David: Hello and welcome to David Walks. I’m here on Columbus Street with Anthony Garcia, media professional and videographer.
Anthony: Hey, how’s it going, everybody?
David: Today, we’re going to talk about video marketing, and we’re going to start with … it all starts with YouTube, not cable. Anthony, can you tell us a little bit about your experience with YouTube and just your general approach?
Anthony: Yeah. I used to work at a music channel and it was called MYX.TV. I was head of production there, and we targeted the Asian youth market. When I was head of production, I noticed that there were a lot of young entrepreneurs online, in particular Asian entrepreneurs and they were doing producing content online, and so I partnered with a lot of them right from the beginning, because I just knew something was … Something interesting was happening on the internet. As I created these partnerships, I became friends with a lot of these people, and some of these people are millionaires like Timothy Delaghetto for one. That’s the type of experiences I’ve had with YouTube people and their businesses that they’ve created on YouTube.
David: When you look at some of these people, how did they start creating an audience? It’s tough … It’s an intimidating thing to go from like, “Oh, I’m going to just hit ‘record’ and make a cool video,” to getting a million people to watch it and a million people to subscribe. In the earlier days, how would they start to get subscribers in those first views?
Anthony: I think a lot of it was organic, but they ready … I think also … Let me backtrack a little bit, with Asian-Americans, there was definitely a lot of Asian-Americans in media. I think a lot of these young Asian entrepreneurs saw that opening, and so they started to create content and a lot of their content was directed towards young Asian audience. Because there was absence, that void, so to speak, they jumped on it and people started to … young Asians started to gravitate towards them.
David: I think it’s a cool way to look at it like a limited cable offer for the young Asian person in America. Maybe cable is lacking.
Anthony: You know this. The internet is, a lot of it is niche marketing, niche marketing, and so the good thing about YouTube is the democratization. How do you say it?
David: Democratize?
Anthony: It democratizes everything, yeah, and really gives everybody an equal footing to produce content, not branding. It’s not as brand as a [Luvi Studio 00:03:17] but it still gives them the opportunity to put out video content.
David: That’s cool. That’s cool. Even just the initial views, I find they very hard. It’s like I can make something and have it sit out there for a while. I’m also at the same time encouraged that you have these people on YouTube that are basically treating it like a small TV channel. Instead of going from one person, you can start a small team and get a lot of views on YouTube and start to have a small channel as opposed to like, “I’m going to start the next MTV,” which is partnership after partnership.
Anthony: Let’s talk about, say, for example, what? If you were to produce something, and why would people want to watch your stuff?
David: Stuff I’ve made, so I made a video “start up art.” It’s basically a time lapse of someone painting the wall on our office, fun little video, but why would they want to watch it? Maybe they like our company? It’s like brand sentiment, so… Or maybe they like the artist that painted it.
Anthony: What do people most like when they would go on YouTube and what do you think people most watch when they go and they go on YouTube?
David: The top viewed videos are mostly music videos.
Anthony: Exactly. You need to sing. You need to sing Nikki Minaj’s song and then that might go viral. What else?
David: That’s true. Actually, one of my friends, one of his top videos is just lip-syncing on his bike.
Anthony: Right, exactly, exactly.
David: He can’t put ads on that. He tried to put ads on it. They blocked him.
Anthony: If it’s a parody. My understanding that you can do parodies, correct?
David: Yeah, yeah, but it’s a fine line. For him, I guess, him on his bike wasn’t parody enough. That’s just him singing. The parody line’s pretty interesting, though. If it’s satire, you can do whatever you want. If it’s not, you can get [inaudible 00:05:29].
Anthony: I’m working on a current project right now, and so you know.
David: I don’t want to say too much but the search engines will be shocked.
Anthony: With regards to …
David: One anecdote on the parodies, you know how Dave Chappelle did the Prince Impression on his show?
Anthony: Uh-huh (Affirmative).
David: Recently, about six months ago, Prince came out with a single and the image on the single album was Dave Chappelle dressed as Prince.
Anthony: That is too funny.
David: He was calling it like a judo Prince move where you can’t sue him because it’s you impersonating him, but he still stole his image without telling him and he put it as the cover of the single.
Anthony: That’s smart. That is actually a smart marketing.
David: It’s really good.
Anthony: That is smart. Other things, what else do you think that people gravitate towards on YouTube and when they search the internet?
David: For me, personally, I’ve looked for a lot of old sports.
Anthony: No, no. I’m asking what most people, not just you.
David: Most people? How-to is especially in terms of business when you have other offering.
Anthony: What’s the number one thing that people search?
