Playability Trumping Marketability

One of the important emerging trends from 2009 is the marketability/playability power shift.  While marketing has traditionally held importance over playability, the two are far less mutually exclusive.  Though studio slates are lined with sequels and remakes for 2010, the shift in power from marketability to playability is occurring.  New web applications provide viewers with a louder voice than ever before – a voice that no marketing budget can contend with.

Broadening viewer generated dialogue is a game changer for movie marketers that results in two key points:

1. Loss of control
2. Increasing importance on story

As it becomes easier for viewers to express their opinion to an increasing number of people, filmmakers inherently lose some control.  Marketing’s focus shifts from portrayal to interaction.  Never before has it been so easy to cultivate an audience.  Never before has it been so easy to lose an audience.

While marketing will always remain a critical component of a film’s strategy, no longer can it overshadow a weak story.  Marketing in 2010 is far less a result of budget and far more a result of product.  Therein lies the core progression of playability against marketability.  The renewed focus on strength of story will result in better films, happier viewers and benefit the long-term health of the industry.

Social Media Distilled for Business

I have been traveling over the past week and haven’t had much time to blog.  However, I come across a piece that I would like to quickly share.

Much has been written about social media – what it is, how to use it, etc.  Still, most businesses have a difficult time deciding how much time and resources to put in to social media.  This is because social media lacks a broadly accepted set of metrics to measure return on capital.  Though in my opinion the real reason has nothing to do with metrics, rather a lack of understanding about what social media is.  Social media is simply word of mouth – that’s it!  If more businesses understood this, they would be far less reticent to shift marketing dollars towards it.

The folks over at HubSpot published a great piece yesterday about why businesses should use social media.

The three main benefits businesses get from social media:

1. Listening

   Every company needs to listen.  Doesn’t matter if you sell solder paste, CRM software or fencing supplies.  You need to listen to your competitors, your customers, your prospects – your community.  Social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook make this easier.

2. Reach

   Reach is important to any marketer.  It’s the number of people you can communicate with directly via email, telephone, or any other channel.  You need this whether you’re selling to consumers or businesses.  Social media tools media it easier to build.

3. Nurturing

   Nurturing is another critical marketing task for all companies.  Regardless of what you sell, you need to build trust with potential customers and educate them about your company and your products.  Social media facilitates the development of personal relationships at scale.  This makes it an ideal tool for nurturing in any business.

Read the entire post on why businesses should use social media from HubSpot.

Filmmaker Ted Hope’s Keynote Speech

Ted Hope gave the keynote speech at the London Film Festival’s technology conference, Power to the Pixel.  I am a fan of Ted’s blog Truly Free Film, which focuses on “cross-media reinvention” – a fancy term referring to the diversification of a film property among various distribution channels and revenue generators.

The Twitter Effect… Is There One?

Today The Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz Blog published a piece titled ‘Basterds’ is Twitter Age’s first true success story.  The post starts off with the statement, “Finally, a Twitter effect that benefits a movie instead of hurts it.” …But is there really a “Twitter effect”?

While there is certainly no shortage of opinions regarding Twitter’s value, there is a lack of definition in terms of its function.  Last week Dan Rayburn, EVP of StreamingMedia.com, blasted Twitter in his blog saying, “I think it is by far the most over-hyped, over-rated Internet application I’ve seen in the past fifteen years.”  I agree that Twitter is massively over-hyped.  However, that does not negate the presence of a Twitter effect.  In fact, it fuels it.  The Twitter effect, as so eloquently put by Gary Vaynerchuk, is simply word of mouth on crack.

