A couple days later and I’m still working hard to digest all the ideas from South By (what the “cool” kids and locals call South by Southwest – was never sure if I was allowed to call it this, it feels like a personal nickname for someone you only met twice). Anyway, I’ve already talked about Creating Viral Videos with OK Go Frontman Damian Kulash and posted clips about Cashing in on the Funny (clip 1/clip 2), a panel featuring College Humor’s Ricky Van Veen, The Onion’s Baratunde and Obama Girl creator Ben Relles. But NOW we talk about the plan for production, monetization and what the next step options could be.

South By conversations and panels that keep ZW working
#1 BEYOND ADVERTISING: CAN ONLINE VIDEO FINALLY PAY? #onlinevideopay
#2 PACKAGING, PITCHING AND PRESENTING YOUR DIGITAL CONTENT #packagepitchpresent
#3 CASHING IN ON THE FUNNY
#4 MACGRUBER: HOW TO DEFUSE A BOMB AND OTHER LIFE LESSONS #macgruber

I am fairly connected in BOTH the comedy and small business community and I constantly hear about (and from) people who want great things but who are not currently working towards THOSE things. Why? Are you overwhelmed by the number of tools available to you? Do you not think you will succeed? Are you afraid you might? I answered YES to all of those questions once, but made an appointment (maybe more than one) to see a therapist, started THAT process and got back to work. I wanted to open my own Theater since 1998. After 7 years DSI Comedy Theater opened October 7, 2005. Comedy AND Business FTW!

I’ve already gone off track. Needless to say, I’m always inspired and EXCITED when people make business plans to go after what most only dream to do. From the MacGruber panel, The Lonely Island story.

Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg made a plan. They had a meeting. They knew what they wanted and they WORKED HARD to produce content and to create an distribution channel for the work they were producing. The Lonely Island eating whatever leftovers the guys scored from PA jobs doesn’t make me appreciate artistic poverty (an idea I hate) it simply speaks to AMAZING Team effort.

And they produced content. Oh, did they produce content. Checking out old clips you can see that SNL simply provided the platform (Ok, Ok, and resources AND production $$$) necessary to catapult ALREADY creative ideas to become full-blown Internet sensations starting with Lazy Sunday.

In PACKAGING, PITCHING AND PRESENTING YOUR DIGITAL CONTENT we talked a lot about creating content for a target audience. DO YOU KNOW WHO the people are that would want to watch your videos? Identify a target audience and produce content for them — could be as easy as “EVERYONE with a sense of humor like ME” but identify what that means and be consistent. If you have a defined target audience it’s easier to actively engage that community or group and offer the content to them.

And WHY does that matter?
For digital content we want to work 80% CREATE CREATE CREATE and 20% AUDIENCE (so whatever we can do to focus and consolidate marketing helps that split).

An agency, producer or studio executive wants to see that you have a built-in audience demographic, a foundation that can accelerate your product in the marketplace.

If your audience is the WORLD good luck not becoming overwhelmed right out of the gate.

One of the best ideas presented at the Digital Content panel (Keith Richman, Max Benator, Nathan Coyle, George Ruiz) was the simple advice to ASSUME SUCCESS BEFORE YOU BEGIN, something I’ve said to my improv students for over a decade. When you honestly believe that what you offer is WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION you commit 100% to the work, and that COMMITMENT is infectious.

Even VAL KILMER was inspired by #MacGruber, “It’s amazing to watch. They NEVER stop working.”

A lot of people talk about life / work balance, but it’s easy to keep working — to hustle — when you BELIEVE in what you do, when the work helps you feel ALIVE and when you enjoy the serious business of producing creative work. About artistic poverty, Expect a rant on that topic soon.

Alright, How to monetize. BEYOND ADVERTISING: CAN ONLINE VIDEO FINALLY PAY? hosts Robert Millis and Will Coghlan were not fans of affiliate marketing programs or the moderate earning potential with sites like Youtube and Amazon. Probably because the two guys were there to pitch a new product for Filmmakers and online content producers (DYNAMO) — a system to integrate micro payments for embedded content. Despite the shameless promo (READ: Hustle) BEYOND ADVERTISING was an incredibly organized talk and debuted a product that could change the game for people with even a moderate network of fans that are WILLING to pay for Art, like Redbox for independent online content. And people ARE willing. Shows available for FREE on Hulu are SELLING virtually to a paying audience on iTunes.

Overarching THEME at the SXSW creative panels.
“Art costs money and if we want high quality art we need to pay for it.”