Why content marketers need to think like film producers

I’ve been thinking about film producers lately. Everyone assumes they make movies. I’m not sure they do. I reckon they manufacture attention.

Long before the cameras roll, the best producers aren’t obsessing over the script. The conversation usually starts somewhere else. ‘What will people feel?’ ‘What will they remember?’ ‘What will make them tell someone else to go and see it?’

They’re exactly the questions more content marketers should be asking.

Too much marketing content is built around what brands want to say rather than what audiences want to experience. We measure output instead of impact. We celebrate volume over value. Film producers don’t have that luxury.

Having spent years producing Australian television and film, including Fat Pizza and Cedar Boys, I’ve seen first-hand that great productions aren’t built by making films longer or productions bigger. They’re built by creating moments people respond to emotionally and want to return to.

I still remember arguing in an edit suite over whether a scene should end three seconds earlier. Three seconds. It sounded ridiculous until we watched it with an audience. Those three seconds completely changed how people reacted. Looking back, I don’t think we were editing scenes. We were editing attention.

That’s a lesson marketing has never needed more.

Today, every brand is a publisher. Technology is no longer the competitive advantage. Attention is. And attention isn’t won by creating more. It’s earned by understanding what moves people and makes them lean in.

Film producers understand audiences don’t consume stories because they’re informative. They consume them because they’re emotionally engaging. Every decision – from casting and pacing to music and editing – is designed to keep people invested.

Instead of asking, ‘What campaign do we need this quarter?’, maybe the better question is, ‘What story deserves to be told?’ Or better still, ‘What experience are we trying to create?’ We spend so much time perfecting the message that we sometimes forget to earn the attention needed for anyone to hear it.

In my book, Yes Yes Yes: The Playbook for Persuasion, I argue that influence isn’t about convincing people. It’s about creating the conditions where saying ‘yes’ feels like the natural next step. Great producers understand this instinctively. They don’t force audiences to care. They create the conditions for audiences to choose to care.

Content marketers can learn from that in three ways.

Produce for emotion before information

I watched Steven Spielberg’s new film Disclosure Day recently and it reminded me why he’s remained one of the world’s great storytellers for so long. He doesn’t rush to explain everything. Actually, he seems remarkably comfortable doing the opposite. He lets you sit inside the emotion before you’ve completely worked out what’s happening. He trusts the audience to catch up.

Marketing often gets this backwards.

Marketing often leads with products, features and credentials before earning attention. Producers know the opposite is true. Facts inform, but emotion creates momentum. Before asking what message you want people to remember, ask what feeling you want them to leave with. Emotion opens the door. Information simply walks through it.

Cast your audience as the hero

One thing surprised me working in film. People imagine producers spend all day talking about scripts. They do. But they spend just as much time talking about audiences.

Marketers should too, and I know the good ones do. The brands that consistently command attention aren’t talking about themselves; they’re creating stories and experiences people choose to spend time with. The most persuasive brand stories begin with a challenge the audience recognises in themselves before revealing a solution. That’s storytelling, not messaging.

Produce influence, not just content

I’ve come to think most organisations don’t actually have a content problem. They have a production problem.

A podcast builds trust. A documentary creates credibility. A customer story removes doubt. A social video sparks curiosity. Individually, they’re content. Together, they’re a production designed to move someone confidently towards a decision.

Distribution matters just as much. A brilliant film shown to the wrong audience still fails. Content marketing often makes the same mistake. I’ve been guilty of it myself – spending weeks creating something and only thinking about distribution at the end. Looking back, it’s like making a film and deciding where to release it the day before opening night.

Creating content is only half the job. Producing its success is the other half.

Perhaps the greatest lesson film has taught me is that audiences are incredibly sophisticated. They know when something feels manufactured and when it feels authentic. People don’t share content because a brand wants reach. They share it because it made them laugh, think or see something differently.

Hollywood has never really been in the movie business. It’s always been in the attention business. Marketing has finally arrived at the same place.

In an era where every brand can publish, the winners won’t be those who create the most content. They’ll be the ones who create the conditions for audiences to say ‘yes’… yes to watching, yes to trusting, yes to sharing and, ultimately, yes to buying.

I suspect audiences have understood that for years. The rest of us are only just catching up.

Jeff Purser is a communications strategist and commercial director with more than two decades of experience across sport, media and entertainment