November 08, 2004

Online Short Film Renaissance: Lessons Learned

With the torrid success of short political films on the web this year, many online film venues have emerged from their dot-com era time capsules and have begun to see a renaissance of sorts. According to Technology Review, audinece figures are finally matching the dot-com era hype:

How big a deal was the election for online films? Before the July launch of This Land, Atom Films was getting about three million unique visitors per month. As November 2 drew near, that figure reached 9–10 million. The political-themed “Mock the Vote” section of Atom Films “tripled our traffic and sustained it,” says O’Neill. iFilm’s Harrison says that the political fare increased traffic to his site as well. iFilm now streams between 40 million and 45 million movies per month, up from 15–20 million a year ago.

With the likelihood of political burnout from the most saturated election in our country's history, can the likes of iFilm and Atom/Shockwave hold their audiences? Here's their marketing strategies in a nutshell:

Harrison says iFilm will soon launch an action sports channel, hoping to capture the grassroots enthusiasm surrounding activities such as skateboarding and motocross. Atom Film’s O’Neill says her company has learned a valuable lesson from its recent success: go topical. “We’re looking at the calendar for big events to figure out what we can produce around them,” she says.

Cat a niche get any more niche? This is precision segmentation at its best, folks!

Technology Review: Golden Age for Online Films