HUM 102 Module Three Short Answer

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[00:00:20.960] LUANNE DIETZ: When I was in the third grade, my dad took me out of school for the day to go for a ride on his new motorcycle. We’re about an hour outside of town, and this guy on the side of the road flagged us down. Turns out there was a movie being filmed in this small Florida beach town, and they needed a last-minute extra who drove a motorcycle to enter a spaghetti-eating contest. [AUDIENCE LAUGHING] My dad agreed to be in the film, but on one condition that they found a role for me. [AUDIENCE AND LUANNE DIETZ LAUGHING] A few hours later, I was standing next to the leading lady watching it all unfold. Her name was Molly Ringwald.

[00:00:59.920] I remember looking around the set in awe as the camera moved and the director called out scenes like they were reality. The way the camera captured connection and brought people together was something I had never witnessed before. Flash forward 25 years, and we’re now living in a society where technology has made it possible to connect with anyone, anywhere, at any time. TikToks, reels, and Snapchats have all redefined the way that we communicate. We send photos and videos more than making phone calls, and we definitely like things on social more than checking in with our friends.

[00:01:37.080] In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General announced loneliness as a national health epidemic, with one in three people in America saying that they feel lonely on a weekly basis. This paradox of being the most connected, yet most isolated generation in history, begs for a solution that transcends A-I and modern technology. It requires us to go back to the basics and look at the timeless tradition of storytelling that has been fundamental to our human existence. Filmmaking is arguably the most powerful art form. It can move, inspire, incite, and enrage millions of people all at once.

[00:02:19.310] But filmmaking isn’t just an art, it’s a lifeline. It’s the way we connect and find common ground. It’s how we heal. This is one of my family’s first home videos. It’s the day that my grandpa came home from being deployed to see his then-girlfriend, now my grandma. It was the first time in my family’s history that we were able to watch life as it happened and feel emotion in real time. Stories and films specifically have the power to shape our perceptions, influence our behaviors, and act as a mirror reflecting society. But it’s not enough to just tell a good story.

[00:02:59.990] You have to have a community of people around that story to give it power. And now, more often than not, argue it good or bad, these communities are being led by brands. Whether it be a corporation or a person, the influence that brands have on our lives have far transcended the 15 or 30-second commercial spot. They have become a permanent fixture in our cultural landscape. So, how can brands use filmmaking to bridge the gap between isolation and connection, and create a space where real change can exist? Well, that’s where I come in. [AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

[00:03:38.630] A journalist turned filmmaker turned branded content guru, I’ve spent the last 10 years of my career applying my understanding of marketing strategy to the intuition I’ve learned as a trained journalist to document the human condition. It’s my job to look at the intersection of commerce and consumer responsibility and help brands use marketing dollars to not just sell products, but make the world a better place. As a journalist, I was taught that every person has a story, and it’s my job to be curious enough to ask the right questions, connect the dots in a way that challenge people to own what they believe.

[00:04:15.590] As a journalist, I valued my objectivity above anything else and would never let advertisement dollars affect my editorial decisions. Well, over the last decade, we’ve seen a massive shift in advertisement, mostly because of this oversaturation of information and a generation of consumers who grew up with the Internet at their fingertip to now be more of a two, to be less than a two dimensional, product centric approach, and be more of a three dimensional, human centered approach. This shift in strategy has largely been associated by the way we as a society interact with brands and our desire to want more from them than just a transaction.

[00:05:02.340] In 2016, I got a call from C-N-N, and they asked me if I wanted to be the first director hired in their shiny new initiative called a “Brand Studio.” It was a novel idea at the time, as it was the first creative studio created to make films specifically that would air in commercial time. We know that our audience likes the documentary content that we create in primetime. So, what happens if we bring that same style of storytelling to the commercial spots? Well, more people stay tuned. In theory, you’re watching Anderson Cooper, and then instead of watching five 30-second commercials that you may mute, you now get to watch a two and a half minute documentary on someone who interacts authentically with a brand, and then you’re back into the news.

[00:05:47.820] The customer experience doesn’t change at all. Quite the opposite, actually. So, to see if this would work, they hired a bunch of journalists and tried to teach us marketing. We had no idea what we were doing when we started the studio, and we surely didn’t understand the precedent we were about to set in the industry. All we were doing was following our journalistic instincts, taking big risks, and it worked. My first project at the studio was with a video game company, Deus Ex. They had come to us to help promote the launch of their new game called “Mankind Divided.”

[00:06:21.860] That was a sequel to a game they had launched a few years prior. In the first game, players had the option to trade in their perfectly good arm and get a rocket launcher. Well, shocker. In the second game, everyone had gotten rocket launchers and were killing each other. So, as we started to brainstorm ideas around prominent themes in the game, we found ourselves wondering if this could actually happen in real life. Come to find out, there are no rules that say you can or can’t chop off your perfectly good arm. And more disturbingly, there’s nothing that says you should or shouldn’t.

[00:06:59.450] So for the next year, I got a video game company to send me around the world to make a film on real-life cyborgs, people who consider themselves half man and half machine, in hopes of creating some kind of baseline around the ethics of augmentation. From brain implants in Puerto Rico to 3D printed prosthetics in a Syrian refugee camp, to a young man in San Francisco who was about to walk out of his wheelchair for the first time. We were capturing the unregulated impact of augmentation in our world. To take this a step further, we decided to host a one-day event in New York City, where we brought together people from all sides of the discussion to debate what is right and what is wrong.

[00:07:46.610] Now, this included the video game company, we wanted to see what they had to say. So, after debating this, at the end of the day, we created the first-ever code of ethics on human augmentation that has now gone on to live in Congress. So the fact that a video game company can create a documentary on real-life cyborgs, and then actually penned the first ever code of ethics on human augmentation and call it marketing, is the power of this new era of brand storytelling. It’s not about being a part of a trendy moment. It’s about creating lasting stories that have the ability to actually cause change in the world.

