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CONTENT19

Presented by Taylor Aigner, Wendy Appelle, Juliette Burns, Manny Lubin, Vanessa Mok, and Afton Thomas

http://content19.weebly.com/

TABLE OF CONTENTS _____________________________________________________________________________

Brief Summary and Description of Business

Rundown of Our Website

Business Model

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Budget and Breakdown

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Competitor Analysis

Marketing

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Advertising

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Two-Year Projection

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Biographies

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SUMMARY AND DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS CONTENT19: The Never-Ending Online Film Festival FOR CONTENT CREATORS: Content19 provides an online portal for content creators to showcase their talent in film, television and new media by giving them the opportunity to submit their videos free of charge, in attempt to be broadcast on our website. All submissions are then viewed and filtered by our team of professionals, who will narrow it down to the top 19 films and top 19 TV shows of the month. On the 19th of every month, a new batch of content will be available to the public, replacing the past month. If you can create good content, we will reward you with the viewership you deserve. Not only will this help your video be seen by the public, but may also potentially be your gateway into the Entertainment Industry. Producers, directors, networks, agents, and more will have access to this online festival, as well as the ability to contact you through our portal if they are interested in working with you. Professionals dont want to spend hours sifting through websites with tons of mediocre content. They also dont want to be the ones filtering itwhich is why we do it for them. If your video gets chosen, all eyes will be on you. FOR VIEWERS: At Content19, you will be able to see unique content not seen on TV, On Demand, in theaters, or anywhere else. You wont need to wait for a video to go viral for it to reach you. All you need to do is come to our online film festival, where youll be able to view the top 19 films and top 19 TV shows of the month. Once youve watched everything, do not fret. On the 19th of every month, we will rotate in a fresh collection of new content. Content19 is for viewers who: Are tired of hopping from video to video hoping to find a good one Are sick of watching the same shows and films over and over again Want to see new and raw talent Want consistently updated, quality content Well filter the contentyour job is simply to enjoy it.

RUNDOWN OF OUR WEBSITE Content19s goal is to create a user-friendly environment so that our viewers feel like they are visiting an online video festival. With more than enough content to suffice, viewers will be able to navigate gracefully around our website and enjoy all of the content our Entertainment Professionals have hand-selected. The home page shows the various tabs available to viewers. Film and Television are closest to the home page because we believe that most of the visitors to our website will want to be sifting through content, even if they are interested in uploading their own video. After those tabs, we have included a tab called How To Start which is where Content19 provides a brief summary explaining how one can become a content-creator for our website or how one can navigate around the website as a viewer. Both sections are easy to follow and instructional. Then we have included a Meet the Staff page followed by Contact. Our contact page is one of the most important because it allows content creators and viewers to get in touch with one another as well as agencies and corporations to follow up with content they are interested in through this form. Our heads of Technology and - interchangeably - Head of Content Distribution and Marketing will look through these emailed forms on a daily, timely basis. Each film and television show displayed on our website will have a rollover option to find out more details about the cast, director, producer, plot, and other important information. Content19 does keep all information confidential (i.e. contact information), so if an individual or company desires to contact a content-creator, they must go through our Contact Form system. Overall, our website is easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. With the $60 for an official domain name, Content19 looks forward to a successful yet endearing year of hard work.

