How This Documentary Reached 5 Million Views in One Week | Maurizio Benazza and Zaya Benazza (Filmmakers)

“There’s a lot more you can do with your audience. Learn where you can be of service to them.”

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Maurizio Benazzao and Zaya Benazzo are the co-founders of Science and Nonduality (SAND), a global community exploring the intersection of science, spirituality, and consciousness. Together they have produced and directed several award winning documentaries including The Wisdom of Trauma and Where Olive Trees Weep. They have an innovative approach to film marketing and community building. And, a fun aside: on their first date, they went to India to make a movie.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• The success of The Wisdom of Trauma and Where Olive Trees Weep, both films were released direct-to-audience

• Strategies for building a strong mailing list and leveraging social media

• Approach to pricing and donations

• The importance of continuous engagement and offering additional resources

• Building a brand around high-quality, socially impactful stories

• How operating in service to their audience led to 800+ in-person and virtual screenings of Where Olive Trees Weep

Key Takeaways:

1. Case Study: The Wisdom of Trauma

   1. They thought 20K therapists would watch the film

   2. Instead, over 5M people watched the film in the first week

   3. Three donation-based (pay what you can) releases:

      1. Released June 2021 (for one week)

         1. Initially released with a week of conversations with healers, trauma therapists, and a few celebrities. All were interviewed by the subject of the film, Dr. Gabor Maté.

         2. Demand was high. Needed to pause to ensure they could handle the tech-load.

         3. Collected emails in the mean time.

      2. Re-released end of July 2021

         1. Translated into 36 languages

         2. Website in 17 languages

      3. Re-released October 2021

         1. Another week of talks.

      4. After this, the film was widely available on their website along with additional resources.

2. Build a strong mailing list:

   1. The filmmakers had grown a 70-80K email list from hosting in person conferences in the years prior to the film’s release. This was the first group of people they shared their films with.

   2. Not all filmmakers will start with a list of this size, but you can always begin to collect emails from viewers and maintain ongoing communication.

   3. Over time you can segment your list based on engagement and interests.

3. Consider donation based ticketing:

   1. 97% of people watched for $0 but the 3% that paid covered the production budget of the film and they were left with enough money for their next film.

4. Social media ads can work, even as the platforms are constantly changing:

   1. Facebook ads had a great ROI for TWOT; every $100 spent would result in some positive ROI and it would all be reinvested in ads. Over time, this channel led to a 17X return.

   2. Test multiple ad variations to find what resonates with your audience. They tried 100+ ad formats.

   3. Continuously refine your ad strategy based on results.

5. Offer additional resources: "We created a system of donations and offered resources, courses, and workshops."

   1. Provide viewers with pathways to further engagement and learning.

   2. Foster a sense of community by facilitating discussions and events.

6. You don’t know your audience. You think you know, but they surprise you.

   1. Use ads to test who your audience is; who is responding well.

   2. For TWOT they anticipated it would be best received by therapists but it ended up doing well for a more general audience that was interested in therapy.

   3. Test, test, test

7. Build a team:

   1. Hired a marketing agency to help with TWOT release.

   2. TWOT continues to have an active Facebook community with 60,000 people their group. They have hired someone full-time to manage this group.

   3. They received thousands of letters and then hired a customer service team member to ensure every letter was responded to.

8. Listen to your audience: "Listen, listen, listen—what you need to do will appear to you."

   1. Pay attention to audience feedback and adjust your strategy accordingly.

   2. Build relationships with your viewers by offering value beyond the film.

   3. Stay in touch regularly to maintain engagement.

9. Segment and automate your marketing: "Email list hygiene and automations are crucial for maintaining a healthy list."

   1. Regularly clean your email list to ensure it remains active and engaged.

   2. Use automation tools to personalize communications based on audience segments.

   3. Design funnels based on where subscribers came from.

10. Create lasting impact by building community: “There’s a lot more you can do with your audience. Learn where you can be of service to them.”

    1. “If you make a movie because you want to make the world a better place, it cannot just be movie.”

    2. For Where Olive Trees Weep they learned the need was to watch together, to see that we are not alone and that we have each other. That’s why there were 800 in-person and virtual screenings in 6-7 months on Kinema.

    3. “Look for the community and see how you can support them so people feel they are part of something larger than themselves.”

    4. Involve the audience. We all want to contribute and build a better world. Create those opportunities for your audience.

Where to Find Maurizio Benazzo and Zaya Benazzo:

• Website: scienceandnonduality.com

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandnonduality/

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction and Maurizio's and Zaya’s background

(02:15) The unexpected success of The Wisdom of Trauma

(07:18) Building a mailing list and leveraging social media

(08:30) The ROI of Facebook ads

(11:09) You don’t know your audience. Test.

(13:45) Building an active community

(16:47) The three releases of The Wisdom of Trauma

(19:45) Creating a system of donations and offering additional resources

(22:05) Building a strong brand around impactful stories and Maurizio’s and Zaya’s next project

(25:43) Lessons from multiple releases and audience segmentation

(28:43) Advice for filmmakers

(32:40) Where to find Maurizio and Zaya

Referenced:

• Science and Nonduality (SAND) Events: https://scienceandnonduality.com/events/

• The Wisdom of Trauma documentary: https://thewisdomoftrauma.com/

  • Related community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/765092144141751

• Where Olive Trees Weep: https://kinema.com/films/where-olive-tres-weep-l3jugg

• The Eternal Song: https://theeternalsong.org/