Episode 29 // Sam Pagel on 3 Ways Growing Brands are Using Video

Narrator: Broadcasting live from the business Radio X studios in Phoenix, Arizona. It’s coming from Phoenix business radio spotlighting the city’s best businesses and the people who need them.

Mike Jones: Hey everybody. It’s Mike Jones and…

Chris Stadler: Chris Stadler, what’s up.

Mike Jones: From AZ Brandcast where every single month we try very hard, every single month to talk to all sorts of awesome people about the power of brand and how to build great brands in our remarkable state of Arizona. Today I am super, super, super excited to have Sam Pagel, good friend of mine, longtime office mate, get into that get the whole history, but a little bit about Sam. Sam’s on the show today. Sam founded Pelican Media back in the summer of 2011 when he decided it was time to turn his passion for creative media into a real business.

Mike Jones: After being exposed to so many bad videos on local television and the web, he vowed to help local businesses tell their stories accurately and with imagination. He wanted to show the world that great promotional material belongs to everyone, not just the highbrow conglomerates with nothing but money.

Chris Stadler: Conglomerates.

Mike Jones: I love that [crosstalk 00:01:14].

Sam Pagel: So terrible.

Mike Jones: That Sam created Pelican Media to level the plain field through the radio. Since the beginning Sam has strongly believed in a job well done, and I can attest to that. We’ve worked with Sam on different projects, and I’ve seen his work for other people delivering on time as promised. That is why Pelican Media has never missed a project deadline ever.

Sam Pagel: Ever.

Chris Stadler: Ever.

Mike Jones: I’m going to have to come up with like a project for you, Sam and that’ll force you to miss it [crosstalk 00:01:44]. Sam has entered late nights that sometimes turn into early mornings and 100 plus hour work weeks to deliver product his clients are proud of. Since starting Pelican Media, he has been able to work with many amazing people and businesses.

Sam Pagel: So many.

Mike Jones: But first before we dig into that because there’s so much to dig into their, Sam, it’s a story of Pelican Media, the story of your clients and video and how you tell stories. I want to give you a chance to demonstrate your amazing radio voice by giving a little shout out to Conscious Capitalism [inaudible 00:02:16].

Chris Stadler: This is the first time we’ve ever trusted anybody else to do this.

Sam Pagel: What an honor it is Chris, let me just get into this, but first I have to mention our fantastic friends at Conscious Capitalism Arizona. This local association is on a mission to share with the whole world-

Chris Stadler: I can’t take you seriously, I can’t.

Sam Pagel: How doing good in your business is just good business. This local chapter of Conscious Capitalism incorporated host tons of local events and provide resources for business leaders to instill a higher purpose in their company and engage all their stakeholders, and we’re all still recovering from the Conscious Capitalism International Conference. John Mackey from Whole Foods spoke as well as some others. You can find out how to get involved on consciouscapitalismaz.com, which will be updated with new content in the next week.

Chris Stadler: Yeah, that’s awesome.

Mike Jones: Thanks Sam. Thanks for the little demonstration. That was-

Sam Pagel: Sorry Chris. I mean, I would have kept going but-

Mike Jones: Chris cut you off [crosstalk 00:03:15].

Chris Stadler: I’m not having it, then I just said [crosstalk 00:03:20].

Sam Pagel: I just because… A little bit, not that I know… I probably like let the cat out of the bag.

Chris Stadler: That was good man. That was solid radio voice.

Mike Jones: I feel like one of these times we’re going to have like a little radio voice off…

Chris Stadler: Oh, yeah.

Mike Jones: Around the Max Six community office, see who can do.

Sam Pagel: Yeah, I know, it would be a fun video, actually. That’d be a really fun video.

Chris Stadler: Yeah, we can do like a bracket-

Sam Pagel: Like tournament style.

Chris Stadler: Yeah, tournament style.

Mike Jones: Head-to-head, best of seven, right?

Sam Pagel: Well, I threw a wrench into this because I rewrote this because it was referring to the future events. But now that it happened, I’m like, but it just happened and so I thought I would read it. So I did right in.

Mike Jones: We were all there [crosstalk 00:04:09].

Sam Pagel: It was awesome, wasn’t it? Who else [inaudible 00:04:12] you guys’ favorite? Just before we move on, what are you guys’ favorite speakers?

Chris Stadler: Well I really liked the Fireside Chat with Brian Moore, Governor Doucey and the new CEO of Lucid Motors. I thought that was just interesting just from, I mean, I love Arizona. I’ve grown up here almost my whole life and just the kind of see some exciting things happening here in the state. It was really cool.

Sam Pagel: Nice. That’s cool.

Mike Jones: I’m torn. The opening and closing keynotes I thought were just really good. So Verne Harnish open things up and that was slept big highlight for me. Just having read Scaling Up and just been around a lot of people in Eo and just the impact that he’s had on a lot of entrepreneurs and giving them a process, and a guide for how to build. So it was really cool to see him a part of the conversation. And then of course John Mackey.

Sam Pagel: John Mackey always like gets me like, “Oh, yeah, this is why we’re doing this again,” with Raj, he’s the author of Conscious Capitalism actual book. Like it’s his, he founded the movement, and I just appreciate his like simplistic look of just caring well for people you look at anytime I’ve heard him talk about Conscious Capitalism or in a Conscious Capitalism context. That’s like always the message. Like that’s the underlying theme is just caring well for people that, I just loved that. So of course he drops like lots of philosopher quotes and lots of good golden nugget statements. These you’re like, oh yeah, that’s great. It’s going on social media. That’s always fun. Honestly, I think I love the content and then I also just the connections that I get to make their, it’s just super great. Super Powerful.

Chris Stadler: I liked what they did. They basically have that APP and then you can go in and say, “Oh, here’s some interesting people. Let me set up like a little 15 minute meeting time-“

Mike Jones: Based on your, what you were offering and what other people were offering and what they’re looking for. That was a really cool, yeah, I’ve never done that before.

