Speaker 1: Hi, how's it going everybody? My name is Jackson Kingsley and welcome to this video where I'm going to be sharing my best tips and tricks on how to land brand deals. Over the past 10 years, I've built up my production company to be consistently landing deals with globally recognized brands and broadcasters like National Geographic, Discovery, Airbnb and Sony. As a video producer, I've had a diverse career working across all areas of the industry from commercials to documentaries, music videos and travel. However, there's one area that I'm often asked about more than any other and that is brand deals. In this video, I'm going to share what I've learned over the years discussing why a brand would want to work with you and my top five tips for landing brand deals. So hopefully you can implement the same ideas and get similar results. But before we move further, let's clarify what is a brand deal. Brand deals, also referred to as brand sponsorships, are partnerships between creators and brands. There's a distinct difference between a partnership like this and your typical corporate gig because rather than just financial return, there are also other incentives and trades built into the deal, such as free products and services, travel, cross promotion, distribution and other things. Brand deals are increasingly becoming more common and accessible with the explosion of the internet, YouTube and DSLR cameras. Big brands are spending less on traditional advertising and are now looking to brand deals as a new and lucrative way of reaching wider audiences for less money. Why spend millions of dollars on a TV commercial in the hope that it reaches the right people when you can now spend a fraction of that on a laser targeted approach that's more likely to put the right message to the right people? And it goes both ways. For us as creators, the benefits go way beyond just getting free clothing and camera equipment. They've enabled me to travel to incredible places all over the world, doing things that I never thought were even possible and carrying out some of my most fulfilling creative work. They've opened new doors, built valuable contacts and even funded my own passion projects as a result. Getting a big brand on board with the project can have a snowball effect because once you've got the right one, it becomes much easier to get others on board too. So there's clearly a lot to gain. But here's the big question. Why would a brand want to work with us? Well, to begin with, you have to have something they want. And if you don't have something right now, then you need to find it. And you might be thinking, well, I'm a great cameraman, editor or filmmaker, and I'm really good at what I do. But the reality is big brands can get these skills anywhere. What you need is something unique. In my experience, there are two options here for what is effectively your unique selling point. It can either come in the form of an influencer, a unique idea or both. Now, let's first talk about what it means to be an influencer because it's a word that's battered around a lot. But in this context, it really boils down to one thing and that's an existing audience. An influencer is simply someone who's built up their own loyal fan base in a specific industry. It could be cosmetics, travel, fashion, cameras, cars or pretty much anything you can think of. The influencer has done the groundwork to build trust with their audience. So when they recommend a brand, product or service, the audience listens. In fact, 82% of consumers now say they're likely to follow the recommendation of an influencer. We're in an attention driven economy and getting people to listen is one of the greatest challenges any brand will face. The bigger the challenge, you're able to help the brand overcome the more they'll be willing to pay. So influencer marketing is huge and you don't need to be an influencer yourself to take advantage of this. We'll talk more about this in a moment. The second reason a brand may want to work with you is if you have a unique idea. Now, that's a pretty vague term. Everyone has ideas. So what do I really mean when I say this? Well, it has to be something that they can't easily do themselves. And this boils down to access. This is where you have unique access to something that means only you can make it. Although access can take many forms, it's usually a person or location. You could land brand deals with just an influencer or just unique access to an idea. But the best is when you can do both. Take, for example, a film I made in North Korea. It started by building ties with an influencer, in this case, a professional snowboarder. Then we found an idea which was to go snowboarding in the most secretive country in the world. Then we secured access by contacting the right people and organizing permissions that were notoriously difficult to get. The result of this combination was countless deals with brands like National Geographic, Al Jazeera, Sony and many, many others. Now, I'm not saying you need to go throwing yourself down mountains in the most remote and obscure places on Earth. In fact, great brand deals have come around from much less. I've also fostered great relationships with smaller brands, getting equipment, clothing and holidays for free in return for making small videos that haven't been very time consuming. However, here's the lesson I'd like to share with you on this. The bigger, more challenging, a more obscure the idea, the easier and more worthwhile it's likely to be. Creating small videos like product reviews and placements are nothing new. There are plenty of opportunities out there for this, but there's also a lot of people doing just that. It's hard to stand out as small fish in a big ocean. On the other hand, when you think outside the box and develop a unique idea, you're going to find it's a lot easier to get people's attention and build momentum. That may sound difficult, but let's face it, nothing that's really worth doing is easy. So to help you on this path to landing brand deals, I put together five tips to increase your likelihood of success and start landing some amazing gigs. The first tip is to start working with influencers. If you're not already an influencer yourself, then it's time to start expanding your network and getting in touch with some. If you don't have the resources you need right now to achieve your goals, then you need to be resourceful and go and get them. I've just said how valuable an influencer's existing audience can be to a brand, and this is really one of the most effective, fast-track routes to getting a brand's attention. By their very nature, they can be easy to reach and often open to the idea of collaboration. Even if you're an influencer already, it's worth connecting with others to boost your offering and widen your reach. You want to find influencers who are aligned with your goals and ambitions. It's likely you follow some already, and that's a great place to start. If you're genuinely enthusiastic and interested in what someone's doing, they'll be a lot more likely to get involved. You can also keep an eye out for influencers who already have an existing relationship with the brands and partners that you're interested in. So, how can you find these influencers? Well, that's the easy part. Use your preferred social media platform and start searching. I like to use Instagram, so, for example, if I was interested in making a film about skiing in Iran, then there are a whole host of related hashtags that I could start using to see who's posting what. I'd then look out for people who are posting great content, how many followers they have, and who else they're connecting with. The next step is to start