It’s important to develop a strategic brand when you are an actor, comedian, singer or model looking to elevate your career! Branding for actors and other public figures is essential to getting that dream role you’ve always wanted! Whether you are a new actor or seasoned with years of experience in your chosen entertainment sector, it’s important to understand that you, in fact, are a branded product just like a traditional product or service. For example, as an actor, you are tagged with contributing to the creation of unique and interesting content. That content may be a movie, podcast, Instagram video, YouTube video, digital video ad or Netflix scripted series. Whatever acting project you partake in throughout your career, you have to look, act and sound like the desired part. It really comes down to branding!
Just like a pair of Nike running shoes or an Apple iPhone, it’s important to clearly brand yourself as it relates to your career goals. Many actors have a public figure brand that they adhere to in the spotlight that attracts the kind of roles they want to play and attract fans/followers with specific profiles. For example, if an actor is a feminist in her 40’s and she wants to attract strong leading female roles in movies and TV’s, it’s important that she consciously and consistently create and publish content on her personal website, social media profiles and via the media that are powerful, feminine, intelligent and strategic. This would mean that part of this 40-something-year-old female actor, feminity and women empowerment will be at the root of all content she creates and shares to the digital world as a public figure.
As one of the first steps of developing a strategic brand, you need to identify the audience(s) and projects you want to attract and target.
Since a brand is an intangible thing that exists in the minds of other people, it is often hard for non-marketing folks to know exactly what a brand is as it pertains to you as an actor. Don’t worry, our team here at Savory PR, a boutique public relations and social media marketing agency in New York City are here to help!
As an actor, your brand is essentially how you want to be portrayed in the public arena. This means you need to define yourself as a storyteller through the medium of performing. The concept of your public brand can be whatever you want it to be! A lot of research and questioning must first be done to discover what people currently think of you, what values or attributes you would prefer to get across to the public and how these points tie into your acting goals.
You can work with a PR agency like Savory PR to partner with a publicist that will work with you to do some self-reflection and brainstorming sessions to get down to the root of 1) what your acting goals are 2) what you think you are portraying to the public, 3) what stories and values do you want to portray and stay away from and 4) how to best achieve these core brand principles.
Once you have worked with a PR professional to identify these principles, they can put together a strategic communications plan to help you properly achieve your branding values/principles to your target audience(s). PR and brandng agencies can use social media marketing, digital marketing (hello IMDb and a professional new website!), content marketing (blog posts about acting projects is a great example), professional photography and curated content!
Once you have your public brand clearly defined and strategies in place to create and promote your brand, you are on your way to a strong digital brand that can not only carve out a niche in the entertainment landscape, but it can also bring the acting jobs and sponsorship gigs to you (instead of the other way around).
If you are an actor, comedian, singer or a general public figure that is ready to define and promote your public brand to a global audience, work with Savory PR! Email us today to schedule a complimentary consultation: Samantha@Savory-PR.com.
