Hi Friends!

One of the most common questions I receive is

“How do you work with big brands?”

Reaching out to big brands can seem daunting. The industry is constantly evolving. Competition gets more intense day by day. Standing out in the sea of creatives can be overwhelming.

So here are the 7 lessons that I’ve learned about reaching out and working with big brands.

1.) Become a student of the game

Become a student of the industry.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”

You need to understand the system of working with big brands, or you’ll never be able to crack the code.

• Look at how large production companies operate.
• Who are the big players in your local market?
• Who has the key connections to the bigger brands? (Agency of records)
• Become the most knowledgeable person in your industry.

These are all useful ways to give yourself a leg up over your competition.

2.) Balance the scales

Picture a two-sided scale.. or a seesaw.

Every brand is associated with a weight (10lbs/kg for example)

The brand sits on one side of the scale. You sit on the other.

• Nike would have an extremely heavy weight on their side of the scale.
• When you’re first starting out, your scale carries little to no weight. (they don't know who you are, or what you do).

There's nothing wrong with that.

But you need to understand that it's a physics problem.

Your goal is to balance the scales.

• Think about your creative voice and how you present yourself to the world
• Update your work and portfolio to be more relevant to the RIGHT people (agencies, producers, clients)
• Create work that looks and feels like your ideal brands

When you add more weight to your scale, brands will begin to see you as an equal in the production space (balancing out the scale).

3.) Proof is better than belief

The saying goes: “The proof is in the pudding.”

Brands want to judge you based on your experience and proven results.

Not the belief that you can execute.

If a brand has two options for production companies,

• The battle test production company. Low resistance, high level of execution. Has a proven track record.

VS

• The new kid on the block, more resistance, hasn't proven they can execute yet? Has a sporadic track record.

The client will always go for option 1. It’s the path of least resistance and the highest chance of success.

Big brands don't want to gamble.

So what does that mean for the smaller nimble production companies?

You need to demonstrate firsthand that you can execute.

Prove it to them. Remove any doubt in their mind that you can achieve that level of execution.

Remember, you're only a few projects away from working with big brands.

4.) Become a specialist

To the outside world. A specialist gets things done.

Brands want to know that the people they’re working with care about their craft.

Someone who painstakingly obsesses about the details.

Either you can become a specialist in a genre (food, product, automotive-specific).

Or you can become a specialist in execution and have a distinct voice (our approach).

5.) Think 5 steps ahead

Let’s use our recent Cadillac LYRIQ project as an example.

Whenever I pitch spec projects to the Tenfold team. Our brainstorming sessions involve conversations about the past, present, and future.

• Where has the brand been?
• Where is the brand now?
• Where is the brand going?

Creating spec projects for brands requires you to sit in the driver's seat (pun intended).

Imagine yourself in their creative meetings.

Ask yourself:

“How would I approach this if it were a real, paid project”.

Be ambitious. Be forward-thinking. Expect where the brand direction might be going in the upcoming years.

Put your voice and spin on it. Don't sit in the sea of other spec projects.

Think about the 5 other ways your spec projects can be used to market yourself. You need to think of the long-term potential of spec projects.

This is where you have the most upside potential to grow with your projects.

6.) Optics

Optics are more important than execution.

Optics being "How am I packaging this to the world".

This is a tough one to hear.

You might read that and think...

“Shouldn’t my execution be better than the marketing”.

Imagine two similar Cadillac projects releasing at the same time. From two different production companies.

Project 1: This is well executed with a large budget. But it's only distributed to a Vimeo channel with no potential of being seen.

Project 2: This is well executed with a smaller budget. But it gets better distribution, better packaging, and marketed to the right people?

In most circumstances, Project 2 will have better odds of getting into the right hands.

So think about how you’re packaging your work. Increase the potential chances that your work gets seen by the right people.

But with all that said, here is the final lesson and potentially the most important:

7.) Don't go for the big brand

This sounds counterintuitive to this entire post.

But working with big brands comes with more bureaucracy, headaches, and creative barriers.

When you’re first starting and looking to make a name for yourself.

Find smaller brands to work with. But make sure it aligns with your bigger vision.

If you love fashion, don't go for Burberry. Find a local up-and-coming brand.

For us, that was Adidem Asterisks.

• The barrier to entry was more realistic.
• The potential upside was much larger.
• We could help sculpt the image and vision of the brand.
• We could test our boundaries of execution and creative storytelling.

Be selective in who you choose to work with, and how you spend your time.

Working with smaller brands provides you access to create, test, and improve your skills.

After all.

You don’t suddenly wake up shooting for Nike.

You progress and gain the skills through repetition.

You need to outwork your self-doubt.

There are no shortcuts in this game.