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FOLLOWING THE CAUCUS (@ Their Social Media Panel)
by Scott Carrey
At the Beverly Hills Hotel, famously portrayed on the cover of the Beach Boy's Hotel California, a gathering of top creative talent had their eyes opened wide, as assembled panelists shared success models for this digital distribution age.
The Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors (www.caucus.org), a well established alliance of industry content creators, have for many years been meeting regularly to discuss positioning of issues that effect entertainment industry creatives;
but times are evolving and the playing field once mapped and navigated by many of the Caucus' members is morphing at light speed into new forms of media & technology. To keep up with the "@joneses" education is key to reinventing one's self and
staying viable, thus the latest Panel put together as part of their regular networking and ongoing education series dealt with the topic of Social Media as it affects a Content Creator's ability to "Engage new audiences to grow their show, their business,
and their brand."
The panel was comprised of 5 uniquely talented and qualified individuals, each representing a perspective around the Social Networking arena. Lori Dicker, SVP of Digital Media Innovation at Moxie/Zenith Media, spoke to Strategy, striving
"the importance of tapping into the power of influencers like mommy-bloggers and allowing the time for content to infiltrate the community and build a ground swell that leads to passionate fans."
Curt Marvis, President of Digital Media at Lionsgate represented the Studio's position on the importance of using engaged audiences to drive business decisions. He shared how their Facebook page for Dirty Dancing, even though the movie
was out in 1987, has amassed 9.5 million fans while just a year ago they were at only a mere million. "When a property has that kind of following, it's imperative to look at leveraging the core audience and offer them ancillary content," stated Marvis.
While Sallie Olmstead, EVP of Convergence for entertainment PR Firm, Rogers and Cowan reflected on the changing roles of marketing artists and creative content saying "yes our roles have changed, but it has become easier to find your
audience" and reminding us that "it's not so much about the plumbing or the how to, but the story you build around your show."
David Lunar, EVP of Interactive & Consumer Products at Fremantle Media, touched upon how they engage audiences around these stories with their properties, such as American Idol and Family Feud. David raised the important question,
"What are you doing in synchronous viewing? – TV, Apps, & Devices." Lunar enlightened the group with the statistic that "the Family Feud Facebook Game is more successful financially then the television property itself, but we use it to extend the
brand and allow for us to market the show to the fan community," such as when they were bringing in new host Steve Harvey and ran promos during the 30 second load time for the game, resulting in a 40% increase in viewership by the time the
Harvey hosted show aired.
Rounding out the 5 member panel was Doug Schwartz, Producer/Writer of the feature film, "Soul Surfer," a film based on the real life story of Bethany Hamilton, the surfer girl whose arm had been bitten off by a shark and yet she still competes
and inspires people around the world. Schwartz told how he, as the retired creator/producer of Baywatch, had been recruited by Hamilton, to do her story and how this film owes its creation and financial success to the power of Social Media.
"This film developed as a result of the immense following Bethany already had and we cast Carrie Underwood as the faith based counselor because of her existing social fan base. At first, I thought this would be a small faith based film, but Bethany
had so many fans and as she started posting on Facebook and Twitter about the movie being filmed and her survival in Hollywood, her fandom grew even larger." Sony's (the studio backing this project), confidence grew as they saw that it was
attracting not only the Christian market, but young girls all over the world. Soon the budget went from $500,000 to $15 million as a result of what Schwartz referred to as "market build." This incredible word of mouth grew so strong, that as a result,
Disney did a preemptive bid for world distribution at the Cannes Film Festival. "None of this would have happened if not for the social networking that Bethany did," Schwartz concluded.
The panel was moderated by Sharon Waxman, founder of the online publication thewrap.com, who helped elicit the responses of the assembled experts, as they collectively brought to light the huge impact Social Media has made on the
Entertainment Industry.
Most people agree that word of mouth or 1-to-1 networking is one of the most powerful means of marketing. Today Social Media facilitates this person to person communication role by what Waxman refers to as "reaching 1-to-1, as
well as 1-to-Many at the same time." Though to be successful, Sallie Olmstead made clear, "You can't just spam. Messages have to be real, personal and have energy." This is what Lori Dicker referred to as "Authenticity" going on to say,
"Fans will see right through your content if it's staged, your best approach is get it (content) in to your audience's hands and listen to the reaction, respond genuinely and watch it swell"
Don't worry if someone says something negative because as Sallie Olmstead pointed out, "Often the community will counter balance the fray or trolls" as she calls them, "so it’s best to not get defensive or fight back." Sharon Waxman added
what might just wrap up the essence of Social Media, stating "Often people who make negative comments just want to be recognized."
So it seems the over riding theme of the Caucus Panel is that we are in an age where audiences expect to be heard and they have the tools to engage in our content whether we listen or not. However, the properties that are successful do listen,
learn, and respond. Things all content creators might wish to follow.
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