Why Brands Shouldn’t Forget the “Marketing” in “Content Marketing”

True story from my experience at the intersection of Hollywood Storytelling and Brand Marketing.

“Are all of the billboards that he’ll see on the drive from his home to the office part of the media and marketing plan?”

“Yes. He’ll see all of our new shows promoted on every billboard on his drive.”

“Perfect.”

Yes, that’s a real conversation that took place every year when new television shows were premiering. The point of the story isn’t that we bought outdoor billboard ads just for the president of the network to see (though it did help make him happy), but that as producers of content that we also had to market the content.

So, in a world where Content Marketing is Going Hollywood, Brand storytelling is less of a trend and more of a necessity as consumers demand more entertainment and authenticity, and Brands are the new Creators, why do brands spend so much money producing premium content, but allocate little to no paid media and marketing budget behind it?

It doesn’t matter how big of brand you are or how big your following is, if you’re producing and distributing premium story-driven content (webisodes, documentaries, films, etc) you need to market it with a solid paid media, marketing, and PR plan if you want it to ultimately win the hearts, minds, and wallets of next generation consumers across all types of platforms.

Often producers, studios, and distributors, spend more on the marketing budget than the overall production budget of a TV show or film. Brands aren’t any different.

Here’s my golden rule: whatever you’re production budget is, take 50% of that and that should be your marketing budget. So, if the brand film costs 100k to produce, you should have 50k on top of that to market it through paid media, social media, PR, experiential events, etc.

In a world where we’re all media companies and all part of Generation C, where were all consuming, curating, and creating content everyday, the “build it and they will come” point of view doesn’t apply.