Sam Pagel: And it was, it was cool because I’m not like this massive [inaudible 00:06:21] it’s going to go out and like pick up a conversation with somebody for the most part. So that was cool, So we got like, I don’t know, two really interesting discussions. Three actually a wolf. We talked to him later afterward, and I didn’t get to connect with them.

Chris Stadler: It’s turned into something.

Sam Pagel: Yeah, totally. Yeah. It’s amazing. I liked [inaudible 00:06:40]. That was, that was pretty cool. There are a couple other speakers. Well, and it was fun being at the sponsor booth to Max six. Yeah, it was, it was a cool booth to see our handiwork. It’s cool when people compliment the work of your agency, and they don’t even know that you like-

Mike Jones: That you’re there-

Sam Pagel: I was like, okay, so you’re not kissing up that you actually like it

Chris Stadler: That’s cool.

Mike Jones: That’s awesome.

Sam Pagel: All right. We’ll do… should we-

Chris Stadler: Our icebreaker. I already broke the icebreak, but well get again bright.

Sam Pagel: Let’s smash it. Let’s crush it. Crush size syrup. We can pour it on top of something like strawberry-

Mike Jones: Drinks now? We just need some like-

Chris Stadler: Slushy. Yeah, I agree.

Mike Jones: This is so Sam does video Sam as a video guy. Yeah, he is our video guy. So here’s the question because we’re talking today about three things… brands can use video for storytelling for right. That’s the theme. What’s the goofiest thing that you’ve done caught on video?

Sam Pagel: So, literally my whole personal YouTube channel is full of things that would probably just categorizes as this…

Mike Jones: Goofy?

Sam Pagel: Goofy and embarrassing. But I think probably for me with my brother Mick and my brother-in-law, Marcus, we created this rap song centered around bowling. And we would basically go to this bowling alley and get terrible service every week. And we were good customers. We’d come every week and just receive the most terrible customer service. And so we wanted them… we thought, hey, we’re good customers. You should like beg us to bowl, or we’re going to go to Vegas to bowl. That’s a decent alternative. It’s threat to them. So we created this [crosstalk 00:08:46].

Mike Jones: A great strategy.

Sam Pagel: We created this rap song, recorded it, created a music video for it. And, it was a huge hit amongst a lot of three to five year olds that we knew and actually got it to be played at the actual bowling alley, which is the culmination of all of our habits-

Mike Jones: Did they show the video and everything?

Sam Pagel: They showed the video and all the video screens. Uh, we actually, we had people coming up to us that night, and they’re like, “are you those guys? Is it in ITunes or whatever? Like, no. I was like, “We love this song, It’s looking legit.” Right before… we watch it right before the [inaudible 00:09:27].

Chris Stadler: And I’m actually a little impressed.

Sam Pagel: The production value is pretty high.

Chris Stadler: I think it was on point, man.

Sam Pagel: Of course it was. It’s just the content.

Chris Stadler: But hey, It’s sort of accomplished its goal?

Sam Pagel: It did not actually-

Chris Stadler: The got your message in front of everyone in that bowling alley.

Mike Jones: But did it make an impact on the customer service?

Sam Pagel: No, I think it actually made it worse and worse.

Chris Stadler: Hey, all you can do is tell your story and make it run and get it.

Mike Jones: That’s the lesson I’m taking away from that story.

Chris Stadler: Just make everything alright on YouTube.

Sam Pagel: What about you guys for sure, in YouTube, some embarrassing things you guys have done on video. And where can we find them?

Chris Stadler: My is lame, so I’ll go next. So, it’s, I don’t know if it’s on video, it’s on YouTube or not but, we [inaudible 00:10:20], like I don’t have a lot… Look, sir, I’m a little older, right? So a video like wasn’t really like… I think it would have been black and white when I was in high school-

Mike Jones: Something like a bunch of millimeters sitting in your parents’ house somewhere-

Chris Stadler: So it’s, just the most embarrassing one was just like I was in a chairman in our German class, we had to make a video. We had to make a play. So, some of my friends and my team or whatever, I probably had like the most retakes out of anybody because I just like, i was looking at it. I, it was, I was either looking at the camera or like I would like stop and then it’ll look at the camera, say my lines, and I nailed it. And then I look at the camera. Are you proud of me? They’re like, “you’re that guy.” And that guy on the camera and looking guy, the guy looking at the camera. So that’s my story.

Mike Jones: All right. It’s too bad we can’t go find that.Of course you can’t find mine either because it’s hidden on a VHS tape. It’s probably been recorded over eight times by old 1990s Miami Dolphins Game. Thank goodness for the dolphins. So I think freshman year of high school we did a class video of course, or a class project and I had a couple of friends of mine, and we had to remade the Odyssey. We videoed it because we were idiots. And, it was way more work than any of the other options that we had to do. Yes. We remade the Odyssey and there’s like some scene where like sheep get eaten. I don’t even remember.

Mike Jones: It’s like the cyclops eat some of the crew, I don’t know, but we had to make it. We made a sheep, made like a life size version of a sheep and then we’re like, well how do we demonstrate that we’re eating it? And we’re like, “oh I know sheep are white and fluffy, so let’s go get cans of whipped cream and spray it all over this thing and then munch on it. In 95 degree heat in Phoenix, after about three minutes and we’re shooting it like five times over. It was bad I think… I don’t think I puked. I think one of my friends like definitely puked. It was just bad.

Sam Pagel: See, I think that’s why like on TV they walk around with like empty obviously empty coffee cups like their full, [crosstalk 00:12:41]

Chris Stadler: Unless it’s alcohol. Have you ever noticed they always have real alcohol in their glasses?

Mike Jones: Is it though?

