I’ve been thinking about film producers lately. Everyone assumes they make movies. I’m not sure they do. I reckon they manufacture attention.
Long before the cameras roll, the best producers aren’t obsessing over the script. The conversation usually starts somewhere else. ‘ What will people feel?’ ‘What will they remember?’ ‘What will make them tell someone else to go and see it?’
They’re exactly the questions more content marketers should be asking.
Too much marketing content is built around what brands want to say rather than what audiences want to experience. We measure output instead of impact. We celebrate volume over value. Film producers don’t have that luxury.
Having spent years producing Australian television and film, including Fat Pizza and Cedar Boys , I’ve seen first-hand that great productions aren’t built by making films longer or productions bigger. They’re built by creating moments people respond to emotionally and want to return to.
I still remember arguing in an edit suite over whether a scene should end three seconds earlier. Three seconds. It sounded ridiculous until we watched it with an audience. Those three seconds completely changed how people reacted. Looking back, I don’t think we were editing scenes. We were editing attention.
That’s a lesson marketing has never needed more.
Today, every brand is a publisher. Technology is no longer the competitive advantage. Attention is. And attention isn’t won by creating more. It’s earned by understanding what moves people and makes them lean in.
Film producers understand audiences don’t consume stories because they’re informative. They consume them because they’re emotionally engaging. Every decision – from casting and pacing to music and editing – is designed to keep people invested.
Instead of asking, ‘What campaign do we need this quarter?’, maybe the better question is, ‘What story deserves to be told?’ Or better still, ‘What experience are we trying to create?’ We spend so much time perfecting the message that we sometimes forget to earn the attention needed for anyone to hear it.
In my book, Yes Yes Yes: The Playbook for Persuasion , I argue that influence isn’t about convincing people. It’s about creating the conditions where saying ‘yes’ feels like the natural next step. Great producers understand this instinctively. They don’t force audiences to care. They create the conditions for audiences to choose to care.
Content marketers can learn from that in three ways.
I watched Steven Spielberg’s new film Disclosure Day recently and it reminded me why he’s remained one of the world’s great storytellers for so long. He doesn’t rush to explain everything. Actually, he seems remarkably comfortable doing the opposite. He lets you sit inside the emotion before you’ve completely worked out what’s happening. He trusts the audience to catch up.
Marketing often leads with products, features and credentials before earning attention. Producers know the opposite is true. Facts inform, but emotion creates momentum. Before asking what message you want people to remember, ask what feeling you want them to leave with. Emotion opens the door. Information simply walks through it.
One thing surprised me working in film. People imagine producers spen…