Chamber005
Carbonite Member
So I've brought up a few times on these boards about everyone getting together, pooling their funds and making a feature film. Aaaand usually it's been met with rage and general loathing, lol.
But I'm still seeing lots of people trying to turn a buck, trying this way and that to find some possible way to achieve funding, etc. Yesterday there was this post about someone trying to get paid putting video ads in front of his short films. Because that in any conceivable universe will ever turn even the most remote profit...
I still feel that the members here are missing a HUGE opprotunity by not coming together as one collective force. I see how most people would have major issues with pooling financial resources on a project that may not be creator-owned. I think it's a mature, long term investment avenue to attend, but for the average 20-something, the idea of investing in anything and it not being "me, me, me" is alien and confusing.
So instead, how about the people here coming together to form an alliance of MARKETING?
Besides making the bulk of my wealth in the banking industry, on the side I work with various charities and also do marketing strategizing and implementation for small businesses.
So, for instance, I go to your local auto supply store. I ask if they'd like me to improve their profits on a strictly commission basis. (e.g. your small business makes 200K in profits annually, if I can make that profit go to, say, 275K over the course of 12 months, I get a contractual percentage of those profits). Based on what amount I believe I can improve their profits, I structure my own marketing expenditures for their business accordingly. Most small businesses can't afford a marketing person and can't afford marketing materials. I do both for "free" and make my money on the back end. I think it's a good way to service my community here in Chicago while building relationships, networking, etc.
None of that actually applies to you guys per se, but I'm hoping that maybe I can help some of you see past the immediate and think more long term. We all go to great lengths cultivating our creative projects, shouldn't there also be the same level of long-term investment in the marketing of whatever it is you created?
So let's say Barry Green, Zak, Luis and 30 other people all had features or short film collections they were trying to promote (though this would apply to comics and books as well). We all know that friends and family can only do so much. If those 30 filmmakers all got together, though, and every day, three times per day on their individual social networking sites, blogs, etc, promoted the film of one person in the group, imagine the breadth of advertising that would breed. An onslaught of people all promoting YOUR FILM on a specific day from 30 different locations all at once for a 12 month calendar year. Let's say the day was May 15th and the following month it would be June 7th, then again on July 10th, you could schedule all of your friends, families and co-workers to also email and facebook and twitter and MySpace about the "event" that is the marketing of your film.
There are really two kinds of marketing, there's branding which is a long term process that has much more to do consistency in a specific geographical area or "genre metric" and then there's the What-Everyone-Is-Talking-About style of marketing. I believe deeply in both, but the one that typically financially drowns the average small business or artist is the latter.
But let's look at the ROI of something like what I'm proposing against the typical style of branding, pay-per-click advertising.
You have a DVD for sale. Let's say you're getting a .20 click-thru average on your ads @ 500K unique impressions leaving you at about 1,000 pull-thrus and maybe a 5% sale ratio (10% is a good sales average, but with online marketing I think the average is closer to zero than it is 10%, so we'll split the difference). Those 500K unique impressions cost you, approx $100.00. At $100.00 you sold 50 DVDs. CreateSpace takes, what? 40% I think? So you charged 12 bucks per item to try and make sure you can compete with a star-filled movie that's also on DVD in your same genre, and so your at about $360.00, minus the $100 = $260.00. Not a bad profit if you can keep it going week in and week out. This particular marketing campaign might see you around $13,000 at the end of the year (after adjustments), plus you have the remaining 5200 bucks (as well as the cost of production) that you get to write-off at the end of the fiscal year.
This is just a single aspect of your marketing, if you can get the same or greater returns from 4 or 5 other sources, including local branding which would yield a much higher rate of return per DVD, it seems resonable that you could take in 60-70K annually after adjustments. That's not going to make you a millionaire overnight, but it means you have a solid following and that you'll be able to afford production costs on your next film -- and will have much lower marketing costs for it as you've already established an audience.
But let's now look at the same metric for what I'm talking about -- an ACTIVE coalition.
For 12 months, once per month, you have 30 filmmakers, all with their own networks of, say, 500 people each (that's network, internet as well as personal). You, personally, should have 500 people who you can draw off of for support (though 5,000 is better).
