EMOTIONS - THE RECIPE FOR A COMMUNITY

I’ve received a couple questions about what experience and emotional connection is about. Some of you are also wondering why it’s so fundamental to the Entertainment Content Sales Funnel. Why exactly, you ask, is it such a big deal? What really is it anyway?

First of all, let’s not get mixed up between creating an emotional connection and creating and sustaining it. It is possible to create an emotion with bright, backlit surroundings, happy colors, happy people, happy places and a close-up shot of your subject doing something that is meant to leave the viewer feeling similarly, or at least hoping to feel the same as the model. It is possible to create an emotion with the right typography, like this font and font arrangements makes me feel hipster, cool, streetwise, childlike or babyish. There is a connection, true, at that very moment, but what you want is for your content- whether it be words or visuals- to evoke sufficient emotion where those very emotions become internalized by the viewer.  

 

That’s one of the basic blocks when you’re building a Community.

Without the emotional connection- the part that connects and lingers in your audience, you don’t get a Community. It’s just that. You probably know why the Community is so important. If you don’t, ask the gamers. Or the comic book fans. Or the fan clubs of pop singers. Or the cosplayers.

 

You may think that it’s only for the big guys, you know, people with lots and lots of content and announcements and stuff happening and characters taking place and the singer’s new single release and so on. But everything starts somewhere.

All healthy communities have a story. What distinguishes one from the other is the fact that they have a history of experiences together and the belief that there will be more experiences in the future.

 

 

I’ve used examples from the Entertainment industry, but it’s definitely there in real life too. In racial culture, in cross-racial culture, in lifestyle choices, in geopolitical culture… it’s the sense of belonging, it’s the sense of having being there when those experiences happened, and it’s the knowledge that you’ll be there when new stuff takes place. It’s a familial sort of feeling, an excitement shared, a sense of “we”.

RIO Carnival

 

In Entertainment Content, the Community is what drives your content which in turn drives your product or service. Right there at the bottom of the funnel is the Evangelist and the Evangelist(s) are what form the Community. It is a result and an extremely powerful extension of our funnel. With the right members who are Evangelists making up your Community, the digital marketing and social media campaigns are “literally” running solo. How? Through user-generated content. Through questions and discussions and debates that builds a strong emotional bond between the members. Whether they be on this ‘team’ or that ‘team’, whether they agree or agree to disagree, they form the definitive element for true community. To build a community is not a walk in the park but it’s worth the effort, it’s worth the time.  

Beginning one doesn’t start at the bottom of the funnel. You don’t wait till you have one evangelist before you think, oh, okay, now’s the time to start one, because you’ll never get one that way. It starts from your content strategy itself. Think about it. If no one’s gonna be interested in whatever you put up there, if you don’t have an audience at all, how are you going to find a lead to become a customer to become an evangelist?

Here’re some questions to guide you along.

1. Boundaries- Who are your right members? How do these people become members? What is the criteria to adhere to? How do you keep others out?

2. Emotional Safety- How do you create a sense of trust amongst members? How do you prevent members from trolling other members? How do you create the sense of safety within the group?

3. Belonging- How do you make members feel like they fit in and that this is theirs?

4. Contribution- What are the avenues where members can contribute to the community?

A point to note, though, it’s wise not to invite just about anyone and everyone to your community. Each evangelist is an asset. Think about what you want your community to be about, who you want to be your evangelist and who would be able to make your community better.  

Because it is all about the experience that you manufacture for your community. Whether it be a debate where they can throw out their gauntlets and get all fired up and passionate (but become more united afterward), whether it be an event they can physically gather at- think the burgeoning year-on-year Comic Con San Diego or video game launches by Sony Playstation, it’s all about the shared experiences, the shared emotional connection that lingers in them, that identifies with them, that they can claim for themselves.

