With much appreciation to recent technological advancements, the costs associated with producing content have fallen through the floor. Thrillingly, they’re going to keep on falling over the coming years too.
For producers, this is groundbreaking. Finally, the playing field is leveling out, making it possible for truly talented individuals to break through without needing monstrous budgets.
Sure, most producers definitely need to harbor an entrepreneurial gene or two in order to realize their ultimate musings, but for those that have the drive and determination, the wonder that is the interwebs has offered forth a plethora of tools and platforms that make it possible to fund, produce and distribute content, on an otherwise non-existent budget, all from the comfort of ones own home.
Alas, with every yin must come yang.
In this scenario our yang is content saturation. For content producers, this translates to how do I find my audience? How do I break through the online noise in a cost-effective way? While it’s easy to be blinded by the staggering statistics that support massive future connectivity for billions of users around the world, spending most of their time online consuming video, today there is more competition than ever before, and that is growing at a crazy rate too. Global competition, from the past as much as from the present, from all formats, at all price points – including free!
Having your content available online does not mean it will be seen. Building a website, making your content available from it and hoping people will show up seldom works, unless you’re Dave Grohl or someone with a massive and loyal following, and even then, you’re leaving real money on the table as the attached case study will show you.
The key to success online lies in having a great strategic plan, the right distribution partners at the table and enough time to execute effectively. There is a very real reason studios market their films 18 months out – they need their content to break through the noise too! For independent producers who are serious about their craft, this means that you need to be prepared to match all of the effort you committed to getting your film into the can, in order to release it to the world effectively. You need to pick your partners carefully and you should never, ever rush it and put it live simply because the tools are there.
Here at YEKRA we’re building tools along with a community of consumers and promoters to help committed producers break through the online noise and reach their unique niche audiences. Our community supports each other, so instead of expecting every filmmaker to go it alone, we’re building a shared economy, whereby every filmmaker who works with YEKRA benefits from what has been brought to the table by those before them, and every promoter who works with us gets rewarded for supporting our creators. We call our promoters affiliates, and the case study below highlights how our affiliate network was leveraged effectively to drive over 50% of the total $550,000 in online revenue that one of our films, Sirius, has realized through YEKRA alone. We hope you find the information useful.
