The phone rings. You hear an authoritative voice say, *Hello, I’m the producer of…Good Morning America or Oprah, or Larry King Live* or any other top talk show, you name it. This is your big moment, the break you’ve been waiting for. After you catch your breath what do you do? Producers make an instant assessment of you in thirty seconds–or less. When you get that coveted call from a producer, you aren’t just *talking* to him: you’re auditioning. You are being screened to be accepted or eliminated as a guest on their show. How can you pass the audition? Secret #1: Ask Before You Speak Before you even open your mouth to start pitching yourself and your story to the producer, ask them a simple question: *Can you tell me a little bit about the kind of show you envision?* In other words, ask the producer the angle he is planning to take. Doing so has two advantages. First, it gives you a moment to overcome the shock and to collect your thoughts. Second, once you hear the producer’s reply, you can gear your pitch to the type of information he’s seeking. Listen closely to the angle that he’s interested in and tailor your points to it. Publicists often use this technique to get their clients booked on shows. They *get* before they *give* – so they are in a good position to tell only the most pertinent information about their client. Secret #2: Wow the Producers with Brevity Follow the advice of jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie: *It’s not how much you play. It’s how much you leave out.* Keep your list of talking points by the phone when you call a producer (or a producer calls you), so you’ll be succinct. You will already have rehearsed your points so that they’ll sound natural and inviting. Be prepared with several different angles or pitches, different ways to slant your information. *Nobody gets on these shows without a pre- interview,* says publicist Leslie Rossman. *Be a great interview but don’t worry about the product you want to sell them because if you’re a great guest and you make great TV, they’ll want you.* And keep in mind the words of Robert Frost: *Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.* Secret #3: Prove You’re Not a Nutcase If you area nutcase on the air, the producer will lose their job. What constitutes a nutcase? You may think it’s a positive trait to be enthusiastic (and it is), but anyone who is overly zealous about his passion is considered a nut. Best-selling author and screenwriter Richard Price talks about this phenomenon as *The dangerous thrill of goodness.* He says, *What happens is you can get very excited by your own power to do good.* Don’t get carried away by this thrill. One way to tell if you’re being too zealous is that you’re hammering your point at top speed with the energy of a locomotive pulling that toot lever non-stop. I remember a man calling me up about how he was single-handedly taking on Starbucks – who, he felt, had done him wrong. He wanted me to promote his cause. While this could have been a great David versus Goliath type story, he was long on emotion and short on facts. Some statistics or figures would have tempered his mania. But he also never checked in with me to see if he had my interest. By talking loudly and barely pausing for a breath, he appeared to be a man who wouldn’t take direction well. His single-mindedness was off- putting, not engaging. When you’re talking to a producer speak for 30 seconds or so and then check in by asking, *Is this the kind of information you’re looking for?* Listen for other verbal cues, such as encouraging grunts, or *uh huhs.* Secret #4: Can You Mark *The Big Point?* Contributors to the popular radio show *This American Life,* hosted by Ira Glass, have taken to calling the wrap-up epiphany at the end of a story, *The Big Point.* This is the moment that the narrator gives his perspective on the story in an attempt to elevate it from the mundane to the universal. Another radio personality, Garrison Keillor, is a master at it. He tells long, rambling stories (not good advice for you), then ties up all the story strands in a coherent and satisfying way. As a great guest, you want to illuminate your story with a big standout point that helps the audience see the significance of your story in their world and the world at large. Rather than hitting them over the head with a two-by-four, you want to share your insights with a feather-like touch. By framing your story you alert the producer to the fact that you’re a thinker and can contribute great insights and clarity to a story thus increasing its appeal.

As of this writing the television writers in Hollywood are on strike. The significance of this strike will be felt far beyond the current television season and impact what and where people will get their entertainment in the future. People are now not only embracing the Web for their information needs but are also increasingly turning to it for their entertainment needs as well.

