Tue 10 Mar 2009
Your brand, the movie.
Posted by Lisa Hickey under branding
photo credit: purpleslog
Think, for a moment, about how a movie works. There’s a concept, something you can sum up in an elevator speech. There’s a story line. Characters, with personalities. There’s dialogue and conversations. Then there’s some random imagery, there’s the look and feel of the movie. Production values. And oh, yes, you know that sequence that doesn’t say much, but is just a random little video sequence set to music? There’s that too.
Now think about a brand, and how it communicates in social media. There’s the concept behind the brand, something that you can sum up in an elevator speech. There’s a story line – a history of the company and what it’s doing. There are characters: the CEO and all the little supporting roles. There are conversations and dialogue. Then there’s some random imagery, and there’s the look and feel of the brand. There are production values. And oh, yes, you know that sequence that doesn’t say much, but is just a random little video sequence set to music? It’s on YouTube. There’s that too.
What if we thought bigger picture about how a brand functions in Social Media. What if we really truly thought of it like a movie for the brand? A story line that gets told through words and images and a level of engagement so great you get lost for a period of time.
And yes, I know, I know. The conversations in social media take place in real time, and have to be authentic, and can’t be acted or scripted.
But that just makes the idea even cooler.
Just thinkin’ 
This is exactly the kind of thinking that helps people grasp the gestalt of marketing. The proviso that “it” can’t be acted or scripted tips this over into a Taoist philosophical conundrum of the highest order. Or, in a more western context, “Teach us to care and not to care. Teach us to sit still” — T.S.Eliot.
I think you’re headed in the right direction - but a movie is not social media, and until someone makes that great facebook/twitter/linkedin/myspace/plaxo/etc movie (it’ll happen) all we can really do is clever product placement, in either medium.
Zeitguy, I love gestalt! And the idea of a “story unfolding as it will”, that’s what I find fascinating.
directorguy, you are quite right that a “movie is not social media”, and perhaps the construct does not work because of that. However, I still think a brand can do SO much more than “clever product placement.” All brands have a story to tell, be it a story of a great product or community activism or strong values. How that story unfolds in a cohesive, engaging way across fragmented media — ahh! Done well, done conceptually and thoughtfully — it will be amazing.
This metaphor really resonates with me. Branding is now more than ever a living process - a story that while it has a message, can unfold in so many ways. The really cool thing is that our interaction can shape the story - not in a reality TV kind of way, but rather in a rich and meaningful way, a kind of co-collaboration.