Show and tell
Last night I popped along to a little event organised by Show and Tell films. They run events for the TV and film industry and yesterday evening’s do was a panel discussion about content, lovingly called, ‘Contentment‘.
On the panel was Matt Smith, MD of the Viral Factory, Ben Freeman, Senior Drama Editor for ITV.com, Michael Gubbins, Music Week’s Director of Content and finally Nik Howell, legendary music and film producer and entrepreneur who co-founded Virgin Records with Richard Branson in the 1960s. Justin Pearse, NMA editor moderated.
Each speaker was given five minutes to argue, what makes great ‘content’ (this is my interpretation of what they were asked to do anyhow… not everyone stuck to the brief). Matt Smith kicked off with this charming video…
He argued it worked (it has over 7 million views) because it was short, it tapped into a universal human truth – so it was recognisable the world over, it had the repeat factor – it gets better the more times you watch it, and it was executed with aplomb. But his over-riding point for anyone looking to create content that could potentially spread online was that this is what you are up against – random stuff with no baggage- no film to peddle, no toothbrush to sell, no agenda to push. So, think about how you handle your agenda.
Next up was Ben Freeman from ITV. He discussed how ITV had been experimenting by extending narratives of ITV shows into new places, Coro Facebook games, Twitter characters, online exclusive episodes, fake news- flashes. It was interesting to note, what his team are doing is really nothing revolutionary – extending stories into new spaces to ultimately drive enjoyment of the whole show.
Michael Gubbins next up. His emphasis was that we are in the foothills of a digital revolution but there is massive opportunities for the TV and film business because we’re living in an increasingly visual world. He also suggested that right now, it’s actually not a bad time to be big and be a gatekeeper. Because gatekeepers are the guardians of authenticity – in an age where we have limitless choice, being authentic and providing authentic experiences will be increasingly sought. For example, we can watch films online but the authentic experience is to go to the cinema, sit in an uncomfortable chair, get disturbed by the person next to chomping on pop-corn and watch the film on a big screen. Similarly with music, we can listen on Spotify, but what people increasingly seek is the live performance.
Paul Banham then talked us through a recently launched campaign for Sunsilk called Z to A. Based on Facebook, JWT have developed a campaign which is content dressed as a game, a show, a reward programme, a viral etc and with the potential to monetise itself by charging for ads within the app.
Last up was Nik Powell. Nik was great. He used the first three minutes of his five minute slot to show a video plugging the National Film and Television School (of which, he is a director) and then the next two minutes to regale anecdotes from back in the day and offend Michael Gubbins with height double entendres (I hope they’re mates really). He had the air of an old sage, sitting back having been there, done it and confused what all the fuss was about. There was a definite tension amongst the panel as Nik contested or belittled some of the points raised by the previous speakers – as if the formula for making cracking content was straight forward or that the others were teaching the room how to suck eggs. After all, ”human beings simply want to see human emotion” he contended.
I was perhaps hoping for a little bit more discussion but for last night anyway, the secret to creating great content? Just add Nik Powell.
