How did I help two films make $1.5 million in TVOD sales?

Let's take a deep dive into the world of marketing indie films!

I have overseen TVOD releases for films like "Shiva Baby" and classic films like "Rad."

In both instances, the films debuted in the Top 25 on the AppleTV / iTunes charts and achieved $500K and $1mm in sales, respectively.

The key components were building up engaged communities on social media, partnering with talent, utilizing clips and organic content that had the potential to go viral, engaging directly with fans, creating contests, partnering with influencer pages such as independent film reviewers or 80's themed pages, and of course highly targeted ads where I was able to A/B test different versions of copy, video and image assets, different trailer lengths and sizes such as vertical compared to 1:1.

Phew! That was a lot of strategy in 1 paragraph. Hold on, there's more.

I then could drive engagement and millions of views while testing different interest targeting. All of this was then used to create Lookalike audiences and allowed me to hone in on the content, fans, and audiences that engaged the best.

From there, the fans did the rest and actually loved the movies. You have to hand it to the talent and people involved in making the film. Word of mouth spread like crazy, and the rest is history. Plus, when someone maybe finds out about the film later on, the social media pages tell the entire story right there for them.

Why is there no way to track organic revenue from our social media pages?

For everything social media has given us, it hasn't given us any way to track how social media impacts revenue besides Likes, Comments, Views, and Followers.

There is no way to track how much revenue a social media page helps generate for a business or an artist. How do 1 million impressions per week actually help a music artist, for example, generate streams on Spotify?

Now, I know for a fact that seeing a post from an artist sticks in your head and makes you want to throw on their music later in the day. It has been like that all of the time. It's the same reason artists are still appearing on late-night shows and magazine covers or in a TV show, a movie, etc. It's all affinity marketing.

However, we are very data-driven, and without an actual metric (outside of conversion ads) to track something like that from Point A to Point B, it's tough to explain or evaluate from a budget standpoint. Businesses and artists need to be able to connect A to B and B back to A.

I think companies and artists severely underestimate the additional revenue they make from social media simply because there isn't an organic way to track it. If we could do that, social media budgets would probably skyrocket.

Why a social media manager and a content creator are actually two different roles.

To those hiring for your #socialmedia teams. I see this all the time. A company hiring a Social Media Manager and Content Creator. It’s 2023, and every company needs someone to do that, which is correct. However, here is where they get it wrong.

A social media manager and a content creator are two different jobs and two different people. It’s the left brain and right brain. One is strategy, and the other is artistic. If you try and squeeze both of those roles into one person, you are sacrificing one thing for other. Most people in digital media can post and create a flyer on Canva. Those are two tasks anyone in social media can and should be able to do. However, if you want an expert in social media management and an expert in content creation, there is no way one person can accomplish all of those tasks in a week, let alone in a single day.

Some people might be amazing at both and can cross over, but that is not likely. They are two very different and time-consuming tasks. You need people who are strategy-minded but also people who are graphic designers and videographers. As a social media manager, someone is managing the community, creating a calendar, brainstorming creative ideas, writing captions, and researching trends/hashtags/sounds. They will not have enough time to create the content. If someone is creating content, such as filming, creating graphics, creating content on Adobe, editing photos, or editing videos, there is no way they will have time to properly manage the community and do the rest of the above.

Companies might think it makes sense to hire one person to do both tasks since it’s all under the social media field, but it's like car companies trying to use the gas pedal to accelerate and break. Sure, it can work, but most people are uncomfortable using one pedal to do two things, and it will never be perfect. Besides the time constraints, if you hire one person to do both, they are likely much better at one of those things. It takes a lot of time to become an expert in either management or design, and it is very difficult to find the time to become an expert in both. Also, we have not even gotten into advertising yet, such as Facebook Ads, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, etc. Again, most people can set up a Facebook Ad. Still, it doesn’t mean it will perform well, create a structured audience, know how to optimize it, can create A/B tests, create retargeting audiences, write 5 different versions of headlines, and report on analytics.

I get how a company might see this all being part of the social media ecosystem, which it is, but you will have a more well-rounded team if you hire two people instead of 1 person trying to do both. In the case of advertising, you might actually need 3 people. Think of it as an assembly line. You are building a car, but you wouldn’t have the same person working on the engine, doing the paint job, and then stepping out onto the floor to sell the car. It is all part of the ecosystem, but these are all very different jobs. If you are spending the time and money to build out a social media team, then build out the team and hire appropriately.

At the end of the day, you might be inclined to hire someone who says they can do all three of those things decently, but you will discourage or just pass on someone who is a rockstar at one of those things. So, why make job hunters feel like they aren’t qualified and then hire someone who can’t possibly do all three things at a high level? So many talented people get passed on every day because they don’t have experience in multiple different fields, which is unfortunate. So, to the hiring manager who is browsing through applications, go for the social media management expert and go for the expert in design. Your social media pages will thank me later.

Interview with Toronto photographer and videographer Of The Saint

In this new episode of Runnin' With It Interviews, I sit down with photographer and video creator, Of The Saint. Originally from Toronto, Of The Saint started his career hustling on social media and networking with other creatives in the space. In just a few year's time, he has now photographer and worked for publications like Billboard and artists like Jessie Reyez. To top off his 2022, he also had a chance to photograph one of his heroes from Toronto, Drake. His pictures and quality video content soon made the rounds on social media and was even seen on local news networks. In 2023, Of The Saint is continuing to build his production company and also wants to shed more light on the creatives of Toronto in a new interview series of his own. Follow Of The Saint here: https://www.instagram.com/ofthesaint_/

Speaking with NBA Agent Cervando Tejeda about his career, getting Abdel Nader resigned & more

I recently interviewed NBA agent Cervando Tejeda about how he got his start as an agent, initially working in stocks, repping Abdel Nader, repping players in Europe, and why social media is so important for athletes to capitalize on today. During our interview, Tejeda spoke about the lengths to which he goes to ensure his athletes get the best deal possible, and how much legwork is involved in getting new deals signed. It's all about relationships and being persistent, as he explains. Watch the interview to find out more! Follow

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