Trend prediction is an area of business that many companies invest millions of dollars into annually. It is an industry that can have an unparalleled impact on the effectiveness of your marketing activities, but as a young business, this can feel particularly daunting.
Without analysts crunching numbers behind the scenes, or a superhuman ability to stay in touch, it can feel impossible to predict the trends rolling through social media every day. Brands catching trends early with creative concepts, or better yet – creating trends themselves – are admired and flourishing. Brands copying trends, posting a day too late, or simply missing the mark are often viewed as embarrassing social pariahs.
FILM AND TRENDS
Film and TV is a multi-billion-dollar industry, with marketing and social hype being the key currency of its success. The marketing activities of large studios have a huge influence on trends, with production companies spending millions of dollars manufacturing micro and macro trends to ready the public to engage with their multi-million-dollar product. As a small business it’s impossible to leverage the sheer capital these productions have access to, but with a little bit of research and creativity, you can capitalise off their success.
LEVERAGING THE FILM INDUSTRY
As a small business it’s important to take every advantage, here’s how to leverage the work other people are doing:
1. NOTE UPCOMING FILMS
Website like IMDB and FirstShowing are great resources for keeping an eye on upcoming productions. You should put some time aside at least once a quarter to explore the lists of film and tv that have been confirmed or are in production and note down ones that may have some relevance to your business (whether thematically, or in direct relation to your product or service), no matter how slim the link. It's also key to consider the intended audience of the production and whether they're viable customers.
2. RESEARCH
As soon as they have trailers or press releases, study the content, the actors, the glimpses of the plot and consider how this could relate to your brand. If it’s a sequel – even better, as it’s generally a safe bet, and you can study the previous release/s and public opinion. For example, if your brand produces food, garments, jewellery, home goods, or scented products, you could take advantage of the upcoming release of Disney's live action Snow White in 2025.
3a. LEVERAGE TALENT
If you have the funds, consider reaching out to the key players involved in a production. Can you contract actors to model for you, or to appear in promotion videos for you brand? Or if you're looking to be a little thriftier, can you reach their managers or agents to gift them your products?
The earlier you start planning these activities the more cost effective they are likely to be, and the more scope you have for creativity. If you manage to catch a young actor who’s been signed for an influential project before any real promotion begins, you’re likely to be able to work with them cheaply, then capitalise off their rising stardom by running ads once promotion for the film begins.
3b. CREATE THEMED PRODUCTS & COLLECTIONS
Depending on the nature of your business, consider creating thematic product releases for particularly influential media, or even assembling themed collections of existing products. If you have the capital for licensing, consider reaching out to the production companies to secure the rights to the use of their characters, if not, with a little creativity there's still plenty of ways you can bring the film into your products.
Using the example of Snow White, businesses could leverage the poison apple motif that will feature in the film to create themed jewellery, apple scented perfumes or sprays, or apple flavoured food and confectionary releases. Themed collections of existing products could be created using makeup collections based on Snow's classic dress colours, red hair accessories to symbolise her iconic bow, or bringing any existing apple related goods into the forefront of your marketing activities.
3c. HEAD TO SOCIAL MEDIA
If you have a particularly limited budget you can still reap excellent rewards using social media and digital marketing. You may find it effective to dedicate a short period of your regular product shoot days to filming your models/product interacting with film concepts in relatable and re-creatable ways so that you can get in straight after release with high quality content. Even if you haven’t perfectly predicted the themes of the media, it’s easy to voice over content and create trends with enough B-roll, and getting in early really counts.
4. STAY IN THE LOOP
As release date nears it's important to keep up with public opinion, stay abreast of press releases, and adjust your content as new information is revealed.
THE POWER OF FILM AND TV FOR BRANDS
Consider the hype around recent major films and TV projects like Barbie. Brands that got in early were skyrocketed to stardom, whether they collaborated directly with the studio to produce branded content like Airbnb, worked with the actors like Uber, or simply created pink dresses, pink lemonade, pink shoes, pink glasses, pink jewellery, even pink lingerie… you get the picture. Every brand under the sun attempted Barbie themed social posts last year, but those who planned and filmed unique content rather than trend hopping invariably came out on top.
Stranger Things and Wednesday are also great examples of the power of the film industry for brands, with unique collaborations and a myriad of successful trends. (Both of which have upcoming season releases in 2025 *hint hint*).
Marketing is about finding the links between your product or service, and the current social, political, environmental, and cultural landscape. As a small business, film and tv are great ways to capitalise on the direction of public interest to create a relevant and desirable brand.
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