Last week I discussed āTag a dad to ruin his dayā and then together we (yes, TOGETHER, Iām putting this on you too) posted unused footage to make part 4.
Here are the stat comparisons. The first number is the original and second number is the new atrocious one that you made with me. These are views.
FB: 931 | 783
IG: 265k | 107k
YouTube: 3 | 2.9k
TikTok: 267 | 237
IG went nuts eh? Thatās mostly because our good friends at The Dad shared it to their story.
3 views on the original on YouTube? 3??? Yeah, sometimes that happens. Iām nearly certain YouTube and TikTok have āoriginality filtersā that know when a video has been on the platform before. And if youāre just reposting something that has already done well, it gets throttled.
Key takeaways
Itās all about the content! Donāt get too caught up in the algorithm. Just make good stuff.
Donāt light cargo shorts on fire. Itās stupid.
Speaking of content, letās talk more video. Tag a dad is what we called ādad-made videoā but thereās a whole other genre to exploreā¦
The Dad Studio
Remember when I started at The Dad? My job offer said Editor in Chief, and then was blanked out at the last minute? Thatās because I was not yet a Chief. I was not actually leading ALLLLL content. I was leading "non-video.ā
My partners-in-crime on the video side were Nick Fabiano (head of studio) and Ben Stumpf (lead writer/director).
Recall I had extreme imposter syndrome, coming from a stiff corporate IT career into the creative media industry. (Side note: ya know what else causes imposter syndrome? Giving someone a cool title and then literally taking it away and saying āActually you ARENāT THAT THING.ā) I had very little pro media experience outside of the stuff I was doing with Scary Mommy on nights and weekends.
Contrast that with Nick and Ben. These dudes are consummate professionals. At this point theyād already been in the industry for YEARS. Working at The Pet Collective and Buzzfeed. They are video guys through and through.
So yeah, imposter syndrome. Weād get together for brainstorms and writerās room style hangs and I felt like a fish out of water.
Have you seen Puppyhood? This was them!
Currently approaching its 30 MILLIONTH view. And itās a branded video (weāll talk about branded and making money soon). This is such a huge accomplishment. And cāmon. What a good video. This wholesome energy is an important part of The Dadās range and content mosaic.
They do comedy too of course. Check out this frame-for-frame movie trailer parody that Ben did of āThe Man Without a Faceā:
Thatās Ben in the video! RANGE.
Also on this team was their friend and a freakin absurdly amazing cinematographer Aric Jacobson.
Early on Nick and team worked with Some Spider leadership to secure a ācamera packageā and a rented house in Brooklyn for their studio. A ācamera packageā is an extremely pricey camera along with all the equipment that goes with it. I donāt know for sure but I want to say it cost around $75k total.
And the studio in Brooklyn was incredible. It even had a backyard!
Here I am āon setā chugging a beer in super slow mo with the crew.
Oh and check out this pic I just found. (Photo credit: Ally Probst.)
Sitting around the fire with parenting content creation royalty. Oh and Bottlerocket was there too. Zing!
What does it take to build a successful media brand? Content first and all that, sure. And routine and discipline and all the crap weāve been over. But yo, it certainly helps to have a veteran comedy video team and the best of the best tools of the trade as well.
At this time I was traveling to NYC every other week. Sheeeeesh. The first studio video I was there for was this one.
Thatās right, I was THERE, standing just behind the director and expensive camera taking it all in! Little insider secret: there werenāt even kids on set. Those kid sounds were added IN POST. Look at me with the lingo.
We had such differences in style, the original video studio and my team. This video is objectively beautifully shot. Itās slightly longer form, with the punch line of the smile fading to the grimace. Love it.
Contrast that with me, a guy with a phone, whoās thinking āShit, I just got done shooting a 2 second video of my daughter leaving a bathroom faucet running. What am I even doing?ā
But Nick, Ben, Aric, and I vibed super well. Sharing the vision for what The Dad could be and what we could accomplish. These dudes were super great to work with and original studio video became a massive part of The Dadās content catalog.
The content mosaic
So with a full scale video team, why even shoot my little homemade videos?
I think that any good brand, any good team for that matter, should have a range of tone and style and content. The Dad wasnāt one type of content or one style or vibe, it was a mosaic.
Any one piece of content could be an essay, meme, cinematic video, whatever. It could be serious, absurd, sentimental, punny.
All of it came together to form a bigger picture, a mosaic of all types of elements and emotions. Just like life, just like fatherhood. Cheeeeese.
So yeah, Nick, Ben, and Aric would create incredible high quality video content. And Ally and I and our team would create our ānon-videoā stuff.
Including video. So yes, the ānon-video teamā would still also make video.
We called ours ādad-madeā which was our name for homemade style UGC. (UGC stands for āuser generated content.ā Think: stuff an audience might shoot and submit on their own. Like Americaās Funniest Videos or somethin. Or perhaps more appropriately modern: self-shot TikTok style video.)
And these two massively different styles of video co-existed in The Dad mosaic.
The power of video
Around 2018, social video was in the midst of having a moment. (I actually think video is always having a moment. Itās an important content type for any brand.)
But at that time, it was a massive part of any media brandās portfolio. Facebook video views were through the roof. Co-branded video (ads) were in high demand.
Nick and Benās work was essential for making The Dad brand viable in those early days.
If you donāt believe that, you better gimme AphukenbrakE. (Which will be next weekās topic.)