The Movie Season Starts
For almost a decade now, I've been working in media. Most of my projects have been corporate related projects--tradeshow videos, product videos, sales training videos, promotional spots, streaming video, PowerPoint presentations and interactive, multimedia applications.
Almost four years ago, I started doing narrative stories--short films. Over the last three years, I've done 5 short films. My last one, Growing Up, won Audience Choice Award on its film festival debut. It was also recently selected to play in a national film festival starting June, as well as on television later this year.
All very exciting, and most of all, fun. There is something in the power of story. Stories have been shared over the years. Leaders have told stories. Jesus told stories. Everyone tells stories. Children love stories. Adults love movies. People are drawn into a good story.
In fact, there's a shift coming in marketing. We're starting to see the first few baby steps. With the wonderful invention of Tivo, I no longer have to watch commercials. I can just skip right to the show, which left me hanging at the last commercial break. Very cool! But very different for advertisers. How can they reach an ADD, Tivo-equipped, over-caffeinated generation?
Short film marketing. It's really starting to take off. BMW was the pioneer with BMWFilms. Then, other companies started dabbling in this new form of marketing selling things like cell phones, watercrafts, car features, actual cars and soup.
New companies are popping up to support this new trend according to an LA Times Article:
What story do you want to tell?
Almost four years ago, I started doing narrative stories--short films. Over the last three years, I've done 5 short films. My last one, Growing Up, won Audience Choice Award on its film festival debut. It was also recently selected to play in a national film festival starting June, as well as on television later this year.
All very exciting, and most of all, fun. There is something in the power of story. Stories have been shared over the years. Leaders have told stories. Jesus told stories. Everyone tells stories. Children love stories. Adults love movies. People are drawn into a good story.
In fact, there's a shift coming in marketing. We're starting to see the first few baby steps. With the wonderful invention of Tivo, I no longer have to watch commercials. I can just skip right to the show, which left me hanging at the last commercial break. Very cool! But very different for advertisers. How can they reach an ADD, Tivo-equipped, over-caffeinated generation?
Short film marketing. It's really starting to take off. BMW was the pioneer with BMWFilms. Then, other companies started dabbling in this new form of marketing selling things like cell phones, watercrafts, car features, actual cars and soup.
New companies are popping up to support this new trend according to an LA Times Article:
The soon-to-be launched CW network announced Thursday that it was developing a new way to advertise on TV: a hybrid commercial that would use story lines to promote products in three two-minute segments dotted throughout an evening of programming.
It helps to think of a content wrap as a sandwich. The products that advertisers want to sell are the meat. The mini-programming elements wrapped around them are the bread that holds it all together and--in CW executives' dreams, at least--makes consumers want to take a bite and keep on eating.
"It's entertainment," said Dawn Ostroff, entertainment president for the new network, which is a combination of the best programming from the soon to be defunct WB and CBS-owned UPN networks. "This is a way to keep viewers with us throughout the night."
What story do you want to tell?
posted by Russ @ Tuesday, May 30, 2006
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