Sam Pagel: Maybe it’s not as the alcohol from a clear glass. So you have to have, so it has to be something in it. I always wonder that, is it actually alcohol? Apple juice?

Chris Stadler: Could be, that would make sense. Maybe it is alcohol.

Sam Pagel: I’ve claimed [crosstalk 00:13:04] drinking during business hours was apple juice before.

Mike Jones: It’s like every day Chris, you tell me it’s not.

Sam Pagel: I think there’s a rule just keeps dropping. I think there’s a rule like certain production, like groups or whatever that you can’t drink actual alcohol on camera.

Mike Jones: I’m sure it would probably get really bad really quick.

Sam Pagel: I think Heineken did like a commercial or about that, like joking about it.

Mike Jones: With the… What’s his face?

Sam Pagel: The guy, that one guy or that guy in the show Doogie Howser and show from that time. That’s how I met your mother.

Mike Jones: Why I can’t remember his name. Anyway, we should move on.

Chris Stadler: We should.

Mike Jones: All right Chris, what’s our first question?

Sam Pagel: I mean, so this is like, besides, and of course the video-

Chris Stadler: This is open to all right, I mean, don’t want to, they want to give me… Give Sam some time to think about it in case, so he nails it.

Mike Jones: What are three things brands are using video for… That helped them knock it out of the park right now? Discuss.

Chris Stadler: Okay. I feel like you need a big, you need a really big camera. If you’re going to knock that ball out of the park the bigger the bat, the further the ball goes properly. Waited of course. Good one Mike.

Sam Pagel: Three things brands are using video for that. Help them knock it out of the park. So I would say I wrote three things down trying to classify how businesses use video today. So I’ll just throw those out, and we can talk about them, and you guys can add on. So number one is you can use video to educate your audience on what you do or what you sell and also why you do that or why you create that. So they’re telling their story and showing the culture behind that, behind that product or service.

Sam Pagel: Number two, you can tell your customers’ stories really well. I know you guys would probably talk about branding and so you can show the actual hero of your story and how your product or service and guides them. And number three, right now, there’s a huge push in capturing as many people as possible with video on social media. And doing these quick hits, these, how do we capture, you the most people in the shortest amount of time and you’re seeing this huge, massive wave of video content online through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, all these different social outlets and twitch. So those are three things I thought of.

Mike Jones: That’s cool.

Chris Stadler: So, so the first one was the first one again.

Sam Pagel: So educating your audience… classic marketing, right. And you’re educating your audience on what you do or what you sell for TV Ads. TV Ads could be anywhere. YouTube, Facebook, wherever-

Mike Jones: Tv Ads about us video-

Sam Pagel: It’d be sitting on the homepage of your website.

Mike Jones: Like with Max six, that video you shot, right? That one day we shot like, like a day’s worth of footage. And then there’s a bunch of, like… We are able to just put a montage that we call it together in the background-

Sam Pagel: I mean that’s more of just a background… static background video. What this number one is talking about is more of like the video with Kyle, right, where Kyle’s walking through this space, and he’s got his red pants on, and he’s in a funny creative way is telling you what they do, what they offer here at Max six. And then at the end he gives his brand stories, little brand pitch.

Mike Jones: Any ties those awesome red pants into the [crosstalk 00:17:10] right in. The signature red pants…

Sam Pagel: So that’s a great example of how to do this first point really well, and to be honest, like we shot and edited that video, but the biggest factor why that was such a huge hit was because of the writing and just the story behind it because we could’ve just had Kyle sitting in a chair talking about his face on video. But we actually had him moving through his different spaces, his co-working space, is co-manufacturing space interacting with people. And it was funny because Kyle’s funny guy, and we integrated the red pants into it, which is in its own right is funny and that’s the first thing that we did.

Sam Pagel: And it right away grabs your attention because it’s like, “Oh wow, this guy wears red pants? and he’s telling me that he wears red pants” because I think we started the first shot with him and then we pan down where you just see his red pants. So right away, like you’re hooked, right? Because they’re like, oh, this is not just another corporate video. And we still wanted to make sure that, he got his message across. We’re not just doing this to be funny and full credit to resign. You guys are the ones that actually I think helped him write that and put it together. But that was a fun one. It was a really fun one.

Mike Jones: Reminds me of dollar shave club a little bit.

Chris Stadler: That was definitely the inspiration. I remember Kyle coming to me and be like, “what’s this video we get Sam, let’s do a video.”and I’m like, well “what are you thinking?” And He’s like, “dollar shave club.” Of course. I think I went to you and you’re just like… You and I are both like everybody wants dollar shave club. I think it works. I think the way that you were able to Sam to pull together the story visually and, it’s a bit of a riff on dollar shave club and that like pseudo like one shot, feel and talking head while other things are happening. But I’ve seen a lot of those go really bad. I think some of that’s like the willingness to really actually be a little ridiculous. It was really important.

Sam Pagel: And it doesn’t work for every brand. I mean, and I think where people can get into trouble is when they try to [inaudible 00:19:37] who they are into a really trendy idea like that Max six is not a stuffy office space where you have to be quiet all the time and mind your own business. And so because of that, the way that Max Six is, and the way that the leadership team is here, I mean to be ridiculous, fit really well in with as the space and who they really are.

Mike Jones: Let’s just be brutally honest. Kyle, wherever you are in California right now, you’re a little ridiculous.

Chris Stadler: It’s a little ridiculous with red pants.

Sam Pagel: That’s why we love him.

Chris Stadler: That’s how you trend, right? You’ve to be ridiculous.

Sam Pagel: Well, and show you, again, it goes back to, it’s like telling your story but telling it authentically. I don’t think anyone who’s watched that would say like, “that’s not really, you guys are just trying to be funny and trying to like tagged yourself onto a funny idea.” Like that’s everyone’s like, “oh, that was so funny. But you really captured who we are” and that’s what we really try to do when we’re telling a story is not, jump onto a trend, uh, that’s really funny or that has a million views on YouTube, but let’s look at who you are as a business and then figure out how we can tell your story as creatively as possible and still get your message across.

