Entri AdminEntrihub chats to Tashinga Mutakwa, Founder of GreenBack Media Group. Tashinga talks about the importance of exposure.
Question 1: How do I get exposure?
Tashinga: When it comes to exposure I think you want to work with celebrities. You want to work in that space because celebrities already have a large reach. I think on my side my exposure came through. We were working with Heart FM, the radio station and they were main client for like three years, four years now. Through working with Heart FM, I got to meet a lot of celebrities and I did get to request to do videos for them. Some of them would pay some of them wouldn't but then through working with celebrities you get corporate companies that know these celebrities that started that start approaching you as well. I would if it's about exposure I would suggest working with celebrities because companies don't really publicize who's done the jobs.
Question 2: Other than celebrities, how else can one get exposure?
Tashinga: There's two things there's exposure and experience right. When it comes to exposure I would say personally, I'll say strictly celebrities. Then when it comes to experience I think partnering up with vlogs and with bloggers and sort of startup company is always a good way to go about it. Reason being there's more freedom to I won't call it freedom to fail but freedom to experiment and get to know what you how you do what you do best. Because again moving back to corporate companies they don't really have the time or the space for you to do something wrong and keep changing it,but when there's a bloggers also starting out and you guys are both working together you have this space, you have the allowance to be able to fail with something and fix it. That's how you gain that experience and exposure as well. Celebrities as well, if you're doing things for them for free then they don't really have a say as to how good or bad it is so you get to learn better that way.
Question 3: How useful is it to have celebrities and big corporates as part of your portfolio?
Tashinga: I always tell people that I've never been asked for a CV or my degree or anything because we're in a space where it's what have you done or who have you worked with. Generally, some people don't even ask you to send them the references of the videos it's just who have you worked with, Jimmy Nevis, Toya DeLazy and like, oh cool job! I'm like so what you are saying is right. When you work with certain big clients this is no longer about your product that's who you've worked with. Which is somewhat wrong but in that's how it is.
Question4: How important is maintaining relationships?
Tashinga: It's quite important to maintain it and it's quite important to deliver because I think that the few celebrities that I've worked with, in terms of exposure before I started charging them. They came back because of the fact that I had delivered and there's probably a thousand young people who are keen to just do things for free. Well, tens of thousands of young people keen to do things for free any time you know what I mean. If you don't deliver they can jump onto the next person but if you deliver and you keep that relationship going then that could then end up becoming a big client if you know what I mean. It is definitely important to keep those good those relationships going.
Question 5: Any other advice?
Tashinga: I'll say just go for it, try and find any sort of contact details that you can. The reason I'm laughing is because the chain of how I ended up in the celebrity space as she started because I inbox someone on their Facebook page like five times until they replied and I didn't know they were famous. Well, I didn't know they were that big. At that the time I was trying to get her to collaborate with one of the artists I managing in terms of music. I didn't know that she was big already and then when I hit up she never replied like three times, four times and the fifth time, she was like listen I'll be, I told her I live in Kenilworth. She's like I'll be in Claremont tomorrow I'll give you like 30 minutes to come and tell me what you want to do and we'll do it. I'm like cool so I get there and I'm like I need you to collaborate with my artist and then she's like okay but the kind of music that I'm working with right now through Germany, whatever I can't really collaborate with anyone at the moment. I was just like do you want a music video and then she was like not really at the moment but I am performing at Kirsten Bosch in a few weeks if you want to shoot that. I was like okay cool she actually started out by paying she didn't pay me she paid for the camera equipment. I didn't know that her Kirsten Bosch performance was opening for Toya DeLazy and this is the time when Toya was pretty big. While we were backstage, just before Toya went on and then we came back she was just like can you fill my performance and I was like cool and I shot that. I sent her and she followed me on Twitter without talking a bit and since then I've done a couple of jobs for her. I think the advice would be trying to find any contact details, Facebook page, the managers number, the booking agents number, try and find a friend who knows a friend who knows a celebrity. Go to events, go to an event when the celebrities offstage and he's trying to go to see to something just approach him and be like listen I do videos, here's my card or can I take a manager's number. I'll say go for it you have to, you kind of have to be an extrovert about it. You kind of have to you know be that awkward guy that tries too hard sometimes, especially at the beginning.