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.