How Plus Media Solutions is Changing the World One Click at a Time
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Documentaries are more popular than ever before. One category in particular, impact documentaries, has grown tremendously in the last decade. These films have the capacity for virality, to capture the attention of audiences and inspire viewers to share these films with one another. However, all too often, as with all viral moments, interest wanes, and people move on. To those who are paying attention to the space, the filmmakers and supporters of the causes that feature as the films’ subjects, are clear on the notion that the impact portion of impact filmmaking is paramount - and inspiring action is most likely at the viewers’ most engaged moment: while watching the film. So how can champions of causes and the filmmakers that spotlight those causes capitalize on people wanting to take action in the immediate moment of inspiration? +Media Solutions exists to provide an answer to that question. The advisory, impact hub, and analytics provider has the answers for converting viewers into do-ers. BrandStorytelling caught up with Founder and CEO Julie Davitz to learn more about the ways in which +Media Solutions is revolutionizing the audience-to-participant pipeline for good:
You offer a suite of services - can you break down each aspect for our readers?
Our offering focuses foremost on driving real, measurable audience actions in alignment with a film, podcast, event, product, brand or campaign. Our suite of services offers a holistic, effective and efficient approach encompassing three pillars: advising, implementation, measurement.
Advising: Advising starts with listening. We want to understand the project’s big-picture goals, intentions and expectations so we can execute an impact strategy that will be truly meaningful to its audience — meaning it’s driving toward the right objectives, sharing the right message, on the right platforms, and engaging the right partners.
Once we understand that vision, we bring the breadth of our expertise to the project. +Media maintains a robust digital engagement library, full of unique and vetted solutions framed by the 17 UN SDGS. As part of our advising offering, we bring a menu of curated solutions that we know from experience will help drive the project’s success.
Implementation: From there, we design and implement an +Impact Hub. All of our work is white-labeled for the film, brand or project, ensuring a seamless consumer experience. This cohesive +Impact Hub experience deepens the audience’s connection with the project and invites them to engage at the very moment of interest. No sign-in required. No typing in long URLs. No sifting through pages of a website.
In an ever-shifting world, our platform also offers the ease of rapid adaptability, enabling us to refresh the content at any time and for any demographic or geographic location. People are much more likely to engage when solutions are timely, contextual and relevant to their world.
Measurement: Lastly, and importantly, we measure concrete impact behavior. We believe impact is more than a like or share. Impact means learning and taking action. We measure this behavior and provide comprehensive, real-time, easy-to-understand reports back to the client, providing valuable data and analytics for investors, sponsors, marketing teams and future projects.
How do these offerings interact with one another from end-to-end?
+Media's model is designed to be circular. As we capture and analyze ongoing, real-time engagement data, we return to the advising component, providing our clients with additional solutions, opportunities, experiences and products to keep engagement fresh and numbers high.
What does the technology that incites consumer action look like?
This one is simple: Super easy and very familiar. After COVID, the QR code is ubiquitous. We are not looking to reinvent that wheel or make people figure out a new interface. +Media embeds a QR code or a clickable prompt, or both, into the content or with an iFrame. With one click or scan, the consumer receives her curated "menu" of content, opportunities and invitations that align with the project and her geographic location. And with that one simple click, she has dived deeper into your project and can easily navigate to learn more and take action.
In what recent partnerships have you found success with these tools recently?
Our recent client work records a minimum of 20% engagement — baseline industry standard is 2%. In one of our recent projects, the film Savvy — focused on the topic of financial literacy for women — saw 84% of screening viewers visit the +Impact Hub and a 24% top engagement rate. You can see more of our recent projects here.
How does measurement work on your end and why is it such an important offering to sustainable brands?
Everyone who works in the impact space wants to do more than just make money — we do our work to make a real difference. I’ve seen so many brands struggle with impact measurement, whether because the only measurable “engagements” seem meaningless, because a web of tech platforms makes it impossible to make sense of the data, or because they’re only getting anecdotal feedback from surveys or focus groups that can’t really be analyzed in a useful way.
At the same time, marketing dollars are precious. Without measurement, it’s impossible for a brand to know how consumers are reacting to their messaging and what the most important ways to drive impact are. +Media's solution is unique in that we have created a cohesive way to attach stories and brands to actual behavior within a platform that is inherently measurable.
What advice would you offer brands on how to execute an effective impact campaign?
Remember that audience attention span is so short. I call it The Amazon Prime effect: People want what they want when they want it. That's the narrow window +Media works in.
What’s next for +Media Solutions?
We have proven that our solution works. Our clients have seen massive success. We are providing an answer to a struggle so many brands and content producers face. We are a women-led tech startup working hard on our path to scale. We are really thrilled at the future we’re looking at as we grow this impact-driven solution to empower brands and audiences to take action and help build a better world.
About Julie Davitz
Julie Davitz is an internationally recognized impact leader. Prior to founding Plus Media Solutions, Inc., she was the Head of Impact Solutions for BNP Paribas/Bank of the West, the 8th largest private bank in the world, where she was responsible for developing the bank's strategic wealth efforts towards sustainability and impact. She had her own global consulting firm and worked with hundreds of organizations from the US to India to Africa. Her perspective and deep experience with nonprofits, for-profit companies and UHNW philanthropists and investors have led to her being an in-demand speaker and panel participant at major conferences. Julie recognizes the urgency of interest, the rise in viable solutions and the technological delivery mechanisms. Her vision is to connect these three to offer scalable actions in order to address the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
