What Would Chris Donaldson Do?

This article was originally published at www.marketmix2013.com.

If you are thinking that the genesis of the name Hand Crank Films has got something to do with hand-cranking of 8mm or 16mm films through the camera in the olden days, then you are right! True to its name, the company wishes to stay as close to story as possible without letting the technology interfere as much, opines Chris Donaldson (@Chris_Donaldson), Executive Producer at Hand Crank Films, and member of esteemed MarketMix 2013 speaker lineup. Video has enamoured me since time immemorial, so how could I let go of an opportunity to gather insights from a veteran of the commercial video production business?! So here we go!

“If the heart says no, the brain is not even going to have a chance to say yes or no.”

I could be biased towards video over other media, but what makes others viewers sit through an entire video – ads, movies, etc? – I curiously asked Chris. His answer was simple. He said people sit through a video it if they are engaged, and feel they are communicated to. The fact that Chris does not see video marketing as itself justifies his philosophy that good video is about good storytelling first. The common thread running through all forms of good storytelling – books, radio, movies, painting and music, according to Chris, is the ability to make a connection with an audience.

His observation of general buyer behavior is that people buy with their hearts and not with their brains. This decision is strongly based on an initial impulse – whether you like it or not, does it make you feel confident – and only then comes the analytical part. For all this to happen an emotional hook is needed and this is true not just of video marketing; any marketing effort can fail if it does not connect, said Chris.

So how are these “hooks” designed, and are there any broad parameters to consider, one may ponder. Chris thinks that effective storytelling is mainly about reaching people quickly and engaging them in a way that will keep them (esp. in the digital world). He added that the hooks must address relevant emotions, so there are no silver bullets really. For instance, a hospital-related video must highlight compassion and care, whereas a GoDaddy video must strike on shop value and/or humor. The key inputs to get the feel right, is to understand who your audience is, and to then analyze how the product or service must talk to the audience in a way that will engage this audience.

“Receive inputs on how the video will be incorporated into the client’s overall marketing strategy.”

Chris is of the opinion that the business owner/representative understands the product/business better than any outside party; hence his idea of right video marketing approach is to go top-down. At Hand Crank Films, the process is split into 3 phases – Discovery, Development and Delivery. The Discovery phase is most important as the primary goal here is to understand client’s needs. From an ROI standpoint, it is important to mutually agree what role the video will play in the company’s marketing mix, said Chris.

Video can engage people on an emotional level, which is more difficult to achieve with brochures or written word. But the marketing video must help get the viewer interested in taking the next step – to read the white paper or brochure, or to talk to your salesperson. Video serves the purpose of warming your lead and helping push through the sales funnel; therefore it need not cover details such as product specs. The actual video production has to be preceded by lot of brainstorming with the client, followed by storyboarding, conceptualizing and scripting. The goal for all participants – clients, agency, producer and shooting crew – is to agree on vision before day 1 of shoot.

“The distribution strategy has to be robust in order to make the overall marketing strategy work.”

So you have the video now, but it remains that delivery is a unique challenge. YouTube seems to be the de facto consumer video distribution platform, but you have to explore sites frequented by your potential (niche) audiences said Chris. For example, the Mackie speaker ad can maximize its potential if it were put up on websites frequented by DJs and rock & roll bands, besides YouTube. You must have a strategy for timing your social media engagement as well; Facebook – post once a day, Twitter – 5/6 times a day, Blog – once or twice a week, all fed by a content library with varied content that is each say 3m, 5m or 15s long. At Hand Crank Films for example, the content is developed after mapping out the client’s editorial calendar, which spans the entire marketing mix over a year and which covers dates and frequency of events, blogs, social media engagement, product launches and other types of customer-facing marketing deliverables.

While technology brings content to audience, endorsement from a friend or a colleague and a good review is akin to word of mouth, which expands the content’s reach, observed Chris. In the B2B space, he realizes that the viewer base is a much smaller niche and is potentially limited to endorsements from customers and/or clientele, etc. but it does lead to people attending your event, contributing to your charity, and increased sales. Word of mouth is the least expensive and the most valuable way to generate marketing, so lap up all those comments, likes and RTs!

“DIY has its own set of challenges, not the least of which is story development and editing but it can be done pretty easily with just a little forethought.”

Clients may not be able to roll out professionally produced content every two weeks, but you can perfectly fill the void using DIY content on blogs, demos, reviews, etc. advocates Chris. Chris thinks DIY certainly has its place in the marketing mix esp. considering consumers seem to be increasingly forgiving of low quality content produced via mobile devices as long as the video is useful/ appealing. DIY tips from Chris: (1) Start with a simple ‘Talking Head’ video every other week and post it to the company blog and Facebook. Talk about industry challenges, company culture, etc. Keep it to a minute or so – slam a logo at the end and boom! – you’ve created content! (2) Concentrate on content that has VALUE to your consumers/audience. Don’t talk about your company (use the 80/20 rule). Talk about the market – provide solutions – answer customer questions – all that stuff. By becoming a resource for your customers, you’ll soon be seen as an expert – which will bring business in the long-run.

