Tag Archives: Branding

Personal Branding For Actors

Posted on March 3, 2016 by AMP Talent Group

So what’s a personal brand? “Your personal brand is the powerful, clear, positive idea that comes to mind whenever other people think of you. It’s what you stand for — the values, abilities, and actions that others associate with you. It’s a professional alter ego designed for the purpose of influencing how others perceive […]

So what’s a personal brand?

“Your personal brand is the powerful, clear, positive idea that comes to mind whenever other people think of you. It’s what you stand for — the values, abilities, and actions that others associate with you. It’s a professional alter ego designed for the purpose of influencing how others perceive you, and turning that perception into opportunity.”

So you can see that personal branding is everywhere. We all have developed a personal brand over the years (most of us without even realizing it) that other people use to associate us with certain things. So like the quote stipulated, personal branding is all about recognizing what your brand is and using its strengths to your advantage. As an actor, it’s going to be essential that you realize your brand and make sure you cultivate it yourself, instead of letting it be the one to define you.

What’s the purpose of a personal brand?

Obviously, first and foremost the purpose of developing a strong personal brand is to get more work, to improve your career, and to become more successful at whatever it is you do. A personal brand is all about leveraging yourself so you can influence the particular target market that you’re trying to reach. Your goal is to become a leader in your industry by clearly communicating your brand to your audience and what it is you have to offer. You’re building a promise with your audience about what you can provide them. The strongest brands have perfect alignment between what they promise to offer customers or fans and what they end up delivering. By executing a strong personal brand you will show your followers why you’re different and have something to offer that no one else does, that you’re exceptional at something in particular and always put forth great work. You will also show that your brand is a real person and accurately depicts who you are, what you represent, and that you’re passionate about what you do.

Is your personal brand the same thing as your personal image?

No, your personal brand and personal image are different. Your personal image is the set of qualities that your friends would say to describe you, such as your physical characteristics, style, personality, likes and dislikes, and so on. While your personal brand is how others will perceive you, particularly in a work setting. Your personal image is something that people will formulate, who know you and have been friends with you before, but a personal brand is more how the public will perceive you and the work that you do. They say that in the best circumstances, your personal image will be a direct reflection of your personal brand. But it doesn’t have to — people do go out and create personas that are slight or extreme exaggerations of who they are as a person all the time.

Why is personal branding so important for actors and entertainers?

Personal branding is especially key for performers because you are your product — your look, talents, and physical body is your selling tool for landing jobs. This is why being cognitive of your brand and creating something that’s authentic to you and your skill set is going to be a big difference maker in the success of your career. Also, there is simply too much competition and too many people in your same talent and look bracket that you have to find a way to create an advantage for yourself. You do this by creating a strong personal brand that sets you apart, highlighting what makes you uniquely you.

What are some key platforms that actors should use to execute their personal brand effectively?

We touched on this in a previous article about actors being active in the online space in order to help market themselves, but here are a few of the key platforms:

Website & Social Media: In order to effectively build and maintain a personal brand, you will have to be active in the online space. That’s where you’ll be able to build communities of fans and followers, as well as get the most traction with the least amount of work. If you’re serious about developing a strong brand for yourself, then you need to create a network hub online where you’re active in conversations and people can have access to your work and contact information.

YouTube (web series/comedy channel): Again, we’ve touched on this before but creating your own projects on YouTube is the most common theme nowadays for performers and comedians. It’s a way to potentially avoid the long and tedious audition process and build an audience for your work, which can bridge you into more traditional film opportunities if you get enough attention with your channel or web series. A prime example is Workaholics, which started as a series of videos on YouTube and is now going into its fifth season on the Comedy Central network.

Blogging: While creating an actual written blog will take a lot more time and effort, it’s definitely a great way to actively build your personal brand. By building a voice through your writing, you will be able to reach your desired market and connect with other actors who’re going through similar experiences as you. Considering how tough the business is, finding other like-minded people is going to help you to build confidence and gain some different insights and perspectives into the industry.

So now that you have a little more insight into where you should be going to build your personal brand, what are some of the golden rules to make sure you do things right?

Your goal with personal branding is to communicate 3 things:

Who you are
What you do
What makes you different, or how you create value for your target market

There are too many bloggers, brands, and companies online that give off muffled messages to their followers. You have to be so clear to your audience about who you are and what you do. It’s important to have a niche and a very focused area that you excel in and provide value to your customers. You know what they say, “why do a few things good, when you could do one thing great.” You’re a performer so your message should be very clear to your audience about what you do.

