Will Carter
Will Carter serves as Senior Vice President, Director of Marketing for Central Bank of the Midwest, a division of The Central Trust Bank. Will is working each day to build the brand of Central Bank in Kansas City and works along side his teams to strategically position the bank for future growth and success.
He enjoys working on large-scale projects like the bank’s partnerships with Sporting Kansas City and the University of Kansas. He was integral in the creation and launch of both partnerships, and works closely with the two organizations on marketing campaigns that drive the partnerships and brands forward.
Will joined the Central Bank family in 2015, while living in Springfield, MO and later moved to the Kansas City area in 2019. Before his work in bank marketing, you might have caught Will on the local news as he was a reporter, anchor, and meteorologist for more than a decade while living in his home state of Tennessee, Arkansas, and later Missouri. He loves to use his communication skills to drive the message of community banking.
In his spare time, Will loves entertaining friends and family, concerts, independent filmmaking, woodworking, and all things Halloween.
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-Transcript-
Brad Burrow (00:00:00):
Welcome to In A World with Real Media. I’m your host, Brad Burrow, and today I’m fired up about this conversation. Sitting down with me is Will Carter, Senior Vice President and Director of Marketing for Central Bank right here in Kansas City. Let me tell you, this guy’s path to where he is today is one of the most unique journeys I’ve come across. In Will’s career, he’s worked as a fill-in meteorologist in Springfield, Missouri. Yeah, you heard that right. Standing in front of the green screen telling folks whether to grab an umbrella. He’s worked in independent filmmaking as a director and producer and now he’s leading the entire marketing operation for one of Kansas City’s most prominent financial institutions. But here’s what really sets Will apart. He’s that rare combination of creative intuition and strategic marketing execution. He didn’t just climb the ranks at Central Bank.
(00:00:53):
He’s fundamentally changing how the bank connects with people and he’s propelling them into becoming a true regional leader in banking. How do you go from forecasting the weather to directing films to directing an entire marketing vision for a major bank? How does that creative background inform the way he approaches strategy and brand building? We’re going to get into all of this, the winding career path, the lessons learned along the way, and what it takes to bring a filmmaker’s eye to the world of financial services. Will Carter, welcome to In A World with Real Media. Welcome to In A World with Real Media. I’m your host, Brad Burrow. In this podcast, we’ll dive into the lives of the most successful people in business. We’ll learn how they overcame adversity, took advantage of opportunities, and learned from their experiences. Learn from our experts, get inspired. Then go live your story.
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It’s in a world with real media. Thank you for joining us, Will. Thanks for being on the podcast. I’ve been thinking about this. As part of my research, I’ve been checking out some of the stuff that you’ve been doing. It’s still a lot of really fun stuff. I want to get into some of obviously your work background and all that. I like to on the podcast learn how people have gotten to where they are today. So your journey’s been pretty awesome.
Will Carter (00:02:20):
It’s an interesting journey. Yeah. It’s all over the place. Yeah. I think I always knew growing up that I wanted to be in the media business in some regard. Ultimately, I wanted to direct movies and as I got into college and everything, I took the route of doing TV news. And so that’s what I did for many, many years. So I was a reporter and an anchor and then started – In Springfield though, right? In Springfield. Yeah. In Springfield, Missouri. And there was a point before I was even in Springfield, I was doing it in Arkansas and Tennessee as well. And I started doing some storm chasing. Did you really? I got the bug for the storms at that point and I ended up going back and getting my meteorology degree also. So before it was all said and done, I had done everything from reporting and anchoring to being the weather guy.
(00:03:07):
And that was my last job in TV news. But the funny thing is that before I did all of the on – air stuff, I was behind the scenes for several years while I was going to college because I just got… And this is the fun thing about my story is I just got a shot in the dark. I got hired at my local TV station in my hometown. It was like Market 175 or something like that. Is that Springfield? No, this was back in Jackson, Tennessee. Oh, okay. So it’s right in the middle of Memphis and Nashville for people that need that reference point. So I’m literally like an hour from each one, but small market. And so because in a small market, you can pretty much do anything. So I got thrown in as a camera operator in the studio. And so my very first job was a studio camera operator and then eventually I became a news photog and I started producing.
(00:03:55):
And so I had pretty much done every job behind the scenes before I ever even went on camera myself. Which is great. That’s great. Which is great because it’s given me a ton of inside into how you need to think on both sides of the camera. That’s right. And so I did all that up until about 2010 and then I slowly kind of started getting out of the media and I had some opportunities to go into marketing and I worked for a big nonprofit in Springfield and they were a big high impact nonprofit. They worked with United Way. They were kind of did similar missions to that and then eventually got recruited out of there from the bank. Our president down at the bank in Springfield at the time was on the board of that nonprofit. And so I kind of got recruited out because I started doing some work with the bank and the next thing I knew about – Six
Brad Burrow (00:04:40):
Degrees of separation.
Will Carter (00:04:42):
Six degrees of separation. So the next thing I know, I’m at Central Bank and the journey there has been incredible too. I started there on the well side. I remember when I first went into the bank, I’m like, this is not going to be my thing. I was like, I don’t know how this is going to work, but I needed to change at the time. And so I was a little It feels the
Brad Burrow (00:04:58):
Opposite of a creative thinker.
