A YEAR’S WORTH OF VIDEO CONTENT IN ABOUT A WEEK

It’s a struggle for companies. Video engages more than any other marketing method, yet many companies haven’t figured out a way to produce video in the quantity they need consistently for regular engagement. There’s a model that’s worked for Hollywood that when tweaked can get a brand to a year’s worth of video content in a week. First, some background.

Recently, our company, Gamma Blast Studios shot marketing content for the recent movie release of, “Blockers” with John Cena, Leslie Mann, and Ike Barinholz.  The stars, the studio’s marketing people, and the production crew worked two days shooting different types of sketches, interviews, and shout-outs that yielded 80+ pieces of content. Here’s an example of one of the pieces for “Blockers” where the cast decoded emojis for the site, Screen Junkies. The pieces were customized in tandem with the channel/site for which they were being used such as Comedy Central, Tastemade, or other outlets with the supervision of the movie studio, Universal.

We use this process for two reasons:

1. Universal has control over the message communicated about their movie. Since the content is customized for the channel/site often using the channel/site’s talent, the outlet runs it. Also, they piggyback on the celebrity and followings of the movie’s stars.
2. The studio can drop a lot of content at once, so the movie’s promotion is seemingly EVERYWHERE.

HOW BRANDS CAN USE THIS APPROACH
Brands can do the same thing to yield their company a year’s worth of content, or a huge bunch of content that’s dropped at one time. There are two keys to making this successful: The brand must pivot its perspective. In this new model, the brand starts with what the influencer’s or outlet’s audience wants and tailors its content to that audience. Many brands for years have been talking about changing the perspective away from the brand first to the consumers’ point of view first, but few have actually done it with their marketing content. The old-school campaign perspective requires new thinking.

Two, brands need to know that their content creation can be more efficient. I spoke recently to someone who worked for eight years for a nationwide restaurant chain for which he said a photo shoot of three still shots would take a day. (Of course, there are food stylists involved, but puh-leeze!) It’s just been recently when this large brand would start filling the dead time in a production to shoot content for social. Overall, even with the change, they didn’t produce that many pieces of content.

HOW TO DO IT
We create a lot of impactful content for brands by outlining a company’s top influencers and outlets within a specific process matrix. Within the influencers and outlets, it’s evident how each of those influencers represents a key slice of a brand’s audience. We then think about what stories, information, entertainment, and emotions we can generate for those influencers’ audiences. 95% of the work is done in the content strategy and pre-production to determine what content pieces will resonate with those audiences. We even work with outlets, so they help hone the execution. Collaborating helps with their buy-in, which means the piece will most likely be used. With this specific process, a brand achieves efficiency, brand control, AND a year’s worth of content in a very short period of time.

IT WORKS
Coupled with a focused distribution plan, a brand can far outpace their prior marketing’s reach and ROI. The marketing content we did for the movies, “Blockers” and Blumhouse’s, “Truth or Dare” showed 6 million views and reactions across sites in the first quarter of 2018. That’s not even counting the impact it received from showings on, on-air channels. Of course, the movie marketing content leans on the audience of celebrities, BUT brands have celebrities as well: their influencers, their ambassadors. Reach won’t be as high, but this process makes a brand’s influencers and superusers work for the brand in the most compelling medium of video.

In the end, brands can change their thinking to get what they need. If you have questions about this process matrix to make your content creation more effective and efficient, contact us. We’re happy to help.