That’s the kind of content we’re talking about. That’s the kind of experience we need to create. It’s pure Entertainment Content, and it can be done for your product or your service. If you’re finding that your current content isn’t strong enough to be internalized by your audience, you need to go beyond it, and you can do it. Help is just around the corner   

 

ITS ALL ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE

Now that you know how an entertainment content sales funnel looks like, let’s delve a little deeper. Into the Why. What is the difference between one sales funnel and the other? Why is this sales funnel gaining traction amongst start-ups and renowned manufacturers? Why is this sales funnel getting marketing departments interested?


Jessica Jung in short film by JW Marriott

The past couple of years have seen a gamut of short films released by many major brands. The spectrum of product offerings is wide. From insurance companies to skincare products to hotel booking websites to anti-smoking campaigns to anti-litter campaigns to luxury fashion, all of them have released short films ranging from 15 seconds to 15 minutes, utilizing either the latest film technology or a star-studded cast, or both. Whilst it has been disruptive to film production as a whole, however, what’s more interesting to note is that this gorgeously-produced short film does little else than to keep it swimming on the upper part of the funnel.

Which means that you’ve got Awareness and Interest but your audience remains there- in the upper half. And small content marketers, truthfully, are realizing that it’s really, really hard to move it down to the lower half where there’s Decision and Action.

It’s not just the small content marketers. The major brands are too starting to find out that changes to social media algorithms are making that ‘engaging’, ‘comedic’, ‘artistic’ short film way costlier for it to go viral.

How then, does one reach the lower half of the funnel? How do we get the audience to get down to the evangelist stage? How do we turn the audience into a prospect? How do we generate leads from the audience? How will the customer become an evangelist?

Through experience. And through emotional connection.

That’s what it is. You build a universe where there is mundanity and there is thrill. You build a universe where your characters are involved in solving problems, demonstrating what your product or service is about through what they do. You let your audience become involved in the problems themselves and make them want to be that very character who is solving that one particular problem. You make them feel for the character. You make them vested in the lives of these characters. You build emotions. Whatever it is your audience feels, your character awakens an emotion and evokes a reaction. Add the algorithms possible through social media and you have an engagement with your audience which starts from the upper funnel towards customer and beyond.

The following 6 questions are great starting points to create the ultimate customer experience utilizing the Entertainment Content Sales Funnel.

Qn1:   How do you create the ultimate customer experience where price becomes secondary?

Qn 2: How can you make it special, personal, interactive and fun for your prospects and customers?

Qn 3: Do you have something to offer in your business that captures their undivided attention when customers enter your universe?

Qn 4: Do you provide your customers and prospects sufficient opportunities to spend? See if you can create new opportunities with the products and services you currently offer.

Qn 5: Do you offer an upsell in a balanced way that complements your existing product and services?

Qn 6: How can you create an upscale version or higher-end offer with your product or service?  Can you bundle in more offerings to justify a higher-value proposition?

Once you’ve got a road map down, it’s time to look at the gist of all your answers itself. The Story, the Content and the way to go about it.

At Lauric, we’re vendor neutral. There are consultants who are vendor evangelists themselves and they get insistent on utilizing this one particular tool only, that everything else is faulty and unsuitable and will not achieve your goals and your film or product will not impress, or something. Or they might say that to create this content you have to only use this one and only software- never mind your budget, never mind the actual reach it can attain, never mind that you’re gonna blow your marketing budget out of proportion for the sake of production itself. That’s not something we do. In fact, we seldom talk about specific tools because we are Entertainment Content Strategists and we place total emphasis on implementing solutions that work. After all we don’t want you to have a result that is at best 8-12 percent increase in brand awareness and purchase intent. We think you deserve more.

Meanwhile, The Two Bellmen Three will be shot at Seoul, South Korea, and the JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square.

That just reminded the author of the time that he was at Olivo while at JW Marriot Seoul and wondered what would he do or say to Jessica if he had met her there that night.

