Conceptualizing your mobile strategy

Pimpin’ ain’t easy–and neither is conceptualizing a strategic & innovative mobile strategy.

Is mobile important?  Of course it is dumbass!  91% of Americans keep a mobile phone within arm’s reach 24 hours a day, 7 days a week–it’s the last thing we look at before we fall asleep and the first thing we wake up to in the morning, and if you don’t believe Morgan Stanley, ask Jeremiah Owyang, Industry Analyst for the Altimeter Group.  Most of us are already sold on the need for a mobile platform for your content, but most of us are pre-occupied with which platform to use and which features to offer.  This is the wrong approach to developing your mobile strategy because the app itself isn’t the strategy, and when it comes to strategy, “…you cannot have a social strategy without tying in mobile, however you can definitely have a mobile strategy and not have to worry about tying in social.  But if you do have an existing social media program, you MUST factor in how mobile comes into play,” Owyang emphasizes.

TAKEAWAY:

It’s not the technology; it’s the experience, and that experience is what gets people talking, and consumers rely heavily upon word of mouth from influencers within their social sphere.  No longer a purchase funnel, the customer hourglass consists of seven phases–as should your mobile strategy.

“This is a bigger conversation than platforms, features, technology–it’s thinking about your customer first,” Owyang stresses.  That’s somewhat of a relief, isn’t it?  After all, if we know our content and we know our consumer and we can conceptualize a rewarding experience marry the two we can simply let the facilitating platform, features and technology fall right into place!  Owyang recommends polling customers and conducting market research for your product or service–but what about content?  What about a movie??  Is it any different???  What if you can’t afford market research????  If you can identify your core audience, you can seek relevant data that is publicly available about your core audience on the use of platforms, tools and the components they’re using with Altimeter’s customer hourglass in mind–the very same way research would be conducted.

Awareness is probably the most difficult phase to accomplish on a limited budget and I’m preaching to the choir when I say this.  We all know how difficult generating attention currency can be in a movie market inundated with 7,000+ movies each year.  Creativity can compensate for a lack of P&A, but paid media damn sure makes it a helluva lot easier!  Being that the awareness challenge is nothing new, face it, innovate and break through.   Your light at the end of the funnels is your advocacy phase; Owyang assures us we can reduce the cost of awareness if we do advocacy well because we’re getting our customers (i.e., influencers) to do it for us.

I personally believe the Altimeter’s consideration phase creates an opportunity for awareness too–simply by alleviating or healing a pain point.  Perhaps your movie can generate some free media exposure around its mobile offering to address a consumer pain point–keeping in mind this is all relative.  The average studio film spends $34.4mil on P&A alone–however your production costs will be undoubtedly less so your exposure (risk) is significantly less, so the level of awareness (attention) you need to generate among your core audience to generate sales and put you in the black is also substantially lower.  All this must be considered when you conceptualize your mobile strategy in addition to your production budget and other costs.

Now I’ve got a starting point to begin to conceptualize a mobile strategy for a certain movie project in development I’m excited about–starting with the pain point (i.e., problem, need, desire) to offer relief (i.e., a solution) in my mobile strategy to generate awareness (i.e., traction) among the film’s core audience, then work from there to phase two (consideration) and so on.  I urge you to watch Jeremiah Owyang’s keynote presentation at the Mobile Marketing Strategies Summit in San Francisco for a strategic perspective of how mobile & social technologies are being converged for today’s top brands.

Thanks Jeremiah!

Connected to Content

What does it mean to be connected?
We throw the word CONVERGENCE around quite a bit these days.
If there’s one thing you know about me as an industry professional, it’s likely you know I’m all about applied theory through experimentation; putting ideas and assumptions into practice with improvisational creativity to discover real world solutions to connect people and content.

Enter Tiffany Shlain. Well Tiffany’s been immersed in the subject of connectivity a whole lot longer than I have, so enter my awareness of Tiffany Shlain’s work (8 films later) thanks to movie marketer Sheri Candler! Now I’ve gotta get my hands on “The Tribe” (2005) and “Connected” (2011) as I have narrative feature film concepts in various stages of development that explore these very issues: loneliness, belonging, self-worth and our use of technology to compensate for or facilitate Love, esteem and even self-actualization. If technology were as advanced in the 1940′s, how might Abraham Maslow have considered technological connectedness in his psychological theory of human developmental psychology? And here we are—back to theory again.