Will Carter (00:05:00):
It does. It feels the exact opposite of a creative thinker, but if you know me and you know me now, you know I wasn’t going to let that stop me. So as time went on, I was about in Springfield for about four or five years before I moved up to Kansas City and I got that opportunity in 2019 and up until that point, I was doing bank marketing, very much what I would consider bank marketing. Kind of in
Brad Burrow (00:05:23):
That local market.
Will Carter (00:05:24):
Yeah, down down in that area. And then I got to Kansas City and up here all of a sudden there were some opportunities that started to present themself. The first one of those was sporting Kansas City and that was my first time ever negotiating or working on a sports contract. I had never done any of this before so I was brand new to it. But what we did is our CEO here in Kansas City, Bill Ferguson, he’s incredible to work with. And so he said, let’s go do it, but if we’re going to do it, let’s do it right. So he believes in marketing and I appreciate that about him.
Brad Burrow (00:05:56):
That’s great.
Will Carter (00:05:57):
Yes it is because I’ve worked on the other side of that where people don’t appreciate marketing and you can’t get anything done. So we went in and the first year it was the pandemic the first year. And so they were playing but no fans were in the stands. So it was kind of a rough year there. But I remember we scrapped together a TV commercial that we did ourselves and we just grabbed a bunch of employees of the bank went out to the stadium one day and we filled in some seats and made it look just good enough where like maybe something was happening in between takes of like taking masks up and down and stuff. So it was a whole process. And so that was kind of the first couple of years of that, which was not the greatest thing for like working in the sports area for the first couple of years.
(00:06:38):
But as time went on, we started doing lots of different activations and things on site and we started learning really quick the psychology behind connecting with people and there really is a psychology to that US. Yeah. Talk to me about that. What
Brad Burrow (00:06:52):
Does that mean?
Will Carter (00:06:52):
There’s a huge… Okay. So here’s the deal. You think about it. You go to a convention or you go to any event where there’s people that have tables and tents and it’s very much a similar thing. And what you’ll find as you’re walking around is that there’s a lot of people with a six foot long table and two chairs sitting behind it and a couple of people behind the table here, talk to me about my product or service or whatever it is that I do, and that’s what you’re going to find over and over and over again. And then all of a sudden you might have this one that said, oh, maybe we should do something different, differentiate ourselves a little bit. And guess what? Those are the ones where you’ll start finding the lines lining up. And so even from just the idea of like giveaways and stuff.
(00:07:34):
So I’ll roll back to sporting Kansas City. Well, it was the first couple of years we were out there and our first couple of times we were out there, we would have a tent and a table and we’d be giving things away. So it was somewhat interactive. But what we started noticing is when you look around and you see the others that are just sitting at tables, they’re getting no interaction at all. So I remember the year that we added the spin wheel and so it was like, “Oh, let’s add a spin wheel.” And again, guys, spin wheels, you can get them on Amazon. This isn’t anything that’s like crazy. So we get a spin well – Everybody
Brad Burrow (00:08:05):
Loves to win something,
Will Carter (00:08:05):
Right? Exactly. But that’s where the psychology piece of this comes in because suddenly the ability to have to play something and do something to win the same like cheap prize off the table somehow becomes magically more important to people. And so instead of like people wanting to come up and just grab something now, though they got to play the game to get it and they want to play the game to get it. It kind of became a learning experience for us because we’re like, “Man, there is definitely some psychology behind this. ” And so what you started noticing is that every time we would be out there activating, we would have this big long line across the plaza and everybody else is just crickets at their tables.
Brad Burrow (00:08:41):
Really? That’s amazing.
Will Carter (00:08:42):
Yeah. And through all that – It’s a case
Brad Burrow (00:08:44):
Study that needs to
Will Carter (00:08:45):
Be done there. Well, it is. It is 100%. And even down to the idea of, you remember I kept kind of harping on the fact that you would see people sitting behind the tables. That’s another thing. I have a rule at the bank that we don’t sit behind tables when we’re out at activations. If you’ve got a disability or something, that’s another story, but for the most part, if you’re capable and able, we have a rule that we don’t have chairs at activations because the chairs, the table, to me, all of that is a barrier to you and the people that you should be talking to. So when you get around the front of the table and you start interacting with people, guess what? It’s a whole different thing and now suddenly people get to know you. And so for a bank, that’s been hugely important to us because there’s 147 bank competitors in Kansas City and that doesn’t include the credit union.
(00:09:29):
So probably over all in all, we’re probably somewhere in the 225 to 250 range across the board. So what makes us different? And so those are the things that make you different. So it’s all about engaging and getting to know us. And so when I go out and say, “Hey, we’re a community bank, I have to actually be able to prove that we are one.” And so you’re not going to do that without having conversations and building relationships. So we learned from that, we started gamifying everything a little bit more. The next year we built a Plinko board and then we brought in our sub soccer tables and so it just started building. And what we realized is the engagement is what was winning and that was what was differentiating us. And eventually that’s what took us into KU and got us the opportunity at the University of Kansas as well.
(00:10:10):
So that side of the things, like I said, it was a learning environment. And this is why I love this show because nobody ever gets it right the first time.That’s the thing about growing into leadership. You’re never going to get it right. I didn’t have any of this figured out the first time I tried any of it, but trial and error, you start paying attention enough and you start learning from all of it and the next thing you know, you got something really good happening.
Brad Burrow (00:10:30):
Yeah. It’s really interesting you mentioned that. I just heard a speaker yesterday, he was in here,
Will Carter (00:10:35):
His
Brad Burrow (00:10:35):
Name’s Cam Awesome by the way and he’s a boxer and so he was talking about, and this illustrates your point, he’s an Olympic boxer, the most matches. I mean, he’s got all of these accolades. He said, “I’ve won, I can’t remember how many boxing matches, but you know the ones that I remember are the ones I lost.”