Here are some important rules and guidelines to follow by in order to execute a strong personal brand:

Be authentic and inject your personality into your brand: As an actor, your brand is YOU and what can bring to the different characters you play. Just like you would in the audition room, you want to show off your personality and give everybody a taste of the type of person you are. You need to show people that you would be a pleasure to work with and are a quality person on top of your acting skill. You can do this by talking very openly and candidly to your followers online and creating a real person who others can relate to. Most importantly, just be yourself and leave your ego out of it. There are enough people who achieve a little bit of “social media fame” and think they’re King of the Net. Also, if you want to gain an advantage over others and give people something unique, then just be yourself, as nobody will see things exactly the same way you do.

You must have passion for what you’re doing: Obviously your brand will suffer if you don’t love what you’re doing. Treat your own brand as a labour of love and a unique voice that others can connect with. If you don’t love what you do and force your way through it, people will be able to tell and you will lose motivation over time to continue building your brand.

Simplify your message: The best brands communicate a lot of information with very little. That’s because a strong brand is simple but it ignites a very specific emotional response. For you, it will come down to communicating very simply what you do and what you can offer your followers. Perhaps it’s just a fan page where people can follow you and ‘like’ you if they know your work, but if you want to create a stronger brand then you will need to provide value to your followers and communicate what that value is. Is it acting tips? Funny quotes? Hilarious articles that you find, or write? Find out what your message is and make it simple.

Engage your followers: This is one of the least interesting social media tidbits, but it’s always important to mention because people often forget about it or get too lazy and don’t do it. Always make sure you’re engaging with your followers as often as possible to create that two-way dialogue.

Be relevant: Particularly if you’re a blogger, it’s key that you keep up with current trends and themes so that you’re topical and people see a reason to read your stuff. Always make sure you read about what’s going on in the industry just as often as you’re writing about it.

Working on carving out your personal brand is going to take a lot of work, there’s no denying that. But will it be worth it? What will be the end result?

Well…there are a lot of positive outcomes that will arise from working hard and being consistent with your personal brand. For starters, you will start to gain attention from some key influencers in your industry if you’re active enough in the conversations in your industry. Important people will take notice and begin to follow you and start connecting with you. Secondly, you will start to create a community of like-minded followers who will boost your credibility in your industry. For example: if you go to an audition and the casting director looks you up online and sees that you have your own website and blog that’s professionally done, samples of your work on YouTube, as well as have a Facebook page and Twitter with thousands of followers, how much more likely will he be to cast you? Definitely more so than if you had absolutely no information about you online. Thirdly, not only will more opportunities come to you, but also more of the right opportunities will come to you. That’s because you have created a very strong personal brand that is directly in line with who you are as a person and what you can offer as a performer. Lastly, you will become a leader in your industry and will be perceived of someone who is an expert. That’s exactly what personal branding is all about, figuring out what you love to do and what you’re good at, and then strategically carving out a space for yourself that is in line with your goals and aspirations.

We’ve all been creating a personal brand in our lives, but most of us have been doing it passively. It’s now time that you take control and start to take the active steps to understand what yours is and make sure you’re communicating it to the world in the right way. So do so by creating something that is authentically you and something you can be excited about growing into the future.

How Actors Can Build A Brand Online

Posted on July 16, 2014 by AMP Talent Group

It is no secret that we’re in a digital revolution. Everybody is engaging online so frequently, that it’s becoming one of the most dominating forms of communication. For this reason it’s absolutely essential that actors are building and maintaining their brand online. Just simply going to your auditions is not enough anymore. You have to […]

It is no secret that we’re in a digital revolution. Everybody is engaging online so frequently, that it’s becoming one of the most dominating forms of communication. For this reason it’s absolutely essential that actors are building and maintaining their brand online. Just simply going to your auditions is not enough anymore. You have to be online, engaging in some way of self-promotion and making sure that you’re pushing your work as much as you can. Talent Agents, Managers, and Casting Directors are now going online to find that new secret talent that will take their business to the next level. Just look at how many new musicians and pop stars are being discovered on YouTube. The same goes for actors and models. You could be the next big thing that is waiting to be discovered. But this can only happen if you have a platform that showcases all your work and talents.

So why exactly should every actor be creating an online brand? Is it really that important?

That’s definitely a fair question, as a lot of people will feel it’s too much work for not enough reward, or that it’s going to feel awkward, narcissistic, and a little self-indulgent to create an online presence that is ALL ABOUT them. But you have to think of it that you are the product, you’re the vehicle that is going to make or break your career. When you’re an actor, it’s you as a person that is going to be the moneymaker, so you need to make sure you push that product as much as you can. Do not be afraid to stand out. Because only those who are willing to be vulnerable and put themselves out there have the opportunity to achieve big success.

Creating your online brand is another important tool available to you. Trying to make it as an actor is hard enough, so you need to give yourself whatever edge you can. By focusing on building and creating your online brand, you’re going to begin to separate yourself from other actors who can’t be bothered with the time and energy needed to build their platform. You have to become an entrepreneur of the craft, and your own hard-driving sales person. It’s essential for success.