BUSINESS MODEL

As previously mentioned, Content19 serves two different demographics: the content producer and the viewer. In order for our model to work, we have created content creator accounts, and viewer accounts. In terms of our content-creator accounts, Content19 recognizes the need for contracts concerning rights and royalties for all content-creators who will be published onto our site. Any content creator can submit their work to our site. After our team decides if the content is suitable and worthy of our quality, the creator will receive a congratulatory email, and ask them to sign an automated web contract before their content will be officially hosted live on the site. This contract states that Content19 will hold 100% of the rights to that content for 365 days. It is important for Content19 to remain as the sole owners of the content for up to a full year, so that user cannot upload its content to other competing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. One of Content19s main sells is that it puts users in a straight-line connection opportunity with industry people, whose attention they wouldnt otherwise have attained. Without the full rights, their work could appear anywhere, and Content19 would be losing views, subscribers, and potential for ad revenue. Once the 365 days have expired, users will retain a portion of the rights to their content. Creators will hold 51% ownership, and Content19 will hold 49%. This allows the creator to make all executive decisions in regards to their work, yet at the same time, allows Content19 to still have equity in the product. For example, if a user is discovered after that 365 day mark, Content19 will still have involvement and credibility in relation to that specific production. They will also earn a part of the revenue if the rights to the content is sold to a distribution company, or other major player. Subscription Breakdown Content19 will have two options for viewers to watch content. Option number one is free viewership, and option number two is a subscription. I. Content19 Free 38 Package The free package allows anyone to come onto the website and view any video they would like for free. If the viewer chooses this option, they will view advertisements before and in the middle of their video. These advertisements are unable to be skipped. The amount of advertising per video depends on the duration of the video. We will start out by having one minute of advertisements every ten minutes of content. This will allow enough time for viewers to get engaged in the content they are viewing, but also isnt too long that individuals will become uninterested in the aforementioned video and skip to a new one. If this time was any more than a minute, viewers may get up and walk away from their computers to skip the advertisements, but because they are only one-minute blocks, viewers will be forced to stay around their computers so they do not miss any content following the advertisements.
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Our marketing team will be reaching out to prospective advertisers to fill these blocks. At the launch of our company, we will only be charging advertisers $1,000 per month, and $5.00 cost per mille (cost per each 1,000 views). For example, if one month a certain advertisement was seen by 96,000 viewers, this agency would be paying: $1,000 + (96,000/1,000) x $5.00 = $1,480. This price is quite competitive in our industry, with many of our competition charging anywhere from $20 to $30 CPM. II. Content19 Business Class Subscription (BCS) The second option for Content19 festival fanatics is a paid subscription. The BCS will be $3.99 per month and will eliminate all advertisements from the viewing experience. If customers sign up for the subscription within the first month, they will be locked into the Start Up Subscription Fee for one full year, even if it rises. As mentioned in the description, only a onetime entry of credit/debit card information is needed, and Content19 will automatically charge the viewers account so they do not have to worry about late fees or unpaid bills. If subscribers would like to terminate their subscriptions, they must unsubscribe voluntarily online. Revenue Stream At Content 19, we project that in our first calendar year, roughly 1 out of every 3 (33%) of individuals will subscribe to our ad-free option. This means that $140,250 of our first year revenue should be coming from paid subscribers in order for us to break even. To break this down a little bit more, if merely 2,922 viewers pay a monthly subscription for all 12 months [$140,250 / (12 x 3.99) = <2,922] we will cover our estimated revenue from our BCS option. If 5,844 viewers decide to subscribe for an average of 6 months a person, we will too cover our estimated subscription costs. The other 66% we expect to choose the Free 38 Package and watch Content 19 videos with advertisements. This leaves $284,750 to be covered by advertisers. In order to cover these costs and break even, we would are expecting 10 different companies to advertise with us. This would generate $120,000 of revenue [10 x ($1,000 x 12) = $120,000]. This leaves $164,750 to be paid by CPM. This means that in our first calendar year, we need a combined total of at least 32.95 million views to break even [{X views/1000} x $5.00 = $284,750 which breaks down to ($284,750/$5.00) x 1000 = X views = 32.95 million viewsin a full year]. With 456 total videos throughout the year (38 videos every month x 12 months in a year = 456), this means each video only needs to be viewed an average of <72,259 times. [32.95 mil / 456 videos = 72,259 views per video]. With some videos being more popular than others, this should be achieved with ease.