Chris Thilk of Movie Marketing Madness did a great job of putting the Twitter effect in context for the Industry in his post today:

“Word of mouth has always been the primary tool by which a movie lives or dies after its first weekend.  The marketing campaign is responsible for making a movie a success Friday through Sunday but then it quickly dies out, with only a handful of ads and other materials that are put in place after that point.  So it’s then word-of-mouth from the moviegoers that sustains or kills it.  All Twitter – or Facebook or Flixster or blogs or anything else – does is speed that up.  So, as I’ve stated before, studios don’t have a Twitter problem, they have a word-of-mouth problem because their movie isn’t meeting audience expectations…it’s not like we’re dealing with a completely new paradigm, just an exponential increase in the reach of that paradigm.”

Optimizing Your Film’s Website Part 3: Social Media

Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing that exists and never before has it been as scalable as it is today.  Social media is the best tool to spread word of mouth and build your audience, period.

 

Listen. Respond. Engage.

Though I question the viability of many social media companies as businesses, one thing is certain, social media has completely changed marketing.  No longer do businesses have complete control over their brands.  They are now at the mercy of public opinion.  If your product sucks, advertising dollars will not solve the problem.  Social media provides no control over how wide or how fast word spreads.  Bottom line, focus on content.  Your content is what your can control.  Just as the script is the foundation of your film, compelling content is the foundation of your website.

Film websites and social media strategies should be integrated from the start.  Unfortunately, social media is one of the most misused tools by filmmakers.  The mistakes center around the misunderstandings of what social media is about.  Social media is about:

Listening
Listen and understand what people are looking for and use it to create content on your film’s website.  If you do not listen you will just become part of the noise.  Take time to listen.

Personal Relationships
No one cares about your independent film on Twitter.  After it gets released, the relationship will seize to exist.  They care about you.  They care about your story.  Focus on building your brand, not your film’s.

Authenticity
Be real.  Be you.

Optimizing Your Film’s Website Part 2: Management

Manage Your Film’s Content Effectively

From adding trailers to reviews, a film website requires you to make constant updates.  The most efficient way to do this is through a content management system (CMS).  A content management system allows you and others to easily create, publish and manage content for your website.  The two basic types of content management systems are closed source and open source.  Closed source refers to a system where the code is locked, thus requiring modifications to be made by the vendor.  Open source refers to a system where the code is open to modification by the public (think Linux vs. Windows).  As a filmmaker, I advise you to choose an open source CMS for a few reasons:

1. Open Sources Is Cheaper
   Notice I do not say free – while you will incur no licensing fee, it is likely that you will incur some cost of development.
2. Broad Support Community
   If you have a question you can harness the collective knowledge of all the CMS’s users through many different forums and blogs.
3. Premium Templates & Add-ons
   Because designs and add-ons are produced in bulk, you get website customization at a fraction of the cost.

Once you make the decision to employ an open source CMS, the next step is deciding which one to use.  I would focus on two systems, WordPress and Joomla.  Though (many will gripe) WordPress is not a full-scale CMS, it is more than adequate for a film website and it’s ease of use provides a key advantage over Joomla.  Although, along with Joomla’s steeper learning curve comes more functionality.  Since every film website has different requirements, it is important that filmmakers weigh the pros and cons between the two.  This article is a good place to start.

Bottom line: You need to make it as easy as possible to create content, because great content engages users and engaged users spread your content.  This means more viewers for your film and more money for your pockets.

Optimizing Your Film’s Website Part 1: Content

Websites are the independent filmmakers’ marketing foundation.  Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing advice on building a successful film website for your production.

 

Focus On The Right Content

Film hype is not earned, it is created.  Think of your film’s website as the online press kit.  Focus on delivering valuable content across your website that will actively build and engage your audience.

Trailer
The trailer is your film’s primary marketing and sales tool.  Decisions are often based off your trailer.  You know the importance, make it awesome!

Synopsis
Sum up your film’s storyline in no more than three quarters of a page – your film’s synopsis should fit on the back of a DVD/Blu-ray jacket.  You may also link to a short, medium and long synopsis to make it easier for journalist syndication.