[00:08:29.130] In order to truly understand this relationship between brand and consumer, we both have to acknowledge the power we have in this conversation. So, the consumer has to acknowledge that they have the power to ask why when choosing to associate with a brand. And the brand has to challenge itself to go beyond the standard marketing approach and ask why their consumers are interacting with their brand. A few years ago, I was working in-house at Starbucks, leading a creative team in Shanghai for our roastery opening, when I ordered a cup of coffee. When the barista handed it to me, she said, “You know what’s special about this cup of coffee? It was grown by a woman, harvested by a woman, brewed by a woman, and now is about to be drank by a woman.”

[00:09:13.770] What is she talking about? [AUDIENCE LAUGHING] Two months later, I was on a plane to Rwanda with a camera in my hand. Turns out there’s a women-owned coffee co-op in Rwanda, where women from both sides of the genocide have come together to harvest coffee. Following the war, most of the men were either killed or in prison, and it was up to the women to put aside their differences and learn how to harvest coffee in order to provide for their families. It didn’t take me long to realize I wasn’t there to tell a story about coffee. I was there to tell a story about forgiveness. Okay, let’s pause for a minute. Why on earth would a coffee company that’s known for its exceptional customer service want to tell a story about the genocide?

[00:09:57.120] Well, my answer to this is very simple. It’s because they uniquely can. For starters, Starbucks has been investing in the coffee industry since 2004 and has built a farmer support center to help the local farmers improve on their coffee quality. In 2022, 400,000 families in Rwanda depended on coffee for their livelihood. By associating a simple cup of coffee with a story about forgiveness, Starbucks has the opportunity to attach an emotion to an action. Every day, Starbucks serves over 10 million people worldwide, with 6% of their, sorry, with their average consumer coming back six times every month.

[00:10:40.920] 20% of those, of their customers return 16 times every month. So, by telling a story that’s loosely about coffee and more about forgiving a neighbor, Starbucks has the opportunity to encourage millions of people who drink coffee every morning to think about forgiveness as a starting point in their day. No one can watch this film and witness forgiveness at the highest level between these ladies without questioning the small grudge that they’re holding in their own lives. Now, the impact that this film had at Starbucks went way beyond a single marketing cycle.

[00:11:14.520] It went on to be included in the U-N’s 25th anniversary around the genocide, and played at many film festivals. Together with the Starbucks Foundation, we were able to make a give-back attached to the Hingakawa being sold in the store that would allow us to build a sewing center for the women in Rwanda so that they could build, they could make products to sell at the market in the off season. The reason that this worked is because the focus is on people over product, and the purpose is not to sell a thing, but to cause change. As we move into this world where we are needing to understand brands’ impact in our lives, which looks totally different than it’s ever looked before, we have to redefine what a brand is and who it serves. A brand is no longer just the product it sells.

[00:12:01.950] It’s the feeling and emotion that that product represents. And a person who buys that product is not just a consumer, but a fan. Fan, short for the word “fanatic,” represents a person who will unapologetically go after an entity, whether they’re winning or losing. A fan’s loyalty is not shaken by the success of a moment, but is rooted in a like-minded belief system. When a consumer makes the choice to align with a specific brand, their relationship with that brand deepens, creating a personal identity with it.

[00:12:36.430] Once that happens, that brand now has the ability to impact how that person thinks and behaves. When you put on your Lululemons and pick up your Stanley Cup, you’re not just choosing yoga pants in a water bottle, but you’re choosing to be a part of a group of people with shared beliefs. And in return, tell people who see you with those brands that you’re part of the fandom built around the product. Now, the sentiment is summed up very beautifully by a strong lady who showed the world what she was capable of last summer. [AUDIENCE LAUGHING] Five years ago, Mattel was slowly crawling back from toy stores closing, and their sales were nosediving.

[00:13:17.830] After running through multiple C-E-Os, they brought in a boss who had a big idea. He wanted to create a film division inside the company. Now, four months later, they announced their first movie, the Barbie movie. Do you think the roughly 41 million people who showed up to over 4,000 theaters wearing bright pink on opening weekend, even thought twice about the fact that the movie they were about to watch was birthed from the marketing department at Mattel? [AUDIENCE LAUGHING] No. And the answer isn’t because it wasn’t marketing, but because the film focused on a shared ethos of women empowerment, which justified the brand’s involvement and for the average person, made it disappear to be seen solely as a movie, not a branded film.

[00:14:04.470] Now, the impact that Mattel made on society stretched way beyond their calculated revenue boost of $125 million. It transcended culture. The movie was so popular that searches for the baby, named Barbie, increased by 603% since the trailer was released. [AUDIENCE LAUGHING] Mattel’s not the first large brand to start an in-house content studio. Over the last decade, we’ve seen this trend of large companies partnering with, large companies partnering with creatives to focus on issues important to the community of people surrounding the product. Global brands like Patagonia, Marriott, and Red Bull have all done this and created T-V and film divisions in hopes of creating, reaching out to their fan base.

[00:14:54.700] This trend of large companies looking at authentic human stories to create change is not going away. And that’s a good thing. As we give brands the power to transcend what a person likes and start to define who that person is, we must require them to look beyond their data captured machine-to-machine and start to prioritize human experience and shared experiences. So, as we move into a future where brands are obviously going to have more impact on our lives than we’d like to admit, it’s important for us to remember one thing, that with great power comes great responsibility. Wait, did I say that? I didn’t say that. We can thank Marvel Marketing for that one. [AUDIENCE LAUGHING] Thank you.

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