The Web will soon be ‘the place’ that fills the programming vacuum that network broadcasters have been unwilling and/or unable to fulfill. People were prepared to tolerate constant reruns, dreadful programming, and incessant repetitive ads as long as there was no alternative, but that is no loner the case. Viewers now have an option to bad television and it’s the Web, but why should you care and more importantly how can you take advantage of the opportunity it creates?Why Should You Care?

Information and entertainment have melded in recent years creating what has been dubbed ‘infotainment.’ It can be argued that the evening news has become more entertainment than hard news and let’s not even get into venues like the History Channel where fact and fiction seem to be presented in equal and indistinguishable doses. So what does all this have to do with you and how you deliver your marketing message?

The time is coming, if it is not here already, that companies will not be able to get away with merely uploading online brochures and catalogues, or even extensive screeds singing the praises of every feature and benefit associated with their offering. People demand more, they insist your website be interesting, informative, and entertaining; and it is this aspect of entertainment that potentially makes your marketing presentation memorable.What Is Web-Programming?

Web-programming takes the creative Web-video campaign concept and pushes it one step further up the evolutionary marketing scale by integrating the message into a programming environment.

This concept is not an entirely new idea, in fact one of the most noted television commercial campaigns of 1991 was the Taster’s Choice soap opera-like series of spots that wove the marketing message into a courtship relationship between two apartment neighbors. In an environment where information and entertainment blur, it seems like an ideal solution to capturing an audience’s attention and interest, and creating a viral buzz that few products or services can generate by presenting a bulleted list of features. Build Brand Relationships

James E. Aisner, in his article ‘More Than A Name: The Role of Brands in People’s Lives’ (HBS Working Knowledge For Business Leaders) references the research of Harvard Business School Professor, Susan M. Fournier, “Fournier has created a typology of fifteen different types of relationships between consumers and their brands.” These brand relationships include the secret affair, the best friend, kinship, the fling, courtship, the marriage-of-convenience, casual friendship, childhood friendship, mother and child, and master-slave.

What kind of relationship does your brand have with your audience? Is it a short-term fling that starts with a lot of heat and passion and then quickly cools-off, or is it a long-term marriage that will last a lifetime? Finding, and promoting the most appropriate and beneficial brand relationship is the marketing goal of your Web-programming marketing initiative.

Part of the problem many smaller organizations have in developing successful marketing campaigns is that they think in terms of products and services rather than brands; features and benefits rather than relationships. Almost every product or service on the market can be replaced with a competitive substitute, but brands are much harder to replace; brands create a competitive barrier through the development of relationships based on prototypical psychological and emotional factors, the same kinds of factors that govern your personal relationships. Generate Trust, Confidence, Loyalty and Passion

In his article, “A Brand New You,” (Psychology Today), W. Eric Martin tells us that brands came into vogue in the post Civil War era as a response to an increasing mobile population that began to lose touch with local merchants and shopkeepers. Brands became a substitute for the personal relationships that people had with their suppliers. This seemingly minor historic fact helps us understand the significance of brands in today’s Web-centric marketplace.

Today’s consumer-client, whether retail or business-to-business is more remote, more isolated from the supplier than ever before. The Web allows us to market our products and services anywhere in the world, but in order to actually make a sale, we must establish a relationship that generates a sufficient level of trust, confidence, loyalty and passion. Sneer if you will at the passion and loyalty most Macintosh users have for their computers, but what other computer company can claim such brand allegiance? Relationships Are Based On Psychological Needs

At the heart of any relationship is the emotional or psychological need that that relationship fulfills. If you haven’t found that connection in what you do then you are at a definite competitive disadvantage; and you are competing on the most fickle and transient of factors: price and features. In business, there will always be someone who is prepared to sell a substitute product or service for less, or with more bells and whistles. So why would you ever want to compete on that basis?