Times are different now; producers want to know how much publicity you can get them for a TV series or movie. If you have a large following online, a producer will see you as a very valuable asset to them. It might help you in separating yourself from other competing actors in the casting process. Also, a lot of the top US and Canadian talent agencies such as CAA, ICM, AMP and WME have at least one staff member constantly scrolling the Internet, scouting for the next big star their agency can sign. Gaining an online presence has become huge for comedians in getting discovered as well, by posting gag videos, parodies, and creations that help get them potential viral exposure. You could even potentially book roles from your online brand. If you have enough videos, pictures, and quality work online, you might discover you have some important industry people sending you messages and emails saying they want to meet you, or even cast you in their next project.

Basically, why wouldn’t you start investing in your online Social Media brand? Social media is available to us everywhere and anytime. It also allows people to figure out who you are and what potential roles you would be good at playing, so you can choose to brand yourself in whatever way you want to get known for. Talk to your agent or manger and figure out your strengths and maximize on them by creating a presence online that will help give you that extra boost needed to stand out from the crowd.

Now that you’re aware and understand the importance of your online brand, what are some online tools available to actors and ones they should be engaging with on a regular basis? Listed below are some of the most important:

Build A Website: This is one of the most common and standard tools that most actors have now. Build a Basic Website that has your headshots, resume, and a show reel (when you have one). This is definitely the most important first ingredient when it comes to creating an online portfolio that will promote you as an artist. Standard actor’s websites will have a catalog style showing of their headshots that allow potential casting directors to see exactly what they look like. Provide reviews from directors or producers you have worked for on your page. Also keeping an updated resume is essential, as well as a demo showreel of your most recent work. A website concentrates all your information in one place, so it makes it very easy for someone to look you up and see exactly what you’re talents are.

YouTube Videos: A prime example of somebody who has promoted their wide-array of talents through viral YouTube videos is Taryn Southern. A very talented comedian, writer, actor, host, and singer, she’s managed to become quite the webutante, which has helped her to book many mainstream acting roles. She’s appeared on various TV shows such as New Girl and Rules of Engagement. While you don’t need to become the next viral sensation to be successful as an actor, she’s just an example of somebody who created a personal brand online and her career flourished because of it. If you’re more of an established actor, you can use YouTube to post trailers to new movies you’re appearing in, or links to notable scenes that you have done. You can have a link from your website to your YouTube videos, and vice versa.

Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram: It’s important that everyone who’s trying to build a career is using social media to some extent. If you’re a more established actor, then a Facebook fan page is a great way to build an audience and keep your fans up to date with new projects you’re working on, as well as push through all your professional marketing and press materials. Tons of comedy writers are being discovered through Twitter, which is essential for actors as well. Even if you don’t think you’re funny, or don’t like confessing all your personal feelings to the world, Twitter is a great way to get in touch with other performers, talent agents, casting directors, and managers. You can also follow accounts that are related to the film and entertainment industry, which can keep you informed with everything that’s happening. Tweeting is something that most people are doing and it’s another avenue for you to help get your words, face, and name out there. Creating an Instagram account is another great way to build followers and create an online presence. Tons of models and actors are creating accounts and posting behind the scenes pictures from various photo shoots and film sets they’re working on. Just make sure you have permission from someone on set before you snap photos. You can also go one step further and post inspiring quotes and information related to the industry. This is a great way to build a voice, a brand, and become known in the industry, which may also help to boost your career. Keep in mind that it is important not to tweet or talk about jobs that you are doing unless you have permission from the producer or your agent. You can say you have a audition or callback, but do not mention the client or job name.

Show Reel / Demo Reel: This is another one of the standard tools for actors. As soon as you have enough experience under your belt, you should be creating a reel that highlights some of your best work. This is a quick 2-3 minute video that your Talent Agent sends to a casting director or producer so they can see your work. While it’s not completely commonplace, some actors have been chosen for roles based entirely off their reel. This is why it’s essential that you have one (once you have enough experience) on your website, and upload to YouTube as well, which will actually show people that you have talent and should be taken seriously as an actor. Besides, having a demo reel helps to market you and your seen as a professional.

IMDB: It’s a very important branding tool that every talent should have. Casting directors, talent agents, and managers, may look you up on IMDB and see what your working on or your credits are like before they cast you. If you have a good chunk of credits, you will come across as established and professional. If you can’t be found online, most people will assume that you’re green and not established as a performer. Make sure that you create an IMDB account and work towards stacking those credits up!

Creating a strong online brand is a no-brainer. You can start off small (a Twitter account, LinkedIn, build a free website and or get help to edit together a solid showreel) and work towards creating more significant platforms once you’re more established. By investing in the online marketing presence early in your career, you will start to tell your peers and important people in the industry that you’re serious about your acting career.

Figure out what your brand is, create it online, and connect with like-minded people. The Internet and social media gives everyone an opportunity to build a voice and to connect. Start by building your online brand today!