When you're just starting out as a creative, it can be challenging to get certain brands and studios to notice your work. Now imagine you're trying to convince clients to hire you with few examples of paid work to your name, and the challenge can seem almost impossible. Big emphasis on "almost." That's why it's often necessary to think outside of the box to grab attention.
That was certainly the case for my partner and me as we attempted to form a successful video production company. We wanted to focus on a specific niche in order to make it easier to market ourselves to clients, and as cannabis had recently been legalized in Oregon, it struck us as an industry that offered a great deal of promise. It didn't hurt that people were telling us that the 'Green Rush' was underway and that we couldn't fail. And so, The Hood Collective was formed.
The reality was altogether different. Within months of our launch, a glut of cannabis on the Oregon market caused a huge drop in prices, catching business owners (and us) off-guard. At the same time, many of the people we spoke with had already been burnt by predatory marketers who promised way more than they could deliver. Without anyone to recommend us, we found it extremely difficult to earn trust in this environment, and nearly impossible to set up pitch meetings.
With so many obstacles in our way, and needing to show prospective clients that working with us would be worthwhile, we decided to start a web series called "Why Cannabis?" The idea was simple: we'd interview industry insiders about their business journey and why they are passionate about the plant. We figured that filming and editing interviews would be relatively easy on our end and would double as a great way to get in the door with people we hoped might hire us in the future.
The change in strategy immediately paid off. The many no's we had been encountering when asking to set up pitch meetings instantly became yes's. It turns out that people were eager to be interviewed about their businesses, and didn't give much thought to whether the interviewers were "legitimate." And when we showed up with our professional cameras and lighting gear, they were impressed. More than one person said they were expecting, "A kid with a phone." ?
It wasn't long before business owners were contacting us asking to sit down and speak with us. Another perk was that we started receiving invites to events to film and do interviews. Rather than paying an entrance fee, we got media passes and walked around the show room floor with our gear like we were an important video outlet. Within three months of starting "Why Cannabis?" we even secured our first paying client.
But I don't want to give the impression that our success happened overnight. Over the next year, landing new clients seemed to occur haphazardly. We knew we were heading in the right direction, but things certainly weren't happening as fast as we would have liked.
Our next big break occurred when we struck up a creative partnership with one of Portland's leading cannabis events, the Cannabis Collaborative Conference. We'd previously interviewed the CCC's founder, and with the latest activation coming up, we reached out to ask if they needed support recording keynote speakers, creating promos for leading sponsors, or editing together a highlights reel. The founder responded that she'd love to hire us but didn't have the budget for video.
We pivoted. We offered to set up an area in their media room and record sit down interviews with the main sponsors and leading speakers. This way, we'd own the content for our channel, but they'd be able to share it on their social media. We also used the opportunity to interview business owners from companies that we were targeting as prospective clients.
This situation couldn't have worked out better for us. Without the organizer's knowledge, the hired videographer was going around the showroom floor offering to sell high definition video of all the breakout sessions, which he was actually filming on iPads with no microphone. The video quality was professional quality, and following the event, he pocketed all the money without ever delivering the promised video anyway. Meanwhile, the people who'd been duped were going to the organizer asking what happened to the video they'd paid for.
She ended up having to reimburse them herself. Fortunately, for the angry sponsors and speakers she was able to at least point them to the interviews we'd conducted, and she heavily promoted them on her website and social media. We definitely appreciated and benefited from that free publicity. She also started talking us up to all her colleagues and industry peers.
As a direct result of the work we put in at the conference, we picked up a number of new clients. We were hired for the next Portland cannabis event, the Cultivation Classic, a few months later. Best of all, the next year, the conference hired us to produce all the video for the event, including creating sponsor promos and filming all of the breakout sessions (two full days of four simultaneous rooms!). This was by far the biggest job we'd done up to that point, and it all happened because of what had occurred (quite serendipitously) the year before. Instead of accepting no for an answer, we formed a partnership that provided value for a potential client while yielding content and networking opportunities for us.
It took a lot of hard work to develop trust and build a reputation, but now The Hood Collective is one of the leading video production companies in the cannabis industry (Google it!). Instead of selling ourselves, we offered something of value to our potential clients. Even when they haven't turned into future customers, they've praised our work and ingenuity in the company of their peers. Our own business success soon followed.
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Note From Tongal: This blog is part of a series of Tongal Community-written blog posts that were originally sourced in the Tongal Blog Open Call Project. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Tongal. Read more Tongal Community-written posts here!