It really doesn’t matter what business you’re in, there is always some emotional or psychological component to what you do. The iPod is the market leader in its category despite numerous competitors; it holds that position not because it’s the cheapest, which it definitely isn’t, or the product with the most features, which it probably is, but because it’s an iPod – not a tool but a status symbol, a badge of intelligence and taste, a brand relationship akin to being a member of the coolest club in town. Web-programming Development

In short, Web-programming is a marketing campaign based on a series of episodic Web-videos tied together by plotline and character development; an ongoing initiative that weaves into its storyline the marketing pitch. The integration of the marketing pitch can be done subtly using product placement techniques or overtly making the pitch part of the story arc.

This marketing technique is not for everyone; it is certainly not for the unsophisticated or for the marketer who is afraid to experiment or to take a chance.

If you are looking for an instant direct financial return like a big sale sign in your storefront window then you are not looking for marketing, you’re looking for promotions. Marketing is all about building a brand relationship with your audience. The more time and effort you invest in marketing, the more solid your brand relationship will be, and the more appropriate the clients you’ll attract and keep. Web-programming – Where To Begin

There are four minimal requirements needed to create an episodic Web-video marketing campaign: need identification, point-of-view, attitude, and transformation. These are the same elements defined by Syd Field, the well-respected author, producer, screenwriter, and lecturer, in his book, “The Screenwriter’s Workbook;” and they are the same elements that all top-notch salesmen use to build client-relationships – ask yourself – have you ever met a top salesman who wasn’t a great storyteller? Need Identification

Like all episodic series yours will need a hero or protagonist; this is the person your audience will identify with and who will act as their surrogate.

Your protagonist must be searching for something that relates to the emotional or psychological need fulfilled by your product or service. Anyone who has ever had to deal with an insurance company certainly understands the Geico caveman’s need for respect. His frustration is the perfect foil for the company’s marketing message, ‘it’s so easy a caveman can do it.’ We are all cavemen at heart, seeking respect from big business bureaucracies that make us jump through hoops just to place an order. Point-of-View

You must present your material from a particular point-of-view. Is your presentation told from the protagonist’s point-of-view or is it told from an objective observer’s, perhaps through voice-over. It can even be counter-intuitive and be told from an antagonist’s point-of-view.

If your scenario is more procedural based, you can even present it from different points-of-view each delivering alternative perspectives, each highlighting different aspects of the emotional fulfillment. Attitude

Attitude is especially important for Web-based presentations, but it is also one of the scariest aspects of marketing for the faint-of-heart. All too often businesses shy away from bold statements, or extreme displays for fear of alienating some segment of the audience, but it’s attitude that grabs people’s attention, makes the presentation memorable, and qualifies leads and inquiries. Transformation

One of the hardest things a commercial-based episodic series has to deal with is story arc. What change takes place over the life of the series and is the campaign concept strong enough to sustain itself? What transformation takes place? Does your protagonist find fulfillment or does he fail to find the emotional or psychological answer he’s looking for. If you’re not sure what deep-seated need your product or service satisfies, find the conflict.

All stories are based on conflict, frustration, and desire, whether it’s the search for ‘whiter whites’ or better insurance. If your concept is without conflict, you are not illustrating the need for your solution.

You can show successful transformation based on the adoption of your solution or you can show failure whichever works best for what you’re marketing and the audience you are trying to attract. Conclusion

The Web has from its infancy provided business with enormous marketing opportunities. As the Web’s capabilities increase over time, these opportunities increase as well. As much as other media tries to adapt to the competitive pressures created by the Web, old methods and attitudes die-hard; the writer’s strike being just one example of a group trying to maintain dominance in an environment they cannot control. The opportunities are there to make your marketing mark if you have the courage to act.

As a baseball fan, I get really sickened at the prospect of yet another players’ strike. Then I get really intrigued at the same time.

If baseball players, actors, and screenwriters can form unions, why can’t advertising professionals?

Advertising doesn’t require heavy lifting, and unless your boss has an X-ACTO knife fetish or full-time PMS the work isn’t dangerous, but our industry struggles with all the hot button issues that unions have traditionally tackled: job security, hours, benefit cutbacks, blatant age and sex discrimination, fill-in-your-gripe here.