BUDGET

BUDGET BREAKDOWN Following a simplistic guide of percentages, our team found it most efficient to divide our needs into four categories: Administration, Sales and Marketing, Research and Development, and our Operating Income. If our revenue, the total of all costs and expenses [i.e. 100%], comes to be $500,000, our cost of revenue [15%] is $75,000 and our gross margin (which is comprised of the four categories) is $425,000 [85%]. Administration is 20% of our expenses, sales and marketing is 35%, research and development at 10%m and the operating income at 20%. Following our model, our team has allowed for $34,000 to be spent for administration. We have $30,000 for our annual office lease - located in Boston and have added $4,000 for office necessities, such as computers, additional phones, and Internet connection/wifi. We have created a website off of weebly.com but in order to create an original domain name, we would and are willing to spend $60 for this service. Sales and Marketing, at 35%, totals to about $119,000. As dedicated professionals, we have collectively agreed to work as full-time employees at a part-time/ minimal rate in order to kickstart our business. We have faith in our company, however, success does not come overnight and we understand this risk. Our team will be given positions of CEO (Head of Content Distribution and Partnership), CFO (Head of Finance), Head of Marketing, and Head of Legal and Business. Each of these members will be paid $14,750 and given raises in respect to the businesss success. $15,000 will go towards advertising as it is one of the most important aspects of our website and $5,000 accounted for promotional items. Lastly, we will have our Head of Content Distribution managing a team of professionals known as our Entertainment Professionals who are solely in charge of sifting through the Internet to find content for our website. The $40,000 allotted to the Entertainment Professionals will be divvied up how the HCD sees fit. Research and development at 10% totals to $68,000. Besides advertising, streaming will be one of our most costly necessities. We will be having hours and hours of content on our website and we do not want to deal with issues of trafficking and delayed loading. As a team we have decided that this would be the best use of our money. Head of Technology and Head of Research and Development will each be paid $8,000. Their duties will be less time consuming than the other positions, however, they are expected to put in as much dedication. Our operating income, at 20% of the total revenue, comes to be $85,000. Our model of $500,000 revenue ends up concluding that if we charge $3.99 per subscription (a subscription meaning use of website without advertisements), we will break even with approximately 125,000 viewers. Content19 believes 125,000 viewers is more than achievable and believe we will have double that number every three months considering the path our generation is moving towards in respects to online content and technology.
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COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS Content19 has two tiers of competitors. The primary competitors being the free video hosting sites YouTube and Vimeo. These two sites will be our central competitors concerning where content creators wish to upload their works. Both are well established in the market, have a reputable brand name, and users have the option to make money after their uploaded content reaches a certain number of views. These sites, however, are extremely cluttered, and host a vast amount of different types of content, ranging from how-to instructional clips, funny cat videos, and live music recordings, to feature films. The difference with our product, is that we are providing a focused and filtered distribution of quality content. One can waste hours and hours browsing through content in order to find a choice piece of content -- our main goal is to provide a seamless experience for our users, with the best quality independent film and television content in the market. Our secondary competitors would be the likes of Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, and Movies on Demand. These sites host content, primarily film and television that has been picked up by major media distributors and owned by the large multinational media conglomerates. They provide feature films, network and cable television shows, and general mainstream programming. While there is a small market for independent films and documentaries, only the most popular content makes it onto these streaming sites. For all of these sites, you must pay a monthly premium or a set price-per-purchase to view these videos. Netflix and Hulu are strictly streaming providers at any time of day, while iTunes provides the option to own a copy of the content you purchase. Movies-on-Demand offers the option to pay for films to watch for a certain period of time, and also offers free films that are recycled through time. One major caveat is that none of these providers have been able to capture an entire market, or are able to provide a large majority of all of the content being produced. Our service will resonate with audiences due to the two options of streaming, as well as the new and refreshed content every month, as well as its unique and art-house type content, normally only available to be viewed at small, local, or institution-based film festivals.

MARKETING Content19 gears its service towards the college student and young professional demographic. It focuses on comprising video that is mainly within the genre of film festivals with the intent for users to be able to make purchases to then further develop their own films. Marketing Director will have $25,000 to work with in the initial budget. Content19 plans to spend $5000, which will be put towards marketing-promo items. Interns will be responsible for on-campus promotions, and will act as our street-team, handing out free T-shirts and chapstick which will have Content19s logo and social media contact information. Interns will be unpaid, but will receive college credit for their participation, entrepreneurial experience as we are a startup company, and of course, exposure to the entertainment business industry. They will be given incentives to generate the most sign ups, and the highest performing interns will have their own original content featured on our site. In addition, Content19s marketing team will be responsible for all public relations activities and be putting money earned from advertising revenue back into promotional products/web develop. As our site is initially launched, our main strategy will be to link up with other pre-existing services in order to capture their niche audiences. We aim to create partnerships with major independent and modern festivals such as South by Southwest (SXSW), and become their exclusive online video provider for their events. We will benefit from their sponsors and major advertisers as this festival is an already established brand. This initial step will create a mass viewership quickly, and help to secure advertising revenue for Content19.

