If a picture is worth a thousand words, what does that say about video? “Moving pictures” have always been a powerful way to communicate a brand narrative. In recent years, we’ve seen a shift toward shorter, less produced content thanks to innovations like GoPro and Vine and platforms like Vimeo and YouTube. The more digestible (dare I say snackable?), authentic and entertaining, the more likely people will be to share your video. Today, the effectiveness of a video is measured by the number of people who share it, like it and comment on it.
While most brands are moving in the direction of shorter and less produced, at least one brand is taking on long form. Next month, a full-length documentary called “A Small Section of the World” will open in theaters. It’s directed and produced by Lesley Chilcott who won an Oscar for her work on “An Inconvenient Truth” and tells the story of a remarkable group of female entrepreneurs who produce coffee beans in Costa Rica. The makers of the film are currently showing it at prestigious festivals and they plan to promote it to the Academy with the hope of an Oscar nomination. But, unlike most documentaries, it was financed entirely by a brand: Illy. They buy coffee from this group of women and wanted to help them tell their inspirational story more broadly. While the brand will only appear in the credits and perhaps subtly in the imagery, this move makes me wonder if we’ll see even more “branded documentaries” and whether they will be accepted by film critics.
I’ve been hearing about marketers re-thinking their brands with an editorial point of view. Not that long ago, I read a story (ironically, it was sponsored content) about companies creating “brand newsrooms.” Perhaps branded documentaries are another example of brand communications wrapped in editorial.
Speaking of video, RoseComm yesterday unveiled a short documentary for one of our clients, Lucite International. It tells the story of two designers who won the company’s 2014 JUST IMAGINE Awards for a custom home project they designed in San Diego. We’re really proud of the artistry that went into creating the video.
Do you worry about the impact brand marketers might have on the craft of documentary filmmaking? Or are you just searching desperately for a client with a big enough budget to make one?