CASE STUDIES
Scroll through some examples and case studies of initiatives and deals:
_______________________________________________________________________________________
“IdeaBoost: a business accelerator with a difference”
Problem: The Canadian Film Centre seeks to transform its education model from a career-oriented skills base into a new form of accelerator.
Solution: IdeaBOOST premieres as a bootcamp for businesses that want to succeed in the entertainment ecosystem that has been radically disrupted by new technologies and demanding audience expectations:
• Surveyed thought leaders from media, technology, and investing to validate & refine the model.
• Developed program design and strategy in support of v1.0 of the model.
• Helped launch and market the rollout of IdeaBoost's premiere cohort, November 2012.
• Recruited members of the VIP Advisory Board, mentors and speakers to internationalize the program.
• Advised on the communication and messaging stragegies, including recruitment of other vendors.
• Evolved the model in successive iterations and provided ongoing support to senior management.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
“Pivoting Theatrics.com for Customer Traction & New Investment”
• Analyzed market for storytelling and second-screen tools and agencies
• Analyzed sales prospects in US and international broadcast, cable, digital, film, transmedia, and brands
• Organized business development effort to partner with a marquee broadcast client, which resulted in Theatrics executing an agreement with NBC Universal to help build USA Network's PSYCH online series called "The S#cial Sector."
• Created product specification for a self-service version of the platform aimed at transmedia producers, brands, and others, supervised the build of the product and the rollout of the beta, with extensive marketing support to customer targets that will yield high-value use-cases.
• Recommended and helped manage communications firm to support these efforts.
• Advised on investor strategy and pitch.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
“High Tech Marketing --- The Win-Win-Win Solution”
Problem: Major technology company needs to supercharge Hollywood marketing dollars & find with high-value developers to propel future content opportunities.
Solution:
• Brainstorm with executives, strategic partners and sector leaders
• Develop & launch model for a new multi-company content R&D Lab
• Sign more than $5m in sponsorships (Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, AOL....)
• Recruit more than 1,000 companies for development teams (Cisco, Schematic, Ogilvy, Move Networks...)
• Produce more than 90 applications for major media brands (ABC, MTV, PBS, NBC, WB, Discovery...)
• Pioneer interactivity for TV, movie, broadband, console game, mobile & other sectors
Outcomes:
• Win-Win-Win for sponsors, mentors, and content brands, all of which gain outstanding ROI & visibility
• Accelerated innovation in digital content space grows overall market and profits
• Two projects win Emmy Awards
• DeMartino named as #3 on the "Digital 50" List (Hollywood Reporter and Producers Guild of America)
_________________________________________________________________
"Deal-Making Extraordinaire”
Problem: Strategic alliances may stall following initial "understanding" phase without sophisticated negotiation and closing skills
Solutions:
• Engineered brand-licensing and services deals that saved $900K annual tax liability
• Brought value-added components to extend a one-year sponsorship deal to three years
• Leveraged brand equity and in-kind support to double total dollar value of deal
• Created deal with reward triggers that tripled revenues over life of deal
Outcomes:
• Lower legal fees
• Deeper trust between parties of the deal
• Smoother operations for the partnerships going forward
• Higher profits and marketing benefits for all parties in the deal
_______________________________________________________________________
"Social Media for Business Results"
Problem: Company has a patchwork of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media with no unified strategy or plan for monetization
Solution:
• Audit existing efforts (both the organization and its competitors and allies)
• Develop comprehensive platform strategy focusing upon YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, e-newsletters and TV cross promotion.
• Use DMCA takedown policy on YouTube to eliminate piracy
• Create consistent branding across all platforms, including video intros
• Produce style-sheet for all metadata
• Activate member newsletter for cross-promotion of social media sign-ups
• Actively manage followers and subscriptions
• Recruit celebrity Twitter accounts to cross-promote
• Use YouTube API to power video section of website to increase viewership
Outcomes:
• More impact by staff by restructuring social media team
• Clearer message formulation via centralized editorial control
• 50% drop in bandwidth costs
• Costs of managing social engagement covered by means of new ad revenue stream
• Follower and fan base increases dramatically (by 2,000%), leading to 30% jump in subscription revenue
_________________________________________________________________
"Doubling the Value of a Media Asset"
Problem: Owner of database of more than 50,000 films struggled to keep content current, due to non-scalability of data production and outmoded ideas for data distribution
Solution:
• Create a strategic plan and financial projections
• Accelerate completion of 12,000 new movie titles, making search results more valuable
• Launch "distributed expert network" via research universities for deep scholarly content
• Re-engineer workflow to double efficiency of existing staff
• Define and hire new staff, including editor for improved morale and effectiveness
Outcomes:
• Doubled the value of asset
• Owner is positioned to compete in movie data sector
• Asset gains broader appeal among consumers, advertisers and sponsors
_______________________________________________________________________
"Moving Video to the Cloud and to Screens Everywhere"
Problem: Poorly organized collection of analog video and audio tapes needs to be catalogued, analyzed, valued, digitized, edited, and shared with the world
Solution:
• Analyze problem and develop strategic plan for multi-phase rollout
• Review of trends among company's competitors and strategic allies. Creation of
• Conduct due-diligence on 30 companies offering compete or partial solutions in the online video market
• Produce technical specification and RFP
• Manage vendor bidding, selection, and negotiation process
• Manage staffing and subcontractor selection
• Deploy Phase I of plan
Outcomes:
• Doubled revenues from advertising and subscriptions
• 250% increase of unique visitors due to new video content
• Brand awareness is heightened among target consumers
• Priceless archive is preserved