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.”

My Saturday March 13th SXSW Panels:
#1 Why Keep Blogging? Real Answers for Smart Tweeple #whyblog
#2 How to Create VIRAL Videos #howtocreateviral
#3 Beyond Advertising: Can Online Video FINALLY Pay? #onlinevideopay

PANEL #1: Emily Gordon (Founder, Emdashes.com) was an excellent host and panel member for the Blogging panel. At the end they asked participants to speak out about why THEY continue to blog. Answers ranged from vanity to curating a content channel to an active archival system FOR life.

A couple takeaways…

“I started my blog thinking it might be ANONYMOUS but that went by the wayside fairly quickly. Communities online form around people not content.”

Do you think design and platform matter? No, You just need a platform that makes it easy for your audience to engage with you and each other.

PANEL #2: “From wedding videos to musical mash-ups, elaborate pranks to world-changing speeches, viral videos regularly appear on our radar screen. But how does a video go viral?” Margaret Stewart (Youtube), Damian Kulash (OK Go) & Jason Wishnow (TED) were fantastic. Other panels have screamed there are NO formulas, but this group had tips that could help EVERYONE at least head in the right direction.

After panel intros (clip), we talked about production value as a content strategy decision to reach a specific community online. Jason relied on HIGH production value to engage audiences for TED Talks and Damian relied on LOW production value (or at least that perception) to create a character for OK Go. Everyone agrees, we want content that can be Inspiring, Surprising and Unexpected. I was also very excited that the majority of content making the leap to viral pushes POSITIVITY (#yesand).

A couple takeaways…

Connect the Community and Build Your Audience. Provide an opportunity for people to participate in the content? Encourage shoot-offs and satire and parody.

We’re trained to recognize patterns and put things in buckets so when you mix Cookie Monster and German Metal it can be REALLY Funny (READ: 800K hits)

Our own viral video (511 hits so far) was shot at the end of the session (#surpriseSXSW). I was in the front row, on the right of the isle. SO MUCH FUN. I’ve got many more notes from this panel. I want to write a separate post just on the concept of Corporate Sponsorships acting more like “17th Century Arts Patrons” and another post about Dynamo Player, our new option for Revenue Share with online video.

Great day. Sleep now.

Sunday starts in 4 hours.

Register online, http://jansmctriangle.eventbrite.com/

I’ve been asked to talk about how the basics of IMPROVISATION can help you understand the psychology behind the online AND offline networking aspect of social media and how to use COMEDY to create a character and brand that inspires community. Expect an opportunity to participate in (or sit back, drink, and watch) some fun games that might just help you think about your social media activity.

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I am very proud of how my company has used Social Media to reach AND BUILD a community of fans online. We’ve been active on Flickr and Youtube forever and our staff regularly posts content on Facebook and Twitter — Btw, Thanks to Three Ships Media for the Social Media feature on DSI November 2009.

We recently pushed out a MercyCorps benefit for Haiti to raise $1345 ($655 short of our GOAL, if you’re feeling generous). You are? YOU ARE AWESOME! Thank you for your donations AND RETWEETS.

DSI also started work today to secure a $35K support grant from Intuit — Our social networks helped us reach 17 unique recommendations in under 2 hours. Do you love DSI? TELL THE INTERNET.

“If you get it, share it.”

Awesome.