3 Industry Trends I Learned from Being a Brand Film Festival Juror
Earlier this year, I was invited to be on the jury for the 4th annual Brand Film Festival. It involved watching and ranking branded content work that ranged from short to long form, scripted to documentary and hilarious to heartfelt. Yesterday the winners were announced and included excellent videos from Cadillac, Tim Hortons and the Ad Council:
Cadillac - Now That’s a Cardiac
John Mulaney and Nick Kroll, reprising their characters from the comedy act and Broadway show, Oh, Hello, are longtime New York City residents who know the “real" New York. Watch what happens when the duo takes Awkwafina on a hilarious and misguided tour of the city in the first-ever Cadillac XT4.
Tim Hortons - The Away Game
There's only one hockey team in Kenya. They have nobody to play. Tim Hortons brought them to Canada for a game. Experience the full story behind the Ice Lions and their unforgettable away game.
Ad Council - The Honest Yearbook
This bullying prevention campaign asks, what would someone write about you in your yearbook? The way you treat somebody can have a big impact on their day, year, even their life. Whether it's standing up for someone when no one else will or just saying hi when they're having a bad day, your actions can leave a lasting mark for better or for worse.
LESSONS LEARNED
The experience of watching 8 hours of submissions - representing the best work in the field - provided me with an opportunity to shift my attention from the work being produced by Viacom Velocity to other creators across media, advertising and PR. The general level of work was high. Excellent creative talent is clearly pouring into branded content and the effect is raising the bar for the quality of storytelling and craftsmanship. More advertisers seem to trust the audience’s ability to make a positive associations between their brand and the content they are producing without relying on heavy-handed product integrations and forced brand messaging. However, there are also areas where we, as an industry, can continue growing. I give the Brand Film Festival organizers a lot of credit for addressing these issues head-on in workshops and panels throughout the day. Here are 3 that resonated most strongly with me:
More diversity - The demographic makeup of the United States is changing. Media, entertainment and marketing need to catch up. An effective way to do this is to prioritize multicultural and gender representation on both sides of the camera. That was evident in many of the festival’s award-winning videos. Hopefully the positive feedback and praise these projects are receiving will motivate more people from across the industry to follow their lead.
More data, more mysteries - Great creative deserves to find receptive audiences and deliver value for the brands that make it possible. There’s an abundance of targeting and tracking data as well as performance analytic tools with which to measure it all, but a consequence of this is adding noise where a clear signal is needed. It’s important that clients and content creators don’t get too lost by analyzing a sea of data and distracted by vanity metrics without first defining the one metric that matters (OMTM) to drive value for the campaign and stay focused on it.
More innovation - We are getting closer to blowing up the digital divide. Emerging technology allows brands and marketers to extend the ways they reach audiences past narrative screens which tell stories, into new mediums such as AI, AR, VR and voice activated, which offer novel and fully immersive experiences that are richer than what can be delivered on a screen and that don’t exist IRL.
In conclusion, I once heard Viacom’s Head of Ad Solutions, Sean Moran, compare conferences, panels and workshops to being like a motivational pep talk. Once they’re finished, it’s time for the attendees to hit the gym, or the field, and do the hard work of building and practicing the skills that were discussed. Being involved with the Brand Film Festival was definitely inspiring. Now it’s time for me to start doing the heavy lifting of putting those learnings into practice. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences along the way!
