The Man Who Knows EVERYONE | Jasper Donat, CEO & Co-Founder Branded, All That Matters | Tank Talks Asia

JASPER: 260410

JASPER: Shah Rukh Khan was there. It was fun.

MANISHA: You met King Khan.

JASPER: And then backstage, he came up to me and he gave me this massive hug and he was like, thank you so much for making me a cool dad. And I'm like, but you are the coolest bloke in India. What on earth are you talking about? He said yeah, I have a teenage daughter.

MANISHA: That is Jasper Donat, co-founder of agency Branded, the entrepreneur behind All That Matters, and the man who scaled YouTube's Fanfest across Asia. He's known to have a knack for live events and managing, not only to bring big talents to Asia, but to nurture the best of Asia's up and coming, from sports to music and so much more.

I'm Manisha Tank, from me and the rest of the team at the AsiaWorks Studio in Singapore, welcome. On this episode of TTA, we sit down with Jasper to talk about fan culture, the big trends to watch, and of course, how he got here.

Jasper, welcome to Tank Talks Asia, it’s good to see you. I realize that I'm probably sitting across the table from one of the most networked people in the media landscape in Asia.

JASPER: I dunno if I'm the, but most, but I, yeah, I'm very lucky to have met a lot of very cool, wonderful people in the last 30 years or so.

MANISHA: First I wanna go back, back, back. When did you first come to Asia, originally, from London?

JASPER: So I was working for Eurosport in London, in the UK. I was 25 years old. I had it all. I knew everything. I knew everyone. And my boss at the time had moved out to Asia to work for this new thing called Star TV that Murdoch and News Corp had just bought. And he called me up and said, come to Hong Kong. I want you to come work for me.

MANISHA: Did you know anything about Hong Kong at that time?

JASPER: I'd been on a rugby tour to Hong Kong before.

MANISHA: Okay.

JASPER: In: 1992

So I came out, did the interview, went home, told my mum that I was coming to Asia for two years but I'd be back by 1997 and all that kind of stuff. And yeah, so 31 years later here I am sitting here talking to you.

MANISHA: Ahead, what life was like before the internet.

JASPER: So when I first moved here, there was this new thing called satellite television. In some markets there was this new thing called cable television. Asia was playing catch up to the rest of the world. I was working for Star Sports, we were bringing events to Asia. We were doing some amazing things and having a lot of fun but again, we were 25 years old, it's like we had so much responsibility.

MANISHA: Yeah.

JASPER: There had been this thing called MTV in Asia, which was the American channel.

MANISHA: Yeah.

JASPER: And then one of the geniuses at Star said, Hey, we need to localize MTV. So they created this thing called Channel V, and it was a music channel, in local languages, for teenagers in Asia.

And all of a sudden these channels come in saying, Hey, we are gonna talk to you in your own language, but about stuff you want to watch. And at that point, for us it was music and with these amazing VJs and hosts. We were just having so much fun doing events. We were there at that coalface.

MANISHA: Yeah, yeah. Are there any particular events or experiences that you recall that just really stuck with you over time?

have? On the sports side, in: 1996

And we were like, errrrr, badminton, table tennis. What resonates in Asia? And we went back to my place and drank a bottle of red wine. And it was him, Patrick Murphy, said what about a marathon? And that year, 96, was the first ever Standard Chartered Hong Kong marathon.

MANISHA: So you know the message that you're sending is, if you wanna have a good idea, go home and have a bottle of red wine.

JASPER: Drink a bottle of wine. Or maybe, ladies and gentlemen, a glass of water, depending on where you are in the world.

And so we did that and then on Channel V side, we were doing roadshows in India where we were taking local artists and putting them on stage in front of their fans and giving them a face and giving them a voice. But also putting them on stage with a lot of international stars as well. So we had the Coca-Cola Channel V roadshow in Goa with Shaggy.

MANISHA: Oh Shaggy.

JASPER: Mr. Lover Lover.

MANISHA: Yeah, yeah.

JASPER: And then I think: 1998

And Jon Bon Jovi, I mean, it was such a name drop. Even we were going, wow.

MANISHA: I bet. I almost don't know where to go from that. It segues nicely into talking about the events that you're still working on today. All That Matters. There's Rugby Matters, there's Sports Matters, there's Music. I mean there’s so many of these Matters properties. For those who don't know, just explain how it works.

Denmark. When we set it up in: 2001

So we set up this company called Branded. We were regarded as being involved in the first ever reality show in China, which was called The Wedding Race.

MANISHA: Oh my, so when was that?

JASPER: This is around: 2002

MANISHA: So it was pretty early on in the whole reality TV revolution.

