The key to effective marketing is finding that thing that moves people from their very core. Something that ignites their senses and sparks their imagination. And imagination of what could be, what can be and what truly is. This is a gift that few people have. For those who are born with this ability to touch people’s hearts and wonder with precision are called masters, magicians, geniuses.
Filmmakers are such geniuses. And not just the headlining directors or producers, but even those producing everything around the movies – the cinema producers. The movie posters, the trailers, the commercial spots and static ads. All that surrounds the movie and that is involved is with one goal in mind: to reach the audience at such a level that the movie and indeed all the imagery around it, lingers in their thoughts for days. To blow the audience away, if you will.
Filmmaking magic and marketing
For most marketers, that special “thing” that filmmakers and cinema producers have that connects them with audiences on an emotional and long-lasting level is their holy grail. Most marketers know that for their strategies, campaigns and tactics to work they must focus on the customer and their aspirations and desires. But how do you do this? Tactical, hard skills can be taught but there is no marketing playbook that can show marketers and advertisers how to touch their emotions and resonate in their thoughts. These are skills that are either innate or developed over long periods of time, but not easily taught.
Bringing the magic and insights into what moves audiences on an emotional level to general marketing for businesses outside of the film industry is what Laurent Zahut has been able to do. A lifelong devotee to movies, filmmaking and cinema promotional production, he brings unmatched expertise into exactly what echoes in the hearts and minds of the public. Coupled with nearly a decade working in marketing and advertising for powerhouse companies like McDonald’s and Infinitif, a ready-to-wear clothing brand, Mr. Zahut brings a fresh and unique approach to marketing that few others can duplicate.
Laurent Zahut: one foot in each world
From a very young age, Laurent was an admirer of movies and film. He spent as much of his freetime as he could at the local movie theater in his central Paris neighborhood, sparking his imagination and broadening his perspective of the world. Through turbulent but exciting years of social and political change of the 1980s, he also learned about the human side of society, which continues today as a foundational theme in all that Laurent Zahut does – in life and work.
His career took him slowly into cinema promotion, starting with working at an actual theater while in high school, as a journalist for a cinema-related magazine, editor of his start-up magazine (CINEFEEL) and working at one of the first cineplexes in France located in the bustling Les Halles in Paris. After his detour into general marketing with McDonald’s and Infinitif, he returned to cinema production with the formulation of his own agency, Terre Neuve.
It is the experience from his time inside and outside the cinema industry that combined make his mindset in marketing unique. One might think that marketing for a movie is nothing like marketing for a product is very different because, after all, a movie is a big production and huge release. However, a great movie is nothing if people don’t know about it. Movie promotion is what brings people through the door, and cinema producers like Laurent Zahut know what tagline, what slogan, what mood, what words, what imagery will have the greatest impact on the movie goers’ sentiments and remain on their mind.
A new approach
Marketing is moving fast and sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with new trends. But unlike trends, the fundamentals of audience resonation do not change very much. In fact, it’s the trends and new technologies that must mold around what audiences want.
While some companies’ marketing departments continue to invest time, energy and money into the latest and greatest in marketing trends – even if they are not quite sure what to do, like some marketers are with exploding technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality and the metaverse – others are looking for something newer, fresher, something beyond the top ten marketing trends for whatever year it is. And even more so in today’s ever-changing, unpredictable world the desire for something different will likely increase.
The unique position that Mr. Zahut has between cinema production and marketing brings a fresh perspective to general advertising that is born from professional experience, techniques and successes that he has spent decades fine tuning. This position will also prove advantageous to those marketers who are investing in the current visual and immersion technologies, because after all, who knows better about taking the audience to another world than a filmmaker and cinema producer?
It’s an exciting time for marketing and for the film industry, and Laurent Zahut has one foot firmly planted in each industry, bringing them both together. After all, most companies want their marketing efforts to – like a good movie with an outstanding promotion ahead of it – blow their target audiences away.