“People sitting on Desktops watch videos for 2m and this stat more than doubles for people watching content on mobile device.”

This, Chris says, is because viewers are more engaged, and less distracted, adding that mobile is not just about smartphones and tablets – it is about content being available everywhere and anywhere. Clarifying that QR codes are very much alive, Chris says we will soon be walking by triggers that initiate content such as video, blogs and in diverse forms of augmented reality (smell?). How will you create relevant and engaging content to grab people’s attention in these spaces? How will you design triggers for these new platforms? These are huge opportunities, exclaims Chris. My question to you, reader: How would you answer #ifihadglass?

Finally, I asked Chris about his most successful video campaign and if he had insights on why it had worked. “9/11 Happened To Us All”, he said is dearest to him. It was shot as a 4 part series on account of 10th year anniversary of the cataclysmic 9/11 incident. Being part of a project which channeled honest emotions, which was released on an emotional day and which combined the serendipity of being picked up by media (CNN, NBC, Yahoo) and of having clocked a million hits in 3-4 days’ time, was very humbling, said Chris. Even if Chris hadn’t told me, I would have known that this interview of a Muslim firefighter from 9/11, being able to capture the essence of humanity in a minute, is the reason why the campaign worked. You will agree when you watch the video.

Tech innovations such as portable cams enabling shooting in 5K format and crazy efficient distribution models are already here, but at the end of the day customer engagement is sparked by good storytelling. So go tear that lid off your brand with a video! If you don’t already know how, learn from the man himself on Mar 20, 2013 at MarketMix!

A Kolaveri-ous phenomenon

Soup saang, may be. But flaap saang? I doubt. “I agree the lyrics are absolute nonsense and are written in Tanglish. That’s probably why people everywhere relate to it“, said Dhanush, the singer of the famed Kolaveri Di, to a leading daily. Unless you have been living under a rock, or don’t have a strong Indian connection, you would know that the official Youtube video released on Nov 16, 2011 has gone viral on the internet long since with 20,341,650 hits as on today. Adding the Kolaveri madness to their methods is everybody from TOI and Deccan Chronicle who fine-tuned their headlines on Sehwag’s ravaging ODI 200, to Mallika Sherwat wishing to usher in New Year 2012 with a performance on Kolaveri Di, to singers all over doing their own versions (Punjabi, Gujarati, but best being Sharad Pawar version), to the song itself allegedly making its way into the Marketing curriculum of a premier management institute. Have a problem with the lattermost? What your father goes, I say?!

Media research firm Ormax Media observed the meteoric rise of the song and compiled reactions to the video/song outside of the internet. Click this link to read their consumer findings. Some of it is in line with Dhanush’s thought above. When the song was released to the internet, there was an overload of folks googling for lyrics and their meaning; and a certain Yahoo Answers link was widely being circulated. I did my bit on Facebook by providing the most important bit of information to my friends. It was the only thing they wanted to know in this Tanglish song which they otherwise seemed to understand fully, and that being the meaning of ‘Kolaveri’. Murderous rage. Just found out? It’s also on Wikipedia dost!

As I observed, these were the typical reactions:
1. Sharing the song/video via FB, Twitter, email and G+
2. New recipients loffing it off, but not really knowing why
3. Playing it anyway, recipients mildly headbanging and then grooving to the dappankuthu..liking what they heard, and playing it in loop
4. Feeling an intense need to know the lyrics. And their meaning
5. Refer above paragraph, or something similar, or whatever
6. Sharing it further down the food chain. Feeling bad when their recipients say they’ve already heard it 223 times.
7. Making your own version, like this one

Kolaveri Di has been universally accepted, and no, Javed Akhtar doesn’t always count. Only, how to realize tangible returns from the song needs to be figured, or has it been? Trust politicians to be able to see returns in oddest of situations. Below is a limerick I stumbled upon, on the situation if you know what I mean:

“It’s the time for the odds ‘n queers
As the song of Kolaveri Di one hears
Dhanush, Nevaan and Abhisek
Now, big news they make
From Facebooks, Anna Hazare disappears”

The film ‘3’ (or Moonu in Tamil), which Kolaveri di is a part of, is yet to be released. What is not clear is whether the publicity team even planned for this ‘success’. To quote Livemint, “A fan from Chennai, with the Twitter handle @arundanush, alerted both Dhanush’s sister-in-law Geetanjali Selvaraghavan and the composer of the song, Anirudh, to the fact that the song had been uploaded to YouTube on 31 October. His tweet, which read ‘Kolaveri song from 3 again uploaded in YouTube, pls inform Dhanush’, suggested it was not the first time such a leak had taken place.” But really, does it even matter it could be accidental success? Youtube Gold status, Amitabh’s lou, BBC feature, TIME feature. Jo jeeta wohi sikandar, no? The film may grab extra sets of eyes, and of the Hindi-speaking folk. This Dhanush starrer may also potentially be dubbed into Hindi. Meh.