JASPER: Oh, yes. It was done in Australia, so we were sponsored by the Queensland government. We had to ship 240 cans of Chinese Coca-Cola to Brisbane, because you couldn't have the Chinese couples drinking Australian Coca-Cola. It had to be local.

MANISHA: Yeah got it.

JASPER: And then we were working with, you know, there's an organization called CASBAR, the Cable and Satellite Broadcasters Association of Asia, Cable and Satellite.

MANISHA: Yeah.

JASPER: And that got us in with all these amazing people who are running all those incredible channels, so Star TV and Turner, so CNN and BBC and all these amazing companies that you've worked for and we've all worked with.

don't you do it? And this was: 2006

MANISHA: Oh my goodness. I remember Napster.

JASPER: Music was becoming this amazing media in and of itself, but all of the news around it was very negative because the industry was trying to get its head around what was piracy and what was all this kind of stuff.

And in India you could buy eight megabytes of music at that time for less than a dollar but it was all illegal, so we worked with the music industry to put together this thing called Music Matters. I think it was originally called the Asia Pacific Music Forum, and thankfully we changed the name at the last minute.

But it was basically to create this platform of bringing the whole music industry together to talk about what was going on in China, in India, in Japan, in Australia. Two thirds of the world's population. I mean the then Global Chairman of Warner Music was our opening keynote speaker.

MANISHA: That's a very high profile guest to land.

JASPER: It was, it was amazing. And he flew in especially for the event and Michael and I wanted to greet him on the door. We were at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong. So Michael and I went to meet him in our suits and we had our little headphones in and stuff, and we met him and we took him to his suite. And then he came down later and he did his speech and Michael and I were high fiving ourselves in the lift like, we've done it.

And about two weeks later I get this handwritten note from his assistant saying that he'd had a brilliant time, thank you so much for looking after him, and thank you especially for the two security guards that you had for him on the door. It was like, it was like, okay. You learn as you go along, there's nothing in a book saying how to do a music conference.

MANISHA: What would you say was the most important lesson you learned?

JASPER: That people need to be in a room to meet people. And even today, you know, talking about AI and stuff like that and what happened during COVID, and the whole, the promise of the metaverse, everything that's come through is that people want to be in a room with other people.

MANISHA: Coming up, the fans who caused a security situation at Changi Airport.

So you are often cited as the man who helped YouTube Fanfest make it across Asia.

JASPER: I co-created it. It started as a breakfast with a chap called Benjamin Grubbs who was working for Google. Ben came to me and said, oh, there are these influencers, YouTubers, let's do something for them.

And I was like 99% of the world at that point, were like, great, what are they?

MANISHA: Yeah, so roughly when was this?

The first YouTube Fanfest was: 2013

Where now they've got hundreds of millions and what have you, multiple networks and platforms.

MANISHA: So you remember who was there, so remind us who they are, but also what their USP was.

JASPER: So, Ryan Higa was a Japanese American comedy, Bethany Mota was American, female. Just a vlogger. Hey guys. Amazing lady.

There was a beautiful, wonderful couple called Eat Your Kimchi, who were a Canadian couple in Korea.

MANISHA: Okay.

JASPER: We had booked them and they were coming to the event. We get a call from Changi Airport saying, you've got a security problem. And if you look at their video online of them landing in Singapore, there were about 400 fans.

MANISHA: They were flocked by fans

JASPER: All with their cards and all that kind of stuff.

MANISHA: Wow.

JASPER: It was amazing because all of a sudden we were learning about this whole new area of influence, these creators.

If you were a pop star in those days, you were exclusive, you might do a meet and greet, but it'd be for 20, 30 people backstage.

MANISHA: Yeah.

JASPER: These creators wanted to meet 500 people and take all day to do it.

MANISHA: So this is a whole new thing at that time.

JASPER: Totally, totally. It opened everyone's eyes. We genuinely were so wonderfully surprised, and then Ryan, he was posting things like, Hey, I'm staying at the Ritz Carlton, who wants to come shoe shopping with me, we’re like, Ryan, you can't do that.

MANISHA: Goodness.

JASPER: But they wanted to be amongst all their fans and it was just so wonderful to see this, this going from exclusive to completely encompassing. And these were people who, they weren't used to having a show. They weren't used to singing live on stage.

MANISHA: Were they able to do it then, because they were so used to being behind a camera and then suddenly you guys were putting them on stage?

JASPER: I mean, some of them did perform, some of them just did interviews, some of them did, you know, things but it was always like what would you like to do on stage?

MANISHA: Right.

JASPER: So we built the show around them and what they wanted to do, and whether it was 20 minutes or, you know, however long they're on stage for. And we had musicians, we had people like Kurt Hugo Schneider.