Will Carter (00:10:56):
Yeah.
Brad Burrow (00:10:57):
And the reason he says because that’s what I learned the most from is
Will Carter (00:11:01):
The loss.
(00:11:02):
That’s right. Because when you lose or something fails and it doesn’t go well, that’s where the true learning opportunity is because that’s where you can actually sit back and go, “Okay, what didn’t work about this experience and what of this experience could we do better next time?” Because when you get it right, you can see that it’s going right and people are engaging with you, but when something’s wrong, I know personally, I take that stuff real personal. I leave and I’m just like, I cringe when things aren’t going right and I’m like, “What could we do better? I want to improve this process so that next time we do have that level of engagement that I like to see.” Do
Brad Burrow (00:11:35):
You look back on it though and say, “Okay, maybe it was a good thing that that failed?”
Will Carter (00:11:39):
Oh, 100% absolutely because I’m a big believer that the harder you fail, the stronger you get back up and do better things after that, but I have learned you have to fail fast and I think that’s the thing about it too. It’s like if you are going to fail, fail, learn from it and then move on from it and don’t dwell on it because otherwise you’re just going to stay in that mode of failure.
Brad Burrow (00:12:00):
Based on that theory, I should be really smart.
Will Carter (00:12:03):
Right? I mean, but that’s the reality of it. So it’s the ability to get back up, dust yourself off and try something new. And I think that’s hard sometimes for people because it’s hard for something not to go well. And I can say this both on my job with the bank and then my job owning the film company too, even in the film world, I’ve made bad movies that I didn’t like and you want to just be like, “Eh, maybe this isn’t for me. I don’t want to do this next week.” And then a few months later you make something that you’re so proud of and it’s because guess what? You were learning from those mistakes you made on that last one that you weren’t super proud of, but you eventually you start realizing and I’ve learned even from all of my film stuff that every single time I’m on a set and it doesn’t matter I direct mostly, but the stuff I learn is from everybody else on the crew.
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I watch what they’re doing, I watch what the gappers are doing and my assistant directors and my camera ops and all the people because they are the ones I learn from. I can control the chaos of the set, but like seeing how they interact with each other. I mean, so everything I’m just a huge believer in general that everything in life is a learning experience and if you ever stop and turn off and don’t let that happen, then you’re not going to grow.
Brad Burrow (00:13:21):
Never can think that you’ve arrived,
Will Carter (00:13:23):
Right? Right.
Brad Burrow (00:13:24):
So you mentioned film. So I went out and spent a week with the director of the LA Film School.
Will Carter (00:13:30):
That’s super fun.
Brad Burrow (00:13:31):
Yeah, it was a really neat thing. His name was James Pastornak and I met him and he said, “Come spend a week with me. ” I was getting ready to direct a feature and I’ve directed tons and tons of things, but not a feature and directing actors is a little bit different than directing a sports personality, read it this way, say it this way, that kind of thing where actors is, and I’d love to get your thoughts on that, but that was a really, really cool thing. And one of the things that he said to me that I’ve never forgotten is like as a director, you do not want to be the smartest person in the room.
Will Carter (00:14:10):
No, you do
Brad Burrow (00:14:10):
Not. You want people around you that are the smartest people in the room.
Will Carter (00:14:14):
Right. In fact, I think as a director, your role is just to facilitate them doing their jobs really, really well because if all of them are able to work in the environment correctly and do what they do best, you as a director are going to look good and then that allows you to be able to focus on the actors, which is really what your job is and I think there’s, and especially like whether you’re starting off or you’re working on a big scale project, but maybe it’s your first time working on a big scale project as a director, you tend to want to be overly involved in everything. I’ve learned over the last few years that when I started trusting the process and trusting that I’ve got a really good camera operator and an AC and a gaffer and a sound op and that they’re really good, all of a sudden I don’t have to worry about all that stuff.
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And guess what? Your stress level as a director goes way down. Well, and your
Brad Burrow (00:15:03):
Focus
Will Carter (00:15:04):
Gets better. And now my focus gets way better. I will tell you, I was just telling you this before we started, but we just finished a film that I think is the best film I’ve ever directed personally and it was because we have learned so much over the last two to three years and I took everything that we had learned into this one and it was a, we did it over a weekend and 48 hours, but I pushed our crew and our cast very, very hard on this one, but I couldn’t have done that even a year ago because these are the people that we’ve been learning together and we’ve been doing it together and we had gotten to that point where I’m like, “It’s time for us to take the next step and we’re going to do something a little different this time.” So it was a genre shift, it was a shift in the way we were shooting, it was a shift in the way I was directing actors and all of a sudden now I’m going for this beautiful cinematic thing that I want to create and I’m getting performances that I never thought I could get a few years ago and now I’ve got these like incredible performances and a lot of that just came down to the fact that I could have those moments and be able to do that.
(00:16:12):
The particular film I’m talking about deals with some domestic violence issues and so there were a lot of moments with that one with the actors where I had to be in the moment and I had to be in there and we were having conversations about ranges of grief and emotion and things like that that would help drive them through that emotional journey that we needed to go on and I don’t think I had ever had an opportunity as a director to do something like that. To your point, it was almost more technical up until that point where it’s like, hit your queue, hit your mark, all the technical things were good, but now we’re starting to get in there. Now we’re pulling out the acting and now we’re really, really reeling that in. And so it’s everything you’re talking about. It’s trust the process, trust everybody and things just start to happen.