Mike Jones: So it’s almost like allowing the trend to inspire you, but not-

Sam Pagel: Well, I mean the dollar shave club thing for everybody out there was this wakeup call of like, we can actually have fun with our videos and our marketing and be a little outside of the box.

Chris Stadler: It’s a rip of its own kind on the old spice commercial. So there’s nothing like it-

Mike Jones: Is that what they were trying to do or is it just like-

Sam Pagel: It’s very similar, like single shot. Hilarious, ridiculous. I would say the old spice one is like even more over the top. Well it was a little bit irreverent to the dollar shave club one. I mean it was almost-

Chris Stadler: A lesser brand.

Mike Jones: Because they were basically their whole businesses of giant middle finger to like Gillette. That’s essentially their brand.

Sam Pagel: Well, another thing I love though about-

Mike Jones: That really often when they sold for like what, $2 billion I think. Who bought them again?

Chris Stadler: Whoever the other big razor blade…

Sam Pagel: Well the other thing I love about things like that is that you make one video like that. Think about the play.

Chris Stadler: Oh my goodness-

Sam Pagel: I showed that to so many people.

Chris Stadler: Do you think that there’s… You think it’s helpful to go in with that or like we’re going to… How much play can we get out of this video? Or maybe set you up for failure sometimes?

Sam Pagel: I have people that have asked me like, “hey, we really want to create a viral video.” Just roll my eyes I just can’t… You can’t do that. You can’t create a viral video. You create a video and then it goes viral on its own. But… I mean you can go into it thinking like we want to make this really entertaining and creative so that it’s not just this stuffy video that’s sitting on our homepage. Like maybe, you can go into it thinking how do we create something that people might want to share or people, maybe it’s just within your colleagues, or the business community like, we want to set a new trend, or we want to just think outside the box.

Sam Pagel: So I wouldn’t say go into it thinking how can we get a million views on YouTube with this thing? Because the chances are you’re going to try to do something really ridiculous. And it’s actually really hard to do that to, I mean, you have no power really over getting a video to that level in this year, paying for a bunch of Ads to-

Mike Jones: Have you ran link? Have you seen there… Do you know who run link are?

Sam Pagel: I don’t think so.

Mike Jones: Good mythical morning. These to make these, to make commercials for like local businesses. But what they did was… And they were, this goes to what you’re talking about because they instead of trying to do something crazy. They basically use the innate craziness of these local businesses that they were working with and just said, do your thing. Right. And so they basically said, “let’s let truth shine light on this quirkiness of these businesses.” And these Ads are hilarious. Opt to show you some later, if I would’ve known, I would have shared them with you before, but I mean, it’s just ridiculous videos and they’re hilarious. So if-

Sam Pagel: Does it look like the one with the realtor or the-

Mike Jones: There selling mobile homes in Alabama, and he’s just like a freak.

Sam Pagel: You might’ve show me a couple of those. They are ridiculous.

Mike Jones: And they use the Eagle screech, it’s the whole, they do all-

Chris Stadler: What do you think? Do you think that’s effective? Do you think that’s good?

Sam Pagel: All right. So from an advertising, on video perspective, I’m looking at that thinking, well, first of all, it’s going to attract attention and they’re going to [crosstalk 00:24:56] guys. But all attention is not good at it. I don’t know if I subscribed to that whole idea that any press is good press-

Chris Stadler: Let’s put it in your shoes, like that’s your business. So you’d be comfortable putting something out like that?

Mike Jones: Well, so what I would care about is… All right, so they think I’m funny, but did they want to buy my stuff? It’s a different question. It’s like, what are you selling? Are you selling funny? Are you selling your stuff? But sometimes if people are like, if there’s an industry, like furniture was one of them, where there’s a lot of… You just can’t trust people, whatever. We’ll go see it in an Ad like that in a trust is the issue. And the that might break the ice, right? That might create some trust and create. And so that’s just my take on it. But I am the host. What’s your take?

Sam Pagel: Well it goes back to being authentic. I mean, if I own a mobile home selling business or whatever, and this thing that I’m putting out is just absolutely ridiculous. I mean it just goes back to like, is that how people interact with you? Like when they step onto your lot, is it this wacky experience where you’ve got a guy running around in a banana suit, telling jokes or like, what is the culture in your business? Maybe it is super wacky and maybe that’s who you want to be and, but if your business is practicing law and you’re a law office and you’re doing that stuff, it’s just… My answer is it just depends.

Chris Stadler: Well, what I liked… And this goes to the point, is that local commercials tend to suck. So, my take is like, hey, if they’re making it a little at least interesting and then and then showing the truth of who these people are. Well at least that gets consumers closer to the truth. It makes it interesting.

Sam Pagel: I mean, if it tells your story in an honest way, even though it is ridiculous, yeah maybe.

Mike Jones: It doesn’t feel gimmicky. It feels, here’s maybe a story to cap it off, that there’s danger and in picking the wrong thing because you’re creating the brand. And you’re creating the culture in some sense that might overtake you. So one of my favorite things about Bob Ross is that he did that perm haircut early on in his career with his paintings. And he forever had to keep that haircut for 20 years. He had to keep that haircut because it was like became his brand. He wouldn’t be hated it. He hated it, he goes like, I do it for like one year and it’s like I’m stuck with it for 20.

Sam Pagel: So if you wear the banana suit, no, but if you put it out there, it might become your thing.

Chris Stadler: If he gets him with a banana suit, you might have to keep him with a banana suit.