The 30 filmmakers equal 15,000 people. Now this is completely different than branding and "unique impressions", at least 50% of those 15K are going to be people who will actually take personal time to listen to what that person has to say. You assemble your own 500 (50% = 250 X, say, 60% of people who will actually help you, leaves you at 150 X the average person's 75 contacts (50% = 37.5 X 40% because now it's second hand = 3 = 150 + 3 X 150 totals 500, which is what your original network was which is important to maintain when figuring out your marketing strategies)
So now you have, once per month, an onslaught of marketing. It will be the same people, but if you can hit 20% over the course of a full year (which is logical based on the style of marketing which is, essentially, word-of-mouth), on the full charge of $19.99 from your personal website store for $3.00 + shipped ($3.99) DVDs, you're looking at $19.99 - $6.99 = $13.00 X 7500 + 500 @ 20% = $20,800, and that's all profit.
All because you got together with 30 other filmmakers and all of you marketed someone else's film every day and you aligned your own social network to promote you on a single day every month.
Both of these strategies are good, and of course both should be an aspect of your 4 or 5 (or more) ways that you market. But every single person sitting here on these threads today who has an independent film sitting on their shelf is literally watching more than 20 thousands dollars (as well as the additonal word-of-mouth that starts to compound once, twice, ten times over) pass them by.
For this to work, I'd advise using a system of threes. So all of the filmmakers and your own network should promote your DVD once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the evening for maximum exposure. And since yours in the ONLY film they have to promote that day, it's not rocket science.
So there you guys go, free advice, tons or profits, no monies required.
(and if you DON'T have a film yet and just want to make money off this kind of strategy so that you can produce your own film, build your own coalition of 20 (paid) + 20 (unpaid) filmmakers, tell them that you'll promote their movie if they promote the movie you're promoting. So now you have 20 movies to promote and 20 filmmakers who are promoting them (totalling 40 filmmakers, half of which you profit from, half of which promote your promotion so that you'll promote theirs). Obviously the movie will have had to be out of "circulation" for more than a year so that you can examine the filmmakers' previous year's balance sheet. Then you get a percentage of the profit difference from year one to year two of the film, which, if you have 20 marketed-for-profit filmmakers and they all make an additional 20K, you get 40% of that = $80,000.00 per year and presto magico you're in marketing!)
Good luck!!
But I'm still seeing lots of people trying to turn a buck, trying this way and that to find some possible way to achieve funding, etc. Yesterday there was this post about someone trying to get paid putting video ads in front of his short films. Because that in any conceivable universe will ever turn even the most remote profit...
I still feel that the members here are missing a HUGE opprotunity by not coming together as one collective force. I see how most people would have major issues with pooling financial resources on a project that may not be creator-owned. I think it's a mature, long term investment avenue to attend, but for the average 20-something, the idea of investing in anything and it not being "me, me, me" is alien and confusing.
So instead, how about the people here coming together to form an alliance of MARKETING?
Besides making the bulk of my wealth in the banking industry, on the side I work with various charities and also do marketing strategizing and implementation for small businesses.
So, for instance, I go to your local auto supply store. I ask if they'd like me to improve their profits on a strictly commission basis. (e.g. your small business makes 200K in profits annually, if I can make that profit go to, say, 275K over the course of 12 months, I get a contractual percentage of those profits). Based on what amount I believe I can improve their profits, I structure my own marketing expenditures for their business accordingly. Most small businesses can't afford a marketing person and can't afford marketing materials. I do both for "free" and make my money on the back end. I think it's a good way to service my community here in Chicago while building relationships, networking, etc.
None of that actually applies to you guys per se, but I'm hoping that maybe I can help some of you see past the immediate and think more long term. We all go to great lengths cultivating our creative projects, shouldn't there also be the same level of long-term investment in the marketing of whatever it is you created?
So let's say Barry Green, Zak, Luis and 30 other people all had features or short film collections they were trying to promote (though this would apply to comics and books as well). We all know that friends and family can only do so much. If those 30 filmmakers all got together, though, and every day, three times per day on their individual social networking sites, blogs, etc, promoted the film of one person in the group, imagine the breadth of advertising that would breed. An onslaught of people all promoting YOUR FILM on a specific day from 30 different locations all at once for a 12 month calendar year. Let's say the day was May 15th and the following month it would be June 7th, then again on July 10th, you could schedule all of your friends, families and co-workers to also email and facebook and twitter and MySpace about the "event" that is the marketing of your film.
