HITS
HITS Fall: Pepperdine’s Ludovisi Offers Fan Engagement Ideas
Story Highlights
LOS ANGELES — Claudio Ludovisi, assistant dean and head of strategic innovation, marketing and alumni relations at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, often sees missed opportunities when looking at how content creators engage fans.
Speaking Oct. 4 during a morning presentation at the Hollywood Innovation & Technology Summit (HITS) Fall event, Ludovisi lamented that TV marketers spend millions on marketing a series that’s already in its 10th or 11th season — and already has an established fan base — when other things could be done with that money.
“Do we need to keep renting those eyeballs, or can we have a more direct relationship with fans?” he said.
With the technologies available today, it’s possible to create personal recommendations at scale, and build direct, two-way, continuous relationships with fans, who, in turn, can give content owners access to new customers they may have not even considered, he said. Today, by gamifying content, making designed experiences around your IP, partnering with social causes, and delving into other ideas that aren’t 15-second ad spots, content companies can engage with fans year round, Ludovisi added.
Today, TV creators focus on a specific season, and movie creators focus on a specific weekend. But with TV content now a digital, year-round endeavor, and films so often part of a larger franchise, “There’s a lot of fandom you can tap into outside of your paid media plan,” he added.
Those enabling technologies include database management paired with content management; mobile technology and connected devices; and artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, Ludovisi said.
HITS Fall was sponsored by Amazon Web Services, Box, Microsoft Azure, Ooyala, TiVo, Cognizant, DXC Technology, Gracenote, LiveTiles, ThinkAnalytics, Wasabi, Aspera, EIDR, MicroStrategy, the Trusted Partner Network, human-I-T, Zaszou IT Consulting, OnPrem Solution Partners, and Bob Gold & Associates, and was produced by the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA), in association with the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA), the Hollywood IT Society (HITS), the Smart Content Council and Women in Technology Hollywood (WiTH).
