Latest / The Marketing Brief / Kaare, Dan & Brian Discuss the Outdoor Industry, Building Narrative & AI Marketing (S1 E16)
Transcript
- Brian Aucoin: Hello and welcome back into the marketing brief. I am your host Brian Acquan and this is the podcast where we briefly touch on topics across the marketing landscape. As always, we're joined by industry experts and we've got two of them, two gentlemen from Washington today, Iverson and Dan Holtz. Gentlemen, welcome into the pod. Dan: Thanks, Brian. Kaare Iverson: Amen. Thanks for having us. Also, quick correction, I'm actually in California. That's all right. over. ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Sorry. Yeah, right. I've always known Dan as a Washington guy. Yeah. you guys want to introduce kind of what you're working on? I know you're from Field Born, which is like your latest effort, but introduce kind of what you guys have been working on. Dan: Ha It's true. It's true. Yeah, go for it Corey. Kaare Iverson: Absolutely. Okay. ⁓ yeah, so Dan and I are both photographers and directors and we sort of like switch hats depending on what we're doing. often work together ⁓ we only get to wear one of those hats at a time. ⁓ ⁓ a lot of our projects are, creating marketing assets, typically really built around storytelling ⁓ for commercial ⁓ And a of times our deliverables are like a hybrid of photo and video, hence director, photographer, hat at a time. Dan: That sums it up, dude. Brian Aucoin: And what kind of brands are you working with now? What kind of projects are you working on? Kaare Iverson: the best I've done so far. Dan: We're primarily steeped in outdoor industry. We're expanding past that. ⁓ currently have some ⁓ actually coming up in two days for ⁓ wine brands. And do a lot of nonprofit work as well. I'm doing a project with Protector of Winters and Offshore Wind, working with a local land trust here on some newly acquired land in a wildlife corridor. And then we've got Good old outdoor industry. Sheets coming up with sunglass brands and outdoor brands, clothing brands, hydration brands. So yeah, it's starting to turn into a pretty stacked spring already. I'll see y'all in June. Kaare Iverson: Mm-hmm. Brian Aucoin: That's great. And of course, I met you guys through Protect Our Winters when we worked on a project together. I mean, think looking at what you guys do and what you've set up, it looks pretty ideal from the outside. But maybe we start here, like, what's really challenging about the work you guys do and finding clients and executing with them? Like, what do you find to be the most challenging points for you? Dan: not enough hours in the day. think this is a pretty common one among creatives is when you're in the field, you're not marketing. you're marketing, want to be in the field. So you can't really be in two places at once. So it's really trying to find that rhythm of... workflow and also work-life balance, right? Like I've got a wife and kids, Cory's got a wife and a kid, and it's like when you're home, you want to be home. you're on the road, it's all encompassing. So for personally, I feel that it's ⁓ time. know about you, Cory. Kaare Iverson: Yeah, yeah, I think kind of to add to that, you know, Dan and I both like wearing these hats of director or photographer and, know, field born is a production company, but we're a kind of a small boutique shop. Like we want to be on set, which means, you know, ⁓ often no one ⁓ answering emails or the telephone while we're working and ⁓ days are like, you know, 10, 12 hour days and they're stacked in a row. ⁓ Yeah, I think trying to find a balance with that has been hard. Dan has been doing an amazing job, though, I have to say, kind of mentioned this word before we started talking, like authenticity and storytelling, and he's just been kind nailing, telling our ⁓ on ⁓ that's been resonating with people, you know, our sort of brand voice and identity. It's us, you know, and ⁓ Dan's been putting it out there. I'm a little, ⁓ I think I'm a more introverted. ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Dan: You know, it's interesting because I'm just not a social media guy. know, I was born in the seventies, right? So, right? So it's like, I started really leaning into LinkedIn like a year ago and I was like, man, I should have been doing this sooner. This is actually like. Brian Aucoin: Same. Dan: I'm connecting with really cool people, like get on these great calls with people. I've cast a couple people for ⁓ incorporated someone recently into a documentary we're working on all through LinkedIn Connects. And I'm like, ⁓ are like real humans. This isn't like going on Instagram and you're like, ⁓ my God, what's happening in the world? ⁓ is like, ⁓ we're getting work done. There's some cool people. Let's find the that we really resonate with and just kind of. Brian Aucoin: Thanks Dan: you know, let it all happen naturally. It's kind of cool. Brian Aucoin: Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, I mean, what I think is interesting is that's what you guys do in your work, right? Is you find the narrative, you find the story. So I think you're not alone that a lot of people have trouble of like, when it comes to marketing, how