I thought I would write a report on my taking part in the Power to the Pixel ‘Adventures in Mobile Distribution’ panel discussion. I was invited as a ‘expert’ independent filmmaker who exports via mobile (obviously Sliced Bread Animation do others too). My understanding of the discussion was that the audience wanted to know how to get their work ‘out -there’ via mobile. Richard Morris from Player X was there along with Andre Burgess from Crucible Media, both well respected people in their field. Upon introducing ourselves, we discussed our various approaches, Richard Morris was first up and his company offer a very commercial exploitation of intellectual property by distributing via the network operators ‘deck’. For well known ‘brand’ branded content this a great way for the content creator to get their content out there and selling. Aardman is one of their clients, with Angry Kid proving to be one of their most successful properties. The limitation with this approach is the creator has little or no control and unless your content has a wide audience, it is unlikely to be found.

Andre is Managing Director of Crucible Media. and has experience in helping content owners and Media companies move into new digital platforms. During my introduction I mentioned the process that got us where we are to date, the minefields we have been through, how its is for an independent filmmaker and what tools there are around to help.

I believe the platform we currently use gives the best flexibility for a creator to test their product, its a direct to market route, its very simple to use and also gives us the maximum revenue share. Plus it can handle all the billing and we are also able to upload our own files and galleries in an instant. With Player X, creators are restricted because they have no control of the position on the portal and the route to end user is managed by them (see below – click to enlarge).

The platform we use is a direct to consumer (audience) route, we can even set the selling price. For example, with Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Glory Days site we have set it a the lowest possible rate (25p) but it can go up to £3.50. Its very much dependant on the objectives of the project but fundamentally its a very quick way to get you content out there giving the full control of the route to market and look at sales progress (see below – click to enlarge).

We then moved over to a Q&A session and the main subject appeared to be the functionality of the app we use, rather than what I hope would be a discussion about the benefits to an independent filmmaker. One question which I think really sums the main point of using the application we use – is how do you get people to know about your content? Which then moved me onto my next point ,where collaboration between brands, your fanbase, online publishers and digital PR agencies is a  must. At Sliced Bread Animation we will be working with all of these in the near future.

The testing aspect is quite key, nobody can give a direct answer as too what exactly works well on mobile. Adult content is fairly obvious and I understand gags/ jokes (like Angry Kid) also sell well too, but if this isn’t your area then you are unlikely to be successful. The platform really gives you a chance to try and reach another side of your audience, test them and see what they think, because its more than likely to be very different from how they view it (or want to view it) normally.

Distributors have tendency to only market ‘big ticket’ content, so smaller bespoke or unknown content seems to go lower down the ‘deck’ to the extent where potentially its never seen. If we take the image above (click to enlarge) then by the filmmaker forging relationships with these key partners, they ultimately  get their work seen. Speaking with Richard at the end of the session he pretty much concurred with me, and I would hope that when one of our properties becomes ‘big’, we will have the opportunity to work together with Player X as a partner.

In conclusion I had hoped that the Power To The Pixel would instigate some discussion into how to get your content ‘out there’ and reaching your audience, not a discussion about platforms, but maybe that’s for another day. I’m going to leave with a very interesting video from TED featuring Seth Godin, talking about how to spread the idea for some further thought.

Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights

Programme, Day 2 23 October 2008
WORKSHOPS & PROJECT FORUM LAUNCH at The Royal Society for Arts

15:00 – 15:50
13. ADVENTURES IN MOBILE DISTRIBUTION

LIZ ROSENTHAL, Director, Power to the Pixel (Session Moderator)

After years of expectation, mobile media is about to boom, bringing personalised on-demand content straight to your hand. A combination of technological breakthrough and new business models are leading to faster and more affordable downloads and a richer variety of made-for-mobile content. The Direct-to-consumer (D2C) content market is beginning to compete with operator portals to deliver better deals for content makers and users. In this session, leading experts in mobile video and film distribution will explain how to use mobile to distribute your projects, discuss if there is the potential for significant revenue streams and explain the best way to reach consumers directly.

RICHARD MORRIS, Director of Video & TV, Player X
JAMIE DENHAM, Managing Director, Sliced Bread Animation
ANDRE BURGESS, Managing Director, Crucible Media

On Thursday I have been invited to take part in a discussion about the ‘adventures in mobile distribution’, after a last minute cancellation. Some may ask why we have been invited as an ‘expert’ in this area where we can’t demonstrate ‘phenomenal’ success. The perspective is that since 2004 we have gone through many routes in order to try and get our mobile content ‘out there’. We have experienced several dead-ends over the years and they have mainly been distributors offering ‘exceptional deals’ (or so they think) with little or no return. For them there is little or no risk. In 2004 we were shown an angle in mobile distribution and was told it was ‘no-brainer’ right across the chain. We were told that revenues would exceed £250,000.00 in the first year, that was base on just one property, we had 2 more planned . . . this was it, rich beyond our wildest dreams! Sadly the reality was far from it, to date from that one product, we have generated £28.00 and not seen a penny of it.

Of the distributors we have meet, none have shown any realisation of the costs that go into production, their line is usually a biased revenue share (in there favour) and exclusive rights. We walked away from a deal with MTV because, despite being offered access to their ‘supposed’ large mobile audience, the numbers just didn’t add up and we would never have ‘broken even’ on the cost of production alone . . . to MTV it was a zero-risk partnership. Any distributor will tell you they need/ want content, only to find that it goes into a large vat of other unmarketed/ unsold work . . . the ultimate question is how will yours reach its ‘real’ audience?

I’m going in to fly the flag for creative ‘content creators’ looking for a fair share of the deal, and to also open up the discussion on other avenues in mobile distribution – do we really need the distributors?

So what do I see as the positive turnaround in this adventure? I’ll blog back after the event and let you know . . .tbc.