As the business has evolved, we’ve all had to take a more collaborative approach in order to deliver great creations. A good example of where this is really making a difference is on the scripted side. We are experiencing a golden age of scripted television right now and there are many reasons for this success. One of them is in the way shows are written. The days of the lonely writer in a small room are over. Today, in order to generate engaging stories, you need a collaborative effort. A group of people with the same desire but with different skills working together is the key to success. If you can tap into this formula and invite all areas of the business to be involved, you can achieve great results. This is certainly a process that we’ve adopted. Working with a team of individuals enables us all to experience different ways of thinking and working and all in one room!
There’s also the little issue of money! With less money available, the industry is being forced into thinking differently and looking for creative ways to make the budgets work. Once again, collaboration is the key here. Allowing yourself to try something new can often give you surprising results whilst teaming up with other like minded people allows you to share the risks and hopefully, success! It’s the only way to keep the model moving forward.
We live in a world where we’re surrounded by big brands that want to enjoy success on TV too. And producers want to tap into that revenue source in order to make up the budgets. And whilst brands have always sponsored content, the way they do it is evolving. They’re no longer happy to be an “add on” and want to be more integrated into the content. They have to keep up with the same pace as the TV industry and are aware that viewers have much more control over their viewing. If they’re not engaged, they’ll switch you off – the death knell for a brand! To keep a brand prominent, relevant to the target audience but not intrusive, we first have to figure out a way to keep content interesting whilst ensuring that the brands remain a part of this. Compelling content is key. This will allow us to retain the ability to generate revenue and engage the viewer. A win, win situation.
This has been achieved in the past and POPEYE experienced huge success with this model. They delivered a fantastic marketing campaign for USA spinach producers while remaining an exciting viewing proposition for the audience. Sales of spinach increased by 33 percent which was a saviour to the spinach industry in the 1930’s. More recently, Audi has experienced success with movies. Here at Phileas, we are working with companies who are using both their brand and TV expertise to bring this business model to the next level. If a brand can participate in the investment, production and distribution of premium entertainment content, then hopefully we can drive success. Collaboration in this business is the key to success!
This is the latest in a series of posts from MIPCOM 2017’s MIPBlog Ambassadors, a group of industry experts coordinated by consultant Debbie Macdonald, who’ll be sharing their insight here in the run-up to MIPCOM this October. Stay tuned for more!
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