By Chinenye Anuforo, [email protected]
Insights from the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria show that Nigeria’s movie production industry, Nollywood, grossed over N800,000,000 from theatre releases in 2022. Only a few decades ago, the industry was not as lucrative as it is today due to factors like poor production output and piracy.
However, technological intervention in the production process has made Nollywood movies more appealing to a global audience. As such, through improved movie distribution channels, viewers can now access Nigerian movies in cinemas as well as on international movie streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Showmax.
Cinematographer, Chuks Oteke, once shared the frustrations he experienced with his work some years back. According to him, clients constantly blamed him for poor movie output after he edited the shots he received from them. He tried to explain to them that the poor clips he received from them were the major factor contributing to the post-production output delivered.
In a quest to address this constant feedback and restore his reputation, he decided to carry out some research while working as a camera operator across various film sets. Chuks soon discovered that the use of poor production equipment was the cause of the problem. He explored building his own equipment as purchasing new ones was quite expensive. For him, the need to have the right camera angles, light and much more to get the required shots birthed Film Anatomie. His curiosity and ability to improvise saw him create technologies needed by many movie producers in the country.
Although Chuks had a great solution to offer the largest movie production industry in the world (in terms of output), his business had a setback like many African startups; there was a need to reach the right customers and drive profit.
Common among many business founders and owners, it is easy to get excited about owning a business of your own or founding the next big thing that will happen to humanity. However, it is important to note that it is one thing to develop great products or services, and another thing to be able to reach the right target market, drive sales and scale your business.
Here is the good news: using an effective growth strategy, the business reached over 250,000 filmmakers and directors, generated 127 qualified leads, and recorded a 400% return on ad spend in only 90 days.
How did they make this happen? Here are a few things tech founders can adopt from Film Anatomie’s growth strategy and Startup LaunchCode’s work on the business.
•Identify the ideal customer for your product or service and create personas for each of them.
•Assess and optimize your online presence and footprint. Film Anatomie’s website was rebranded to improve the perception of the brand in the marketplace they were looking to engage.
•Map out your customer journey, identify the touchpoints the ideal customer would go through in engaging with your brand, the key activities at each stage, and assign KPIs that your team would track.
•Develop a content plan that would engage and nurture the prospect and move them further down the customer journey.
•Create a growth plan to monitor business activities. This can be for an average of 90 days.
•Consider launching an omnichannel campaign to reach the identified target market of your business.