Entertainment Content Driven Sales Funnel

You know this really colorful funnel above like the back of your hand. It’s right there, ingrained in your head every time you do up a business plan or work out a marketing strategy. It’s the core of every sales pitch, every marketing collateral, every advertisement, every public relations plan, and there’s just one focus- to drive your customers to the Action stage.

We do apply the same funnel at Lauric, except we make it more relevant to what we do.

And if you’re thinking, “What? Why are you messing it up? This WORKS! This friggin’ WORKS! What the shit are you guys doing?! Why do you even bother?!”

That’s because what we do is Entertainment Content and in Entertainment Content, we’re dealing with more than a product or a singular product line. We’re dealing with Stories. All kinds of stories.

 

We’re dealing with Characters. Characters that are timeless. Characters that speak to us and convey their message to us. Characters with names that are synonymous with what they do *think James Bond* *think Superman* *think Iron Man*. Characters whom we admire and wish we could emulate. Characters that evoke our emotions, characters with whom we want involved in our own lives, whom we want to see every day, whom we can share with our friends and forge new friendships with.

Bless social media. With it, we get to tell our story in a way like no other. We can write an article about it. We can shorten it to a couple of paragraphs. We can include a video with all those words. We can load a graphic on its own or with a video or everything together. We can toss in a simple game. We can pop in one of those fun tests that everyone loves to play. We can go long text or shorten everything we want to say in 160 characters and a compelling picture. But what matters most is a good story, and inside a good story, captivating characters that do stuff, eat stuff, wear stuff, use stuff. Time and time again in these stories, they produce solutions to resolve problems and halt world crises- with… stuff.

Which is why our sales funnel starts with the Audience stage, followed by Lead, then Prospect follow by the Customer stage and finally, the Evangelist stage.

At the Audience stage, we decide on the right audience- and we drop them a teaser- with the right distribution. In Entertainment, we release the first trailer. In Entertainment Content, we make a headline. We make a poster. We release a graphic still. We drop hints. We use our channels- traditional and digital- to distribute seemingly varied messages with a consistent theme that triggers feelings and emotions and we nudge that theme out just that little bit more every time. 

Then we’re at the Lead stage. In Entertainment, we drop Trailer #2. In Entertainment Content, we engage the audience. We reveal more messages. We release more hints. Still the same consistent theme, but now we sink the line. With questions, with what-ifs, with new stills, with more hints about the characters revealed in the Audience stage. We reveal parts of the puzzle. We provide answers if only to raise more questions. We hint on the stuff they use. Characters share with the audience more bits of what they do- the thrilling parts- just so to let them wonder what that was all about and how the Characters got there.

Until the Prospect stage where we reach the junction that product and the audience’s need meet. Entertainment calls it “Out In Theaters” or “See It in 3D”. This is the stage in Entertainment Content where we convert the audience into a prospect. By presenting them with the opportunity to buy. By having the Characters (and ourselves) to speak to you. This is the space to be personal. This is the stage where they (the characters) tell you what it is they use and why they use it and why it’s so good. When the audience already has the emotional connection with the characters as well as the products they represent, and right now, when the opportunity to purchase presents itself, they progress to become Customers. Entertainment Content can call it sales. Or upsell. Or product distribution. Or simply, a store that offers a range of products to complement the experience. So that the emotional connection with the Character can be completed.  

Then we’re at the Customer stage. The stage where the audience-turned-prospect is now converted into a customer. The stage where the customer joins our Characters into their universe. The stage where the product in their hands fulfills the questions they’ve previously asked and includes them in the roles that the Characters play and which has them entering the…

Evangelist stage. Some call it the Loyalist stage where the Customer transforms their status from User to Advocate, sharing, commenting, discussing, opinionating about the product and service.

At every stage, our Characters don’t stop the communication. They have lives, right, and the more intriguing their lives are, the more predicaments they get involved in, the more the audience is enraptured and the more they want to know how else such techniques and tools *your products or services* can be the/their solution.  

