Smart Start-ups Are Using Video To Tell The Real Story
Challenger brands starting out today are using authenticity to compete with incumbent businesses with bigger budgets.
Producing Content For CenterFrame
CenterFrame is a members club for filmmakers, by filmmakers. Its aim is to address the imbalance between the creatives that work within the film industry and a financial structure that has long had a reputation for choosing its darlings.
CenterFrame intends to build a community which puts filmmakers back in the driver’s seat. Once fully launched, members of the community will be able to network, collaborate, fund and ultimately get their films seen.
“We enjoyed working with CenterFrame because they had a defined roadmap which made it easier to decide what content to make, where it needed to be placed, and when it needed to be deployed.”
Like most start-ups, CenterFrame was working within a limited budget and whilst there was so much they could do, part of the success of the Pledge phase can be attributed to judicious decision making.
That’s why CenterFrame have chosen element26.tv as their creative partner from launch to growth.
We spent a month prior to filming in Development. Development is an exploratory phase where we research, build out the narrative and shape all the creative elements so we can seamlessly enter into pre-production. It’s a vital part of the journey and a proven way to arrive at distinctive content.
Development began with testing our assumptions. This meant listening to what real filmmakers had to say. Sub-reddits such as r/filmmakers and r/filmindustryla both have a sizable membership and proved fertile territory to get closer to the CenterFrame user.
It was evident that the film industry has a long relationship with empty promises, so the decision was made early on to swap out razzmatazz for authenticity.
“We love slick and glamorous advertising at element26.tv, but when speaking to a seasoned filmmakers, many of whom will had fallen foul of empty promises in the past meant levelling with the audience was going to be crucial” – Louis Tsamados, Creative Lead, element26.tv
Tom Lonergan, the producer of the pledge film went on to say:
“Early in the process, we discussed the pain points for writers, directors and producers working in the film industry. To get this message across, it was obvious it had to come from Bernhard”
Being a film director himself, CenterFrame’s CEO Bernhard Pucher has first hand experience of the top down economics within the film industry and as a consequence is well suited to lead from the front.
Building out the story
Steven Spielberg once famously said, “Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic.” We couldn’t agree more. In the invention of any production, you’re often banking on stars aligning.
Despite best efforts, the combination of easing of restrictions, availability of suitable locations, not to mention crew availability, meant we were forced to think creatively in order to fulfill the production and meet the ambitious delivery schedule.
It was Stephen Nelson, the film’s trusty cinematographer whom first suggested Northamptonshire as an alternative base for the production.
We worked together with Paul Mills of Screen Northants, to make the Northampton Filmhouse our base of operations.
“Northamptonshire is a collaborative county with a burgeoning film industry. It was a pleasure to have element26.tv shoot here and we look forward to welcoming them back as they embark on their next project.”
Alongside the 60 second version of the film that lives on the website, 30 and 15 second cut-downs were created for the purposes of advertising across Reddit, Taboola, Linkedin, Instagram and of course Facebook.
“element26.tv have been brilliant at focusing on a strategic set of target customers. The video helped us say the right things, for the right people and for the right reasons. I’m sure that is why we’re getting a massive response, with nearly 100k full views on the different social channels over a week. Our conversion rate is looking very promising and trailing way over the average for the entertainment industry. Rewards of strategic thinking!’
Video Stops The Scroll And Gets Results
Effective marketing is born out of relevance. Relevance is achieved by marrying an audience to a relatable topic. Video takes this marriage and amplifies it because the message can be dressed up to influence the senses using stories.
Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches is a great example of this because not only does it marry ‘self-perception’, with Dove’s female audience, but it is presented in a reassuring narrative which is crafted to instil confidence.
Across a range of tactics, whether you need to increase visibility, build trust or drive conversions, video marketing has a track record of delivering the goods.
In a saturated market, stopping the scroll isn’t easy but a well targeted video increases the odds. Facebook has 2.8 billion active users with the average user spending just under 1.5 seconds on each post. Whilst it is easy to breeze past still images, videos keep users on your posts up to five times longer.
Ben Horowitz, the author of ‘The Hard Thing About The Hard Things’ once pronounced that “companies that don’t have a clearly articulated story don’t have a clear and well thought-out strategy.” Unmistakably, the story is the strategy.If you are a filmmaker and want to find out more about CenterFrame, visit CenterFrame.com.
If you’re looking for a creative agency which enjoys growing brands by getting the message right, why not drop us a call or schedule a meeting by clicking here.
