Author: scot

My adblocker on Facebook is not working anymore, so I’m seeing a disturbing trend in bad FB ads from entertainment companies. They’re bad because.

1. I am not a good target of most of them
2. The content is not compelling
3. The content sometimes doesn’t even make sense
4. There is no target audience
5. There is no value shown

Most of the ads I’m seeing are from small businesses.

When I talk to entertainment people about how they’re making ads, most are just shooting in the dark.

What I’m hypothesizing is that facebook is seeing big profits from small businesses who can put in $3000 a few times a year without any expectation of results.

The crazy thing is that FB ads can be great for a small budget project.

Unfortunately, the promise of FB ads is that it’s a few clicks and we have money. This is usually not the case. Studying how it works, trying a lot of things with small amounts of money, and really knowing our customers takes work. If we do it the easy way, we will probably be wasting cash.

Ads are not for every business

If we don’t know who our customer is, or we can’t target them thru an ad, or we can’t track the response, our low-budget project will probably not benefit us.

Targeting

Targeting and tracking are the two most potent parts of online ads.

Our success is not a few clicks away. It starts with knowing our potential customer. We gotta know what our brand is and what our USP is. Getting a lot of eyes on our stuff is not great. It spreads us thin. The ultimate is when we need 100 customers and those 100 customers see our ad(s) enough to trust us and buy.

Facebook ads can target weirdly specific people around the world. Use this super power or piss away money. Get very specific. Laser focus.

Trust

A single ad view does not sell a Ford truck. For any major purchase, major trust needs to be built. Most of us in entertainment are not trying to sell a new truck. We’re trying to sell an album ($9.99) or something, so we don’t need a lifetime of brand building to get there, but we still need to build some trust. If we’re advertising to someone who’s never heard of us, that means what I call “saturation” — repeated attention.

Value

Our customers need to understand the value of what we’re offering (greater than the price) and they need to trust that we can deliver it. This value / trust relationship is what we’re doing with advertising and all other outreach.

Arm & Hammer baking soda made their ads all about the multiple uses. Every new use is more value. Sure, every baking soda can be used like this probably… but are you sure?

Track

Because of great tracking in online ads, we can see how much money we spent per successful customer. This is called “cost of acquisition.” That means we can find a formula for how much to spend and what to expect. For our formula, we also need to know how much the customer will bring us over their lifetime (“lifetime value”) because they might buy from us more than once. The simple version of the formula is…

lifetime value – (cost of acquisition + product cost) = profit

When we don’t

When we just boost a post or throw up some short sighted ad, I’m assuming Facebook is gonna try its best to make the ad work, but it doesn’t have a fighting chance.

I would prefer if to spend advertising dollars buying dinners for friends. Those are people who already trust us and understand our value.

Bonnie Gordon keeps on creating from her passions. She keeps on making stuff and making it public. Because of this pursuit, the phone keeps ringing with more work.

Being slowed down gives us new opportunities. Watch how Bonnie appreciates this gift.

World Record balloon artist Dave Brenn found a pandemic response that let him connect more, create more, and appreciate more. He’s rocking this moment.

A stage performer with TV appearances who now has a bigger fanbase off stage. A lesson in giving people what they want and giving generously.

Chris Ruggiero is a dedicated entertainment thought leader. He has a popular podcast called “Between Dreams” which goes beyond entertainment to open people up to the possibilities of following passionate lifestyles. In depth interviews with people who followed their dreams. For episode #100, he invited me to host the podcast and interview him instead. I love hearing about how much he cares about making something for others. It’s a guidebook for people who are on the verge of leaping into the unknown.

Robert Strong has found a new way to reconfigure his value into something that clients want. By developing long relationships with his network and continuing to connect, he’s been able to find new offerings that make him money now and keep him busy with creativity.

There is no lighting solution for every purpose. There’s no “tip” I can give you for setting up lighting. Everything changes all the time. This is a response to a magician asking for help in his home studio. Hopefully it will be useful to more people as they see all the problems I try to solve quickly.

These guys are not just getting by. They are having a great year for gigs. Ben Train & Jonah Babins teamed up to figure out online shows and they’re kicking butt in the pandemic. They’re able to do more shows, make more money, and spread more joy with less sweat.

Steven Banks has an incredible career as an entertainment maker and he isn’t daunted starting over. He has jumped into creating productions by himself online for his fans even though they may make him look crazy. He keeps giving and creating and it is paying off for him. I think we can all learn from his resiliency.

So many people in entertainment are trying to protect their reputations and their egos, while Steven knows that the next opportunity is just passed the next experiment.

I’m searching for what’s working in entertainment right now and what can we do to make it work better. Today I talked to Deirdre V. Lyons about her pivot into VR acting. YES! Immersive experiences that require actors engaging with audience members. She’s gotten a bunch of press and awards this year.

Deirdre V Lyons is finding press and awards in acting that she didn’t rake in when IRL theater was a thing. She’s finding success in Hollywood NOW thru VR immersive experiences.

When we’re in a business of getting past gatekeepers, they often defer us.

• “We’re going a different direction this time”
• “Next one”
• “Keep sending us your new materials”
• “We hope we’ll find a fit for you in the future”

I assume they’re telling the truth. They probably are hoping we’ll be better for them next time… that we have continued to grow in our careers and crafts. It would be way easier to stick with a relationship of someone growing than to make new relationships all the time. It’s also possible they loved us and wished they could have used us this time.

That doesn’t mean they’ll remember us.

The next opportunity might be a year or three later. If we leave them alone, it’s very unlikely we’ll be the first to get the call. The challenge becomes staying on their nice list.

Serve them.

Have empathy and serve them.

If I’m an author and I keep sending publishers proposals for my books they keep rejecting, I am probably not serving them.

If I send them periodic thoughts on the minds of great authors, they might benefit greatly. They might look at me as an advocate. They might enjoy hearing from me. They might have something fun to talk to me about next time they want to make contact. They might get a deeper knowledge of who I am and what I am like to work with. They might think my manuscript is open for adjustment. They might tell me what they’re looking for. They might give me more time for feedback next time. They might try to connect me with a publisher that’s a better match. They might understand my voice better. They might have me in mind for every opportunity until it’s the right opportunity.

Myq Kaplan interviewed by Scot Nery about what it means to pursue a single path in entertainment.

I’m fascinated by people who try to do one thing really well. When I’m coaching people, I advise them to go all-in on something that they believe in, so that they can…

1. do it well
2. track their success and feel fulfilled

Myq is funny all the time. Relentlessly. What’s that like, to live like that?

What are the sacrifices and benefits? What do we have to say ‘no’ to in order to stick to the mission? How does our career grow when we feel like nothing’s happening? How to we think about wasted time? How do we measure ourselves?