforms. And Kroma entered its strong second year with a lot of projects, events and activities to look forward to.