Mark you calendars!
The Elevate Speaker Series takes place weekly over zoom between now and this Summer's Elevate Retreat. These weekly exploratory conversations will serve as an opportunity for Elevate participants to listen, learn, and engage with industry leaders and experts on a variety of relevant subjects.
Your presence and participation will greatly enrich the multi-week experience - we can't wait to see how your input will shape these conversations.
Thursday Afternoons on Zoom
Registered participants of Elevate 2024 will be sent a calendar invite every week
July 11th at 1PM PST:
20 Years of Brand Journalism:
What We’ve Learned and Where We’re Going
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Lou Dubois
Content/Creative Executive​​
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Rich LaTour
Global Head of Content
BlackRock
When then-McDonald's CMO Larry Light introduced the fast food giant's new "brand journalism" plan at an AdAge conference in 2004, it shook up marketing, communications and media forever. The approach, boiled down simply, was for McDonald's to be its own media company - to eschew traditional marketing and advertising in favor of a "content stream approach," involving multi-dimensional messages (created by in-house teams as well as agency partners) for multiple channels and multiple audiences.
20 years on, this approach is employed by brands of all sizes, and to varied levels of commitment. Call it branded entertainment, brand films, branded content, brand journalism, or whatever you like, but the premise remains the same. And while the outputs may vary - films, episodic series, brand newsrooms, social shorts and much more, there remains many questions:
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If everybody is doing it, how do brands continue to ensure that the juice is worth the squeeze?
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Can a brand be trusted to tell true stories that don't just shill for a product?
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What's the right personnel structure for this work to get done? In-house creative teams, agencies, independent creators, directors and influencers, or a combination of all of those?
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How do brands properly measure success on this work?
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Who inside an organization should be in charge of brand journalism?
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How can "brand journalism" co-exist with "journalism" in 2024 and beyond
Previous Speakers Series Sessions
May 23rd at 12PM PST:
Funny Thing - Comedic Brand Storytelling Works!
Cindy Weisskopf
Managing Director
Synchrony Bank
Adam Puchalsky
Global Head of Pulse
HARTBEAT
Randi Jachino
VP Marketing
Prestige Consumer Healthcare
Neel Williams
SVP, Group Creative Director The Martin Agency
Comedy has long been a go-to for advertising creative, but not so much for longer form brand storytelling. Done right, it pulls audience, creates pass along and propels brand attributes. These three speakers will share how they are leveraging comedy to attract audience and lift brand affinity.
To prepare for this session:
Feature film produced by HartBeat to premier at Tribeca Film Festival
“Legend of the Lizard” mocumentary created and produced by The Martin Agency
“The Last Barf Bag” mocumentary for Dramamine, a Prestige Consumer Healthcare brand
May 30th at 1PM PST:
Finding an Audience - Distribution Strategies for Brand Films
Scott Donaton
CMO
VersusGame
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Mark Book
Head of Content,
North America
Digitas
Alanna Strauss
Executive Vice President, Entertainment & Culture Lab
The Martin Agency
Shannon Pruitt
Global Chief Marketing Officer Stagwell Brand
Performance Network
Congratulations! After a costly, time-consuming and ridiculously complex process you’ve made a compelling, beautiful brand film. Now comes the hard part: getting it seen. Finding the right distribution partner for your content is crucial to its success. It’s also harder than ever as distributors, streamers, networks and platforms struggle to find the right model for partnering with brands. Join us as we explore the pitfalls and secrets to making sure your story finds it audience.
June 6th at 1PM PST:
The Art of the Short (Brand) Doc
Ben Proudfoot
CEO & Founder
Breakwater Studios
More and more brands are turning to short documentary filmmaking to tell stories that align with their customers’ interests and values. These brand docs are intended to entertain, inform and inspire – but what makes these films truly watchable and impactful? What do brands need to know about “the art” of short doc filmmaking?
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That’s the question Ben Proudfoot, two-time Oscar winning documentarian will answer in his conversation with Matthew Carey, Documentary Editor for Deadline Hollywood. Elevate guests will have the opportunity to gain valuable insights around story structure, characters, production quality and how to maintain journalistic integrity. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with one of the masters of the art of the short doc.
June 13th at 1PM PST:
Measuring Brand Funded Entertainment —
What Metrics Matter, and How To Prove Your Content Works
Janett Haas
SVP, Head of Forbes Research & Insights
Forbes
Megan Wells
Fractional Chief Content Officer, Development Exec + Director/ Showrunner
Kevin Keane
Founder & CEO
Brainsights
Andy Cooper
Co-Founder
One Minute To Midnight
So, you’ve decided to create some brand funded original entertainment. Maybe you’ve decided to do a narrative short. Maybe a competition reality series. Or maybe you’ve gone all in, and are going to take the big swing and make the next Barbie. Exciting stuff! But how do you know your story will work? What measurement tools should you use to prove that your content worked?
In this session, SVP and Head of Forbes Insights and Analytics Janett Haas will lead a State of Industry Measurement roundtable with the three founders of EVOKE, the measurement tool designed to live at the intersection of cutting edge neuroscience and entertainment. From why a brand lift study won’t prove your content is moving the needle, to what C-Suite leaders need to know to green light your content play, Janett Hass, Megan Wells, Andy Cooper and Kevin Keane will arm you with the tools—and data—you need to understand how to use the right metrics to measure your content, and explore how to link your brand to stories that work for the problems your brand is trying to solve.
June 27th at 1PM PST:
“The Crux” a New Series from The North Face
Phil Hessler
Executive Producer
Think Less Studios
Cole Sax
Head of Creative and Development
Think Less Studios
Amanda Morrison
Director of Film and TV Development
Little Monster Films
"The Crux” is a new premium unscripted series by The North Face that follows elite competitive climbers in their “Drive to Survive.” The panel will discuss the development process between filmmakers and brand to create a format and distribution strategy that aligns with The North Face marketing goals and leveraging digital channels. They will also reveal the social strategy that taps into the following of athletes in the sport such as Jimmy Chin and Toby Roberts.