The after-effects are myriad. Enterprising Chennai police is now using the mania to control road rage via signboards. Have a look. What next? Kolaveri could be part of the English language. It’s in the Urban Dictionary, so why not in the Oxford, I demand! It’s in the daily conversations, if this helps. Overheard a US-visting Tam uncle at an Indian grocery store in Redmond asking a youngster, “Ennappa, Kolaveri kettiya?” (heard Kolaveri?). Seemingly nice ice-breaker than the regular “Microsoft aa?”, after introductions. Also read a random Punjaban tweeting, “You know my husband has arrived home when Kolaveri Di is blasting on the car stereo.” These are just references; it may get to a point where Kolaveri will replace ‘awesome’, or ‘sexy’. Filmfare Editor Jithesh Pillai has already set a precedent with his random tweet, “Kareena is such a kolaveri di I say!!!”

Since it’s all over the place, or so it seems to be, there is potential for offshoot business opportunities and some see it much sooner than the rest. But most marketing junta could be scratching their heads over the level of engagement this song achieved, so broad and so quick. I personally think there are no lessons learnt, except the video is quasi-urban and the song is simple in that the lyrics are understandable. Any which case, it’s a brilliant move by someone at Sony Music India who saw the spark and sold a primarily South Indian song to the North. I can’t fathom a Kolaveri di being made. It transpires.

It doesn’t matter whether you like Kolaveri because you like it or because your friends like it, you know it’s just fun to go pappaa papaa pappaa papaa!

Star Attraction, or Distraction?

 The common Joe may think Gokuldhaam Society in the Hindi TV show Taarak Mehta ka Oolta Chasma somewhat resonates with his own world. *Somewhat*, considering movie stars don’t party with him as often. Oh, well. This is not really about a Utopic Gokuldhaam, is it?  No, it is all about you, the television audience and the money-spinners! Recent history proves a movie’s success (financially, albeit) is significantly dependent on its marketing. Slotted promotional campaigns through cinema sections in news dailies, trailers on television, and hoardings on streets are not enough, given oh-so-many entertainment options today. Add to it, the viewer’s challenge to select from a wide array of films churned. Marketing movies has a two-fold advantage; it garners interest from beyond a loyal fan-base and second, delivers quick returns to the financers during the first week or two, irrespective of quality of the movie. But the question is how to market the medium (a TV serial) that is used to market another (a film). 

You’ve seen the Khans and the Kapoors judge reality show participants on their crooning, swaying, and cooking talents, when not earning prize money on quiz-shows and collectively donating crores of Rupees to charities. The same stars feature on your favorite television serials too. Historically, if Hindi movie stars were malmal their television counterparts have been khaadi; and both find takers. What’s more if both now stood shoulder-to-shoulder, on the same TV platform? Of course, the idea is to keep you thinking about the movie. Movies and their stars do pull mileage here by creating interest, but what is in it for the serials? Aatish Kapadia, Director of the famous Khichdi series agrees episodes featuring film stars tend to have higher viewership, and the practice adds novelty to a show. It sounds counter-intuitive in the same breath. Think about it, Khichdi has been a runaway hit and probably does not necessitate props like music from recent releases, or appearance of stars with roles woven into the script. Same goes for Taarak Mehta, but they continue to *invite* stars.

So, does a TV serial really need to be marketed through props? May be, if it were in nascent stages or if did not have sustainable viewership. So far, series that have seen cameos by big stars are big names themselves. A Sasuraal Genda Phool or a Laagi Tujhse Lagan, both have loyal fan bases. Given film stars’ penchant for attracting eyeballs, viewership may surge to include more than just regulars, potentially engaging a wider audience for few oncoming episodes. However, once the charm of a peripheral like a movie star fades away, onus is on the content of the soap itself. Viewers who relate closely and/or are curious about smallest maneuvers in fictitious characters’ lives, do continue to view the program anyhow.  But viewers outside this bracket easily slide into oblivion.

In conclusion, I fathom that cross-promotional activities help provide positive blips on the graph, but it holds true for any industry that content is king! Jo tikta hai wo bikta hai!