So social media is important to industry organisations, as well as individual film marketing?
When it comes to the digital sphere, social media plays a much larger part in any identity. It’s become vitally important. We tend to put together social media packages for all of our clients, in such a way that they can have a dialogue—as opposed to brochures which are a monologue. You send out direct mail; you’re not encouraging any form of conversation. Whereas in this sphere, you are. But be under no misconception; it is like a small plant, if you don’t water it, it will die. So if you’re doing blog posts or you’re sending out tweets, you can’t disappear off on a Greek holiday and leave no one in charge.
You need to work out what you are using [social media] for, strategically. I’ve been talking to a post house that I can’t name; for example, when they have a booking and they lay on staff and all the extra suites then that person cancels, they still—because of all the union-based stuff—have to pay the full rate. I’ve suggested that they set something up to allow them to go on Twitter and have a very quick bid to have the suite for the day. So you can start to share the facilities, or allow your facility to be used by a small independent filmmaker who couldn’t afford to use you in a normal situation.
There are now endless opportunities when it comes to digital marketing; how do you ensure a campaign doesn’t overshadow the brand?
I am the brand steward! [Clients] trust us with their precious jewel, whether it needs to be a small evolution or a complete revolution. And then we give it back to them with a set of guidelines that are not like a straitjacket. We tend to build a flexibility into the discussions; we put down the firm walls and say, ‘There’s the things you asked for. You can do all of these things, but within these confines’.
Why is the right branding and identity so important in this digital age?
I’ll use Molinare and Ascent as examples of two big ones that we’ve done, in the post-production arena. With Ascent, it was more revolution, because Ascent 142 was an entity in itself that was a new idea with a new name. Whereas Molinare was more of an evolution, because we were taking a name that has been out there for 38 years. It had a very good creative reputation, but it wanted to really ramp up the 21st-century aspect: ‘We’re into social media. We’re moving and changing.’ When we created the new Molinare identity, we created probably the most flexible identity than we’ve done for any client. Effectively, it’s constantly moving and changing. So on the front of the building, they have a facia that just plays content through the logo. So the logo is never the same, for one second or one frame to the next.
What comes next for digital and social media?
If I could see that, I would be buying shares right now! As I’m standing here talking to you everything I know about typography will remain the same, everything about copyright and advertising and campaigns will remain the same. But when I get off the phone I’m going to have to run up the street and rugby tackle digital and social media to the ground, and ask them where they are going next!
