How Do You Measure the Impact of Your Film?

Certainly, the stories we tell and watch leave an impact in any number of ways that we could never fully measure; how many movies help someone get through a difficult time, or inspire them into action in their lives? How many beloved characters become personal heroes to children battling a disease or a tough time? Stories help us all to teach, inspire, inform, heal, and act throughout our lives all the way up to the moment our eulogy is read.

These personal moments of impact are why storytelling is part of the human condition.

The uniquely personal moments of impact that movies provide will never be able to be fully measured or even defined and that's okay.

So, how do you measure prove its impact when it will help you get it funded and actually produced? Is it as simple as saying X amount of dollars from net profit will go to this community organization and this is how it will help them? Maybe, but if we are looking for an alternative to producing IP, reboots, and sequels, we need to be able to rally and bring the audience far sooner than when analyzing the revenue flow.

As filmmakers, a story’s impact is often the framework of how we pitch to get them financed. We pitch with the framework of a hero’s journey and how audiences will be affected regardless of whether it’s horror, comedy, tear-jerking drama, or heart-stopping action, we lean into the impact to get them to understand the audience. And while that entertainment value is of the utmost important, when trying to get the people who hold the purse strings behind our stories, we also need to be able to measure or prove the financial impact, and that can come in many forms. That can come in pre-sales, rentals, and box office predictions. It can come in algorithms that show audience awareness, or any other number of online engagement points such as trailer views, and ancillary products, or general zeitgeist buzz.

How do you come about that proof of concept in the early stages of your project to get the money to finance it? How do you side-step the tendency of financiers and decision-makers who choose I.P. because at least it hints at all of this potential data impact on your finances? You do this by illustrating the potential audience, and illustrating how you will engage that potential audience, and then by backing it up with real-time data to prove that you’re not full of hot air.

Certainly, marketing analytics, especially in the digital age are nothing new, but what has not been explored thoroughly through these analytic tools are the impact points as they align with your project's lifecycle. In other words, it’s easy to measure how many trailer views a film got, but how many tools will measure what your viewer did after they watched the trailer? How many tools will measure what your consumer did after visiting your film’s website, or social media platforms, or your film in theaters for that matter?

As you can imagine the answer is not many.

There is one company that recognized this void not too long ago and has built a platform that customizes an immediate impact hub for every single project. + Media Solutions customizes a hub for your story and does so at an extremely reasonable cost that can be met before your full financing.

According to their website:

Today's audiences want to be part of the solution. +Media empowers you to bridge the gap between inspiration and action, transforming passive viewers into engaged advocates.

Distinguish yourself from the competition, seamlessly engage your audience, and measure your impact with precision using our expertise and tools.

We build customized digital +Impact Hubs that seamlessly engage your audience and drive action.

Our +Impact Hubs serve as a frictionless, central resource for your audience to learn about and participate in your story.

Our data-driven insights allow you to understand audience behavior, measure impact, and demonstrate your Return on Investment (ROI) and Social Return on Investment (SROI) to stakeholders.

I can tell you from my own experience that the people at Plus Media Solutions are so passionate about what they do that they will become your partners and the first advocates of your project in the early days. (I am not affiliated with them and they are not compensating me for this mention).

I dedicate a whole section in my seven-part course on producing with values on how to measure the impact, because in order for any type of impact investment to be successful. You need to be able to deliver upon the promoted impact. In fact, in the general impact investing world sometimes ROI is structured based on the level of the impact result, so measurement is huge to impact investors that I’ve talked to about bringing that financial model to filmed entertainment. It is in fact a mandate to answer, ‘how do you measure the impact of this if we go down this road?’

Also, many film grants for funding that are tied to more pointed impact dollars such as for documentaries, require an entire entry point in the grant application about measurement tools.

Now, there is data to back up your story’s impact, especially as it ties to the financial return. If you want to learn more, + Media Solutions can be found here.

Click here to access the full PRODUCING WITH VALUES COURSE

Or read more about impact investing for film