Brad Burrow (00:16:58):
One thing that I learned on that trip, and you’ll appreciate this too, when you’re working with somebody that’s not an actor, that the way that you direct them is completely different than you work with a seasoned actor.
Will Carter (00:17:12):
Absolutely.
Brad Burrow (00:17:13):
So what is really fun when you’re a director is working with a seasoned actor where you’re just giving them, okay, here’s what you’re thinking, here’s the motivation behind this scene and then let them make it their own.
Will Carter (00:17:29):
Absolutely.
Brad Burrow (00:17:29):
And that’s where the magic comes from, but a lot of directors don’t know how to do that. It’s like the good directors know how to do it, but I mean, how do you have a connection with an actor or an actress where you say, “Okay, this is what we’re going. Now make it yours.”
Will Carter (00:17:46):
Yeah, okay, that’s a beautiful… Yeah, this last movie is a great example of that because I don’t think I was at that point until recently and myself and we did have two really good seasoned actors and I remember as we were getting ready, they were over in the other room and they were doing their nine point method. They were building their backstories for their characters and all the things and I had Sam that was the teenager and he was doing that and then I had Abby that was playing the mom and I know with her she does a playlist and so she gets into the mode by listening to certain pieces of music.
(00:18:22):
Music’s powerful. Yeah. And so it’s interesting because you start realizing that the actors have their methods of like getting ready and so then once they’re ready it was how do I take them on that journey with us? And so what I found is that I was stopping more to explain where this scene is going. It’s where I think a lot of times in the past it was always like, let’s just get it done. You have a line say your line cut, keep moving. And this time I spent a lot more time saying, “Okay, in this scene here’s what’s happening and here’s the emotion we’re trying to evoke now you guys take that and do something with it. ” And then they would. And so then I would get either the performance we wanted or I would just have to tweak them just a little bit.
(00:19:01):
But that was the beauty of that is all the, instead of me having to be like, “I need you to do it exactly like this, ” it was now they understand where they’re at on the journey and where they’re at emotionally and how they connect to the character in the scene and now I’m not giving like technical notes, I’m giving notes that are enhancing performance. And that was just a really cool moment for me honestly myself. Yeah.
Brad Burrow (00:19:22):
So that’s one of the things that I learned too is like even the vernacular that you use when you speak to an actor, it’s like, think of this, it’s as if you use terms like that because you’re not telling them what to do, you’re getting them into a place where they figure out what to do.
Will Carter (00:19:38):
Right. I remember my conversation with Sam, our teenager actor, he was so incredible with that because he came in and there’s a scene in this movie where him and the mom have a really breakdown moment where he’s trying to beg her not to make these horrible choices again and then go back to this bad situation. And I remember the first time he played it, he was angry at her the whole time and we talked for a minute, we took like a five and we talked for a minute and I said, “I want you to just think a little bit about emotion for a minute.” And I said, “I don’t want to give too much away because it would be a spoiler, but there are some things that like he won’t get to experience with his mom anymore because of some things that have happened in the storyline.” And so I said, “So think about this.
(00:20:27):
” I said, “Yeah, you’re angry with her, but you’re also trying to protect a newborn baby that’s on the way.” I said, “So you’re playing big brother in this as well. So you’re mad, you’re playing big brother.” I said, “And then there’s a moment you’re never going to get to have with your mom again because of what has happened. And so that’s something that’s upsetting to you. ” I said, “So think about what I just said there. There’s all these emotions going on. ” I said, “It’s almost like a grief scenario.” I said, “When someone dies, we have the moments of anger and grief and pain and acceptance and rejection and all the different things that go through ahead.” And so I asked him to think about the scene a little bit like that. And I still to this moment wish that I would have had the camera rolling when he did the second take of it because as soon as we had that conversation, the next take I got was so perfect and it was one of those where everybody else was outside of the room.
(00:21:19):
It was just us having a director actor conversation and then I said, “Let’s rehearse it. ” And so the two of them did the scene with me and I was just floored and I’m like, “That right there was what… ” The rehearsals
Brad Burrow (00:21:32):
Now,
Will Carter (00:21:32):
Huh? Right. And it just came down to that moment though where we got to talk a little bit about what’s motivating, what’s happening in the room. And then suddenly it turned from this, I’m mad at you mom to this, I’m betrayed by you mom, I’m mad at you, don’t do this again, I’m upset, but I forgive you. There was all these emotions that came out in it that we never would have gotten I think if we had not had that conversation. And so it was so neat to get to have that conversation with an actor who… And honestly, I call him seasoned. He’s an up and coming actor, but he’s got an incredible range on him and was able to tap into what I was asking and so was Abby, our lead actress. It’s moments like that… I’ll tell you, it was the first time I had ever cried on a set, Brad.
(00:22:19):
Oh, is that right? I’ve never cried on a set, but part of that’s probably because we’ve never done anything that was a dramatic scene, but this one was personal to a lot of people and I knew that even within our cast and crew, there were people that could connect to the storyline a little bit and I was trying to take that whole thing very, very cautiously in the way we were approaching it, giving breaks, making sure everybody was having mental health breaks and things like that. So I don’t know, I’m just really proud. But I think it gets back to the way you were asking your question is when you’ve got those seasoned actors, you’re not directing technicality anymore. You’re directing full performance and getting full performance is not telling them what to do. It’s coaching them to the behavior and the idea of what’s happening in that moment so that they can get there on their own.
