Almost 20 years ago an ingenious concept called Mofilm was born. The idea was to create video content for brands that was uniquely relevant to the mobile screen. The hidden genius of the concept was creating a global community of filmmakers who were happy to create engaging concepts for brands in the hope of winning a competition prize.

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A no brainer for brands

Imagine Pepsi is looking for new and engaging content for a mobile-first advert. The brand could recruit an advertising agency, a famous director and a cast, and film a concept ad costing hundreds of thousands. Or the brand could simply offer a prize fund of $10,000 to the best mobile-focused ad made by the mobile film community. That way Pepsi gets dozens of great video concepts for a fraction of the cost of a mainstream ad.

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The genius of Mofilm was to tap into a community only too willing to work for (next to) nothing to showcase their creativity to big brands. The concept got traction around Mobile World Congress for a few years and even attracted a few major Hollywood stars. 

 

AI takes over video​

I was reminded of Mofilm this week when OpenAI launched Sora, its text-to-video AI model. A monthly subscription of $200 per month comes with up to 500 priority videos of 20 seconds each – a real no brainer for major brands constantly trying to stand out on social media.

I’ve been experimenting with HeyGen in the last few weeks and – while I’m doing nothing more than dipping my toe in the water - it’s clear that text-to-video will be transformational. What it does to the business models of thousands of video creation companies is another matter but – like so much related to AI – those threatened by its existence are the ones that most need to master its capabilities.

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It’s ok to have an opinion

One of the biggest gripes I hear consistently from journalists is - when a story breaks - they are inundated with companies wanting to share their views without actually having anything of note to say. After every major hacking incident or cyber-attack for instance, queues of companies line up to comment on how terrible everything is without offering any unique insight or solution. 

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We tend to live in a world of “bland” rather than “brand” but the CEOs and companies that stand out are invariably the ones with a controversial opinion or a real point of view. This process is a marathon, not a sprint and building an authentic voice in the market takes time and practice. If you want some tips on getting started, take a look at my colleague John Bowes’ guide to building thought leadership expertise.