Me, I’ve written TV and radio campaigns that were so effective they were still being aired long after I’d left the agencies I wrote them for, with not an extra penny or drop of credit to show for the effort.

If I had been a union VO talent on those spots instead of the copywriter, I might have been more properly compensated.

Let’s also address the current state of staffing in the ad business today. Nothing is more pathetic than ad people who blurt out “I’m slammed” when you ask them how they’re doing. Seems that nobody has the means to hire additional help, yet “slammed” is a sorry-ass way to live no matter what kind of work you’re doing for a living.

So what if we all did something about the industry’s current sorry state of affairs, like unionize and strike?

A strike would test the notion of how much impact a “superstar” employee has on the end product, how interchangeable ad pros really might be, and how much of a vendor-like commodity advertising is.

Just imagine, if you will, an advertising creatives’ strike. While ad people are off picketing (or hanging out at the bar or Starbucks), agency owners and holding company executives could hire scabs.

Maybe the scabs would bring back the puns that were so in vogue 20 years ago. (“Makes Pasta Fasta” lives again!!) Maybe every ad would feature dogs, babies and big-ass logos. I imagine the work at Wieden would suffer tremendously, but nothing coming out of Grey would be any worse.

The weird part is, the more I think about an advertising union, the more, uh, anti-American it sounds. I mean, unions seem like such an Industrial Revolution throwback kind of thing, a 20th century solution to a 21st century problem.

However, as the ad industry becomes more centrally controlled, with more work being done by less people, and technology making it virtually impossible not to spend all of one’s waking hours thinking about work, I wonder what the solution might be.

Two high-profile books coming out soon are predicting “the fall” and “the end” of advertising. Well, maybe some radical thinking could save the business.

Although Hollywood no longer employs the “studio system” that kept people bound for years, the screenwriters, actors, directors, and other groups still receive some form of protection for their labor.

The ad industry loves to compare itself to Hollywood, with our politicized work environments, our “creative superstar” system, and constant art vs. commerce battles. So, why not follow Hollywood’s lead and unionize?

Hey, at least we’d have picket signs with killer headlines and art direction.