Recognition
Viewers trust people they know (or feel like they know).  Reviews and third party endorsements provide viewers with opinions from trusted sources.  Include newspaper/magazine articles, press releases and links to online reviews.  List the journalist, publication and excerpt, along with a link on the homepage.

FAQ’s
Every journalist asks filmmakers the same ten questions about their film’s production.  Create an FAQ section on your film’s website to provide answers to the most common questions.

Production Stills
Hire a professional photographer.  Stills will be used throughout your film’s marketing, from t-shirts to cover art.  If you are running a tight budget, hire a photographer on the day(s) that you are shooting the most action.

Filmmaker Interviews
Everyone loves to get inside the mind of a storyteller.  During the shoot, hire a documentary filmmaker to shoot the making of your film and interviews with the cast & crew.

Filmmaker Bios
List each of the filmmakers’ credits and link to the other websites/coverage of productions that the filmmakers have been involved with.  Make them short and make them interesting.

Connect
Just as a car with no gas is useless, so too is a website with no way to connect – they may be nice to look at, but that’s about it.  A film production’s website needs to make it as easy as possible for viewers keep in contact and stay up to date.  Use tools like RSS, email newsletters, direct contact and leverage the power of social media (more on this in a later post).

Marketing Costs Erode Studio Profits

Although the industry is booming, the major film studios continue to struggle.  Lower production costs have translated into a glut of supply.  Because of this, the traditional barriers to entry are eroding.  This hurts the studio model that for so long has relied on cost barriers to maintain control.

Increased supply means more competition to capture viewers.  This is why the film studios have continued to produce less projects and focus on maximizing intellectual property.  While this strategy appears to be working on the surface (ticket sales up 17.3% year-over-year,  attendance up 15.6%), it has not translated in to profits at the box office.  Increasing marketing costs have hurt the studios’ bottom line.  While the MPAA reported a 20% decline in films produced from 2007-2008, the LA Times reported that the average marketing cost for a studio picture has increased to over $36 million.

Furthermore, ancillary revenues are drying up.  Declining DVD sales are destroying the studios most important supplemental revenue source – one that often puts them in the black.   The bottom line is that the same increases in competition that may hurt independent filmmakers are definitely hurting film studios.  The competitive advantage for the independent filmmaker lies in profitability.  Independent films have more control over keeping costs low to maximize returns for investors.

Viral is a Stupid Word

The title pretty much sums up my thoughts on viral marketing for films (or anything else for that matter).  Viral marketing is absolutely fantastic, but it cannot be controlled.  Being an indie filmmaker, you are well aware that you cannot compete with a studio’s P&A budget.  However, this obstacle can be your ally!  Studios continue to waste money trying to develop “viral campaigns” on the Internet and it is killing their profits.  The solution to their marketing problem is not solved by simply pumping more dollars into the Web.  It’s solved by using those dollars more effectively, and knowing how is your ally.

In order to create the most effective film marketing campaign you need to forget about viral marketing.  Seriously, wipe the word “viral” from your head.  Successful marketing campaigns are targeted.  The first step and the most important thing to know when creating a targeted marketing campaign for your film is who your audience is.  Who is going to spend $9 – $15 and 120 minutes of their life to watch your film, and what is their motivation for doing so?  The best way to do this is by creating viewer personas.  A viewer persona is a demographic group that you have identified as having a specific interest in your film.  Determine exactly who your viewer personas are and create your film’s marketing campaign to target those groups.  Is your film’s viewer the strait-laced, Ivy League intellectual who pays $5 for a cup of coffee and still relies on their parents to make their car payments? Or is it the frat boy from a small town whose sole mission is to drink as many beers as possible in the 72 hour period that encompasses Thursday night through Sunday morning?

Know your film as well from the viewers’ eyes as your do from your own.  Viewer personas will help you create a targeted campaign that effectively uses your marketing budget.  I never said viral marketing was bad, only that it was stupid.  With some luck, your targeted campaign will go “viral” and your film will be a massive success – but it is luck.