The adage goes “everyone’s a movie star in their own life,” but not Greyphin. We’re the production company.
The philosophy we hold about marketing impacts the products we deliver. If we think about our work as just “going through the motions,” the result is more likely to be stagnant, expected, and ineffectual. For this reason and more, we at Greyphin constantly stress how much our marketing matters and the way it can change the world. We want to deliver the most impactful work that we can. But lately that mindset has been expanding. We’re realizing how digital marketing's also a production, a surge of activity in a network of moves and counter-moves, just like digital film making.
Sure, documentaries have the additional purpose of informing their audience, but they still attempt to deliver information in a way that's pleasing and engaging. Marketing’s like that too. We have multiple goals, but without the entertainment factor, they’re unlikely to succeed. That’s why we’ve stressed the importance of storytelling in our work. It’s also why it’s imperative that marketers know their audience well; entertainment is highly subjective. Some folks are after a good laugh, others want the catharsis of a broken-hearted romance, still others want to gain historical understanding through a war drama. Informed targeting of particular personas is key for creating the resonance you’re working toward.
Whether we’re talking about straight to streaming Netflix Originals or box office blockbusters, the end goal is the same: advertising. Sure, we can nod to the love of art and representation of the human experience, but when was the last time you saw red carpet fanfare and massive crowds gathered over a fine art exhibit?
Since films are highly entertaining, they deliver huge audiences for advertising. Sometimes this advertising is for products, from the clothes actors wear on set and in interviews to the cars they drive. Remember when Campari was sold out at bars for weeks after that viral interview of Emma D’Arcy ordering a negroni sbagliato, with prosecco in it?
Other times this work is about highlighting a particular mentality or social movement, for instance, the DC hero Superman was an idealogical foil to the concept of the ideal man often presented in nazi propaganda, the Ubermensch (translated as superman), a concept that was co-opted from Nietzsche. Since the United States was resistant to returning to war at the time, it took entertaining superhero comics, shows, and films like this to sway public opinion on the family level toward intervention. Regardless of the purpose, we know that when an audience is captivated by the work, they’re more open to the soft persuasion of its content.
What’s more, an especially significant overlap between digital marketing and digital film making is the determination of success. From butts in seats and box office profits to hours streamed and rewatches, film making has measurable data to determine its success. Increasingly, digital marketing is following suit. Analytics reports and trackable metrics now provide a clearer sense of a campaign’s ROI. Where was once a guessing game, now is a game of chess, with multiple adaptive strategies and measurable outcomes.
Both stress the importance of quality visuals and sound design. Both walk a careful line of brand management and scheduling--great content at the wrong time might as well be bad content, after all. Both attempt to build anticipation and positive audience perception in advance, through things like teasers, reviews, and sponsorships. And more than anything, both rely on an incredible network of people to do well.
Digital film making requires so much behind-the-scenes work through a process of planning, designing, executing, directing, editing, and release. Digital marketing requires the same process and the same hard-working team. If one part of the network falls apart, the whole production suffers, thus organization and strong leadership is particularly important in these realms.
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So maybe we’re feeling a bit grand about our work here at Greyphin, but if everyone else is wandering around being the main character, we like the idea that we’re the ones framing the shots. Wanna be our next superstar? You know what to do.