Yes, it has been a while since the last post – many things have happened over the last few months – vacation, family time, premiere (Hell and Mr. Fudge), auditions, bookings (Chicago Fire), DVD release (The Measure of a Man) and music album release (Elential). Oh, and school for my son, as well as me working on my masters. Life is busy and fun – you only live once!
I wanted to take the time in this post to address marketing your child actor;
What is marketing about? Is it really necessary? I mean really, think about it, either a child “has” acting talent, or not. Right? Shouldn’t agents, managers and casting directors be beating down your door to get your child on the big screen then? Not if they don’t know anything about how talented your child is, and that all they want is to be on a set and in front of a camera.
Let’s back up just a bit – what about a doctor just out of med school. He or she has done their residency. Isn’t that enough to succeed? Or how about a realtor? If someone gets their realtor’s license to sell real estate, isn’t that enough to succeed? Does that mean they don’t have to put forth any more effort, just because they have declared their profession, paid for school and licensing fees? Kind of silly to think a doctor would have to market themselves, but that’s exactly what they do in order to gain experience. They build their resume, no matter how small, and market to those companies or businesses they are interested in becoming a part of, and then they have to build their clientele. As for a realtor, getting clients requires getting out and meeting people that want to buy or sell homes. How you find them requires marketing yourself.
As a marketing major, and through training, workshops, and having run multiple businesses myself, one thing about marketing I have learned is that any campaign you do is only going to get a three percent response rate. That’s right, for every 100 post cards you mail, it is “average” to get only three phone calls/responses from those (not purchases, signed clients, or bookings – just a response). Anything more is bonus. It does not matter if you sell real estate, widgets, gadget-of-the-year, or your child’s acting, having a marketing plan that increases that three percent to anything higher requires some kind of marketing strategy. If you combine various campaigns, and do them continually, eventually your three percent will increase. Eventually – remember, it is going to take time. Just think of any major company that’s been around for a few years – they do various types of marketing and branding so that you remember their product.
So what type of a marketing plan should you have for a child actor? Honestly, that is up to you as the parent. The primary concern is most likely going to be how it is funded. If your child is just starting out and hasn’t made any money, you will have to determine where those funds will come from. If you have an idea of where to start, it will make the process less stressful.
So here’s the list – some of these will be common sense to most; it is not necessarily all-inclusive, if you have more ideas, please feel free comment and share below;
1. Headshots/Resume – Headshots are a must for any actor – your child will need one for every audition they attend. A resume, no matter how small, is also required. Headshot photos can also be used in the rest of your campaign. No glamour shots. A child should look like themselves in the picture.
Cody’s Headshot
2. Post cards – it is interesting to be a part of so many conversations where others say “post cards don’t work – most of them get thrown away anyway.” Remember that three percent response rate? I am marketing to the three percent that will respond versus that 97 percent that “might.” To me, in this business, post cards are a cost effective way to let casting directors know what your child is doing. I’ve seen it work – and when I send out post cards, activity levels increase (auditions as well as on-line activity). They don’t have to be big or fancy.
The trick is to do them with a purpose – meaning there is a reason to send them – not just to say “Hi!” or “Hire me!”
Reasons include:
- new headshots,
- new representation,
- booked,
- filmed/wrapped, or
- WATCH ME on ____ (fill in the blank).
If there is enough activity, every six weeks or so is sufficient. When there was a “dry-spell” no post cards went out for about eight months. However, as soon as there was something to send out, I increased my mailing list to add some new casting directors. It was a few months, but a booking came out of someone I added to the list. I’m still not convinced they don’t work.
So how do you find the mailing lists? Start with the auditions your child has already been on – add those to your list to keep updated. Add any casting directors seen at workshops, classes, intensives, or events where you meet them. If they say they don’t like post cards, ask for an email address. LACasting, NowCasting, and CastingAbout all have casting director addresses.
What to put on a post card? Of course picture(s) – this is another place you can use some of those headshot pictures. Snapshots from filming (if production is ok with it). Representation information. What’s been booked, filmed, or needs to be watched (make sure to add network/channel & time if available). Also, if you have it, a link to a website, imdb page, or fan page – add that.
