[arg_discuss] is ARG just a marketing technique to the press?

Jason Chrest jason at aporiacme.com
Thu Jan 10 14:20:40 EST 2008


Brian, you make an excellent point in bringing up the WGA strike. If there was a perfect time to strike as a genre, this would be it. The key is that we have to have something that we can show those investors to convince them to come on board. I feel ARGs can be as or more successful entertainment venues contrasting t.v. And movies. The key to it may not necessarily be to promote it to them as you would a movie, but like a television show.


Jason Chrest
Aporia Cross-Media Entertainment
www.aporiacme.com
jason at aporiacme.com


-----Original Message-----
From: "Brian Clark" <bclark at gmdstudios.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:07:30
To:"'Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG'" <arg_discuss at igda.org>
Subject: Re: [arg_discuss] is ARG just a marketing technique to the press?


>So, it's hard to get people to invest in IP ownership. You end up

>persuading investors that they want to be investing in what they see

>as straight content or, worse, a hits-based business (how do we know

>you're going to be the next Spielberg?)


People do it all the time, Dan, in the film space. It is hard to imagine the
true depth of film investment (if you get down to the Mom & Pop level) in IP
from independent filmmakers alone ... I bet it is competitive with what the
entire traditional corporate Hollywood spends in production in as well. Not
just that, but that capital even tends to be less risk adverse -- someone
spending $5M investing in a film understands they are taking a long shot,
compared to someone investing $5M in a business (who probably wants a surer
shot than any film investor ever gets.)

Different kind of capital raising, though: people understand how you make
money with a film. Show me an example of how you make money with an ARG, as
a default business strategy?

That's the real issue keeping that kind of speculative investment -- the
reward side, not the risk side. Plus, with the WGA strike, the people that
were putting $5M in films don't have a way to put that money to work right
now ...


Brian



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