Sweden's leading streaming service for art house cinema is Draken Film, the video on demand (VoD) platform of the Göteborg Film Festival. Draken wanted to encourage viewers to choose high-quality films and direct people towards its streaming platform.
Working with Gothenburg-based agency Forsman & Bodenfors, the streaming service created the Bad Movie Index (BMI): a real-time analysis of how many people are watching bad movies on the world’s top five streaming sites. This would then determine Draken’s monthly streaming price (usually $10 a month), so that the more people watch films with a low rating (according to the rankings of two major movie rating sites), the lower Draken’s monthly price is.
For example, when the number of people viewing low-quality films increases and the index is at its lowest, people can subscribe to Draken for a monthly price of 29 SEK (USD$3.3). When the index shows that people are streaming highly rated movies, the price rises to 109 SEK ($12.5).
The index works by comparing film ratings against the top ten most streamed films in Sweden. The live results are shown at BadMovieIndex.se, displayed similarly to stock indexes on a financial site. ‘Of course, opinions will differ, as they often do when discussing film,’ reads the website. ‘At Draken Film we believe that quality film comes from all around the globe, broadens your taste and might not always fit inside the streaming giants’ massive libraries. We believe in letting people decide the content, not algorithms.’
The campaign site also offers insights into Draken’s library, revealing that its catalogue contains a higher number of films with female directors and more geographical diversity than competing streaming services. Visitors to the index can register for an account there and then or sign up for a two-week free trial.
‘At Draken Film we put our heart and souls into carefully selecting films that offer something extra to the viewer and broaden their view of what quality film can be,’ said Mirja Wester, CEO of Draken Film and Göteborg Film Festival, in a press release. ‘By lowering our prices when the Bad Movie Index goes down, we hope that more people will discover and be inspired by our selection.’