Sam Pagel: And you said it. I think it comes back to trust as well. Like that’s a huge thing with video because you’re opening the doors to who you are a little bit more than just like posting a headshot of yourself or writing a blog posts like videos can tend to be emotional on some level, whether it’s a comedic emotion or whether it really tugs at you. And then there’s a trust issue there too. If I’m putting out this ridiculous commercial that I want it to look like it was made in the late nineties and it’s just over the top ridiculous, is that going to hurt the trust factor that I’m trying to build with a clientele base.

Sam Pagel: And again, you might, maybe the RV business needs somebody to be ridiculous and needs somebody to disrupt it in that fashion. But I think trust is a huge key. Like go back to the Max Six thing, like Kyle being a little ridiculous on camera. Is this going to hurt our image or is it going to be creative enough to where people are talking about it and want to share it with their friends? And at the end we’re still making sure that it authentically tells our story.

Mike Jones: Even just like… Maybe it’s a little exaggerated, but Kyle sense of humor is that a little bit.

Chris Stadler: So it’s there and it shows you what it’s like to work in a Max Six space. It’s not a boring place to work. It’s not a library, if you will, where you have to just keep your head down like-

Sam Pagel: And the other thing too about video just in general. So you see those people being ridiculous on TV, but you might be like, okay, I get that guy now. Like, I feel like I can go and call them because I know how to talk to them now because I mean I’ve had times where if I was going to have a meeting with someone I didn’t know, I might look him up. See there’s a video so I can at least get the context. What are their mannerisms? Like what kind of person are they? And then it just takes a lot of the fear away from the initial interaction. Like I know who I’m talking to right now. And so video can be powerful in that way to almost like an introduction.

Chris Stadler: That’s a huge, that’s a huge part of video. It’s breaks down that barrier of the who is this or who is this business because you’re, it’s like you’re meeting someone from a distance almost. I’m sure you can look at a picture of, somebody can go on their Facebook page and look through all their pictures, but when you can actually see how they talk, see how they interact with people, even how they talk to a camera, how they communicate. It’s powerful.

Mike Jones: And you don’t have to have like a huge… It’s not like the old days where you have to buy a TV. You don’t have to buy TV just because you made a video. You can go anywhere. My kid can have as a YouTube… His own YouTube channel and talk about Legos or video games like this. Do your kids watch those?

Sam Pagel: No. Well, yes. My three year old loves watching other people play with toys on YouTube. It’s so hard. Yeah.

Chris Stadler: I mean, I get it at one level, I watch people cook. So basically the same thing.

Sam Pagel: Watch other people make amazing film and then just sit there and drool. What gets me is like, even back in the network days, people would watch other people fish. Right, but I mean even back then where you like, it costs money to produce and air a video like that because you had to have time on the network.

Chris Stadler: It means there were enough people who would be willing to sit there and watch that ad space. Is that people still watch other people golf?

Mike Jones: My Dad, I don’t know. That’s weird. Or I don’t if that’s weirder than the fishing thing. I don’t know, It’s like… Seeing a big old trout come out of the water. That can be pretty exciting. It’s the three hours changing life that I can’t sit golf. It’s like you’re hitting a ball every….soccer light. That’s the same complete with soccer. But it’s like when someone scores a goal though. Even head up anticipation. Yeah. All right. Should we shouldn’t get on that. I’ll go down that rabbit hole. Do we need to bleep that out there?

Chris Stadler: We’re going to have to go ahead and edit that later.

Mike Jones: Do we have a delay keys? So next to the next serious question because we are very serious on this podcast, who’s using it well in Arizona right now, ? [crosstalk 00:32:57]

Sam Pagel: So these are hard questions because you can’t just go in and Google the best business in Arizona that’s using video. It just doesn’t work like that. You have to experience it for yourself. And I actually don’t watch a lot of TVs. I see a lot of YouTube Ads, but just some of the brands that I’ve seen do it while I’m not a casino guy, but Gila River Casinos, I think has done a really good job with their, you do, you campaign. When I first saw that, it struck me because casinos are notorious for having terrible commercials. That was one of the businesses I grew up watching, watching the diamond back scheme and a casino commercial comes on and It’s just awful.

Sam Pagel: And so it struck me when I saw that because the production value was really good on it and I could tell right away that they had shifted there or they probably just discovered that they are not the casino for the billionaires, the casinos for the people that want to stroll in with their sandals and board shorts on and just hang out at a casino. So that’s, I think one business here in Arizona that’s done a really good job with that. They’ve married good production with their story, like their brand, who they are. It seems like they figured that out. And again, I’m not a casino guy. It didn’t, didn’t make me a casino guy, but I noticed it and I thought, Huh, well there they’re doing a good job.

Sam Pagel: They’re putting more effort into it then. Then some of the others in their industry. Another one on a little bit of a smaller level is actually my [inaudible 00:34:52], High School, Valley Christian schools. And they, right now they’re growing like crazy. They were a standalone high school for 30 or 40 years and now next year they’re starting up a K312. And it’s not because of the fact that they’re doing good video, but what they did maybe like a year or two years ago is they basically hired… They were using video before, but they were hiring it out piecemeal, the different people. We did maybe one or two videos for them, but what they did is they saw a need for consistency in their video production and they went out and hired a full time video guy to be a part of their staff. It’s an interesting situation because, this guy Cory, he doesn’t just work and work on Valley Christian stuff.

Sam Pagel: He actually works on other schools that are a part of their network, but he does a lot of work for valley obviously. And what they’ve gotten out of that is just some amazing videos. Not just quality but quantity because that’s all he’s doing for him besides, he’s doing some other things on the side, but he’s doing a ton of video work forum. And they’ve won two or three awards I think for some of the different videos. And so, I mean, they are standing out head and shoulders above the rest of the schools that they’re competing with on that level. And they’re getting a lot of good traction with it. So that one I’m intimately, I know the ins and outs of that one, which that one popped into my head and I think on some level, Carvana is based here. They’re an exciting startup here in Arizona.

