Brand(ish) Film @ the Oscars

Quick Lessons from Hair Love – the brand funded film at the Oscars Everyone in the branded content world has been going gaga over a brand-funded film winning at the Oscars – where Hair Love, by Matthew Cherry won for Animated Short film, after a successful Kickstarter campaign and financial and marketing support from Dove, a unit of Unilever (full disclosure, a client, but not for this). While the film was not traditional branded content, it still marks a milestone, and has a few lessons for those of us working in this space (or wanting to work in it).

1. Most importantly – the film didn’t start with the Brand. No one at Dove went to the filmmaker with an RFP, hoping to make something that looked good for their brand. Instead, as AdAge explained awhile ago, Dove learned about the film after the Kickstarter began: “"In the middle of the Kickstarter campaign, they reached out and were one of the few companies that really got it," (emphasis mine) he says. The brand donated some money for the production but had no requirements with regard to product placement. "That was the thing that was so great," he says. "They just really wanted to support from the beginning, and the only thing we had to do really was the shout-out in the end credits."  Lesson: There’s enough creativity in the world, and it’s likely not coming from within your brand, or your agency (sorry). Smart brands will look for projects that would exist even without their support. Be open to smart pitches that fit your brand message/goals, but that don’t come from an RFP.
2. Trust your filmmakers – work with good talent, and stay out of the way. Dove didn’t give notes, and they didn’t have input into the film. Lesson: let the creatives be creative, and trust their work.
3. Diversity. The film comes from diverse filmmakers – who come from the community they plan to represent – and the subject and causes around the film are important to that community. Lesson: find stories that are coming genuinely from diverse, under-represented communities. There are audiences for these stories, and they will notice who is paying attention to their stories.
4. Cause Based. As Jordan Kelley of BrandStorytelling explains: “(Dove) put forward capital to help put the spot directly on an entirely different issue: The Crown Act. Dove financially supported the attendance and wardrobe of High School Senior DeAndre Arnold, who attended the Oscars as a guest of the film's creators to bring awareness to hair discrimination experienced by people of color in schools and the workplace across the country. Arnold's attendance combined with ample speaking opportunities with reporters and audiences gave the creators a platform to speak and spread awareness on the issue in a meaningful way. The Crown Act will ban discrimination based on hair textures and styles commonly associated with race.” Lesson: Have a cause, that genuinely resonates with your brand, and don’t just make a movie about it – stand behind that cause and use your marketing to bring attention to the cause, as much as you do towards the movie.
5. Stay Back – As mentioned above – Dove is only in the end credits, and they’ve been remarkably, smartly tame in their associated marketing campaign. There is no product placement, and they’ve concentrated their energies on helping the film do outreach screenings around the cause – having a Dove “self-esteem expert” join the filmmakers at Q&A’s. Lesson: less is more. Brand affiliation is better than product placement or overly loud marketing.
6. Tap into sticky trends – Filmmaker Matthew Cherry was inspired by viral videos he saw on YouTube about African-American dads helping their daughters with their hair. Less mentioned, there’s an entire history of films about African-American hair that shows a market for these stories (many well before Chris Rock made his, such as Ayoka Chenzira's influential (and amazing) Hair Piece: A Film for Nappy-Headed People) . And the Kickstarter campaign was going viral even before Dove got involved, and was one of the most successful shorts on the platform. Lesson: where there’s smoke…
7. Distribution – Importantly, the film had distribution locked in from Sony, which came about from producer Karen Rupert Toliver, a longtime animation studio executive (Rio, Ice Age) who worked for Sony Animation, and while this was a side-project, that definitely helped them secure distribution. The film played before Angry Birds 2, in theaters, before it went online. This was partly to qualify for the Oscars, but also to build buzz with audiences. Lesson: work with distribution pros, and don’t rely on your YouTube channel alone. In fact, focus on projects that can get real distribution, add your marketing power, and you’ll see success.

These are just a few quick take-aways from Hair Love’s win. While they are all simple, too few brands are following the practices that made this a success for the brand, and more should. Back in 2014, when I helped Patagonia bring DamNation to theaters, Adweek asked if a brand film would ever win the Oscars. Now, just six years later, we’ve seen it’s possible. Funny enough, most of the lessons above (except diversity) applied back then as well, as AdWeek pointed out in that article: “ DamNation bears minimal branding, and its directors were also granted final cut. After completing a short theatrical run to qualify for the Academy Awards, DamNation was released online. It will also be available on Netflix. "We're here to solve environmental problems," said Joy Howard, (ex-)vp, marketing at Patagonia. "If we can show that, then people process what we're about, become loyal and commit to the brand." (all emphasis mine) The lessons remain the same – and if more brands follow them, we’ll see more brand-supported films at the Oscars in the future.