engaging with them and build a genuine authentic connection. I've got lots of other videos in Video Business Mastery on what this means and how to do it, so I'll save time here and let you check those out. The short version is simply to be honest and genuine with them. Think of a deal that works for both of you, or even just a reason that it's a great idea to start collaborating and share it with them. The next tip is to develop your idea. Most people believe that good ideas are hard to come by, and they wait years for the right idea to come along. The truth is, an idea is like a seed. They're easy to come by at first, and they're not worth anything. To turn an idea into something great, it takes meticulous development and hard work. Like a seed you find on the ground, you don't really know what it's going to look like until you spend time and energy helping it grow, and some may not even turn into anything at all. Most people who believe they have a great idea like to keep it to themselves. In doing so, they never really give it an opportunity to grow. An idea is an evolving process, and you shouldn't be afraid to share it with the right people. As I've mentioned already, you need to keep an eye out for access. Look for ideas where you have access to people or locations that others don't. Write down on a piece of paper all the resources you have access to, like people, places and tools. See what connections you can find, and how they might be of interest to others. Another great method is to speak with the most interesting people you know. You may find someone else is sitting on one of those seeds, but they don't have the means to make it grow. You may be able to step in, use your skills, and be like the missing piece of the puzzle. The third tip is to identify your brands. Once you've started developing your idea, it should start to become clear which brands are best suited to a collaboration. There's no use in spending months developing an idea, and then emailing hundreds of brands in the hope that one will like it and give you what you want. It's likely going to be a collaborative process, and that means that the brand is going to have an impact on how you shape your idea. The more you're asking from a brand, the more likely they're going to want to develop it in a way that works for them and their audience too. This is why it's so important to make sure you pick who you want to work with carefully. Take a look at their existing work and see what sort of style they go for, what topics they cover, and who their target audience is. Once you've got a broad idea of the type of brands you're interested in, you need to narrow and identify exactly who you want to reach. Make a list of at least 10 brands that align with your goals and objectives. The more you pick at this stage, the greater your chances of success, the reasons for which I'll go into in a moment. Once you've selected your brands, you need to find the decision makers at each. I find LinkedIn to be the best tool for the job, and I go into great detail on how to use it for these purposes in other videos. The fourth tip is to connect with brands early. When contacting big brands, you're going to be faced with a number of challenges. The larger the business, the harder it is to reach the decision maker, and the longer it's going to take to set anything in stone. I've had projects with big brands that have taken over 2 years to come into fruition, and countless others that are still sitting in the pipeline waiting for the right moment. The reason I suggest picking at least 10 brands for any given project is that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. There are countless reasons a project might not come into fruition, and it's likely to be less about the quality of the idea and more about the timing. You might send the perfect proposal to the right company only to find out that they don't have the budget or resources at that very moment. You might find a brand with a big budget to spend, but they're not focusing on those topics that your idea is about right now. This is where most people throw in the towel and take it all too personally. Decision makers of big brands are very busy people, so don't get disheartened when you don't receive a reply straight away. Persistence and perseverance are key, and this leads me to my fifth tip for today, which is follow up consistently. A good follow up strategy is what separates those who give up from the successful. While most people simply give up when they don't get a response, highly successful people demonstrate a level of perseverance that just can't be ignored. Some of my best collaborations started with weeks of being completely blanked, then sporadic responses and even rejections. I learned not to take it personally and simply put a consistent follow up system in place. To make sure that you stay on top of your follow ups, you need to pick a system that works for you. If you're working with thousands of contacts, you may want to go with a dedicated software like Airtable, or if you're just starting out, you can use Excel or Google Sheets to keep track. Whatever you pick, just make sure that it's something that you'll check regularly. If you need to, use calendar reminders to send notifications straight to your phone. So once you've set this up, what do you say in your follow up to increase your likelihood of a positive response? Well, a follow up should do three things. First, it needs to catch the reader's attention by being personal and relevant. The subject and first sentence are most important here. The second is to provide a brief summary of what they need to know. You need to assume they've not read your previous message or that they've completely forgotten about what you said. The third is to provide a clear call to action. I like to provide a link where they can book a quick 10 to 15 minute Skype call to get the ball rolling. I'll also give a second option, which is to say that if they're not the right person to speak to about this, to kindly point me in the right direction. If they're not the decision maker you need, this is a great way to get a personal referral to the right one. I go into a lot more detail on what messaging works best for your introduction and follow ups in other videos. So there you have an overview of what a brand deal is, why a brand would want to work with you and my top five tips for landing brand deals. For a quick recap, they were work with influencers, develop your idea, identify your brands, connect with them early and follow up consistently. This is by no means a conclusive list, but these are the things that I found make the most difference when landing brand deals. It helps to look at it like a numbers game. If you're new to it all, then you're going to have to contact many more people to start gaining traction. But the good news is once you build up momentum, it gets easier. The better you are at tracking your progress and following a strategy, the greater your chances of success. If you want to learn more about the strategies I've used to secure deals with global brands and broadcasters, secure sponsorships and ultimately travel the world as a filmmaker, I share more information in my free training program link below. There's loads more that I haven't covered yet on this topic, so I'll save it for future videos. Make sure you subscribe to catch them when they come out. But even more importantly, leave a comment and let me know what you want to see next. I'm constantly expanding video business mastery and that's led by your feedback and requests. I hope you found the information today useful. And if you have any questions, then don't hesitate to get in touch. I'll see you in the next video.