How To Plan (And Use) Content Themes To Market Your Indie Project
Way back in 2017, I hosted and produced an indie film podcast for my job at the time, Stareable. One of the episodes I’ve referred back to most is a marketing conversation I had with web series creator Tom Pike, specifically because of a concept I’d never heard of that changed my life: content themes.
Per Tom’s definition from the podcast (though you should definitely listen to the full episode!), content themes are extremely specific (and often brand-specific) buckets of content that relate to your project’s ethos, theme, aesthetic, and resources, which you can use to focus your ideation and better stretch out the beats of your marketing plan.
An example from Tom directly:
So a content theme is, you give it a name, like “cinemagraphs,” you would say, rather than just like, oh, we’ll post random gifs.
…You’re like, a cinemagraph is a slow motion, black and white, repeating loop of, like, something really visually interesting, like someone smoking a cigarette and the smoke. It’s really artsy, like, and that’s a good fit for my thing, and our content that we’ve shot gives us a lot of opportunities to make those things.
And then once you have, like, several of those, you’ve got your cinemagraphs, that’s one content theme. You’ve got your behind-the-scenes photos, that’s another content theme. You’ve got live Q&As with the actors…
…[on scheduling] The cinemagraphs are going to be a little more work intensive, so let’s only post one of those a week. But behind the scenes photos, we have 300 of them. That will be the meat and potatoes of our campaign. We’re going to post that in every single phase.”
I’ve personally found that content themes are a really helpful way to organize my brainstorming sessions and focus my content ideation when it comes to building a new marketing plan from the ground-up, be it for a project’s premiere or for a crowdfunding campaign. That way, instead of thinking “I need 50 pieces of content to spread out over the next three months for promotion,” I think “what are 4–7 buckets of content that make sense for this project.”
Every project is different, of course, necessitating different appropriate content themes, but I wanted to offer a bit of guidance for some of the more standard, project-agnostic content themes to give you a starting point! Remember, though, the idea is each content theme should be iterable: a bucket’s not much good if you can only fit one or two things in it.
Graphic content theme ideas
- Quotes. Pretty self explanatory, I hope! Make a template and swap your favorite out of context or representative quotes from the project in and out.
- Comps. What other works inspired this project? What existing property (or properties, plural, especially) would you name drop to explain your thing to new audiences? Use your feed (or newsletter or blog… more on that in a bit) to promote and recommend other great work similar to your own to spread the love and let your audience know it’s not all about you, but also… if they happen to like the other things you’re recommending, perhaps they should also check your thing out.
- Theme/trope prompts. As audiences get more savvy, we can somewhat drop the act of trying to obscure the fact that they’re being marketed to. So break down exactly what your project is, and prompt leading questions to encourage engagement and discussion around things specific to your project (because as we know, engagement is key to standing out in an increasingly algorithmic social universe). You can see this working most clearly in indie romance publishing circles- making a series of graphics specific to the tropes in an author’s upcoming work and prompting their audience to discuss those tropes and share their opinions. “What do you love most about enemies to lovers?” etc etc
- Memes. Do your projects or characters lend themselves to memes? Are you a memester yourself and find that to be a natural way to express yourself and your taste? Maybe a more ironic social feed is for you!
- Storyboard to screen. A classic content theme for filmmakers, and one of my favorites: show us a series of your storyboard sketches (the worse the drawings are, the better, in my opinion) and what they eventually became in your final work.
Photo content theme ideas
- Team reveals. I imagine most of these photo content themes will be relatively straightforward, but basically: show us your team! Headshots are good, action shots (of them actually working on a set, especially) are better! Tell us about them and what they’ve worked on in the past.
- Stills/screenshots. You have theoretically infinite production stills and screenshots. Use ‘em!
- Location scout shots. If your project requires locations you don’t already have access to, chances are you’ve already got a bunch of photos on your phone of places you went to scout. That’s content, baby! Tell us why you liked or didn’t like the location, give us insights into your process and decision-making. People enjoy watching the sausage get made.
- Wardrobe/makeup/effect tests. There’s no more exciting sausage-making process, to my mind, than actually watching rehearsals and tests of tricky shots/special effects makeup/ practical effects. You’re already likely capturing these moments to share with the team and work out if the shots will work or not. So why not share them (as long as there are no major spoilers, of course) with your audience as well? I hope you’re starting to see a pattern: the best content themes are the ones made up of content you already have, that you’d have anyways because of the nature of making a film (or book or whatever), and then using that to share your work with the world.