Stuff I'm Reading

Film & Streaming   Congrats to Eugene Hernandez, who just became Festival Director for the New York Film Festival - IndieWire has the report, which is appropriate, because that's where Eugene started, founding Indiewire back in 1995/96 (first as ILine) with a few others. I don't know a better - or nicer - person for the job, and it shows that the NYFF is once again on a trajectory to be the most important festival in NYC. Kudos to Eugene and the festival. NATO/E&Y study shows people are more likely to stream a film if it's been in theaters - but also shows disruption is not true - Variety Reports.  "The study... found that streaming services are complementary, not cannibalistic when it comes to moviegoing. People who visited a movie theater nine times or more annually streamed more content than respondents who visited a movie theater only once or twice. Respondents with more than nine trips to the movies saw an average of 12 hours of streaming content per week, compared to the seven hours that respondents who only saw one or two movies a year watched on average. Of those who didn’t visit a movie theater in the last 12 months, nearly half didn’t stream any online content. The findings belie a popular narrative, one that argues that movie attendance is struggling because people would rather stay home and watch Netflix." Hollywood Box Office Booms, even as people stream more; but Indies...not so much - Matthew Ball had a great article in Bloomberg recently where he showed that even as ticket-sales hit a new low, the share of box office going to mega-blockbusters keeps increasing.  Great stuff from MB per usual. The problem for indies as his charts show is that more are getting funded and put out in theaters than ever before - but less people are going to them. His stats here and everything I've seen show the same problem – oversupply. Almost all of the increase in supply is coming from minor/major indies, but none of the viewing share has shifted to them.  My take: there are X number of people who go see indie films at theaters every year, but now they are split across more titles, so each one gets less box office. The question is - as we move to streaming will those audiences watch more indies, or will it also become a forum where people seek the "theme park and museum pieces" as well? My bet - while specific niches will see an increase in views, most eyeballs will stick with the bigger majors and minors. We'll keep seeing an increase in indie production, but there won't be any increase in indie viewership. Matthew Ball - again - on the false narratives behind the streaming wars - Consumers have moved to subscriptions as a pricing option, but that doesn't mean there's a limit to how many subscriptions they'll accept. Rather, just as we used to pay for whatever we want (per title, or per item), we'll keep doing the same - according to three rules: "A service will succeed if (1) it addresses a real, outstanding customer want/need; (2) at an appropriate price or value to the consumer; and (3) while generating sustainable economics." My take - I agree, but nailing part 1 is the real kicker here. Scott Galloway taught a class on SVOD winners and losers, and his blog sums up most of his thoughts come down to this: "In the context of the streaming wars, SVOD adds momentum to the flywheel. Movies and entertainment evoke powerful emotions. The connective tissue of the flywheel is increasingly emotion. The NPS score (consumers’ emotional connection to a company) is negative to zero for ecommerce and internet companies, but it’s strong for SVOD companies. Loving Fleabag means you’ll buy your next toaster from Amazon, not Target or Williams-Sonoma. The result? In the last 13 months Apple and Amazon have added Disney, AT&T/Time Warner, Fox, Netflix, Comcast, Viacom, MGM, Discovery, and Lionsgate to their market capitalization." He titles the article "Bezosland" for a reason! MovieFone is Dying, and has just one employee left - another casualty of drunken pirates...er, MoviePass. /Film Reports. New York may cut it's tax-incentives - Hope we see some organizing against this move from Cuomo - NYUpstate Reports, and while it's a trim, not a complete cut, it's not good for the film biz here. The World's First Vertical Format Blockbuster is coming - oh my! reports /Film. Cineastes recoil, but this has been coming for awhile now. Why was The Irishman Shut-Out of the Oscars? Because of the reduction of friction, reports Dana Harris-Bridson in IndieWire - A smart analysis of the many reasons The Irishman didn't prevail - it's not just because it was Netflix, or long, argues Dana Harris-Bridson, but the lack of friction caused by streaming vs. theatrical - and while this sounds simplistic, it's true - the film demands your attention and commitment differently if you go to the theater. While I agree, there's one little problem - most Academy voters watch all of this stuff on screeners...

Branded Content

Conde Nast is establishing a network of film/tv studios - according to The Drum, their major brands - New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Wired and GQ will each launch their own respective studios as the publications aim to become digital and video-first.

Instagram Influencer Marketing Is Already A Nightmare. Political Ads Will Make It A Shitshow. Reports BuzzFeed - amen to every word of this smart report, and shame on the FTC and FEC who have no plans or clue on how to help the average user distinguish ads from reality.

New Tech 

A new implant jacks directly into the brain, allowing the blind to see - By using glasses that completely block out all light and fitted with a tiny camera that is connected to her visual cortex, a 57 year old woman was able to see despite her eyes being handicapped to the point where they cannot detect light. This is great news, and shows just how quickly we're getting brain/computer interfaces, and how much closer to The Matrix we're getting by the day. Mother Meets Recreation of Her Deceased Child in VR – You can easily look at this as a creepy if not downright exploitative use of VR, but it's also undoubtedly the future. And as the RoadToVR reports, if you dig into the show a bit (it's part of a documentary), it clearly was helpful to the family. And once again, it brings The Matrix closer to reality -  "It’s that point in the future though when AI is capable of automatically conjuring a person based off a compendium of video and photo that we’re waiting to see. Because whether you like it or not, virtual humans are coming, and I think we’ve just taken one step closer." VR World Lets Users Enjoy Digital Assets in an Immersive way - Somnium Space- which I haven't tried - let's you use blockchain to trade/sell digital assets in real time, while also interacting with other players in a much more realistic manner. Explains Cointelegraph: To understand exactly how this makes a difference, the platform compares this to standing on top of the highest mountain within its VR world and being able to see hundreds or thousands of fellow gamers “a few kilometers away, rushing around and exploring the world beneath you all in real time, all in VR mode.” Participatory culture gets one step closer. Maybe they should combine this with the Ring Fit Adventure, for some more active game-play. Elon Musk says all advanced AI development should be regulated, including at Tesla- More people are pushing for regulation of AI - the problem is our government has gotten pretty lousy at regular intelligence, so I'm not sure they can handle artificial, but if we do something crazy and let actual scientists help make the rules, just maybe this would be a good idea.

Posted: 12th Mar 2020

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