Thanks to Shlain, we now have autoblogographic content to accompany theory and fiction about our growing interdependence. Humans are indeed an adaptive species—however as Tiffany emphasizes, the commonality is “…the human yearning to connect” and I agree wholeheartedly. As the rules of engagement change, we are nonetheless intimate—however some of us who are in fact precariously disconnected may appear to be the exact opposite, which is where my fascination with fictional characters in our connected culture begins. As Solis stated, “It’s all about context and intention.”

Q: If we are what we project, and what we choose to project (share) is but a figment of ourselves (rather it’s a curated self) are we truly and truthfully connecting with each other at all, really?

Too argue the point, our lives are also enriched by our tribe of curators—connecting us to the world around us if not the people within it. So yes Tiffany, we’re participating in a landmark moment in history as everyone on the planet (2 billion and counting) comes together; minds from different perspectives are connecting within a global framework, and meanwhile I discovered today that a professional friend and mentor died 6 months ago right here in my Harlem neighborhood. Ironically, I wasn’t informed because his closest friends and family weren’t ‘connected’ to me. Need I write fiction? Art imitates life, life is conversation and conversation is content.

Give content away; don’t give IT away

Whatever the desired affect, a talented movie Director understands how to convey emotion on screen—through dialogue & performances, cinematography and/or music. So how might your teaser content convey that very same emotion to drive sales of your premium content or event experience?

Cirque du Soleil’s Brand Manager Jean Guibert says emotions are a universal language—and that they are. Silent cinema conveys emotion without dialogue. Sharing story elements to encourage participation is exactly what transmedia is all about; communicating themes and core values to invoke feeling through interactive engagement, yet “themes will take you further than individual characters” according to transmedia specialist Lance Weiler.

Now let’s consider your teaser content. Is it absolutely necessary that viewers know the plot, main characters and storyline in 2:30min., or is it more compelling to deliver your core themes enhanced with an emotional energy and a visual aesthetic to peak potential audience curiosity without giving it all away? I used to believe a movie trailer should thoroughly inform viewers—yet if this is done effectively, many may walk away with the lasting impression they’ve already seen the film. It’s happened to me more often than I can count! “The consistency of this brand is not in the message; it’s in the way we want people to generate their own message,” states Guibert. In doing so, Cirque du Soleil is able to proliferate its content without cannibalizing consumer desire to patonize its live events. “The more you give content, the more you create occasions of people talking about your brand… the more we create the desire in people’s soul and body to live this thing live,” he explains.

TAKEAWAY:
Give content away, but give away what you want, when and how—preserving the veil of mystery and intrigue for the unknown IT that is yet to be experienced.

Filmmakers in drag!

What are YOU willing to do to exceed your Kickstarter goal?

After a successful Kickstarter campaign to produce the movie, Writer/Director Gary King is seeking finishing funds for his 5th independent feature film–a musical entitled, “How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song” for live orchestration for the score, post-production costs, DVD replications for industry screeners and Film Festival fees:

LINK:

http://kck.st/scorejss

Here’s how YOU can help:
1) Share this video on Facebook, Twitter, your website, blog, etc.;
2) Donate;
3) BOTH!

This is an all-or-nothing campaign–every contribution counts! The Kickstarter goal is $18K, and if the campaign exceeds $20K, Actor Daryl Ray Carliles, Auteur Gary King and myself will dress in drag and perform a music video of a song selected by our Kickstarter backers. To Wong Fu II will only happen with your help!

Visit:

http://kck.st/scorejss

Christine Vachon coaches winners

Attendees of the State Of Cinema address at the 54th San Francisco International Film Festivalshould consider themselves fortunate to hear Christine Vachon LIVE this past Easter Sunday, but many of them should have gone egg-hunting instead. Vachon delivered a candid, compelling speech with insight and opinion backed by 25+ seasons of relevant game experience, but instead of an enlightened audience of team players ready to execute, Vachon’s well-designed play was challenged by an unappreciative group of disillusioned bench riders.

We’re at a crossroads where most filmmakers will take a turn for the worse, and I’m okay with that. In fact I’d prefer it! The playing field is leveling out and I welcome a strategic edge over my indie competition. To win this game you’ve got to be quick on your feet and nimble-minded; make adjustments in mid-stride; play to your strengths and distribute the ball effectively. This is a contact sport! Most filmmakers simply aren’t fit to last the season.

“I began my career figuring out who were the underserved audiences & marketing directly to them, making movies specifically for them.” — Christine Vachon

THAT’s your theme song! That’s the music you play when your movie emerges from the dugout. All you need is a [relative] hit to sustain your craft—no need to swing for the fences. A single means you’ll probably make a another movie; rinse & repeat and you’ve got a darn good batting average. 60+ films! That’s what Vachon’s working with. And what about the naysayers? They won’t even make the playoffs.