(00:23:10):
And because if they get there on their own, it’s a completely different performance than you saying this and do this. It’s
Brad Burrow (00:23:15):
Believable that way, isn’t it? Absolutely. One of the things that I’ve found a lot with working with not so much seasoned actors, but actors a little bit locally that don’t have as much experience as they overact. Have you seen that a lot?
Will Carter (00:23:29):
Oh, I have seen that a lot.
Brad Burrow (00:23:31):
It’s like less is more. It’s like do less and it’s going to be more believable. I remember I was reading a story about the… Who’s the director that directed the movie The Birds? I can’t think of his name right off the top of my head. It’s an old movie. Hitchcock. Hitchcock. Yeah. So there’s a scene in the Birds. I don’t know if you’ve watched the movie. I think is it Anne Bancroft? She’s looking out and she’s just got this blank look and she’s looking out and you know how he got that? He said, “Just look out and just think about something that has nothing to do with anything. You just kind of look out like that. ” And that was one of the most iconic scenes in that movie where she’s like… And you just feel the doom. And that’s how he got that performance out of her, but less is more and I think that’s – Yeah.
(00:24:21):
Yeah. And I think the good actors understand that.
Will Carter (00:24:23):
They do. They 100% understand that. And I think from an acting craft standpoint, and I love to talk about this particular topic because I grew up a theater kid and I think there’s a lot of theater actors that try to cross over into the film and television world. More is more in theater, right? Because you
Brad Burrow (00:24:42):
Have to project.
Will Carter (00:24:43):
Right. And so I think that’s where some of that comes from a lot of times is because I think people have been trained on stage acting and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it’s understanding how to pull your stage acting back and that you don’t need to reach the person in the back of the room. You need to reach the person that’s right here and many times, and I’ve directed actors that are like that. I have. I’ve directed the theatrical ones. There’s been moments where I really couldn’t reel them in and then there’s been others that I have been able to and I think that’s a personal journey that they kind of have to go on because you’re not going to be able to get better at screen acting if you don’t practice that craft a little bit. Just like you’ve practiced your craft for theater, I think you have to practice that craft there too because even if it’s nothing more than just recording yourself reading some monologues or something, but doing it on a camera because it’s just so different and it’s just the believability needs to be so much less on camera and it’s not over the top because if it’s over the top, it becomes slapsticky and it becomes unbelievable and that’s probably the best advice I give is you know, I mean even from back in my old news days, Brad, I remember my first news days, my first days on air, I did all kinds of things wrong.
(00:26:00):
I would rock up and down on my heels and say things funny and I didn’t know what to do with my hands. And it’s funny because I often am coaching –
Brad Burrow (00:26:08):
You’re not pointing to the –
Will Carter (00:26:10):
I’d be like doing weather and there’s a whole thing with weather because everything is backwards on the green screen compared to what you’re looking at. So you have to like literally program your brain to think backwards, but like as you go to like turn into like point at a number or something, you don’t just like back up and move forward because otherwise you look silly like moving all over the screen. It’s this motion where you actually have to physically turn your whole body backwards and when you do that, let’s say that the TV here in your logo is what I’m trying to point to. Well, there’s this thing where I can walk across and try to like get to it or there’s this thing where I spin around and as I do that, I end up pointing into it and it becomes a much more natural polished look.
(00:26:52):
So again, these are all things – So you had to practice all that. I didn’t at first. I had to practice all of that because I remember the first few times on air I misstepped and I would be standing on top of the numbers and I’d have the numbers spinning at the wrong times. And so this just goes back to whether your craft is acting, your craft is directing, your craft is being a meteorologist, it does not matter what the craft is, it’s the practice that’s going to make you better and it’s practicing within the realm of what you’re actually doing. And so I think if you advice that I would maybe give is that if you’re a theater actor that wants to get serious on the film side, you need to start recording yourself, get yourself… I mean, everybody’s got a cell phone now. Put your phone on a camera or on a tripod and start recording yourself over and over and over again because what you’re going to see in that is that, ooh, that might have been a little bit over the top and start honing yourself in on what looks a little bit more natural on our camera.
Brad Burrow (00:27:41):
Yeah. So one of the questions I had, I’m really glad we went into the film stuff. That’s really awesome, but I want to tie that into kind of your corporate career a litle bit. I mean, how are those two working together? Because I think you’re probably very unique in the marketing world. I don’t know too many people that are out directing and producing independent film, but are director of marketing for an organization and that skillset’s got to be… I know you have agencies that you work with and stuff, but the skillset that you have has got to be…
Will Carter (00:28:13):
Yeah, it’s phenomenal because it’s funny whenever we do new employee orientations, everybody loves going into my history and they’re like, “Wait, you did what and now you’re doing what? ” And I’m like, “Yeah, it’s all over the place.” Kind of like I was actually, yeah, exactly. But there’s beauty in that. And I always start with the fact that every experience I’ve had over the years, I’ve learned something from that. And so specifically with my marketing job, I pull a lot of reference from the years doing TV and what I’m doing now with the film directing and all those different things. It all is the same because in the years that I was on TV, maybe I was on air, but if you don’t think I didn’t understand how advertising worked and things like that, like we were an advertising medium and a channel. And so I understood that how people work with the agencies and how they advertise and how to work with the media and coming out of the media and know how to talk to the media.
