HARNESSING THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR COMMERCIAL AND DOCUMENTARY PROMOTION

In today's digital landscape, social media is an indispensable tool for businesses and filmmakers to promote their commercial and documentary projects, extend their reach, and engage with audiences around the world. By harnessing the power of social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and even Facebook, brands can create buzz around their content, showcase their creativity, and foster a sense of community around their message. 

Having shot most our campaigns for social media usage (often times within the dreaded 9x16 ratio…), we understand the importance of strategic social media marketing and its potential to elevate the impact of your production. In this article, we will delve into the vital role of social media in promoting commercial and documentary projects, sharing insights and best practices to maximise audience engagement and drive your content's visibility and success.

Creating a robust social media presence for your commercial and documentary projects involves a combination of compelling content, targeted marketing strategies, and consistent brand messaging and aesthetics. By tailoring your social media campaigns to suit the specific platforms and demographics, you can foster deeper connections with your audience, ignite conversations around your content, and pave the way for long-term success in the competitive world of commercial and documentary production.

Content Creation and Curation: Showcasing Your Project's Highlights

Creating captivating content is essential for capturing the attention of your audience on social media (there are rumours our attention span is worse than a goldfishes now…?). You may hear the client request the first few seconds of the film to introduce some branding, and show certain highlights within a fast paced edit to really grab peoples attention. This is usually the most common request. However, building around the hero film is also extremely important. The key is to develop a mix of content types, including behind-the-scenes footage, teaser trailers, interviews with key cast and crew members, and thought-provoking articles that delve into the themes of your commercial or documentary project. High-quality visuals, such as striking stills, posters, and interactive experiences, can also help your content stand out in an often overcrowded social media landscape

Tip: Showcase your project's unique selling points and maintain a consistent brand aesthetic across all social media channels to establish a cohesive image and foster a sense of familiarity among your audience.

Tip: Use a mixture of fast and slow editing techniques to keep viewers engaged. Too many fast paced sections may cause headaches, and too many slow paced sections may provoke a few yawns.

Platform-Specific Strategies: Leveraging Unique Features

Each social media platform offers distinct features and serves specific demographics, making it essential to tailor your promotional strategy according to the strengths and characteristics of each platform. For instance, Instagram and Tiktok are visually oriented platforms that are ideal for sharing arresting imagery and bite-sized clips, whereas YouTube and Vimeo can host longer-form content such as trailers or full-length documentaries. A good example is our Gymshark documentary, ‘Against the Loch’, was premiered on Youtube, showcasing a near 40 minute documentary. Our shorter cutdowns, ranging from 15s to 60s, were used across instagram as paid ads, stories etc. This maximised audience engagement, and our doc is now one of the most viewed videos on their channel.

TikTok. Now if we’re rating social media applications across ‘the good, the bad, the ugly’, this app would most comfortably sit in the ugly. However, engagement is extremely high, and brands have excelled among Tiktok’s conception. Throughout the last few years, we’ve noticed the videos that have outperformed on this platform are unpolished and not cinematic at all (basically phone videos, anything that looks the opposite from a commercial). Therefore, during some of our shoots, we try and make time to get out our phones to film BTS, or a quirky match cut etc.

Tip: Analyse your target audience and their preferred social media platforms, devising your marketing strategy based on the unique strengths of each channel while considering the demographics they serve.

Community Building and Engagement: Harnessing Social Media's Interactivity

Social media is highly interactive by nature, allowing brands to actively engage with their audience and create a sense of community around their commercial or documentary projects. Respond to comments, ask questions, and encourage users to share their thoughts and impressions of your content. You can also use social media to collaborate with other creators, leveraging influencer partnerships to expose new audiences to your project.

By fostering dialogue and connections on social media, you can cement your brand as a relatable and approachable entity, generating buzz and excitement around your project in the process.

Tip: Organise social media events, such as Q&A sessions, live-streamed premieres, or exclusive interviews, to drive audience interaction and provide a unique experience for your followers.

Data-Driven Decision Making: Monitoring Performance and Adapting Strategies

No social media marketing strategy is complete without ongoing performance monitoring and adapting your approach based on the insights derived from data analytics. Regularly assess the performance of your promotional campaigns by analysing metrics, such as impressions, engagement rates, and sentiment analysis. Use these insights to identify which types of content resonate most with your audience, refining your promotional strategy as needed.

Additionally, consider testing targeted advertisements to reach relevant audiences based on their demographics, interests, and online behaviour.

Tip: Employ social media management tools and built-in analytics features to streamline your data gathering and analysis processes and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your promotional campaigns.

By implementing these strategies, your brand can harness the power of social media to promote your commercial or documentary project effectively, fostering unique audience connections, and extending the reach and impact of your content. With the proper content creation, platform-specific strategies, community building, and data-driven decision-making, social media can serve as an invaluable tool in the competitive landscape of commercial and documentary production.

Conclusion

Having been around the block a few times, we understand the value of a strategic social media presence and its potential to elevate the impact of your commercial or documentary project. As a London-based production company, we collaborate with our clients to maximise the reach and success of their productions through effective editing as well as supplying our clients with a bank of assets to support the hero film in it’s launch, ranging from BTS, cutdowns, and even gifs (of course this all comes at an extra expense).