A huge infographic displaying the entire plot of Star Wars shows the force of content marketing and understanding your audience
The world of Star Wars commands devotion like little else. It would be an understandable assumption that every possible type of content has already been created covering that particular far, far away galaxy.
But Star Wars superfan Martin Panchaud has found his own angle.
He has created an enormous infographic, detailing each moment of the original 1977 movie, including every line of dialogue attached to the characters – signified by their own custom-designed dot.
The infographic, which can be found here, measures over 400 feet in length – that’s 1024 x 465152 pixels, or 27 x 12307 cm.
He’s described it as a “stretch between ages, cultures and technologies” which brings to mind ancient Chinese script rolls. He also calls it the antithesis of what the internet usually favours, namely brevity and a culture of summarising content.
The light side of infographics
Infographics are a valuable tool for content marketers, sitting alongside written, pictorial and audible content. Typically, they are used to display information in a concise, clear and attractive manner.
This particular labour of love shows how that definition can be turned on its head to great effect. Taking an estimated 1,000 hours, the graphic has received press coverage from around the world.
What shines through most of all – and acts as another key lesson for content marketers – is the passion of the project. In creating the infographic, the content creator’s love of the subject is clear through the finished product’s originality and high quality.
In this case, Panchaud was creating content for his own satisfaction. But finding the right creator for each task – who can bring real enthusiasm and expertise in the subject matter – will increase both the quality of the content, and lead to greater engagement from the audience. B2B subject matters may not inspire such passion, but there are specialist content creators in every area and finding the one who really understands the topic is vital.
The Star Wars infographic also demonstrates the importance of creating content that is suited to the audience. Fans of the film are likely to score highly on the geek scale and so will love the detail, appreciate the technical drawings and make time to appreciate the scale of the work.
Infographics can also hold a sense of comic book thrill that mirrors the nature of the films. Along with that, the scrolling down motion of the 123m graphic reflects the movies’ iconic opening text crawls.
Do or do not. There is no try
As well as being much-loved films, the Star Wars brand has long been held up as a triumph in advertising and marketing – spin-offs and merchandise continually flooding the marketplace. Now content marketing is a major part of the Star Wars output.
In this interview with Martin Panchaud, the artist reveals much about how he created the infographic, as well as why. But what’s also worth noting is the writer’s byline: senior content writer for Lucasfilm and StarWars.com.
There is clearly a team of content creators producing fresh content around the franchise to keep up interest and engagement. Star Wars is a sprawling enterprise, already spanning five decades and with little sign of slowing down. As such, it cannot rely on fans of the original film trilogy to advance itself – and is working to ensure that each new generation contains advocates of the brand.
Generating engaging, multi-platform content boosts the Star Wars business and shows a globally successful business striving to remain relevant and evolve.
Star Wars inspires devotion but the business brains at Lucasfilm know that isn’t enough. Producing engaging, multi-platform content boosts the Star Wars business and shows a global giant striving to evolve, remain relevant and keep the Force strong.
