Lights Film School recently had the opportunity to sit down with the people at Tadcast and speak with them about their vision for their new company that seeks to help filmmakers finance their productions through the use of strategic product placement in their online videos. You can now earn considerable revenue through product placement without having to go out and find advertisers yourself. Tadcast has already found the advertisers for you. Read our exclusive interview below.

Lights Film School Question 1:
Product placements are great ways for independent filmmakers to help finance their films. In the past, it’s been the responsibility of filmmakers to approach companies based on the pay for performance model you have suggested on your website. You mention that filmmakers can expect to earn money based on impressions (CRM which is cost / 1000 impressions). What are the average earnings filmmakers can expect to make based on 1000 impressions?

Tadcast Response:
Actually, in the past, product placement has mainly not been on a pay for performance basis – it has mostly been done in individual deals struck with Hollywood productions for a fixed price.  Tadcast is trying to show advertisers that product placement in amateur, non-Hollywood online videos is a great, safe, and effective way to expose their products to niche online viewers.  To prove this, we are hosting a contest where filmmakers will make videos and incorporate one or more of our advertisers into their videos as product placements.  Our advertisers are iced tea company Honest Tea, music equipment and accessories company Zildjian, and hip new cocoa nib company SweetRiot.  If we can demonstrate that unknown filmmakers will do a good job in this contest, we will be able to get advertisers to pay more and more to filmmakers for placing products.

Ultimately, it is our vision that the most successful online videomakers will be able to earn upwards of $100 CPMs, and the average online videomaker will be able to make upwards of $40 CPMs.  It will all depend on the filmmaker’s reputation, so it is important to start as early as possible to develop a reputation with Tadcast for producing quality work and meeting advertiser requirements.

Lights Film School Question 2:
What are the limits to filmmaker earnings? How much would a film featuring 1 product stand to make if it brought in 10,000 impressions? 100,000 impressions?

Tadcast Response:
That will depend on the particular product and deal.  Each advertiser will set a limit for how much they are able to spend.  So for example, Pepsi might offer a CPM of $20 and a budget cap of $200,000.  In that case 10,000 impressions with just the Pepsi product would earn $200 and 100,000 impressions would earn $2,000.  But if many filmmakers choose to accept the Pepsi deal and someone earns 10,000,000 views he should earn $200,000 himself, but because others will also be eating into that $200,000 budget he will likely see a bit less than the $200,000.  In the future, we expect that CPMs will be much higher, especially for the filmmakers with good reputations, and 100,000 impressions could earn somewhere around $10,000.

Lights Film School Question 3:
Filmmakers often see product placements as necessary to help finance their productions however there is a fine line between a produce placement and a full out commercial advertisement. Filmmakers often don’t want to compromise the creative integrity of their films. This means that they will often try to underexpose their product placement. Although each of your advertisers have minimum requirements under their listings, what happens if they refuse to pay for impressions on a production they simply feel doesn’t accomplish what they are looking for? For example, sweet riot, doesn’t have a minimum time listed on their description. If, as a filmmaker using that product in my video, I show the label in a medium shot for 3 seconds they may feel the value of a medium shot for only 3 seconds isn’t worth their advertising dollars. As a filmmaker willing to do product placements in my videos I have my limitations as well. I will likely feel a close up of the product for 7 seconds will jeopardize the integrity of my film or video. How can you ensure both your filmmakers and advertisers that their vision for the placement is similar?

Tadcast Response:
Filmmakers only have to do what is specifically asked of them in the advertisers’ requirements.  If they are not comfortable with the advertiser’s requirements they should not take on that particular advertiser.  If the advertiser doesn’t specify something (such as close-up), then a medium shot, for example is fine.  To better their reputation, however, filmmakers should be sure to use their best judgement on issues that are vague.

Lights Film School Question 4:
Will there be different CPM’s / product?

Tadcast Response:
Yes.  And as time goes by, the better the filmmaker’s reputation the better CPM opportunities he/she will have.

Lights Film School Question 5:
You mentioned that advertisers can have a fixed budget. What happens if an advertiser sets their budget for $1000 and then 10 filmmakers put the time into producing a video with that product in the hopes that they can make $1000. If all of these 10 films do well and make $100 each in the first day, the advertising budget has essentially been eaten up. You mention that all additional hits to the video are free after the budget has been eaten up. How do you plan to ensure situations like this don’t happen that obviously disadvantage the filmmaker?

Tadcast Response:
Next to each advertising opportunity we will post the number of filmmakers who have posted videos incorporating that product and have a meter indicating how much of the budget remains up for grabs.  That way filmmakers will know, roughly, the potential amount of money they will be able to earn on each deal before they invest their time and energy.

Lights Film School Question 6:
From the filmmakers perspective is their any way to work with a sponsor that is willing to pay / impressions for a set budget based on that specific project alone. For example, if I’m willing to place product “X” in my film and know I’ll be able to get at least 300,000 views of the video how do I ensure that I will be compensated for all of those impressions and not simply half of them or a quarter of them? What happens if the film is a hit and produces millions of visits?

Tadcast Response:
Once a filmmaker develops a great reputation on Tadcast, not only for meeting advertiser requirements, but also for regularly high viewing numbers, the filmmaker would have the opportunity to engage in a more direct relationship with the advertiser.

Lights Film School Quesion 7:
Do you allow filmmakers to put the website on multiple video sharing sites? If so how do you protect your advertisers against click fraud?

Tadcast Response:
Yes, filmmakers can put their videos on any sites so long as we can prove how many views each video receives.  We are working on technological ways to prevent those who commit click fraud from getting away with it.

To learn more about Tadcast, and sign up for the Tadcast Contest visit www.tadcast.com
First prize: $5,000
Second Prize:  Adobe editing suite (retail value $1,699)
Top ten: free 3-month subscriptions to IMDbPro
Everyone: Be a part of a mission that will help filmmakers earn money for doing what they love.

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