Sam Pagel: And I’ve just seen a few things that they’ve done there. I think they’re doing some television commercials, but they’ve also gotten creative with getting their logo in the Wreck it Ralph movie. And again, that’s something where they’re 100% online for the most part. And they recognize it’s, Ralph breaks the Internet. So they saw a great chance there to put their name on something that actually fits in with what their business is doing and they’ve been creative with some of the stuff they’ve done for YouTube and the Internet. So, again, they’re one of those businesses that is already coming into the industry to disrupt something. So I think when that happens it’s a little bit easier to like the dollar shave club thing.

Sam Pagel: You can be a little edgy because you’re trying to get people’s attention and tell them what you’re doing and how you’re going to make things better. So those are three that I thought of. I don’t know. Do you guys, what do you guys think? See any others?

Chris Stadler: I was trying to think if there was any super standout local and I’m in the same boat. I don’t watch a lot of local television and get a lot of those Ads. What I can’t wait for, I haven’t seen it yet. I’m sure it’s coming at some point. Homey is totally going to put out an Ad and it’s going to be hilarious whenever they decided to do that. But because all their other stuff, they do like all their billboards and some of the other, they did it ran a campaign last year that was like super creative, read into the Phoenix market so you can see that happening. Arizona has a lot of-

Mike Jones: GCU does a good job.

Sam Pagel: They do. I thought about GCU.

Mike Jones: Well, I think what really impresses me with GCU is they’re so consistent with their purple. It’s almost like obnoxious, but it’s like, it works. Like you see that purple and you’re like, I don’t have to see anything else in that commercial. And I know I am. No, it’s a GCU commercial.

Sam Pagel: I think they’ve done a good job. [crosstalk 00:38:52] Ever since they started really pushing out commercials on TV and stuff, the quality’s been there. They never once… They never wants to see one of their commercials and think, oh, that’s just a really small school. That quality in their production has always been there. And they’ve always tried to make themselves look like, hey, we’re legit. And so they’ve done a good job with that from the beginning.

Chris Stadler: Who’s the… And I’m going to forget now if they’re local though, there’s a career placement. Like it’s either monster jobbing, they’ve had a recent commercial and I can’t remember which one it is, which maybe it makes it not that great commercial, where they’ve got, the guy’s got his box and he’s slightly older, he’s got gray hair and a gray beard and he’s walking and you don’t know by his facial expression what exactly is going on, but it’s, they’re alluding to like, this is the exit, right? He just got fired, because box and stuff. And then it pans, it’s all one shot and it pans. And he’s actually walking into an office and getting his box set up on his desk with all of his stuff for his new job. And then they’re like, whatever. Very sappy. All cried moment. It was really well done. I just can’t-, I think, I think it’s most or not, are they local? I can’t remember if they’re local.

Mike Jones: Jobbing is-

Chris Stadler: Jobbing. Its. So having [inaudible 00:40:17], but I’m not sure. Anyway. That’s a good one. I like that one.

Mike Jones: Anyone nationally stands out? Like, really?

Sam Pagel: So… A really small example, like two years ago, there’s, a company called Font Awesome. They’re like a web fonts company and really obscure, unless you’re like in the web industry and design industry. They did a Kickstarter campaign. They were trying to put together hundreds of icons that they could just, if you subscribe or pay for him and you can use them in whatever you want in web and print, whatever. And I was just… I think somebody shared the Kickstarter video that they did one day and I watched it and it was so well done. It was so hilarious. So it was like this guy walking through a bakery and they were, they were basically using a bakery metaphor even though they were in a bakery to like tell you what you get if you help them on Kickstarter.

Sam Pagel: And it was hilarious and it was so well done and I didn’t really even know what it was, but I’m like, boom, I’m supporting these guys 50 bucks or whatever. And I actually use it a lot now. But, that was such a great example of how you tell people what you’re doing. You do it in a way that’s hilarious and you can just tell by the people in that video that the people at Font Awesome. And just through their website, the texts they have on their website, their message, that’s totally them. So that was something where… I’m not easily swayed to spend money on stuff. And I was like, dude, these guys are awesome. I got to support them, and their product is great and I use it all the time.

Sam Pagel: But apart from that, I mean you’ve got so many big companies out there now that are putting together some, some pretty great ad campaigns. I mean, I saw one the other day that was totally unrelated to their brand, but I think it was a Budweiser video, where Dwayne Wade who just retired after, over 20 years or whatever in the NBA, they had like-

Mike Jones: 1560…

Sam Pagel: You would know that-

Chris Stadler: He is only 36.

Sam Pagel: All right, so he retired. And what they did was they had… They brought him into, I think it was the Miami Heat Stadium and had him stand at center court and he didn’t know what was going on. And so on by one these people came in with… They came in with different articles of clothing. Like one guy had a suit jacket from his brother who was in prison. And basically Dwayne Wade inspired his brother to clean up his life and go get a job. And the suit jacket was like the first suit jacket he ever owned. All these like really emotional stories. And they were all telling Dwayne Wade like how he influenced these people in their lives.

Sam Pagel: And basically what they were doing is trading these articles of clothing and for Dwayne Wade Jersey, like, “hey, we buy your Jersey all the time. Now it’s time for us to give you our jersey.”And it was really emotional, and then at the end, I think his mom came out and she, I didn’t know this before this, but she was in prison I think for a while and just told him how he helped her clean up her life and was always there for, and so anyways, that, I mean, that was something that just was shared all over the place and it was, Budweiser had their name on it.