We did the first one in Singapore because Google's headquarters, regional headquarters were in Singapore. But we ended up doing it all over the world. I mean, we did Canada, we did India, we did Jeddah, which is a whole different story. We did Sydney, we did, we went to Sao Paulo in Brazil.

MANISHA: Wow.

Coming up…the crazy things fans will do for their idols.

What did you think of the fan culture in these different places? Was there something consistent about it? Was it different? What stood out?

JASPER: Hands down, the craziest fans that we ever worked with were in the Philippines. They were wonderful because you've kind of got this Eurasian culture there anyway, right?

And so at the time, you talked to any YouTuber in the world and they always said that the Philippines was in their top five in terms of fan base. And the Philippines were so far ahead of everywhere else when it came to YouTube and the English speaking side of YouTube. And we did, the Manila Fanfests were wonderful, wonderful chaos where the fans would literally run up to the stars, almost get them in the chest. Get the selfie and then run off, tick. Got the selfie, done.

MANISHA: That's it.

JASPER: It was amazing. And they made the most noise out of all the fans and stuff. The politest were in Singapore.

MANISHA: Of course.

JASPER: Where you didn't need to have kind of crowd barriers and stuff. You could literally put ropes on the floor and they'd stand behind them and, oh, excuse me, Mr. Higa, may I take a selfie with you, kind of thing. It was that, that was that.

India was wonderful because again, we were all just learning about this, Indian creators that we didn't know. And just again, the relationship they had with their fans was amazing. We did, probably the biggest Fanfests were in India.

MANISHA: I mean, for those who are interested actually, and we can put some links in the show notes to this conversation, there’s some great footage out there. It's on the YouTube Fanfest page.

I was curious about how, what you are doing here in Asia, is comparing to what's happening in the rest of the world at the moment.

JASPER: We used to promote ourselves as the gateway to Asia, and now we're kind of a gateway from Asia as well. It's like a rotating door.

MANISHA: Oh, that's interesting.

JASPER: Because there is so much content. I mean, you know, look at what K-pop has done, look at what K-drama is doing.

India is now, there are a few really amazing Indian music stories coming out that aren't just around Bollywood. You look at what is happening with anime.

MANISHA: Yeah.

JASPER: It's such an exciting time to be in Asia 'cause it's not about the, necessarily the Western artists coming here. It's about the local artists going out.

The artists have learned how to connect with their fans around the world, whatever language it is.

MANISHA: What do you think is the major aspect around all of this that's changed in the live event space?

JASPER: What I think is exciting for the industries that we work in, is this cross-cultural thing. You look at stuff like the F1. Now, you don't have to be into cars anymore and how fast they drive and who wins, you know, it's all about, you know, thanks very much to Netflix’s Drive to Survive, now everyone's getting this huge fandom into the drivers. Oh and they race 24 times a year as well. Oh, do they? Ok.

How sports associations and clubs are using culture, musicians or actors and what have you, to promote them. Look at Wrexham. You support a team from the day your parents put their football scarf around your neck, and whether they're in the fourth division or the Premier League and whether they're winning, losing, or whatever, you support that team, live or die. And that culture is, that fandom is really, really exciting now and to see these cross-cultural moments happening is something that we're really, really excited about.

MANISHA: Next up Hollywood A-lister or Asian influencer, you choose.

I wanted to ask you about creator versus A-list power. So in Asia today, would you say, it's a YouTube creator or a Hollywood A-lister who would move the needle more?

JASPER: That's a very hard question to answer because it's a very different world. I think look, the creators probably have more influence because they're more actively talking to the fans all the time.

MANISHA: What is the most outrageous request that you've ever had from a celebrity or a creator at one of the events, and you don't have to name names.

JASPER: I'd have to think about the being outrageous, but I remember we had Nile Rodgers coming to Music Matters. And he was behind Chic and Sister Sledge. And he wrote I'm Coming Out for Donna Summer, and it was in Hong Kong at the time, he said, Hey, if you can get me a Fender amp, I'll bring my guitar on stage.

And he was there with his guitar saying, this is how I wrote I'm Coming Out. This is how I wrote Sister Sledge, We Are Family.

MANISHA: That's amazing.

JASPER: And this is on YouTube, so I'm not talking behind the scenes or.

MANISHA: Oh we'll have to put the link in the show notes.

JASPER: He talks about, he says in the seventies he was in a toilet having a wee when a transvestite came in who was dressed like Diana Ross and he had this light, he called it a light bulb moment, where he thought, what if Diana Ross was gay?

And that's where the whole song I'm Coming Out came from.

MANISHA: From a bathroom in a transvestite club in New York.

JASPER: Yeah and then he talks about how he sold the song into Diana and she's like, but I'm not gay. And he's like, no, no, it's not about you.

MANISHA: Yeah. You don't have to be, it’s a song.

