In-House — 2021
How do you begin to build a brand without a product?
Audience Strategy — Brand Framework — Research Management — Stakeholder Interviews — Workshop Facilitation
The founder of the 20-year-old visual effects studio had a desire and theory. The desire was to create a specific type of genre-defiant, cult classic film that seemed to be increasingly rare, and the theory was that a strong consumer brand could change the challenging financial model of independent film production, inspired by the fervor over industry darling A24.
There was only one small problem — Luma had no original film product to speak of.
With nothing to take to market in the immediate term, the role of strategy was concerned with shaping and socializing this vision such that members of the fledgling organization could activate with both autonomy and alignment. Stakeholder interviews and founder workshops fueled the development of a core brand framework and narrative, as well as helping to identify gaps in knowledge and alignment which could be addressed through a schedule of research activities.
A key area of opportunity for institutional knowledge building concerned audience — who were the people who Luma saw as an underserved segment of the film market? Luma's list of comp films — existing films that embodied the type of film the studio aspired to create — was a hard variable that could be used to answer this question. Luma's first piece of proprietary research validated the market and painted a vivid picture of the audience, but also held up a mirror that helped members of the organization productively interrogate the creative vision.
As often happens with research, it's the process of getting there — designing the research, establishing objectives, clarifying language, extracting intent — that adds the most value, no matter how insightful the findings themselves happen to be. This research didn't intend to confine the creative process or provide dead-on answers to filmmakers or developers, but rather support that process, to generate confidence, to provoke discussion — and that it very much did.
CMO: Mike Wallen + Marketing Coordinator: Valentina Gonzalez + Research partner: MRI-Simmons
