ACCORDING to data from the United Nations, the creative economy is estimated to generate annual revenues of US$2.25 trillion and account for 30 million jobs worldwide.

Local entrepreneur Tashan Hendricks says she’s hoping to carve out her own share of that pie by building on the success her company – CoCreate Caribbean – has made so far.

Hendricks told the Jamaica Observer that it’s hard to describe what her core business is, noting that CoCreate offers a wide array of services in the cultural and creative industry. But she disclosed that she does have a niche.

“Brand strategy is our niche because we’re able to think through where the client is and where they need to go, we’re able to connect them to the different areas that they need support in. Anywhere that I fall short then someone steps in as a consultant and we just try to give them a full 360 package,” said Hendricks.

She further explained, “we offer services to both the creative side and the corporate side and we try to bridge that gap between creativity and monetising that creativity.”

“I studied entertainment and cultural enterprise management at The University of the West Indies, Mona and when I was studying it people were like, what are you going to do with that? But that actually grounded me. Looking back I can say that it was definitely a great choice. A lot of people still don’t understand how we monetise creativity,” the entrepreneur shared.

CoCreate was registered in October 2020 and started operation in January 2021. But even before venturing out on her own, Hendricks disclosed that she had been honing her skills in media and advertising for years.

“I came from the creative industry. I started out doing artiste management and event management, I was head of the Reggae Month secretariat, among other things. So, I started off working with creatives and helping to create creative products that would make money, showcase Jamaica’s creativity and just show the world what we’re capable of. I saw that there was a need for our corporate entities to be exposed to more of the creativity that we have and not just in the advertising sense,” she exclaimed.

So far, she has worked with most of the corporate brands in the island in her professional career particularly in the area of strategy for creatives. In spite of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the attendant restrictions, Hendricks said she’s already reaping financial dividends after just two years of operations.

“It has been good, so far people call because they know of my work and they know that I am no longer with an agency. In terms of take up, we were able to exceed our revenue target for the first year and we’re on track this year.”

“We’re getting more calls from traditional corporate companies who would have seen our work or would have been referred to us. We’re moving beyond just servicing other agencies into working directly with the brands themselves and seeing what value we can create for them outside of traditional advertising,” she continued.

But she noted that it hasn’t been a bed of roses.

“Sometimes I wonder if we’re still in the teething phase and in some ways we are because I am creating a business model that we don’t have. I haven’t seen anything like it anywhere, it’s a hybrid future-proof product and service that we can be proud of and that still showcases the Jamaican creativity.”

At the same time, she admitted that she isn’t doing it alone. She said bringing Jamaica’s best product to the global market requires collaboration which is a big part of her business model.

“Our current tagline or slogan is ‘the creative hub of the Caribbean’, we started in a small way and we’re propelling to be the hub for all things creative within the Caribbean. We’re like a collective, we’re not trying to be the only place that offers what we do, we’re collaborating with people and we’re open to putting other businesses in the spotlight. In fact, year one saw us supporting at least six agencies on their campaigns and their creative strategies because we don’t really see them as competition we see them as partners,” Hendricks stated.

The creative economy contributes just over 6.1 per cent to global gross domestic product (GDP), averaging between two per cent and 7 per cent of national GDPs around the world.