(00:29:07):
So from the public relations side, I understand it’s really funny with banks, you try to stay out of the news. Banks are not typically something you want in the news, but every once in a while something’s going to happen, you just never know. And so I think me having that background, I know how to deal with the public relations side of that. I’ve learned over the years, I know be responsive, but be responsive when people start asking questions because in the world we live in today, you have to get ahead of the narrative or it will create itself for you. So that’s just the world we live in. Very quickly too, right? With the internet and social media, the narrative will create itself. So you have to make sure that you’re out there controlling that, but doing so factually with the facts, because you can also make the narrative worse if you’re not providing factual information.
(00:29:57):
So there’s that public relations side of But then in the media side and then with all the sports properties and the creative, I think for me it’s about experience and it’s about am I creating something that’s memorable? Am I creating something that people are going to remember? And it gets right back to what I said at the beginning of this interview, which is knowing that we have hundreds and hundreds of competitors in the market, how do I take that competitive landscape and differentiate us from the other hundreds of banks that are sitting in this market? And for me, that’s all about creating an experience that people can remember. And that experience could be an in – person experience. It could be an experience that someone has when they walk into one of the branches. It could be an experience through the storytelling that we’re doing and the media and the different things that we’re doing there.
(00:30:49):
We just shot the soccer capital of America and it was really interesting because again, I directed this with myself. It was just a quick little fun thing we did. It was never – Is
Brad Burrow (00:30:57):
That with the sporting too?
Will Carter (00:30:58):
It is. That’s the one. I have to tell you something about that. It was never meant to be on TV though. This is the interesting thing on this one. This one’s not a TV commercial. We shot the bank’s very first vertical commercial and that was a change for me, but it was because I understand how media and where things are going and knowing that everyone’s watching videos on reels and shorts and TikTok and all that. One of my questions. Yeah. It’s like that’s the next generation. Also knowing how expensive media was going to be during the WC words that I can’t say, but knowing how expensive media is right now with the tournaments going on, it didn’t really make sense to spend all this money on a big produced TV commercial. I said, “Well, why don’t we go to the audience that we know is watching?” And so we produced this little quick commercial and that’s where this gets interesting because it’s like my background starts coming into play on both sides of the aisle.
(00:31:58):
I had a couple of crew members from my film world working with us on it and then a few of the actors that I knew and then my marketing team is working on it. And so it’s this weird blend of people. You got bank and film people working together on this thing. But with this whole campaign, I knew it had to be something very unique and different and I knew that it had to tap into story. And I think this is where it all gets in, this is where it all starts weaving together is through the idea of story because
(00:32:26):
I don’t know if anyone’s watched any… I love talking about this because I make fun of us as banks all the time. I will never hold back on this. We are the worst, the worst at advertising and commercials and things like that. We did a really neat project a couple ago. Our CMO and us, we were working through some new brand spots and I remember him asking us to go out and find the best bank commercials that we could find and who’s doing it really, really well. That was the hardest assignment I’ve ever had in my life because no one was doing it really, really well because if you’ve watched a bank ad, and again, I’m joking about this, but you’ve seen us out there handshake, “Hey, we’re your community bank. You’re going to come in and shake our hands.” And the reality of that is you’re just another bank doing the same commercial over and over and over again.
(00:33:09):
And so from a storytelling standpoint, from the film world, from my years telling stories on the news, I realized that story and experience is what actually differentiates you. And so when you start telling a story and you start telling what it’s all about, suddenly people start paying attention. So the soccer capital of America, a little spot that we did, and again, it’s just a quick little 30 second thing that was meant for social media, but the whole story, and I do love this, I had asked our interns in 2024 to help us with this and we had all talked through this idea, but we wanted to tell a story that was very KC-centric. It was all about our pride as a city for soccer and this whole campaign has kind of been led by that. It’s never been about the tournament coming. It’s always been about, hey, we’re the soccer capital of America and that’s important to us.
(00:34:00):
And we as Kansas Citians, we believe in that. And so the fact that we have the tournament here, that’s exciting just in the fact that we even got something that huge to come here, but that hometown proud is what it’s about for us. And so on the marketing side, I’m not selling products to the international crowd. That’s not doing me any good at the end of the day. What I care about is what’s here in Kansas City. So we really played into that and the stories about a little kid that’s growing up playing soccer and his dad through buying him a pair of new cleats ends up kind of being the turning moment because dad believed in him. And so when dad believes in him, he starts progressing because those beliefs are what built Kansas City and built our soccer culture. And so by the end of the spot, he’s now a pro and him and dad have a moment in the stands and you make the connection that the soccer capital didn’t start at the pro level.
(00:34:49):
It started on the fields in the backyards. It started in the little neighborhood fields and that’s how that whole story is told. And so it’s a story and people are reacting to it really, really well and I think it’s because of that. And so I think that’s what differentiates me from just a standard bank marketing person is I understand that to tell our story and to differentiate ourselves, we have to do something different. We have to do something people can remember and I guess ultimately that’s what it is at the end of the day is just
Brad Burrow (00:35:15):
Being – And the arc of the story, how the story progresses, what we remember. And so if you think about marketing in general, retention, that retention has to go way up when you tell a story versus we’re this.