do I do the same thing, right? How do I do what I'm doing? But I'd love to talk to you about that, because I love your work. I love the stuff that you guys do. ⁓ Kaare Iverson: Thanks. Brian Aucoin: Obviously, you're working with clients, they have objectives, you guys have your own creative approach that you bring to that. Like, how do you find that balance? Right? How do you find the balance of making the client happy? Doing something you feel is really, you know, great work. How do put great work out and make sure that the client's happy at the same time? Kaare Iverson: Yeah, discovery. ⁓ ⁓ Brian Aucoin: iteration. Dan: Yeah, some brands are kind of that we've been working with quite some time are like, hey, here's the product line. Run it. Like we just do what you always do and we're going to love it. Other brands. it's definitely more discovery of like, okay, how much creative leeway do we have here? ⁓ You know, they're hiring us based on our style and our work ethic and ⁓ our deliverables. But Brian Aucoin: Mm-hmm. Dan: They have their own style, right? Every brand's got their own identity, of course, if they're doing it right. So it's us that and then kind of putting our ⁓ on it, whether that's through casting, ⁓ we're shooting it, ⁓ the grade looks like at the end of the project, ⁓ sorts of little things. You can plug into that. Kaare Iverson: Yeah. Yeah. And I think like you kind of mentioned, like, you know, making sure the client's happy. There is so much latitude in a project still like after it's been shot. I mean, to a degree, you still kind like understand the brief going in, but like, um, you know, it was a project that we worked on recently where we delivered and the client was like, Oh, like we were kind of hoping it felt more like this. And fortunately, you know, with like a collective, like almost like 40 years of industry experience now, we can kind of take that squishy client language. and turn it into like a result that fixes it. So, you know, one round of revision and they were like, that's exactly what we wanted. That's what we meant. You know, we didn't have to reshoot. was just like, ⁓ let's, you know, regrade so that the mood feels right for you. And just like, yeah, I mean, like we're always trying to, we're always trying to make the client real happy and we're always trying to over deliver a little bit. And, you know, kind of creative. ⁓ It's a complicated product to do a photo campaign or especially a documentary type of product or film type product. So yeah, ⁓ think we're normally within % of the mark after production and then there's always a bit of revision. That's just normal part of it. ⁓ Yeah. Brian Aucoin: Nice, that's great. I wanted to ask you guys about AI because I always love asking creative people about AI. So, you know, I feel like we're in this space where AI has a brand problem. That's a branding problem. I'd love to help them with that. It's not the big AI to help them. But I think we're in this space where, you know, it's a little inevitable. Kaare Iverson: Yeah. Dan: Hahaha Ha ha ha ha! Brian Aucoin: ⁓ it's being integrated into a lot of tools. Like I use tools with this podcast to help me edit it with AI. So I'm sure there's some of that stuff. is there other ways that you're using AI? you, ⁓ what are your, what are your feelings towards it? guess. Dan: definitely, you know, it's another tool, right? It's another tool in the toolbox. Just like when we graduated, not graduated, but when we transferred over from shooting film into digital, right? It's just like it changed our workflow. ⁓ made ⁓ more for a lot more people, but in the hands of a professional. That set of tools just elevated the game exponentially, right? ⁓ like, what is it? The rising tide breezes all ships or whatever, however, ⁓ know? ⁓ ⁓ it is. You said it much better than I did. ⁓ yeah, absolutely. I feel that ⁓ these tools, I don't feel we're ⁓ any of being replaced right now. ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Rising tide, what's all boats? Right. Dan: there are brands certainly that are like, everything is gonna be generated artificially. We're gonna throw it all at the wall and it's just gonna be like. They're just going to churn and burn. it's like, cool, man. That makes us stand out and the brands we work stand out so much more. Because now it's like, ⁓ we have real stories to tell with real people out there in the field doing it. And that's night and day, man. Let people generate artificial intelligence. AI, I know AI slop is kind of over a term, ⁓ term. kind of is, but if you're utilizing it like a tool, like I've got an algorithm built that analyzes my past 20 years of photo editing, I plug that into software and now I could get a first round of photo edits like in a day to my client, which used to take me a couple days to go through. So it's like, great, I'm totally going to use that. I'd be silly if I didn't. It's just a time saver. Brian Aucoin: Mm-hmm. course. Kaare Iverson: Yeah, I kind of echo that too, that like, yeah, I mean, AI is It's like a little Pac-Man, like eating sort of like the bottom easy part of our job. Like the easy, you know, production jobs. ⁓ And left us with this. We've had reposition