David: Porn.
Anthony: I think a lot of these younger people, they know that a lot of these comedians, their topics are sex, and whether it’s a skit or whether it’s dating, whether it’s relationships, that is something that … There’s basic things that people gravitate towards. If you’re looking for a mass audience and in my opinion it’s from: my experience, comedy, music, dating, relationships, sex, I don’t know if Timothy’s going to want me to say this, but I know that when he had put his thumbnails up on his YouTube channel, he would put the rest, and thumbnail the rest, and then get … that would increase his place. They’re very smart. They’re very smart and these young kids, they’re very savvy. They know what people are looking for.
It’s really interesting, Timothy Delaghetto has been criticized by a lot of people for some of his content, but Timothy, I could tell you, is one of the smartest young individuals I know. Intellectually, he can debate you off things and shutout to you, Timothy. When I first met Timothy, he was just coming up getting the audience, and I met him at a film festival. I’m like, “Hey, man. You are going to blow up. You’re going to be big. Timothy, you’re going to be big.” He goes, “Yeah, yeah.” I go, “Man, I love you. I love your stuff.” I’m like, I go, “We need to work together on stuff.” He’s like, “We should.” I’m like, I joked around and said, “Let’s do sex scandal tape.” He goes, “Yeah, man, for sure, for sure. Let’s do it with blah, blah, blah,” and I’m like … And we just both started laughing at that, and we were just joking around but Timothy is just a really smart, funny guy, and I’m glad that I got to work with Tim on that, that I consider him a friend.
David: Did you ever make the sex scandal tape?
Anthony: I didn’t. I didn’t produce it, but I don’t know, Timothy might have. He does have two million subscribers I think right now, and I think in Forbes, he was listed as a millionaire.
David: That’s cool. Do you think the revenue is mostly YouTube?
Anthony: I’m sure that there’s various revenue streams. I’m producer.
David: In general, I want to see businesses apply more of these types of personalities, almost like mascots or your news commentator of your business to these startups. I’m like I’ve had a lot of experience growing a blog and spending all those time creating content, but it’s like a lot of these businesses, they struggle with … they’re intimidated by the video camera, and they need … “All right, I have to hire professionals. We have to do it right. We have to do 20 iterations. We have to write the script, approve the script.”
Anthony: I know, because I do that, man. Working with tons of layers, and it’s so funny because this marketing personnel is to look at it and then these executives have to look at it and this executive wanted this changed and they want this button changed and they want this. By the time that it’s done, it’s …
David: It’s a Frankenstein.
Anthony: Yeah, and my brain hurts. For me, obviously, I’m here to provide a service to the client, so you know you just came here and I do what you want.
David: You never tell the client like [inaudible 00:10:20].
Anthony: I make suggestions. I do make suggestions, but ultimately …
David: They’re paying you.
Anthony: Yeah, and if they’re going to insist on something, I’m not going to waste energy debating them, and I can definitely document my suggestions and really give strong suggestions, but ultimately, they do have final say.
David: Absolutely. What do you think in terms of breaking down the barrier a little bit? Is there any simple steps like a business? Say, I have one person that can film a little bit. How do you approach the conversation with the executives to be like, “Yeah, we need to spend more time on film”?
Anthony: You have to have a really … I guess, justify what’s going to be the return on the investment when you produce this content for this business, and so that’s where I do have clients right now where I can say, “All right, I think what we should do right now is this non-profit. We can do a kick-starter campaign and it’s for a particular community, and the community will benefit from this. Since you guys already have such a large network of people online and you guys are influencers in this particular community, why don’t we create some video content? Because right now you’re lacking that and you guys need to really step up. I guarantee you, if you do do that, you’re going to be able to get your message out a lot more effectively than just a couple pair of paragraphs, static page on the website.”
David: You’d come back to them saying like, “Okay, here are the number of views that I got. Here are the number of people that reached.” One thing I struggle with video is basically validating it for these small companies.
Anthony: You’re going to have to show them what type of members you get, obviously. That’s part of where, I think, you’re going to have to also have a strong social media component as well, because you’re just not going to have a whole bunch of use unless there is somewhat of a 360 marketing approach to it, I think. I think. I don’t know. I’m just your simple media guy, so I don’t know what I’m talking about. I don’t know. What are your thoughts?
David: My thoughts are it’s harder to convince what the actual value is.
Anthony: Yeah, it is.