- GIFs. Love a good GIF, especially if you have a lot of gags or action in your project.
Video/audio content theme ideas
Naturally, this category of content themes is higher impact/effort, so I wouldn’t choose more than one (or two, depending on if you can delegate some of the production) for marketing purposes! You don’t want to do more work making content for marketing than for the thing you’re marketing, but it’s always good to have at least one high impact, polished piece of marketing to show your audience you’re taking this seriously.
- Companion podcast. This is best for serialized or long-term projects, where there’s enough of the primary piece of art (a web series, a book series, etc) to have a talkback podcast about it. Essentially, this would be a podcast about the making and nature of the main project.
- Thematically aligned podcast. This differentiates itself from above as a podcast that’s only incidentally about your project (better yet, a podcast that doesn’t really mention your project until it’s started to gain some traction. So a podcast about, say, practical effects in horror movies… to eventually promote your horror movie with lots of practical effects. Or a podcast discussing asexual representation in media… to eventually promote a project of yours with an asexual lead character. In some ways this becomes a piece of content all its own, but it can be a powerful way to allow folks to find your work more naturally.
- Interview series. Whether you’re interviewing your own cast/crew or also expanding to interviewing other creators in your sphere, expanding the conversation to more than just you diversifies your opportunities to capture an audience’s attention. It also gives you a new person (your interviewee) to spread the word and bring people to your page.
- Livestream. Unless you’re already a streamer, this might need to be something you employ sparingly, because the stamina required for regular streaming is no joke! But livestreams can be a fun way to engage an audience directly on camera without needing to do post-production.
- Featurettes/production doc. Assign a crew member to capture content on set so you can cut it together later (both as images, GIFs, and even a full-throated piece of behind the scenes documentation!).
Writing content theme ideas
- Quotes. Though we’re rapidly losing the text-first social media platforms (RIP Twitter, etc), they do still exist. I’ve got my fingers crossed that Bluesky wins over Threads, but I’m not holding my breath.
- Interview series. See above in the video/audio ideas. It’s that, but in text!
- Trivia/BTS facts. Collect fun stories and snippets from production and keep them in a document where you can easily copy/paste when you need a piece of text content.
- Production Diary. Depending on how in-depth your production process is, this might be a fun way to reflect and also keep the conversation going, especially because you can keep the energy of production going while you’re in post (since I doubt you want to be writing and releasing these diaries in real time during active shooting).
- Blog. Basically a less focused production diary, that might include a production diary but isn’t confined to just strictly production-based stuff. A blog might also be a good place
Newsletter. You should absolutely be starting a newsletter if you don’t already have one. Email is king!! Just consider what makes more sense: a companion newsletter or a thematically aligned one (aka a newsletter about your productions specifically, or a newsletter about something related to your production but that can stand on its own at first).
Miscellaneous content theme ideas
- Milestones. These are the big moments of your marketing plan; when the poster (or book cover) is revealed, when the release date is announced, when a teaser or trailer drops, etc. Sprinkling milestones throughout your marketing plan allows you to essentially reset your momentum; if you tease people for too long without revealing new things, they’ll get bored and stop following along. A good marketing plan rewards attention, even ahead of the final release of the thing.
- Transmedia. In-world content made by/for the characters within your project, which can take many forms. I’ve written about transmedia extensively because it was a mainstay in the web series world when I was coming up, but also because I find it to be a narratively exciting exercise that can also, if you’re clever, become a powerful marketing tool!
- In-person events. Depending on your chosen genre, format, and whether you’re able to facilitate the complexity, in-person events can be exceptional ways of gathering and directly engaging with your audience. Be it a screening, a signing, a panel or workshop, a party, or something else altogether, just be sure to consider the cost, accessibility, and making it worth the travel time.
If you want to learn more marketing tips and tricks, you should come to my upcoming marketing & distribution 101 workshop! A ticket gets you tons of resources PLUS a video on demand version of the class so if you miss the live session, you’ll still get access to it!
Bri Castellini is an independent filmmaker, a romance author, and, regrettably, a podcaster. She’s known for the 2017 short film Ace and Anxious (writer/director, 160k+ views on YouTube) and for her podcasts Burn, Noticed and Breaking Out of Breaking In, covering the USA television show Burn Notice and practical filmmaking advice, respectively. She can lick her elbow (not clickbait). Full work history and ways to hire her as a consultant can be found on her website BriCastellini.com