Sam Pagel: Nowhere at all do you think about beer on that thing or whatever, but it was like, no, probably a way for them to put their name on a really cool story. And then, I don’t know, I just, I probably don’t watch enough TV to know like what the best new commercials are out there. I didn’t even watch the Super bowl last year so-

Mike Jones: I always feel like, I mean, now that we’re in the conversation, I was think about… I’ve been thinking about the like educational things, educational videos like that my son will watch if, if I read something to him, he’s not going to really care, but if we watch something like, have you guys seen, because science? A little less of this guy’s like… A little bit obnoxious, but also funny. And we’ll watch a video on Black Holes or something like that. He does a lot on like superheroes, why you don’t want super speed, and he goes into all the details about just how your brain can keep up with all that going on, so like things like real things and then also like space battles, like a real space battle like in space and here are the things that you just don’t think it would actually entail.

Mike Jones: And then people write in like, so you’re learning about, I’m learning about science, I’m thinking about things I haven’t thought of before but Ryan my son is super engaged, and he’s learning stuff that he never would have cared to learn before if I were to tell them like, “hey, did you know that things don’t really slow down that fast and space is so slow down?” He’d be like, Oh yeah, whatever. But if we’re talking about space battles, like, oh, space ship blows up. That shrapnel is just going to keep going just as fast. And you don’t want to be a ship near that.

Sam Pagel: Well, and that’s a great point in that you’re not just creating a video and this is marketing one on one for the most part, but you got to know who your audiences too. I mean, if you’re selling RVs and, your clientele, your client base is people who aren’t taking life terribly seriously. Yeah. You can probably go out and do something crazy like that. If you’re a law firm and you’re trying to attract, businesses or whatever, you’re probably, I mean, I’ve seen some Law firm commercials that are pretty hilariously bad, but we all have. But, you got to know who your audiences, that’s a huge part of it. Like I’m a lawyer for like hunters, right. And I like, pull off my sleeves and show my muscles, my guns-

Mike Jones: I’m the unlawyer lawyer.

Sam Pagel: Right? Totally. I have… I think somebody, I think he’s killing it with video. And not in an advertising specific way. So there’s a YouTube channel I watch a lot. 80bbq.com is their website, but they have a YouTube channel and they have, this chef is a barbecue master guy and he just cooks all sorts of barbecue stuff and makes different meals and shows you how to make them. Their company is not a media company, which is what you would think they are because I mean they get, a hundred thousand views on these videos. I got tons of followers and he’s like really good. I think he might be, I don’t know for sure if he like just works for them or is part of the company, I don’t know.

Sam Pagel: The way he talks about stories and stuff, he is a chef and they’ve hired him to come do these videos. But 80bbq.com is an online storefront for a retail barbecue store and all they do is sell barbecues, barbecue equipment [inaudible 00:47:42] and like all sorts of accessories for barbecuing. And then they have an online like dot com e-commerce store. And then they’ve booted up this channel to help them. Like basically market it through content rather than through advertising. They’re doing it through educational content and it’s just awesome.

Mike Jones: But been now, you seen those videos, they’re not just a like a through a throughput or of, like are hours just selling this stuff.

Sam Pagel: No, Like I want to watch the videos. They’re really well done. Like super high quality. The food is like the recipes are always great. Like he’s a professional. You watch it for the content, watch it for the recipe. Great example of them knowing who their audience is, knowing that if we can get somebody to watch our video about how to make this steak or whatever it is they might want to buy the thing that we’re actually cooking it on, which is great. I mean cooking… I mean I personally, I like to cook, but if I didn’t have the ability to Google a recipe or watch somebody do it, I’d be helpless.

Sam Pagel: I don’t know how to cook apart from that. So that’s huge. And that’s a good example. We’ll and the other thing too is that [inaudible 00:48:56], this where it’s powerful for me is that if I see someone doing something on a video and I feel like they’re an expert and they’re using that stuff, how much more do I want them? How much more am I going to pay? Like for the good stuff that they’re using? And so they’re using all this stuff from that store, and now all I’m thinking is like, that store, it takes this series. So they’re into this. They’re not just selling stuff. They’re into this, right?

Chris Stadler: No, they’re, they’re sold out for it. They’re clearly barbecue aficionados. They love it. They love what they’re doing and they do a good job, like curating different, like spice rubs and different sauces and stuff. You can buy it. And I mean, good Kudos to them. They integrate those things really well into the content too. So it’s very seamless. Like he’s like, all right, we’re going to be using like rub. And it’s not like they created it. It’s someone else’s that they put in their store. But he’s like, it’s this subtly hinting, hey, this is, this is one of ours. We good… They’ve curated it. That’s great.

Mike Jones: So one last thing, we have… Like we have 10 minutes left. One last thing, I was curious, so I, because this is the AZ Brandcast and so you and I Sam have talked offline just about hearing people’s stories. And then we’ve talked about before about, well with clients, how, how powerful is it when you get customer, when you didn’t research for a client, you talk to their customers and you get them to talk about their experiences. Maybe not with that company, but you just want to talk about their experiences in that domain. So like you’re working for a law firm, it might be… What do you think about lawyers, and, and then just have them talk about their experiences and get them going.

Mike Jones: And then just get that emotional like get to where they’re emotional and really expressive and how useful of that is in helping the company understand, hey, here’s what your clients are saying. And so coming from like the pitch, thinking from a big company pitch perspective, that’s one thing. But what about Arizona? What about how video can fit into us understanding, Arizona and then maybe even, maybe interviewing people, but then sharing that and that actually helping Arizona create a leadership even outside of Arizona.

Sam Pagel: That’s a good question. I think Arizona is a very exciting place to be. Right now and there’s, I mean there’s so many and just like anywhere, there’s so many businesses here, less exciting because the temperature right now we’re going to go into summary. Yeah. But even just from like the geography of Arizona-

Chris Stadler: I’d like to eat. I like my oven-

Sam Pagel: Arizona’s a very diverse state and just, geography and what you can go explore and see. So I mean, there’re tons of opportunity to use video here because Arizona is a very visual state. Go pick up like one of those books at the airport about the sites you can see in Arizona. It’s pretty staggering. It’s pretty staggering to see like the diversity in what you can see here, but-

Chris Stadler: It’s not just cactus, Cacti, cacti.