Where do you get post cards done? There are a plethora of services that can be used, you can pay someone to make them up for you, or you can do them yourself. I use www.gotprint.com – mostly because I can go pick up the post cards in Burbank, but they do quality work as well, with a quick and affordable turn-around time.
3. Headshot Drops – There are services where you give them 50-100 copies of headshots and resumes and they will drop them to the casting offices around town that are working on projects that pertain to your child’s age range. At the end of the month, they will give you a list of the casting offices where they were dropped off. You can also do this yourself if you have the time to do so. You can ask about these anywhere they provide acting classes or casting director workshops.
4. Social media – this would be a fan page on Facebook, or a Twitter account (or both). If there are any credits on imdb, link all of them in to each other. Updates on Twitter will show up on imdb just like they do on Facebook if you set them up that way. Keeping people updated on activity, what’s going on, where and when to watch filmed projects and being interactive with those that comment are excellent ways to use your social media. If you have a website, link them in as well.
5. Agent/Manager – yes, the agent/manager will submit and pitch your child, as they should. Keeping them updated on your child is also a good idea so they are not forgotten. Yes, they will know your child booked and filmed something since they are a part of the process, but they are also busy and may not remember when a movie is available, or a show is on TV to watch. Also, letting them know of any training or projects your child has completed is a way to show they are working on their craft and really serious about it.
6. Websites for casting projects;
- Actors Access (this is the biggest nationwide)
- LA Casting – this has commercials, shorts, films and tv shows
- The Casting Frontier – this is mostly for commercials
Disclaimer – this is not an all-inclusive list – I am not familiar with the NY market. Also, while these are good and legitimate sites, agents and managers are the ones that will see the major breakdowns that the general public does not see on these sites. If you do not have representation, you will be limited by what the general public is allowed to see and submit.
When your child books a project, you want to keep these sites updated with the most current information. When you get clips of their work, add them as well. You can add a reel, but remember that casting directors will stop watching after about 2 minutes. I have chosen to add clips specific to a given project so that a casting director can look at a clip that pertains to what they are casting (comedy or dramatic).
7. CD Workshops – these do cost money, but in my opinion worth the cost. Actor Training in LA is one place that caters to children and casting directors that cast children. We arrived in Los Angeles from an extremely small and limited market, and this was the quickest way to get in front of casting directors that weren’t necessarily casting for projects. In fact, they are not allowed to have workshops just to find actors for current projects. They will sit and answer questions for about 20 minutes, and then each child is taken is to an audition room where they go through a mock audition and get feedback and redirects. In my opinion, this did wonders for my son because he quickly realized that casting directors really don’t bite, and that he was allowed to have fun and be himself in an audition. I think these are wonderful because you do get feedback in the room, which will help your actor to maximize everyone’s time in an actual audition.
8. Training – this falls under marketing in the sense that your child is taking the time to learn about being in front of the camera, learning techniques, and teaching the brain how to act, respond, and listen to the other actors. This process is making them more marketable. While the best training is actually doing, taking classes can increase their marketability.
9. Keeping in touch – is exactly how it sounds. When my son works on a project, I do my best to get mailing addresses or email addresses of the director, producers, etc. Depending on the project, we may have contact info for everyone on the project. When I send out post cards to casting directors, and emails to those that prefer email, I also email those from past projects to let them know what he is up to. I don’t always get responses but that’s ok. One booking he had, afterwards he direct-booked two more projects, and was called in to audition for two additional just from that first project.
10. Showing appreciation – another one that is exactly how it sounds. When he books a project, I make sure we thank the agents and manager for starters – which is the easy part—that usually starts right after “you booked”! When the project finishes filming, my son writes Thank Yous to the directors, producers, casting director, and anyone else that was a major help through the process. Some people send gifts as well depending on the size of the project. Keep in mind, for tax purposes, you can only write off $25 for gifts per person per year.
If you have any other ideas or ways that you market your child actor, or additional resources to add, feel free to comment below. I’ve learned most of this from other parents of child actors and discussions for pros and cons for all of them are quite interesting. I look forward to reading your comments!
And I must add that credit here needs to be given to my husband for editing this for me before publishing it. 🙂
Momofachildactor's Blog 