I tell this story starting on page 266 of the fourth edition of Self-Management for Actors, and that text is below, but I realized I actually showed off the visual in a long-ago discarded vid from one of our 2011 online courses. (You’ll see why this vid was quickly scrapped as the sound gets out of sync. Try not to get stabby while watching it. I do not have that ability, but maybe you do.)
Anyway, because the visual may be helpful to you, I’m plopping it in here, along with the story from the book. Enjoy!
One of my favorite ninja moves came from an actor who had a small recurring role on a very highly critically-acclaimed (but low-rated) show. She knew the show wasn’t going to stay on the air, and that meant she’d be looking for another series soon. She also knew that the only way she’d get considered at the next tier was to be sure everyone—even those who had never seen an episode of this brilliant show—knew she was low-risk for similar work. She created an interview.
Basically, she hired a team to write a profile about her, put her on the “cover page” of a magazine that doesn’t really exist, and take photos of her being totally on-brand. Then she created a mailing and targeted everyone who needed to know she was thrilled to be a part of this show (that we all knew was about to be cancelled) and that she was absolutely smart enough about this business and her position in it to be given the opportunity to at least test at network, the following pilot season. So, let’s reverse-engineer this whole thing.
She started with her targets. Just that simply, she chose not to reach out to everyone in casting, but to those who stood the best chance of needing her on a pilot the following season. That cut the number of recipients of this mailing way down. Were she to target agents, she’d be looking a tier above her existing rep. There’s no point in blanketing the town with even the most gorgeous of marketing materials. Even in tiny markets, not everyone on the buying side needs to know you exist in order for you to make a living as an artist.
What next? She hired a stylist, a photographer, a graphic designer, and a writer. Not cheap, but also nowhere near as expensive as hiring a publicist and media trainer. She outlined her goals for this piece of advertising—let’s be honest, that’s exactly what it is—and she talked with the writer to get all the salient points across, succinctly. No spin on the part of the network, the talkshow host, the stringer trying to get a story picked up by the wire services, or some random blogger. Nope. This was all manufactured to align with her brand and her goals for the following pilot season.
After creating a cover photo for this “magazine,” and a three-page “interview” to feature within it, she created a kit to mail out. Using nothing more sophisticated than a three-ring binder sheet-protector sleeve and a piece of clear tape, she put these documents—printed on high-quality bond—into something she could mail without an envelope! The sheet protector went straight through the mail, with a stamp and mailing address label and her return address label all strategically placed after she consulted with the graphic designer on layout of the “cover.” Even if no one were to open the mailing, it was doing its job, because you couldn’t miss the point.
The “cover” was her face and some “WOW! POW! YAY!” type words just like you’d see if any celeb were gracing the cover of the ‘zine. Printed on the back of that page was the beginning of the interview, but you’d never see it unless you took the piece of tape off the mailing and pulled everything out to explore more. The goal was not to get people to read the whole interview. This was basically a high-priced postcard to help her buyers perceive her as upper-tier.
The second piece of card-stock paper in this mailing was the rest of the “interview.” Also two-sided, with the really important stuff on the page that faced in the other outwardly direction in this clear-sleeve mailer. All the best sales language about where she was headed after wrapping this amazing show that was so highly critically-acclaimed was on that back page, as well as a few other on-brand photos, just like you’d see in any magazine feature, profiling a famous actor.
But this actor wasn’t famous. She had read for me a few times in my first few years of casting, then she got this show after doing the usual one-line co-star up to one-scene co-star up to first-time guest-star on up to this particular recurring guest role on this hot-in-the-industry (but underappreciated in the rest of the world) TV show. So, when I received this mailing, I knew she was telling me, “Look at my tier-jump! Don’t you think I’m ready for my series regular, next pilot season?”
Sure enough, this actor booked a small but memorable role in the pilot of a series that ran for five years. She was named a series regular by episode six of season one, when her little recurring character had hit so well with the fanbase that there was no question they needed to lock her in rather than risk losing her the following pilot season, as she would have been able to test elsewhere, had they not committed to her (and therefore vice-versa) right
then.
So, let’s say she invested a couple grand into this particular marketing strategy once you tally up the pros she hired to help execute it, the printing costs, and the mailing supplies (including postage and address labels). When did that pay off? Before the first commercial break of the pilot episode of the series that would go on to pay her very, very well (and continues to do so, thanks to residuals).
Did anyone on the receiving end say, “Ooh! Yes! I remember this edition of ‘Not a Real Magazine’ quarterly?” No. Of course not. She didn’t mock up a cover of People magazine. She got interviewed. That she paid to make that happen? Irrelevant. Yes, you could have the same thing happen via a “real” interview, if you’re lucky enough to have connected with a journalist from a small paper back home, or an up-and-coming blogger looking to profile up- and-coming actors. But do you have quality control that way? Nope. And at some point in your career, the investment could make the difference.
Obviously, this actor was already on the rise. She was having as close to “linear success” as is possible in this industry, going from co-star to guest-star to recurring, and then she pounced on the opportunity to get considered for the next tier. Would she have booked the pilot without the mailing? We can’t know. As I’ve said from the very beginning of my time writing for actors: It’s not the one thing you do; it’s all the things you do.
Should you put out full-page ads in the trades, congratulating yourself on getting cast in a studio feature film or signing with a fancy agency? You could do that. It’s guaranteed exposure (for a lot of money) with an audience of the biggest power players in this industry. Is that your next target? The top agent at the top agency whose clients are all name actors? The network exec who’s looking for his next 10-year top-10 sitcom star? Maybe not yet. Certainly, people at tiers below these folks see the ad too, but this is where the research you’ve done on your target buyers will help you choose what investment is worth it at this stage.
Make a quick list about what career experiences you’ve had that would be (or could be) considered newsworthy. Maybe that student film you did five years ago didn’t turn out great, but did you notice that the director went on to win a Streamy last year? Maybe that low-budget indie from which you never got footage is a black hole in your mind, but hey, didn’t the writer of that script just win the Nicholl Fellowship? You don’t know? It’s your job to know. “Starred in a feature by the latest Nicholl Fellowship winner,” is newsworthy. Really look at everything you’ve ever done—and the people with whom you did it all—and see if there’s good spin out there, somewhere.
Armed with that heat, consider creating a press release. A simple three- paragraph notice at https://prlog.org could be smart, if well-timed. But before you take a stab at that, make sure you’ve studied up on what press releases look like (that same link is a great place to poke around; you’ll soon learn what’s standard and what’s not), follow the formula (don’t get cute), and be prepared that a placement could lead to a news organization looking to do a story based on your press release. Send that press release around to your hometown paper along with your bio, press photo (it doesn’t have to be the same as your headshot), and some convenient times for a follow-up interview if they’d like to run a story. And then keep that story (PDF the webpage, if it ran online only) to add to your press kit going forward.
By far, the most important element of allllll this type of work is that everything be ridiculously on-brand and in service of where you’re headed. Creating postcards, show flyers, a website, a media kit, a press release, a social networking profile that doesn’t show us how to cast you next or that doesn’t leave us feeling as though we get you will not help you. On the contrary, it could hurt you.