Distribution Strategy
A distribution strategy sets who should see the film, through which routes, and to what end.
What this is about
Most briefs name a length before they name an audience, which is the wrong order. The strategy answers four questions: which audience, at which stage of interest, through which routes, measured by what. Those answers change the film itself — a fair loop can work without dialogue, a paid feed placement lives or dies in its opening, a sales enablement film needs chapters someone can jump into. The media plan comes afterwards and schedules those placements with a budget. Asking for the strategy in the briefing meeting improves more films than any extra creative idea.
A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.
What runs differently here
Where this differs from the general case:
- Audience and route come before length; a runtime named first is a guess wearing a number
- The strategy precedes the media plan: one settles the why, the other schedules the where and when
- Sound-off contexts, chaptered sales films and fair loops are different products, not different exports
With TillyGen
TillyGen starts from audience and channel, so scope, format and shot list follow the distribution decision instead of preceding it.
Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.
Frequently asked
How is a distribution strategy different from a media plan?
The strategy decides which audience matters and why; the media plan schedules the placements and the budget. Without the first, the second is only a spending list.
How long does it take to get started with TillyGen?
A first project takes under an hour to set up. There is no configuration phase in which templates and fields have to be defined before the tool produces anything.
Can the results be exported?
Yes — as PDF for the crew, CSV for downstream systems and through the API for anything automated. The plan stays the source; the exports are views of it.