ourselves, you know, as a result. but it's a really good position to be in. We're like, yeah, okay, I didn't love shooting those catalog campaign or those catalog jobs anyways, where we're just like, okay, change the outfit, okay, same lighting, just turning and burning. It's like AI can turn and burn. It gives us an opportunity to tell stories with real people and to work at like, to focus on work at a higher level, at like the ⁓ level instead of the ⁓ product marketing level. Brian Aucoin: Yes. Yeah. Yeah, and I completely agree. I mean, I look at AI as leverage ⁓ in everything that I do. ⁓ a quote from a guest who's been on this podcast, John Betancourt called it the calculator of our times. ⁓ And I really like that because again, it puts it back in the toolbox of something that use to do it faster, do it better, to show more options, but... Kaare Iverson: Yeah. Dan: Yeah. Brian Aucoin: Storytelling still comes from an emotional place, still comes from something with a beating heart. And I think that's something you guys do really well. don't think that'll be replaced in the short term. I to ask you guys, go ahead. ⁓ Clicking I think limitations. ⁓ Yeah. ⁓ that's Dan: Some people are going to want to use an abacus, I guess, but... Kaare Iverson: Yeah. Dan: Maybe. Kaare Iverson: You can't count past 100. Dan: Hahaha! Brian Aucoin: I'd love to ask you guys a question I ask of ⁓ of my guests ⁓ on a positive note, what's something that you're excited about? It can be in your professional capacity with Fieldborn or it be in your personal capacity, but what's something you're excited about right now? Kaare Iverson: I'm going to go because I was louder. Nothing's coming out. I've got a gallery coming up for a personal project. I don't know if you can see, there's like one of the prints back there. Yeah. Brian Aucoin: Go ahead, Dan: Yeah. Brian Aucoin: Yes, awesome. Kaare Iverson: I completed that work a couple of years ago, but it got picked up again by a bigger gallery in Berkeley. And, what I'm most excited about though, is I have months to help work with the gallery. planning the opening reception and just kind of love the ⁓ tactile, like IRL experience, of, of kind of artwork. You know, it's, taking this ⁓ photography that a lot of our work is just in such a digital space or in like a disposable print space. ⁓ and putting it in a real space and being able to pair it with real conversations and, you know, it's a super dynamic way to leverage art and create change. So I'm super excited about that. ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Yeah. And people come and see it in real life and you get to interact with them. That's great. about you, Dan? ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ Kaare Iverson: Yeah, it's amazing. don't have to do it on Discord or whatever kind of online ⁓ ⁓ Dan: That's such a cool project. It's so cool, man. That whole series is just amazing. Like, we could spend 20 minutes just talking about, like, how that process went down. It's pretty rad, but people should check it out. ⁓ No. Kaare Iverson: Thank you. Brian Aucoin: That's cool. Kaare Iverson: Yeah, doesn't fit into the 15 minutes, but come check it out. It's at the David Brower Gallery, opening night, September 24th, Berkeley, California. Brian Aucoin: I Nice. Cool. Dan: Woo, nice buddy. I'm really excited about this series of projects we're working on right now. You know, we're gonna hit the road for about two months. I'll be back for a total of about 10 days over the next two months, which, you know, it's tough to be away from the family, but I'm also just super excited these projects, particularly ⁓ the one we're working with, POW. is about offshore wind, is huge behemoth ⁓ a project to work on. I'm sure you know, Brian, it's like, it's just, it's a hot topic. ⁓ I also just started working yesterday, I'm actually gonna post this later today, ⁓ of this land trust project that I'm working on with local land trust here, Chelan Douglas County. And they just opened up this, ⁓ they this plot of land that's a part of a wildlife corridor. in the Swat Cain Canyon area. So absolutely really cool. I just get to shoot landscapes and like be outside and it's like, it's just B-roll for days. I love that. But during all this and all this traveling, I'm turning 50, which is a pretty big one. So we're going to go to Vegas and I'm going to see fish at Sphere, which I'm very excited about. Brian Aucoin: Nice. There you go. That's awesome. Oh, that's great. Well, thank you guys so much for being part of the podcast. Dan, I know you're on LinkedIn. How do people get in touch with you? Is LinkedIn the best way to get in touch with Fieldborn? Dan: LinkedIn's probably the best way, yeah, or just go to the website. It's fieldborncreative.com. Yeah. Brian Aucoin: Awesome. And Corey, best of luck in your gallery showing. Thanks for plugging that too. So get out to the gallery if you're up, where is it? Awesome. Nice. And September 24th? All right. Well, thank you guys so much for being a guest. This has been the Marketing Brief Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Acquan. Stay curious. Kaare Iverson: Berkeley, California, at the David Brower Gallery. You got it, September 24th.