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A blog on Film Annex's method of film financing via online video advertising.
Before ads came into play, the internet was mainly a place for presentation. It was an art gallery with no prints for sale, a flea market with freebies, a restaurant where people went to just look at food. But, within no time, advertising did its trick again and changed the game. From banner ads to pop-up ads, from text-based ads to paid search, ads started dominating the cyber world. People realized pretty quickly that putting up a banner on a website and monetizing it was no different than putting up an ad at Times Square.
In the first half of 2011, Internet ad revenues rose 23.2 percent—to a record $14.9 billion— according to studies by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC US).* In the first quarter of 2012, revenues grew by 15% compared to the first quarter of 2011 and set a new record at $8.4 billion.* In a world dominated by these insane advertising numbers, the filmmakers have two options.
- Take advantage
- Opt-out
I don't plan to go into the history of advertising, how it evolved and morphed into the state it is in now, but it is good to pay attention to the current numbers. Despite the fluctuating economy, marketers spent 12% more on Internet advertising in the first quarter from a year ago, surpassing the ad spending rate in Radio (7.9%) and Television (2.9%) - what's going on Television?
Let's be honest. You end up watching ads on TV while you're enjoying a movie or a TV Show, you end up looking at ads while you're flipping through a magazine, you come across a giant poster ad while you're walking on the street, you stare at advertising while riding the subway. The stories are endless. And what do you get out of it? Think for a second...
A big chunk of the Film Annex model is based on ad revenue that we share with our filmmakers. This means that every ad you watch, every pre-roll you lay your eyes on before you watch a short film, a documentary, or an animation ends up going back to the filmmaker in monetary form. So, in addition to providing free hosting, bandwidth, and promotion, Film Annex gives 50% of the advertising revenues generated on its platform to its filmmakers.
If you're a filmmaker and have a Film Annex channel, everything you present on there, from videos to blogs, end up becoming your income. So, yes, there is a 15-30 second online video advertising before your content, but you also have a continuous revenue stream that keeps surging with promotion, social networking, and staying interactive. As a platform that takes personal relationships with content creators seriously, we want our filmmakers to keep creating, and in order to make their next movies, they need funds. Here's a recent success story about Jonathan Ng, an animation filmmaker who was recently featured on our homepage. In his interview, he talks about his newly found engagement in sharing on social media and monetizing via online film distribution. More stories soon to be posted on our upcoming Success Stories page.
To read the 1st installment of my Online Film Distribution series, go here.
*Graph by IAB
Till next time,