Mike Jones: But as far as from a business standpoint, I mean, yeah, just go out and tell stories and tell them. Well, I don’t know if you’re asking if we could do that on have one location for that that tells everyone’s stories or, if we can just encourage Arizona businesses to tell their story better, individual nature. Well, so what I’m thinking is like, if it were my way. There’s unlimited money and you can just go around and talk to people in different areas of Arizona and get their stories. I don’t know, for me, it’s… I’m just wondering what culture has to do with it and what we could learn from people. I mean, video is the obvious way to capture that in my mind.

Mike Jones: I’m just interested, what do we not know that’s out there? What kind of information sharing I know that’s out there that can be captured. We can write stories, we can use text, we can use audio, but video just tends to capture so much more of the emotion. That’s my… Documentary is being so powerful. There’s music there is… You’re being manipulated usually with a documentary in some way, but at the same time, what if you’re just, using that medium to convey truth and help people understand, here’s what’s really going on in Arizona?

Sam Pagel: It’s… I would say if we can… As a state, full of people and full of businesses, if we can individually figure out who we really are, that’s the first step. When you’re going to make a video, if you don’t really know… I sell cars, I sell used cars. I’m just going to tell people that I have a used car lot over here and they’ll come and buy some. If you don’t really understand like what makes you special or unique, your story is probably not going to be that enticing or that interesting to people.

Sam Pagel: So I would say as a state as a whole, what’s unique about Arizona? What makes us different? What makes us friendly to businesses or friendly to people and then the individual stories, which would probably be even more powerful than the grand scheme story of Arizona. What are the individual stories, because we have a lot of amazing people here in Arizona, a lot of amazing businesses. What are those individual stories and, and how can we… The story is the hardest part.

Sam Pagel: That’s the hardest part. Everyone’s like, oh what kind of camera do you have? What coping are you using, all this stuff. You shoot shooting 4K and all this. At the end of the day, that doesn’t really matter if you don’t have a good story. If you’re putting out a video that’s just a bunch of drone shots of your golf course, like cool people can see that, but you’re not really telling a story. You got to get the story right first.

Mike Jones: So, and I don’t know how, I mean I don’t know if we have very much time, but, it just dawned on me that we should ask about, your experience in Africa recently because I felt like that was applicable to what you could discover with video, not just what you can tell the story. You can tell

Sam Pagel: I mean, we have hardly no time, but capturing the people and not just like, here’s a bunch of cool shots of Africa, of Kenya-

Mike Jones: The sound engineer… So we have a little time. So just like, why’d you go to Africa real quick?

Sam Pagel: So I went to Africa with a friend of mine, Michael Parker, who runs an organization called Developing Workers. They go over there and they trained pastors and leaders in communities and they do this all over the world. But I specifically went to Kenya with them and they also take medical teams and help out different communities there. So I came along simply to document the trip with Photography and Videography and then out of that produced stories, basically showing and telling of their work over there and also showing and telling the stories of the people there.

Mike Jones: So you were, but did you have a shot list and a brief and all?

Sam Pagel: We did go on over there, but with something like that or you’re there for 12 days, stuff changes. We had a rough, a rough idea of what we wanted to capture. And after the first day I was like, Hey Michael, “I think I got everything. What are we going to do the next 10 days?” And so the next 10 days I was just trying to get as creative as possible and put grow Go Pros and the rafters of different buildings and all this stuff. But it was awesome to have so much footage to come back to and try to craft that down into 10 minutes and tell the story of what they’re doing and why it’s important.

Sam Pagel: I’m in a place like Kenya and sure we had fun, we got some great aerial shots of Turkana desert community there in Kenya and got some really cool shots of the Indian Ocean and all that, which is great. I’m not saying don’t go out and get creative and get amazing shots. That is a huge part of putting together a great story, but that should emanate out of, we know what the story is, now let’s go capture it in the best way possible.

Mike Jones: That’s awesome.

Chris Stadler: That’s great.

Mike Jones: I’m glad we took a second to talk about.

Sam Pagel: Yes thanks. I should have been in our list, man. It’s all good. That’s part of how this works.

Mike Jones: So Sam we just want to thank you so much for coming on and chatting with us today.

Sam Pagel: Thank you guys.

Mike Jones: And thanks for educating us and telling us a whole lot more about video and how brands can tell their stories a lot better with it. Is there anything you want to plug before we sign off?

Sam Pagel: Yeah, Pelican Media. We Love Arizona. We love working with local Arizona businesses and I loved telling your story.

Chris Stadler: Awesome. Cool. Where can people find you?

Sam Pagel: So my website is Pelican Media.net Pelican, like the bird media.net. And find everything you need there.

Chris Stadler: Cool. So people hit up Sam’s website.

Mike Jones: Well thanks everybody for checking in listening to another episode of AZ Brandcast where we delve into the makings of remarkable brands here in the state of Arizona. I want to thank Sam from Pelican Media for contributing his brand to our showcase of stories. And thank you for everybody listening in. If you want to get more brand cast episodes, you can subscribe to all of them on iTunes, Stitcher, Google play, or wherever you prefer to get your podcast. To contact Chris or I, or just find out more about AZ Brandcast, definitely check out our website at remarkablecast.com, you can also find our newsletter there. Get signed up. Make sure you don’t miss any episode or updates from us.

Mike Jones: And then we want to shout out to our producer, Karen [inaudible 00:59:13], Phoenix business radio X, who definitely makes this possible for us every month. And our gracious hosts here at Max Six Co-working space and of course, Conscious Capitalism, Arizona, for sponsoring us. And don’t forget, you are remarkable.