Will Carter (00:35:30):
Right, absolutely. Because everybody’s this, but how are you different than everybody else that’s, I’m a banker, I’m a this or I’m a that, I’m a restaurant, I’m a service stage. I mean, everybody’s got their thing, but everybody, how are you doing it any different? And I think in the world that we’re in now too, there’s so many forms of media now and it’s so fractured and I think I see so many businesses try to do everything and I think that can be detrimental too because you put all your eggs in all the baskets to the point that you stretch yourself so thin you can’t do any one thing correctly. So I think even that is we’re just having to pay attention to like where are the trends following. And I think that’s something that’s been kind of unique too because typically in the old days we had a very set formula of like, here’s the traditional media that you do and here’s what you do.
(00:36:20):
No longer there. That model is gone. That model’s long gone. Now it’s more of like, what’s the next hot thing that we need to be on? Which
Brad Burrow (00:36:27):
Could be changing.
Will Carter (00:36:28):
And it could change next year. It could change next month. And that’s the thing about it. We don’t even know what that looks like anymore, but I do know that if you’re not paying attention to that, you’re going to get left behind. And so that’s the reason I did a vertical spot was because I was like, we have to do something that adapts to where people are currently watching video right now. And when you look at the fact that obsession in back rooms are killing it at the box office, well, these are YouTubers doing these films. Well, guess what? That’s where your audience is at now. Even as a bank, even as a business, your audience is in those same platforms that are producing these big movies.
Brad Burrow (00:37:03):
My son, he’s a junior at K State. When he comes home, he doesn’t watch anything like broadcast or anything like that. He watches YouTube
Will Carter (00:37:13):
And
Brad Burrow (00:37:13):
He’s got a couple of these kids called Do Good Golf. I don’t
Will Carter (00:37:17):
Know if
Brad Burrow (00:37:17):
You’ve seen that or not, but he will watch that for hours.
Will Carter (00:37:20):
Oh yeah.
Brad Burrow (00:37:20):
I’m like, it’s just very interesting to me. It’s completely different than ever it was before. So as a marketer and a brand person, you’ve got to, where is your audience?
Will Carter (00:37:33):
Right. And you have to adapt to that. And that’s like the million dollar question is where is your audience? And again, you want to be in as many places as you can to tap into them, but you also have to recognize like you almost kind of have to follow trends now, but also from a digital standpoint, there is some targeting that can be done there. So at least because I think I- It’s amazing
Brad Burrow (00:37:56):
How much you can
Will Carter (00:37:56):
Target. I do, because I think about the old days, when we were just doing traditional media back in the old days, you spend all this money on TV commercials and I’m not saying we don’t do all this now because we do a lot of the same stuff, but we’re also doing a lot of the other stuff too. But the way that I always approach media is that it all has to be complimentary of each other and to the level that your budget will allow you to do it, you need to be in as many of the channels as you can that are effective for your brand. YouTube may not be effective for your specific brand and probably is just because that’s where everyone’s at that TikTok. If you’re not in the video space period, I think you’re going to lose out because the video space has taken over advertising at this point and we’re – You just did an advertisement
Brad Burrow (00:38:41):
For real
Will Carter (00:38:41):
Media there. Absolutely. I mean, these guys can help you with that stuff. I mean, this is the reason they exist because the media has shifted and what people are watching is shifting. And so I will never say that print is dead or anything like that, but the viewership of that compared to your point, I pick up my phone, I get home at 6:00 PM from work and the first thing I do is start catching up on the day and, “Hey, what’s all my friends doing on Instagram and Facebook? Wha did everybody do today and how was everyone’s weekends?” And then the next thing you know, you’ve accidentally slid to the reels column and the next thing you know, you’re doomed scrolling through videos for hours and I say all that jokingly, but that is the reality of how people are consuming media now. That’s exactly right.
(00:39:24):
It’s no longer like I get up in the morning and I read the newspaper and it’s just very different and I sit and watch the news. I mean, there’s still news. And again, I will never discount any of the traditional media because I grew up in the traditional media, but the traditional media is just a piece of the puzzle now and the puzzle has gotten really big and complicated and so I think it’s just kind of figuring out what works for you. Podcasting, for example, this is a great example. Podcasting has blown up in the last few years. Unbelievable. I mean, I remember a few years ago when we first even was talking about like, should we be doing podcasts? Should we be advertising in podcasts? And now that’s a no brainer. And so again, you just have to watch and follow and see where things are going and try to keep up as best you can, but ultimately not be afraid to try something new.
(00:40:11):
And this gets back to what I said earlier, it may fail, but be afraid to try some new mediums. I mean, sometimes you never know where something might catch on and then you’ve hit something really good by pure accident. So I think it’s important and whether you’re doing this on your own or you’re working with an agency or a media buyer or whatever, I think you need to be having those conversations about like what should we be looking at, where should we be investing the dollars because you can invest them everywhere.
(00:40:40):
So where are the places you really should be doing it and doing it correctly?
Brad Burrow (00:40:42):
Although social media, buying ads on social media is way less expensive.
Will Carter (00:40:47):
Anybody can do it. It’s unbelievable. You as an individual can buy ads on social media. That’s the beautiful thing of that. And I mean, yeah, just to give you an example, I mean, I can do a little ad. I mean, we have a financial education program called ProsperU and they do community programs every month and so every month I’ll just buy a set of ads to promote those and it’s like 50 bucks you guys and I can get thousands and thousands of people and so your costs… In the media world, we measure by cost per thousand. So if you’re not in the media world, none of that matters to you, but in the media world, it’s typically like cost per thousand or cost per million or cost per click or something like that. And so the cost per thousand on social media is just nothing.
