Cole Heilborn (00:00):

If you're curious why your content, be it campaigns, brand entertainment or social content aren't working as hard as they could be, it's probably not because of the filmmakers or the videographers that you're working with. It's probably not their fault. It's probably because you've neglected strategy. And in today's podcast episode, I'm going to talk about the difference between a strategist and a filmmaker because there seems to be a lot of confusion about where that line exists. Way back on the podcast in episode 40, Chris Killen and I, he used to work at Bell Helmets. We sat down and the title of the episode was, strategy is King. Now, this was three or four years ago, but I still believe that this episode and that statement is even truer today than it was four years ago. Last week I had a call with a individual at a marketing department, and they were telling me a story about how the founder of the business and their internal videographer went out.

(01:00):

They were trying to produce a video series for the brand. Now, the person in this marketing department saw the first draft and was frankly confused what they were even trying to do, why they were trying to do it. The creative wasn't good. There was no strategy. They were inspired by content that other outdoor brands produce, and they were hoping to go out and produce the same type of thing, but without doing the hard work of strategy, they thought they could just head out into the field with a camera and start rolling and start producing. I don't share this story to rub salt in the wounds for this individual if they're listening, but I share it because I think it's a story that's all too common in the outdoor industry. The outdoor industry is passion led, and that's a great thing. That's why so many of us love to be here is because we love it.

(01:50):

But the problem with passion led is that it often neglects strategy. It often neglects patience, and I think that is often one of the root causes as to why brands don't find success with the content that they're producing. It's because they're not asking hard questions of the content before they produce it, and they're not patient enough because they're too eager to jump to the next shiny thing. Now, I get it. I run this business and I'm in this industry because I'm passionate about it and I love chasing shiny things, but I also know when you have to sit down and wrestle with the hard questions. And so I wanted to produce this episode to give you some insight into what does a strategist do, what sort of questions do they ask, and what sort of foundation do they create for those videographers and filmmakers to then go out and actually produce that work?

(02:48):

To oversimplify the difference between a strategist and a filmmaker, strategists are focused on the why and filmmakers are focused on the how the execution. Chris spoke to this conundrum actually really well. In his episode, he identified and commented on the fact that most creatives these days are being forced to run as a mini creative agency because so many brands today can't articulate success. They don't know what their KPIs are, they don't have an idea of who their audience is. So the burden that has been created is being placed on the shoulders of photographers and filmmakers to try and assemble the pieces back together. And frankly, it's unfair to expect folks in these roles to do this job because historically, it's not their job. If you look at the ad world, the big ad world is filled with strategists and agencies, and only at the very end of the process are filmmakers brought in to actually execute the ideas. I'll give you an example from my world. So right now I'm building out a proposal for a potential client, and as part of this proposal building process, the client had some questions about story. They were wondering, what do I think the story looks like at this point? How do we develop a hook? How do we tie the story back into the business objectives?

(04:20):

How are we going to use inciting action to build tension towards a resolution? This is for a longer documentary type film. So in my proposal and in my conversations with this potential client, I responded and I said, look, these are all great questions, but we don't know yet who our audience is. We don't know what the strategy for this film campaign looks like. We don't know the creative, we don't even know what the story is. So if we don't know our strategy, our audience, or the creative, we can't even begin to speculate what the story structure looks like. Because if we don't know our audience, then there's no way that we can understand the strategy. And if we don't know our audience, then we can't develop the creative. And if we can't develop the creative, then we have no way of knowing what the actual story structure looks like.

(05:18):

And so I communicated this and they were actually very thankful, and they were like, oh, actually, that makes so much sense. I can see you're bringing a much higher level thinking to this project than just going out with a camera and trying to tell a story. It's so easy to look around the outdoor industry and see examples of great content, right? I'm talking about Yeti presents. I'm talking about Patagonia films. I'm talking about Huckberry and their dirt series. But if you actually go back and do your research on those types of content, you'll realize just how much work that goes into the strategy before cameras are even pulled out. I'd encourage you to go back to listen to Kate West's episode where she talks about all the behind the scenes work that went into producing dirt and turning it into the successful show that it is outside of execution, outside of the role that filmmakers hold.

(06:10):

Now, as a filmmaker turned strategists, I understand that a lot of filmmakers kind of fill these roles because they have to. But if you're a brand who is working with a filmmaker or a videographer and you haven't done the strategy work, you are setting your videographer up for failure. So if you're wondering, do I need a strategist or do I need a filmmaker, I'm going to give you some questions that you should ask yourself that will help you determine what role you need as you're developing your next idea. First question, do I have a clear objective? Can I describe how this project connects to my business goals three years down the road? Who is my audience emotionally psychographically, demographically? Do I understand everything I can understand about them? Do I know what sort of media they consume? Do I know what sort of content creators do they follow? Do I know what sort of channels that they're on? Do I know what sort of content they don't like? What does success look like? Can I identify specific KPIs that are more specific than I want to grow sales or I want to drive awareness? How do I intend to distribute this project? And here's a hint, just throwing it up on YouTube is not a distribution strategy. How does the creative speak to my audience, provide value to them while also honoring the channels and accomplishing my business goals?

(07:37):

What emotions do I want my audience to feel after consuming this piece of content? What single message or idea do I want the audience to walk away from this with? What's the call to action? What tone, voice, or themes must be present in order for this to feel on brand? Have you actually researched this idea? Maybe there's other brands that have produced this. What can you learn from them or what do you need to steer clear of because it's already been done? Do you have a creative brief? Do you know what formats and deliverables you need? Do you have a budget? And is your team prepared to champion this once it's actually created? Those are a few questions to help get the ball rolling. Now, that's not an exhaustive list, but if you can answer most of those questions confidently, you're probably in a good spot to start to move forward with a filmmaker.

(08:28):

But if you're uncertain or it's a little cloudy, it's probably worth taking the time to dig into these questions and really clarify them. If you notice at this point, none of the questions that I asked were about execution. They weren't about cameras, they weren't about locations. They weren't even about equipment or gear. And that's because the foundational work that's required for those cameras and all that equipment to actually produce something that's and relevant and drives your business, is built upon the foundational elements of strategy. It's my belief that if you're telling a story, you're producing content that isn't rooted in strategy, you're wasting your time, you're wasting your money, you're wasting your team's time, you're wasting mental energy, and beyond all that, you might actually be doing more harm than good when it comes to your audience. Again, as Marin suggested, there's a cost to doing things poorly, and while it's really hard to measure and see, you might actually be better off not doing the thing than doing it subpar.

(09:33):

So if you're wondering what strategy is, frankly, it's understanding your audience because that's what it all comes back to. Everything that we're talking about here on this podcast is all about understanding your audience and then building from there. And strategy at its root is just trying to understand your audience and then figure out creative ways to communicate and provide value to them. I'm trying to remember what I say in the outro of these podcasts, but it says something to the effect of, remember, the difference between creative work that works and doesn't work is the hard questions that you ask of it. And we've changed the tagline of the outro of the podcast a number of times as the podcast has evolved over the years. But that tagline feels so true and so accurate because it is true. Ask yourself the hard questions. Do the strategy work up front, and then let the creative work follow. Thank you for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, please consider sharing it with a friend or leaving us a review on Apple. And remember, as you're working on that next piece of creative, the difference between creative that works and doesn't work often comes down to the hard questions that you ask while you're shaping it.

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