Whether you are a new screenwriter, producer and/or director, you may be looking for that one chance to make a difference in your life and the lives of other people, but Hollywood has said no to you.
That’s okay, because more and more companies are coming out to support new filmmakers and you may be looking for them while they are looking for you.
The average Joe isn’t interested in many of the movies that come out on the big screen like you assume. Instead, he is more interested in what is happening in his own neighborhood and his wife is just as interested. Why is it your family movie hasn’t been shown at the local high school gymnasium, church or your R rated movie at the neighborhood bar? What about working with the owner of the neighborhood video store to get it in his or her store? Why don’t we see fliers promoting your movie? How come you haven’t bothered to employ your local college students to help you get the word out about your movie?
Some filmmakers have no professional affiliations and that causes many obstacles for them as well. How do filmmakers know how to successfully market their movies when they don’t bother to put into action what they observe others are doing?
Twelve marketing strategies filmmakers are presently using in their marketing campaigns include:
1) Creating a website about their film.
Filmmakers provide a simple teaser that draws the viewer into the film wanting more than they cut it, leaving you wanting for more. Every site has contact information which is easily found and all links are fully functional.
2) Maintaining blogs about their film.
Everyday someone is posting something on the site related to the synopsis of the film, photographs, the company or individuals involved with the production, or some other related information.
3) Registering with social networking websites.
Whether they are adding friends, keeping the “about me” section current or discussing related topics to the film in the chat rooms, they are keeping communication live about their film.
4) Sending press releases to Internet and local media outlets.
Every local media outlet that bothers to print a press release has received something about the film whether it is a short, a poster, or something else that promotes their new film.
5) Distributing fliers to local movie, book and music stores.
The information is professionally designed and easily accessible in the store. Sometimes it is located next to those free neighborhood newspapers.
6) Purchasing email lists.
The filmmaker has an idea of who his or her target market is such as what gender, age group, background and general film interest of the person who may be watching the film. With this information he or she knows what kind of email list to buy.
7) Professional memberships related to the film industry.
He or she is networking with other people who may be able to assist him or her with the film. The bigger the circle the more opportunities to meet the right person or group. Getting listed in internet movie databases.
The average Joe should be able to get online and find your movie in someone’s database, if he or she can’t find you somewhere, then you know you have a lot of work to do. Try this, type the name of your film in the search engine window, if it doesn’t show up on the first page, this is a good indication that you haven’t been doing a good job marketing it. Find someone who can write an article about you, your company and the film. Then have an article distribution service distribute it to other article websites (this tactic is called article marketing.) Once you get this done, watch how easy it will be to locate information about your film online when someone searches for you.
9) Hosting screening parties.
No more partying for the pure joy of it, filmmakers use every opportunity to party as a way to get their film out there. Change the typical way you host parties.
10) Uploading movie stills to photography sites.
Look at what other filmmakers have done with this, just type in an independent film you really like and see what kind of presence they have on the photography site.
11) Uploading trailers to video sites.
Once again, see what your competitors have done with this, then go to a site that offers books on the subject rather than visiting someone’s freebie site. You will want to get the instructions on doing this right the first time. Wasted time is money lost, learn from professionals.
12) Offering freebies such as t-shirts and posters advertising their film.
People love free stuff, so if you can give things away related to your movie, do it, in time you will get something in return for your efforts, fans!
All of these tactics take time to implement. Take a task each day from this list and work on it until you have completed all twelve. Once you have finished these duties, start looking for other ideas you can accomplish within a certain deadline you have set for yourself. Without a deadline, you won’t get anything done. To your success!

How many times have you stared at a blank page, deadline looming, and felt the trickles of sweat on your forehead? Or cringed at the thought of writing a thesis, term paper, business proposal, or status report? Or dreamt of writing a book, novel or screenplay, but pushed it aside as “too difficult; it would take forever”?

Alright. Enough procrastinating. Let’s cut through the waste and nail down the solution, right here, right now.

The reason you struggle with writing is simple: You think writing is an activity. But it’s not. Typing is activity. Writing is a process. And the way to write ten times faster than you do right now is this: Find a systematic approach to that process.

My approach is the FAST System. It’s got four simple steps:

Step 1: Focus your idea. All writing is communication, and the first thing to do is capture the essence of the idea you’re trying to communicate. Brainstorm, map and plan your concept. See the overview. Give yourself a roadmap.

Step 2: Apply your plan. Once you’ve got your writing plan in place, get the words onto the page as fast as possible. And I mean lightning fast. Don’t stop and re-read a word. You know where you’re going thanks to the plan, now just get words on the page.

Step 3: Strengthen your words. If you’ve created your writing plan and then blasted the words onto the page, you’re already halfway home. Now it’s time to go through what you’ve written and strengthen it. How well have you expressed your idea? Mark up your writing. Some of it will have missed the mark completely; other sections will be pretty solid. Edit and adjust, and then repeat steps 1 and 2 if necessary.

Step 4: Tweak your writing. This is what most people do at the start. But that’s what slows you down. Forget perfection at the start. Wait until you’ve created your plan, blasted words onto the page, and then strengthened those words until your idea is expressed clearly. Now tweak and polish your writing to make it a lightning fast read.

Ironically, the more you write fast, the faster you’ll write.

Now, writing fast does not mean writing poorly. Quite the contrary. Writing fast means getting your words on the page as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you can talk, you can write — they’re two sides to the same coin.

Both are communication. Think about it. If you know what you’re saying, the words come easy. So Focus, Apply, Strengthen and Tweak. You will be writing ten times FASTer in no time.

Guaranteed.