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February 20, 2009

And the Oscar goes to . . .

This Sunday night (February 22) I will be glued to the television, devoting three (or more hours) to the 81st Annual Academy Awards. Even in years when I haven’t seen any of the nominated films, I can’t stop watching—I’m drawn to the bright lights and the red carpet and the stars and the glamour of it all. (Acknowledging addiction is the first step toward rehabilitation.)

In addition to being an Oscar addict, I’m also a member of the Hollywood Marketing Fan Club. Actually, there is no such organization; I made it up. But if such a club existed—an organization whose members appreciated how well movie studios market their products—I would be a card-carrying member.

No one is better than the studios at being able to distill a product into just a few words, and to make that message absolutely riveting to audiences around the world. Hollywood is the master of telling stories and appealing to people’s emotions, and doing so in the blink of an eye: a poster with a single image or a 30-second TV commercial.

The foundation of Hollywood’s marketing is a message platform called the “high concept.” The idea is that, in order to pitch a movie (to a producer or the audience), you have to convey what a movie is about in 12 to 15 words.

You can picture the producer in his posh office, interrupting his phone conversation only long enough to say to the aspiring screenwriter, “Okay, kid, you got 20 seconds. Gimme the high concept.”

To show you how this works, I’ve provided a quiz where I provide the high concept lines, and you guess the Academy Award nominated films.

A. A disgraced former president and a talk-show host meet in a historic interview.

B. One man fights prejudice during the ‘70s to become America’s first openly gay elected official.

C. A teenager is one question away from winning India’s "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." But is he cheating?

D. A child is born with the body of an old man, then becomes younger.

E. Years after a teenage boy has an affair with an older woman, he learns she has a secret.

What I love about high concept is that you can use it to communicate anything: a new initiative, changes to a benefits program, a company strategy. The key is to boil down even a complicated idea into its essence, something your audience can understand instantly.

You may not work in Hollywood, but you can use high concept to make your messages more compelling.

(BTW, I haven’t provided the answers to the quiz because they’re pretty obvious. If you’re stumped, let me know.)

Posted by Alison Davis at February 20, 2009 08:29 AM