When artists are performing on stage or on screen, we fans are swept off of our feet with their exceptional talent, outstanding looks and what not. It is at times like this we forget that the people working back stage or off screen, play an important role in this as they aim for fans to receive the best of the experience. On stage/screen and off stage/screen go hand in hand like two faces of a coin and they need each other in order to ensure the event’s success.
For today’s interview, we introduce to you Maxperience! The company’s name is a combination title of the words “maximum” and “experience.” The name attributes to the company’s aim, “We believe the key successful factor of MPE is Localized Service by Local Expert and this enables MPE to provide bespoke and compact business solution to our partners, celebrities and brands.”
Founded in 2015 by Max Jang, Maxperience is a celebrity agency that was set up in Hong Kong, increased their dynamic and entered into the markets of South East Asia and Greater China region. They have worked in promotional activities of many Hallyu stars and most recently, Jackson Wang, CHERRY BULLET , MAMAMOO, P1Harmony, TREASURE, NCT DREAM, ASTRO, and more.
We thus interviewed the founder himself and the COO, Raymond Cho and they shared with us their future plans, backstage stories, and more.
Namaste Hallyu (NH): Tell us about Maxperience.
MAX JANG, Founder (MJ): We are Maxperience (MPE) and we are a celebrity agency established in 2015 and our mission is to maximize the value of our partners, celebrities and brands. Furthermore, we believe that entertainment is the gateway to culture and this is the reason why I was motivated to launch the Maxperience (MPE), an agency that solely focusing on accelerating the growth of Asian celebrities and maximizing the experience of brands and fans.
NH: Maxperience has moved from consulting for events to global promotion, what’s the next step?
MJ: This year, we will mainly focus on arranging global promotions and brand endorsements for Asian celebrities and we believe these to be the best opportunities for providing a contact point between celebrities and fans and accelerating the growth of celebrities at this moment. Moreover, we will be expanding our collaboration pool to Chinese, Japanese and Hollywood celebrities to create and provide broader interaction opportunities for their fans in Asia. We are always dedicated to maximizing the value of our partners, celebrities and brands and one of the one reason behind this dedication is fans as we believe that nothing can be done without fans.
NH: Which has been your most memorable show?
Raymond Cho: One great episode was the Asian Sound Syndicate Volume 1 in 2019. This was the hip hop festival held in Senayan Helipad in Jakarta and we sold out 10,000+ tickets. At that time, Korean hip-hop celebrities like Gray, Simon Dominic, DPR Live and Crush were very hyped during their performance because of the powerful cheers of Indonesian fans and they fell in love with Indonesia fans. With this success, we also arranged celebrities for the online version of Asian Sound Syndicate @ Home in 2020. In 2020, line-ups were even more prosperous by including Jay Park, Bobby, Mino, pH-1, Hoody, Haon and Punchnello and as this was the online event, we broadened the territory and could stream over to entire South East Asian region by facilitating latest technologies. As a result, this event made great success in terms of online festival during this pandemic.
NH: Can you tell us a backstage story which you can share with fans?
MJ: In general, the backstage is busy with numerous staffs and artist preparing for the event together and we are serving our role as middleman to coordinate all kinds of communications between local promoter and artist management. What I can share with fans as one of backstage story is that, celebrities are always preparing themselves thoroughly at the backstage to provide the best experience to their fans on the stage.
NH: You have been to many countries around the world, do you have any memorable fans or plans for India?
MJ&RC: Indian fans are the most memorable because they have fewer opportunities to meet celebrities in person compared to other Asian countries and so, we love the passion and and support for their favorite artist. We cannot guarantee any specific plans for India at the moment but I would say India can be definitely considered as one of country to be considered for various events because India has huge populations with high potential in K-POP. However, there are some obstacles as well. Firstly, infrastructure takes major part whenever K-POP celebrities decide the destination for their tour because wherever they are, their main concern is to deliver the best experience for their fans. Secondly, market size for K-pop and other international pop should increase more as market size would be one of the main indicator for promoters to consider to make investment decision.
NH: The pandemic may have kept the world on a standstill but the K-entertainment world has seen a rise for KPOP/K-Drama etc, what do you think about it?
MJ: During the pandemic, I feel once again that the cultural influence is powerful to overcome any hardships. In the future, we will strive to maximize the experience of our overseas fans and partners by arranging more impressive and quality content in Asia.
NH: Five years from now, what is your vision?
MJ: By 5 years, we will be the only platform which changed the paradigm of the entertainment industry by contracting and partnering with highly potential celebrities to accelerate their growth and expand their dominance in overseas market through various projects in numerous Asian countries.
We wish Maxperience the best of everything and we look forward to what they have in store.
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