There are really two kinds of marketing, there's branding which is a long term process that has much more to do consistency in a specific geographical area or "genre metric" and then there's the What-Everyone-Is-Talking-About style of marketing. I believe deeply in both, but the one that typically financially drowns the average small business or artist is the latter.
But let's look at the ROI of something like what I'm proposing against the typical style of branding, pay-per-click advertising.
You have a DVD for sale. Let's say you're getting a .20 click-thru average on your ads @ 500K unique impressions leaving you at about 1,000 pull-thrus and maybe a 5% sale ratio (10% is a good sales average, but with online marketing I think the average is closer to zero than it is 10%, so we'll split the difference). Those 500K unique impressions cost you, approx $100.00. At $100.00 you sold 50 DVDs. CreateSpace takes, what? 40% I think? So you charged 12 bucks per item to try and make sure you can compete with a star-filled movie that's also on DVD in your same genre, and so your at about $360.00, minus the $100 = $260.00. Not a bad profit if you can keep it going week in and week out. This particular marketing campaign might see you around $13,000 at the end of the year (after adjustments), plus you have the remaining 5200 bucks (as well as the cost of production) that you get to write-off at the end of the fiscal year.
This is just a single aspect of your marketing, if you can get the same or greater returns from 4 or 5 other sources, including local branding which would yield a much higher rate of return per DVD, it seems resonable that you could take in 60-70K annually after adjustments. That's not going to make you a millionaire overnight, but it means you have a solid following and that you'll be able to afford production costs on your next film -- and will have much lower marketing costs for it as you've already established an audience.
But let's now look at the same metric for what I'm talking about -- an ACTIVE coalition.
For 12 months, once per month, you have 30 filmmakers, all with their own networks of, say, 500 people each (that's network, internet as well as personal). You, personally, should have 500 people who you can draw off of for support (though 5,000 is better).
The 30 filmmakers equal 15,000 people. Now this is completely different than branding and "unique impressions", at least 50% of those 15K are going to be people who will actually take personal time to listen to what that person has to say. You assemble your own 500 (50% = 250 X, say, 60% of people who will actually help you, leaves you at 150 X the average person's 75 contacts (50% = 37.5 X 40% because now it's second hand = 3 = 150 + 3 X 150 totals 500, which is what your original network was which is important to maintain when figuring out your marketing strategies)
So now you have, once per month, an onslaught of marketing. It will be the same people, but if you can hit 20% over the course of a full year (which is logical based on the style of marketing which is, essentially, word-of-mouth), on the full charge of $19.99 from your personal website store for $3.00 + shipped ($3.99) DVDs, you're looking at $19.99 - $6.99 = $13.00 X 7500 + 500 @ 20% = $20,800, and that's all profit.
All because you got together with 30 other filmmakers and all of you marketed someone else's film every day and you aligned your own social network to promote you on a single day every month.
Both of these strategies are good, and of course both should be an aspect of your 4 or 5 (or more) ways that you market. But every single person sitting here on these threads today who has an independent film sitting on their shelf is literally watching more than 20 thousands dollars (as well as the additonal word-of-mouth that starts to compound once, twice, ten times over) pass them by.
For this to work, I'd advise using a system of threes. So all of the filmmakers and your own network should promote your DVD once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the evening for maximum exposure. And since yours in the ONLY film they have to promote that day, it's not rocket science.
So there you guys go, free advice, tons or profits, no monies required.
(and if you DON'T have a film yet and just want to make money off this kind of strategy so that you can produce your own film, build your own coalition of 20 (paid) + 20 (unpaid) filmmakers, tell them that you'll promote their movie if they promote the movie you're promoting. So now you have 20 movies to promote and 20 filmmakers who are promoting them (totalling 40 filmmakers, half of which you profit from, half of which promote your promotion so that you'll promote theirs). Obviously the movie will have had to be out of "circulation" for more than a year so that you can examine the filmmakers' previous year's balance sheet. Then you get a percentage of the profit difference from year one to year two of the film, which, if you have 20 marketed-for-profit filmmakers and they all make an additional 20K, you get 40% of that = $80,000.00 per year and presto magico you're in marketing!)
Good luck!!
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