Make Yourself Heard: How to Communicate with Your Audience

The ability to navigate media saturation and audience fragmentation is crucial for successful film marketing campaigns, especially for independent filmmakers who endeavour to build deep, sustainable communities around their work. In this practical talk, we’ll explore how filmmakers can leverage the principles of network theory, digital marketing, and communications strategy to improve release campaigns, whether they are working with an established distributor or taking matters into their own hands. Lessons from cryptocurrency and disinformation campaigns illustrate the power of participatory storytelling and community-driven amplification. These movements leveraged emotionally charged narratives, exclusivity, and digital influencers to build engagement—strategies filmmakers can adapt to create compelling, audience-driven campaigns. Filmmakers need not see themselves only as creators of films—they can and must deepen their relationship with their intended audience to build communities, using both storytelling and the science of networks to connect with people in a profound and lasting way.