“Most small businesses are unaware that they are marketing backwards,” argues James Buzzacco, founder of the Los Angeles, CA cinematic branding boutique, Creative Doorway.
Why Are Businesses Marketing Backwards?
“Everyone is flocking to design individual brand components in an ‘a la carte’ fashion: starting with logo design, website development, and then just filling in the remaining blanks with random sales driven content,” explains James; “simply to imitate the marketing efforts of their direct competitors. Instinctually they assume business will then just work. They are quick to discover that this soulless pursuit is perceived exactly as that. However, alerted to the fresh blood as soon as it enters the water, are the likes of a new generation of consumers, who can quickly discern original and authentic from its large list of “fake it until you make it” counterparts.”
Being a creative director for over 15 years, Buzzacco affirms, “there was this inevitable doom that plagued the overwhelmingly high volume of small businesses who entered the market with a blind hope and relentless confidence every year; regardless of the upscale reputation of the town, people involved, and even their accompanying massive advertising budgets. They would all claim they had made the extensive efforts to implement all the traditional marketing maneuvers required, but unfortunately, one’s adopted from a ‘top 5’ list on some bloggers ‘successful business ingredients’ article online. And as no surprise, they would fail to flourish as a lucrative and highly functioning business.”
Something was obviously missing, but the clear solution ‘to rise above’ the cookie cutter formulaic recipe has become even more diluted and lost in translation. “And now that there is an ap developed for every business application need, the “do it yourself’ mentality-driven populous is finding out what separates the big boys from the rest of the oversaturated playing field, James continues.” There are famous ad firms that exist that are solely responsible for the brands we consider to be the most recognized and consumed. An entire marketing department deployed to make sure that we, as consumers, enter their product environments exactly the way they strategically planned. A creative department that does nothing more than to uphold the brand integrity on every single form of media, just so that the consistency of their style guide color palette and acceptable font types are always paired like a harmonious chorus working in unison. There is a certain depth to a booming brand for this very reason, and the success that follows is a well-deserved reward for putting the proper amount of attention on the very fibers that help weave a top tier company foundation. This is something the ap developers, the ones who are responsible for giving you exactly what you asked for, a short cut, don’t want you to know.”
“Keep believing in the shortcut and you’ll pay for it, literally.”
Creating from The Right-side Upward
Buzzacco wants to “turn marketing around and start at the opposite end first; completely contrary to the preprogrammed nature of what is taught online and practiced in our viral sensationalized society. You need to build a unique storyline premise that can establish an authentic identity, and then allow the other branding elements to form and help support the star of the show,” James states. “This approach has been proven to help a product or service prevail as the real protagonist in our trademark cinematic brand stories, which are essentially highly strategic campaigns custom tailored to the individuality of the company and its visionaries.”
Together with his wife, and equally passionate business partner Misty, they hope that with their work portfolio and outspoken marketing advocacy efforts, they can help remedy a misinterpreted formula for success. The couple, of whom both have backgrounds in filmmaking and marketing, offer a unique blend of branding services to help tell a story for businesses looking to generate a real emotional connection with their customers.
“We seem to build a very productive relationship with companies in this category, of whom have also exhausted the formulaic pitfalls of following the newest business success trends,” explains James. “Following the same bulletin list that is suited perfectly for a single entrepreneurial DNA strand, but has nothing to do with the billion other unique product and service providers looking to establish themselves as something more…something different… something alive and relatable.
In many ways, Awakening, the duo’s latest cinematic short film branding project epitomizes this unique methodology of cinematic brand storytelling. James and Misty strategically blueprinted the project as a way to creatively reveal the truths about the remarkable potentials of the near science fiction reality of a current breakthrough in medical science, while using the very production talents reserved for the theatrical silver screen to showcase a new exosome-based cellular product, Exo® – one of many innovations created by the California based cellular manufacturing company, Elysian Biologics.
The duo sees this project as a culmination of the skills they have honed in order to stay true to their core beliefs, a way to speak an authentic message to an audience, while also solidifying the viability of their enterprise.
“We invite you to meet us at the Creative Doorway, anyone who knocks is welcome,” James concludes.
