The evil twins: writing and marketing
A few thoughts on the connection between writing and marketing.
Note: These considerations refer to film productions in Germany and Austria. In English-speaking countries, the topics of writing and marketing tend to be viewed more positively.
You know how it is. You wake up in a good mood, the sun is shining outside, and the birds are chirping. Breakfast is wonderful, your partner compliments you on your appearance and wishes you a good and successful day. A quick glance at your cell phone and the news. Here, too, there is only good news. There are no problems in the world, everything is wonderful. You reach your office without traffic.
Your boss is waiting for you there. He praises your work and gives you a raise, starting today. Just like every week.
Then, in the morning, an important customer calls. He has a large new order for you and offers to pay not only immediately, but also more than usual.
I think I’m right in assuming that almost all of your days are exactly like this. As we all know, life is easy and problem-free.
But… before we get too excited, let’s take a look at some depressing statistics. Are you ready?
Okay, let’s get started.
According to statistics, an Austrian film reaches an average of 10,000 viewers. No, that’s not a mistake. There’s no digit missing. It’s not 100,000 viewers or even a million viewers. It’s 10,000 viewers.
According to another statistic, it’s actually only about 6,500 viewers.
Let’s say the film cost a million euros. With 10,000 viewers, that would be a cost of 100 euros per viewer.
There are various ways to react to these figures. Denial, tears, the big handkerchief. Or even invoking various gods.
By Odin, this cannot go on! Zeus, send your lightning bolts!
Ranting and raving always helps a lot. Preferably combined with lots of beer or other alcoholic beverages.
The “conspiracy” method can also deliver good results. It’s a conspiracy! The big corporations are crushing the small ones. Money is destroying everything!
Freely adapted from Nestroy (for our international readers, he was a great Austrian playwright and actor): The world will not last much longer.
The two fundamental problems
Of course, there are solutions to this problem. More subsidies, more importance given to culture, a law for the protection and promotion of domestic productions.
But I’m more interested in the WHY? What are the fundamental problems? Why aren’t domestic films more successful?
This brings us to our evil twins. Writing and marketing.
Let’s start with writing.
Writing stories
The school system in Austria has many good sides. And some bad sides. Let’s get to the point: kindergarten, elementary school, high school, right up to the final exam, the Matura. Years. Many, many years.
Think about your own education. In all those years, how many stories did you write yourself? How many short stories? I’m not talking about essays here, but stories.
- Have you ever written a fairy tale?
- An exciting short story?
- A funny short story?
- A short novella?
- A short crime story?
- A science fiction story?
- A horror story?
- A screenplay for a short film?
I think the honest answer is: you haven’t written any of these things. Nothing!
Horror and science fiction are completely out of the question. No teacher wants to read anything like that. Humor is also frowned upon. Screenplays are something completely exotic. We’re not in Hollywood here! Crime stories are just cheap entertainment. And so on…
That’s not the end of it.
For many, it’s now off to university.
How many stories do you think you’ll write at university?
Zero. None. Nothing. Zero.
We’re still not at the end.
Let’s ask ourselves another question. What value do exciting stories have in school or university? Are exciting stories appreciated, praised, admired?
No. Of course not.
Now for the big surprise: once you’ve completed this education, how likely is it that YOU YOURSELF will write exciting stories?
How likely is it that you will be able to tell good stories?
How likely is it that you will write stories at all?
No, this is not a criticism of schools or universities. We are not looking for someone to blame here. It is just a list of facts.
Good stories, exciting stories, emotional stories are not appreciated, are not needed, have no value.
But the ability to tell stories is the basis for writing screenplays.
Without good stories, there can be no good screenplay.
The evil: marketing
Now it’s getting really dark. Dark, morally questionable, the deep abyss. We have reached the heart of darkness: marketing!
In other words: advertising! Profit! Greed! Corporations, power, in short, evil.
We could play the same game again. Your school days, your time at university. But let’s keep it short.
Just one question: has a teacher or professor ever told you that advertising is a good thing?
Is advertising something positive in your environment, in your circle of friends?
What about you? Do you like marketing? Do you like advertising? Do you admire an exciting marketing campaign?
Of course not. You despise marketing. At best, marketing is a necessary evil.
I hate marketing. Practically everyone will agree with you on that.
I love marketing. With that opinion, you will very quickly find yourself very alone.
We are approaching the point of the big surprise again. With this attitude, with this conviction, how likely is it that you will suddenly become a marketing genius overnight and successfully promote your film?
How can you produce successful films if you reject advertising?
How successful will your film be without advertising?
How good will your marketing be for your film if you don’t want anything to do with marketing?
The two evil twins: Writing and marketing
That’s how we started. An average Austrian film has 10,000 viewers. We asked for the reasons. For the underlying reasons. This is just a short article, not a comprehensive study.
But if we agree that the quality of stories and the quality of advertising for films are important for the success of films, then we have found some interesting answers.
The basis of every film is interesting stories.
Marketing enables us to tell these stories to many people.
There is an old anecdote about a successful Hollywood writer who finds the answer to the question of which story will always be successful in Hollywood in a dream one night.
Still half asleep, he gets up and scribbles his idea on a piece of paper.
In the morning, he gets up and reads what he has written.
On the piece of paper it says: Boy meets girl.
That will always work; it’s the perfect story. Whether in a knight’s saga, a western, or a science fiction film.
Boy meets girl.
An exciting story.
There is a sequel to this story. Hollywood’s most successful advertising expert falls asleep and dreams of the perfect marketing idea.
Still half asleep, he gets up and scribbles his idea on a piece of paper.
In the morning, he gets up and reads what he has written.
The piece of paper says: Tell other people what you are doing.
The two good twins
We started today’s article in such a good mood. So we should end it that way too. Our twins, writing and marketing, are not evil twins but good twins. We should love them both.
We love writing and telling good stories.
And we love marketing because we love telling other people our stories.
That’s the end of this tale. The boss has come into our office again and wants to give us another raise.
Outside, the sun is shining and the birds are chirping.
Thank you for joining us on our little adventure today.
We’ll see you again soon.