David: Then with texts, it’s just simpler. It’s easier to tell, “Okay, they were on this page,” and they click to that page. Right now, video. Now, this video is embedded on 15 different sites and the person comes back to our site and they heard about us on the video but they end up using our product and spending a lot of money and we don’t know that. A lot of times, it’s like setting expectations where you convince whatever direct returns you get as marketer. It’s actually 20% more, 30% more because a lot of it just can’t be tracked.
Anthony: I just did a… it was a panel discussion at Google for this one organization and they had a one-hour panel discussion. Now, that is something that you can convince a client to do because if there are other people who did not go to that panel or cannot make it and it does have a lot of information about what they’re talking about and the direction of the company, and the mission of the company, then you can sell that idea to YouTube.
David: You’re just selling like even if it’s not remarkable, this is our national message.
Anthony: It’s on message and that …
David: I do want to preface this discussion by saying I just watched the 49ers game and I had two Bloody Marys today as I [inaudible 00:14:19] message. Not enough, just enough to enjoy myself.
Anthony: I’ll tweet everybody and I’ll say, “Hey, listen to this carefully.”
David: You have a big project going on that really can’t get too much into, but what kind of work do you want to do down the line in terms of what kind of videos and media you want to make?
Anthony: I don’t know. I think right now, it’s just so open and I’m just trying to figure out what I want to do next. I actually have a lot of projects and I’m turning down potential projects.
David: What’s it like in terms of just you trying like let them know you want to work with them later or is it more just like …?
Anthony: I’m just saying that it’s …
David: “This is what you have to do.”
Anthony: It doesn’t interest me. Just you know, I’ve got a lot of other projects because right now, for me, I like to … I like to work on projects that have impact as opposed to more of the monetary aspect of it. Even though I might not be getting paid, I may be working with non-profits, I really know that I might be … the impact is going to be … That I can have a really strong impact with whatever content I create, and that’s what I’m looking at is something that’s going to have some impact.
David: Do you have your own channel?
Anthony: Just stuff that I produce but …
David: What’s your channel’s name?
Anthony: What is it? Anthony Garcia Media on YouTube. It’s just all the stuff that I produced in the past, music stuff.
David: You’re doing music videos?
Anthony: It was the channel that I was head of production before. It was like BET but we targeted the Asian youth market, so we had all different types of television programs, and towards the end, I started to do integrated program and that included social media online and broadcast content. That, I could be somewhat at the cutting edge, and one of the last projects I worked on increased work profit at 110% just from this integrated concept that I came up with.
David: It is cool like help with our … You can have videos embedded on all of the social networks. You can’t read a full blog. You actually have to leave. You should leave. In that area, I also really like video and it’s a big thing I see people under-using it and underestimating because you don’t have to leave where you are to watch it.
Anthony: People are going to use it a lot more. Video content has just been at it.
David: Have you been going into Vine and Instagram for video?
Anthony: Instagram, I do post some stuff on Instagram.
David: The Voltaire thing, that was cool. Was that Voltaire, so to speak, fortune teller? What would you say to someone starting their YouTube channel? Say we got like a 18-year old, funny, one studio comedian type of person, it’s an interesting personality, but they basically have made no videos and now they have their first new phone. What advice would you give them in terms of what to post and what to do?
Anthony: To do it. Just make it, because a lot of people, they just don’t do it and they talk about it. All of this success with people, they just do it. They do not talk about it and they actually do it and a lot of them fail, but that’s part of the process is that’s what, how they get better and how they … Their first video suck, probably will.
David: It’s funny, I met Guy Kawasaki, the old Apple evangelist, but then very briefly, and I just asked him, “What would you say to the next startup entrepreneur?” and it’s almost the same advice because his line was, “Prototype, don’t plan.” Start building your first prototype and worry about the rest later.
Anthony: Just do it and you’re going to make mistakes and that’s just part of it, and all the success will [inaudible 00:18:43]. I’ve just been approached to do a pilot for this one young guy. I think he has almost, right now, almost like a million views on his YouTube channel and he’s only 19, and he’s gathered a bunch of young Bay Area writers and artists and actors. The fact that he was able to come to me, show me five scripts, show me a treatment, show me videos, and he’s also been sponsored by Microsoft, I said, “Okay, I might partner with you,” because he’s already doing it. Is he the biggest?
David: That is the answer, yes. He’s doing it. You’re already doing it.
Anthony: Yeah, you’re ready doing it, and so I’m like, “Okay, sure, because I want to work with you but they just talk and I can’t invest at that.” Let’s check that edit and I was just like, “Okay.”
David: Are you going to start working with him?