JASPER: It’s about you being the greatest person in the world, it's about, but then he plays it.

MANISHA: And what a track.

JASPER: It was superb.

MANISHA: Just ahead, when Bollywood's King Khan wasn't the star of the show.

JASPER: The YouTube fan fest, when we did it in Bombay, Shah Rukh Khan was there.

MANISHA: You met King Khan.

JASPER: Yeah. But again, that's another.

MANISHA: His fan base is insane.

JASPER: But he had a 14-year-old daughter and we had Lilly Singh, another CNBC host right, so when she was Superwoman, and again, no one had really heard of her except all her fans.

And SRK's manager got in touch with me and said, oh, his daughter wants to come and meet Lilly. She's her biggest fan. Is that? And I was like, yeah, yeah, of course, of course. No problem. Bring her along. We'll do a meet and greet and all that kinda stuff and bring her 14 friends.

Would Mr. Khan like to come on stage? And they're like no, and so then that day we were at the outdoor stadium, get the call saying, Mr. Khan wants to come and check out the stadium to make sure it's safe for his daughter, as a parent would. Right? So I was like, yeah, I will welcome Mr. Khan.

So in comes you know, little guy and I was just like, Mr. Khan I will do everything I can to make sure your daughter has a safe time. And so we really did look after the daughter backstage and she met all the stars and stuff like that. Halfway through the show, Mr. Khan would like to go on stage.

MANISHA: Shut up.

JASPER: I was like done.

MANISHA: That's amazing.

JASPER: So he literally turns up, while Lilly was on stage, so he was on stage while Lilly was, something happened where they were both on stage and literally everyone ignored him and he was like, what the hell, on stage? He's like, and again, everyone was just like.

MANISHA: Lilly Singh, Lilly Singh.

JASPER: The biggest Hindi star of all time, Bollywood star of all time. They don't care.

MANISHA: But he's not a YouTube star.

JASPER: It's about her. And then backstage, he came up to me and he gave me this massive hug and he was like, thank you so much for making me a cool dad. And I'm like, but you are the coolest bloke in India. What on earth are you talking about? He said, yeah, I have a teenage daughter. We came away with big smiles.

MANISHA: What do you want to work on that perhaps you're not working on right now? What are your aspirations?

JASPER: We do have a lot going on this year. Asia really is becoming cool and this is now the gateway from Asia, not the gateway to Asia. And so I think doing more of the same but the other way round as it were. So rather than bringing people here, how can we take people outside?

MANISHA: Be the bridge to the rest of the world.

JASPER: Correct. Or maybe that swinging roundabout kind of doorway. I think that giving more artists, in this part of the world, an opportunity to connect with fans all over the world will be fun.

re do they need to turn up in: 2026

JASPER: All That Matters is the big festival that takes place between, sounds like I'm gonna sell it now, between the 2nd and 7th of October live.

MANISHA: We're loving it. Bring it on.

JASPER: So the 2nd to the 4th of October, we have 40 or 50 bands coming to Singapore to perform live. For free.

MANISHA: Fantastic.

JASPER: From all over the world. And that'll be from Japan, Australia, India, everywhere and then three days of conference following that, the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then we go to sleep.

And this wonderful thing called the Singapore F1 Grand Prix takes place that weekend. It is a festival of Singapore, a festival of Asia, festival of everything.

MANISHA: Jasper, that's been really, really fun learning about all of that. Have you brought us a gift for our TTA shelves?

JASPER: I have brought a gift.

end of ours, oh there you go,: 2013

MANISHA: Oh, he took the strings.

JASPER: He was taking the strings and creating..

MANISHA: Bracelets.

JASPER: Bracelets out of them and jewelry and selling them for charity.

MANISHA: What a great idea.

JASPER: And it was called Wear Your Music. That's my last one, so you can't have that one, but I do have..

MANISHA: You have a spare.

JASPER: One that I used to wear.

MANISHA: Oh so it comes with Jasper vibes.

JASPER: So that’s my actual one, this was my mum’s, and yes.

MANISHA: I love it. And for those of you who cannot see it I can attest to the fact that these are former guitar strings, now in the form of a lovely bracelet that we're gonna keep on our shelves.

Thank you so much for being here. I hope you enjoyed it.

JASPER: Oh, I've had so much fun. Thank you.

MANISHA: So this episode was about one big idea. If you want to understand the future of global media, you need to understand Asia. That's it for now though.

We appreciate you making it to the end of this episode. There are show notes for anything that you want to follow up on or watch those fan videos. Hit like and subscribe to make sure that you don't miss our episodes. I'm Manisha Tank at the AsiaWorks Studio. Catch you next time.

Tank Talks Asia is an AsiaWorks production and the views and opinions shared by our guests are their own.