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ADVERTISING Content19s main focus will be signing up and exciting new users. The number of subscribers and page views Content19 receives will have a proportional impact on who our commercial advertisers will be. An increase in free users, subscribers, and page views will then determine how much our commercial advertisers will be willing to pay to advertise their products on Content19. However, as explained in our Business Plan, our advertising revenue rates are highly competitive within the current industry climate. Content19s will build connections with advertisers whose products appeal to generation y and independent art-house enthusiasts. We will approach advertisers with the intent to sign and renew fiscal contracts concerning the placement of their 60-second spots on Content19s website. We will create brand advertising strategies and promotional activities to draw outside advertisers in. This will be a continual process of strengthening relationships with existing advertisers and create opportunities for networking. Our overall advertising budget is $15,000 and a significant portion of our money will be going towards advertising students and young professionals to sign up for our service. Content19 will be using social media for 70% of it advertising strategy. Content19 plans to distribute ads on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. In addition to social media, Content19s team will not be using an outside agency, yet instead be public relations representatives for our own brand.

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TWO-YEAR PROJECTION If our partnerships and marketing strategies prove to be successful, our projected profits after our first two years would grow exponentially, with major increases in advertising revenue and paid subscribers. This new income will be used to optimize and further our business for our users and our staff members, committed to our brands mission. With a solid user and subscriber base, we will continue to secure better, and better content. As we generate more advertising revenue and subscriptions, we may need to increase the capacity of our streaming servers. We will seek to maintain the latest technologies and functionality of our site. Depending on how much profit we will have to work with, developing a mobile app for our service is definitely a viable option in the foreseeable future. Considering our complete 365 day rights of the published content, we will look to expand in our Legal department, bringing on a team of experts in order to ensure that our content providers needs are met, as well as our brands needs. Again, considering a wide user-base and connecting these providers to major industry players, we will be accruing a lot of profit in the resale of the rights to our published content. Our company will benefit massively from these cuts, and our providers will begin crafting the career they worked so hard to break into in the first place. Content19 has extreme growth-potential in a two-year projection. Partnerships with reputable and withstanding festivals and institutions who share our brand values, such as the partnership mentioned by South By Southwest, would launch our service as its own unique platform for young independent filmmakers trying to break into the industry. After all, it is these individuals of Generation Y that will become the future of the media landscape. This great time of change in the media and entertainment industry is integral to the launching of our service. Our service will grow along with new technologies and entertainment consumption methods as time progresses.

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BIOGRAPHIES
Taylor Aigner attends Northeastern University, currently majoring in Communication Studies with a minor in Psychology. She has worked at the Residential Safety Office at Northeastern University and in the marketing department at FC Dallas Major League Soccer Team. Wendy Appelle is a current Junior at Northeastern University studying Communication Studies with a minor in Digital Arts and Art History. Her past work experiences have included various positions at MSNBC, Harvard Law School, Juicy Couture, and the Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching through Technology at Northeastern University. She plans to do her last co-op at WGBH in the Fall and graduate in May 2015. Juliette Burns has had experience across the board in producing and editing video as well as marketing and managing various projects. She has had experience in co-ops with PR and brand communications involving various projects having to do with film and video. She is a Communications major and Business minor, and has taken various classes on how to start businesses including Broadcast Management, Entrepreneurial Universe, and several other media business courses. Manny Lubin is currently a student at Northeastern University studying Communications, Media, and Psychology. His past experiences involve working as a Production Assistant for Cox Communications as well as sales and marketing for multiple companies. While Manny does have experience creating media content, his main skills involve pitching and selling films to potential viewers. Vanessa Mok is a Junior Communications student at Northeastern University from Hong Kong and has received an associate degree in Communications Studies. During her video production experience at Dean College, she worked as being a director, floor director, technical director and audio director. She has produced live game shows, interviews and commercials in her video production classes. This summer, Vanessa will be working for JWT Advertising Agency in Hong Kong and hope to solidify her career goals for after graduation. Afton Thomas is a Junior Communications and Production student at Northeastern University, coming from the New York Metropolitan Area. She has an extensive background in the advertising and entertainment industries, including on camera and behind the scenes work. She regularly appears in cable commercial spots, and has worked for TJX Companies as an advertising assistant for their Marshalls retail brand. She will begin working as a Copywriter for Bose in July. She has interned for Universal Pictures and Focus Features, implementing their publicity and promotion efforts in the Boston, Hartford, and Providence markets. She is connected with several nationally renowned film critics in the Boston area, and is extremely familiar with the current industry landscape, for both Hollywood and young professionals trying to break out into the scene.

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