Anthony: Yeah, yeah. I told him that he needs to work on a pilot and then we need to fine-tune that and then we could start shopping it around and see if we could get investors. It’s more of a small grassroots thing but …
David: It’s like you want to put some of your eggs going for the home run. Basically, you take a low market wage because you think this project could really grow and get a professional. You have to balance to do that. I think it’s the right idea. The other thing I was thinking of just in terms of these multimedia personalities, I was listening earlier this week to Childish Gambino. You know who this is?
Anthony: No, no, sorry.
David: Have you watched the show Community?
Anthony: No.
David: Basically, he went from … grew up Jehovah’s Witness or Seventh Day Adventist, became an actor and then became a hip-hop artist, but at the same time, he’s doing most of his work online with webcast and massive social media, massive YouTube audience and it was almost like …
Anthony: I think I might have heard of him, yeah. I think I might actually.
David: It’s almost like he used being on sitcom as this loss leader, like not that he wasn’t making money, but he was getting his name out there to grow all these web properties.
Anthony: That’s cool. [Inaudible 00:21:00] try to do it?
David: I think getting a lot of valuable web followers … I call them re-engage-able audience is a term I’m trying to grow, because a lot of times it’s like, “Okay, you’re an individual and you have an audience, and then how many people, audience, friends, followers, likes. How many people can you re-engage and you talk to later when you have a new idea?” Because that’s what Comcast is offering. That’s what it’s offering whenever you post on another blog, you reach all their subscribers. Thinking about, I’ve been trying to advise people if they grow their own social media accounts that it’s like a lot of it’s about, you’ve got to think like if you gain a new friend today, a new follower today, it’s like, when you have something they want … When you have something they would gain value from later, you can actually get it to them. It’s just like one of the cool things about social media.
Anthony: I think there’s this one project that I worked on. I have this talent and they were finding out to this one area that they weren’t well known. I just went on their social media handles and started engaging people, and actually got people to come out because of the introduction. I have assignment editors and, “Oh, we’ll try to cover it,” because as directly, I researched the assignment editors for the local stations, and I tweeted them. I’m like, “Hey, blah, blah, blah is coming to town.” “Oh, yeah, I’m going to call it. I’ll put it into the assignment editor.” It’s really interesting how is use of social media to actually target assignment editors and media professionals, and I actually got five media professionals to attend this event, just the social media.
David: One of the cool things about it is in your invitation, you’re also marketing the event to whoever else use the tweet.
Anthony: Exactly, and that’s in the re-tweet and they would re-tweet it to other people. Then the next night, the talent sent me all these photos and it was really great. It was cool, and this was just … Literally, just from my house, from my phone, tweet, tweet, tweet, and it’s just interesting how you can do these things now that you would not be able to have done five years ago.
David: Do you think we’ll see a future film made with just an iPhone? I saw someone [crosstalk 00:23:32].
Anthony: You know what? That’s what I was actually telling would be one of the best promotions for a cellphone is to either do … People have already done it but do a concert or a music video or a feature film and do it just with their phone, but don’t tell anybody.
David: It would also be fun to have like Kanye’s iPhone before the concert.
Anthony: What do you mean?
David: Say Kanye is about to perform. He’s like fucking around with his phone that I wanted to subscribe to. People would be like, “We’d really want to watch it.”
Anthony: That would be, yeah. That would be a great marketing campaign for the cellphone company.
David: Have you seen the Lebron commercials? Lebron has done some good stuff with Samsung Netx where it’s like basically him using the phone, showcasing his life. They made the whole app called the Lebron app, and it’s really like, how close can you get to him? You have to use a Samsung.
Anthony: That’s smart. I think I told you that I was working for a music channel and I was working with AT&T and all these other to really come up with exactly those types of campaigns where you’re using new technology in a whole different way. There was a concept that I threw all through social media. We had 1,000 people [inaudible 00:24:56] at Davis California and just from all the online celebrities tweeting and we did some grassroots marketing. If you do a search on MYX Loaded, you’ll see all of these kids taping the concert with their cellphone, and there’s probably about 30 posts just of that concert. That was just the best marketing that anybody could ask for.
David: They filmed it. They distributed to their network?
Anthony: Yeah, and they promote the concert that we did. It was only grassroots using social media and no mainstream marketing [inaudible 00:25:32]. It could be done.
David: Cool, cool. Thanks for taking a walk with me today.
Anthony: Thank you, Mr. Dave Walks.
David: It’s David Walks. You’ve got to remember the ‘id’, my ‘id’.
Anthony: I know. I’m sorry. You want me to say it over again? Take two?
David: Take two?
Anthony: Yeah.
David: David Walks.
Anthony: David Walks.