And what we’re saying- from Audience to Evangelist- is just a brief overview of how the funnel would looks like. But if there’s US$500 billion going through this funnel every year, for sure it works.

You just have to find out how.
If you find it doesn't make any sense, since content is mainly to drive awareness at the top of the funnel, we are glad you ask, as we will be explaining that next.

And yes, we do work with both internal and external Digital Marketing team, PR team and Media team to provide a comprehensive solution for clients and also recognizes their importance in realizing the value of Entertainment Content, especially in global deployment.  In this environment, Lauric does not merely utilize small content, but continually strives to plan, create and control high value content.  

 

Go Beyond Small Content Marketing

If you’re reading this, it means that somewhere along the way in your resource reading, something got you hooked. It could have been the visuals- that gloom-and-doom cover picture of dead leaves on our Facebook page or the drawing of the bird that forms part of our story-telling logo. It could have been the words ‘branding’, ‘marketing’, ‘strategy’, licensing’ or ‘content’ that drew your attention.

If you’re a content marketer reading this right now, you know what your eyeball means to our article- and to our page. And it looks like we are doing what’s termed as ‘Small Content Marketing’, you know, the whole gamut of tools that mark the trade- webpages, infographics, videos, blogs, pictures and so on, which, yes, we do, but small content marketing forms a *small* part of what we actually do.

What we do is, in fact, Entertainment Content.

Entertainment Content is really the business- the quantifiable value- the dollars and cents- of the world of Content itself. Entertainment Content is, basically, creating content that offers High Value.

A video creates very little value if the video garners no interest, no emotional resonance and no course of action- even if you’ve used the latest film technology or the most good-looking cast.

A blog article can spark off interest, but better the value if the article can make your reader ponder and reflect on what they’re doing or living right, or wrong and drive them to initiate change.

A web page is an excellent platform for information and to establish contact, but what brings in more value is if the page can keep the user coming back again and again and again for your product or service or, for some users, without even knowing precisely why.

We could give you five tips to better the tools of your trade. But there are already too many tips swimming around in the wide, wide ocean, so instead we’ll provide you five questions instead.  

1. Can your Youtube video, website, blog, pictures be    licensed? [Yes / No]  

2. Will anyone acquire your blog, video, song etc? [Yes / No]

3. Do you have distributors who will distribute your content [Yes / No]

4. Are your content assets and properly managed? [Yes/No]

5. Does your content requires legal and business support? [Yes / No] 

If you have answered mostly no to the questions above, you need to go beyond small content marketing and make the leap right into Entertainment Content. Why? Because the only benchmark in all of content creation is when people are willing to spend good money to consume it.

If they’re not, I tell companies to whom I speak with about content marketing, it means they still need to strive to this benchmark. All customized solutions at Lauric must meet this benchmarked too, before they are proposed to clients. 

Lauric Customized Solution

A fine example of Entertainment Content is The LEGO Movie. If you watched it in the theater or on Blu-Ray, you just paid money to watch a 100minute LEGO commercial.

Entertainment Content is no straightforward business. There’s stuff like licensing, acquisition, strategy, distribution, development, asset management and legal support to look at. But for starters, before you touch on all that, the first plunge to take is into the heart of it, and that’s Anthropomorphic Branding.

Come Dance With Diana

You can read more about it here, but in short, Anthropomorphic Branding goes beyond proposing the utilization of content simply for product tie-ups or associations. Instead, it involves morphing your product or service into a character that has hopes, dreams, struggles, emotions and purpose- all of which embody your product and what it does in resolving customers’ issues.  

And though you may not have the budget to make a feature film like LEGO did to promote your company, you can still utilize Anthropomorphic Branding to create high valuable content that resonates directly to your customers.

Next up, we will take you through an Entertainment Content driven sales funnel. Subscribe below and check back for more updates.