ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the business choices surrounding the development as well as the business and art of marketing and selling an idea. While nuances are different, the principles of selling creative ideas are no different than any other business. In a sense, development and distribution are the bookends to exploiting media content. With a creative business, the first stage of development is generating a range of ideas for projects. This could mean that a single individual originates concepts, or in the case of an organization, such as a network or studio, development executives take pitches from “creatives.” Whatever the context, a variety of ideas will rise to the top, and there is a winnowing out of concepts until finalists are selected. The ability to dovetail shorter-form online originals with successful series is, in part, enabled by the dual advantages of built-in branding (leveraging crossover marketing) and lower production costs.