(00:41:30):
I mean, it’s just pennies and you can target it and it’s just the ability to go in and like find your audience. I mean, everybody can find their audience now and I hear people say, “Should I spend the money on an ad?” I think when you get to the point that you feel like you’ve done as much as you can with organic, yeah, go try a few dollars. And again, it doesn’t have to be a lot. Go throw 10, 15 dollars in it and just see what happens because you might be pleasantly surprised actually.
Brad Burrow (00:42:00):
I think they will be
Will Carter (00:42:01):
Actually.
Brad Burrow (00:42:02):
So one of the things I wanted to ask you is, so we’re transitioning film people, the wide aspect ratio, you go into a theater and you want to see the wide aspect ratio. Well, now we’ve flipped it. Okay. Now we’re shooting vertical and it’s a whole different… A lot of the things we’re doing, we’re having to shoot for both now
Will Carter (00:42:26):
Because
Brad Burrow (00:42:26):
We want it to work here, but we want it to work here as well and that’s not that easy.
Will Carter (00:42:31):
It’s not easy. In fact, this whole idea makes me want to cry just sitting here talking about it, because as someone who grew up in the eye of widescreen horizontal landscape,
(00:42:43):
Flipping that on its side and I remember just two weeks ago when we were doing the soccer cable, that’s the first time I’ve ever turned my camera on its side like that. And we only shot this one vertical because we knew that’s all we were going to use it for. In another scenario, I would definitely probably shoot it wide because that’s the other thing with social, you can shoot in 4K or 6K and easily crop it down and it worked because your social media doesn’t really support over HD at this point. That’s right. So you got plenty of pixels. Don’t worry about pixels. You’re good there. Your resolution’s going to be beautiful. So you can really do it either way, but we knew this one was going to be specifically vertical. So we were like, “Well, let’s just flip it and then we don’t have to worry about going in and crossing it all.
(00:43:26):
”
Brad Burrow (00:43:27):
So you just had the cameras
Will Carter (00:43:27):
Turned offside? We flipped it. I bought a new plate for the camera that flips it on its side. But of course, now all of a sudden all my rig is weird and like now I’ve got my magic arm and the monitors have to be like turned sideways. Everything is sideways now and that was the most bizarre thing in the world for me as a director or someone that’s been behind the camera for years because I don’t guess I ever thought the day would come because here’s the thing, I think when you’re doing it on your cell phone, I shoot tons of vertical video on my cell phone and I shoot tons of content for my Instagram channels and my YouTubes from my cell phone because you can buy those little microphones you plug into your phone now and you can get whatever on your phone.
(00:44:11):
But when I’m using my big camera, that’s a whole nother story. When I’m using my cinema grade camera, all of a sudden I’m going from like, “Oh, I can shoot you vertical. I have to spin this whole big rig on its side now.” And it was not a challenge but just a lot to get used to. Yeah,
Brad Burrow (00:44:27):
It’s just a new mindset.
Will Carter (00:44:29):
But I think you’re right. I think you have to do both. I mean, I think from a movie standpoint, I feel like that’s where I’m going to eventually go too. I feel like I have to get to that point now where even as we’re coming – Do you think there’s going to be
Brad Burrow (00:44:42):
Movies released in vertical?
Will Carter (00:44:43):
I think there are. I mean, you see the rise of the vertical shorts that are already happening. The vertical shorts are blowing up and we have a very healthy community in KC filming them here in KC. So they’re taking off like crazy. And so I think where I kind of see it going, and I could be completely wrong in this, but it feels to me like now when we’re shooting movies, we’re shooting movies with this idea that they may be episodic and it’s funny because I’m working with some of my screenwriting friends right now to extend the story off of the one that we just did into a longer story, but we’re trying to write it in a way to where it works as a feature, but also works as an episodic piece to where we can chop it up into episodes because I just think that’s where things are going now.
(00:45:27):
And so trying to think about how people digest, a lot of people won’t even sit through a full length movie anymore, but they’ll sit through a two or three minute snippet of it and then watch episode after episode and eventually watch the full movie. And so again, that’s like a weird trend that we’re having to kind of follow. So it’s like if you’re making a movie now, how can you chop it up and make it episodic to where you still get the same thing? And again, this is a mind frame that’s still hard to wrap even my mind around, but I do think there’s more and more people starting to think like that because I think we’re going to be forced to think like that.
Brad Burrow (00:45:59):
Yeah. I know you guys probably have a really good definition of your target audience, right? Yes. I mean, you probably know a ton of things about that. When you’re going out and doing ads on the social media platforms, isn’t that a big benefit where, I mean, you can plug all that in and it’s going to get your ad in front of the exact
Will Carter (00:46:20):
Target audience. For the most part, I say that with some caution on pretty much anything except for financial institutions. We have some limitations on that. Like what
Brad Burrow (00:46:32):
You can say?
Will Carter (00:46:33):
Well, how specific we can get in the targeting. Oh, really? Yeah. And this is not a bad thing. I’ll talk to this. This is actually good knowledge for everybody. So if you’re in the space of doing anything that’s politically related or if you’re a bank, a financial institution offering financial products or mortgages or hiring, those are considered for like trigger categories in the social marketing world. And so what they do is you can’t really do any kind of like specific like, “I want it to go hit this person.” If I’m just doing like a generic ad that’s more just like branding for the bank, you can probably get away with that. But anytime I mention a product or a service that’s a specific thing, I have to blow my radius out to 15 miles. Well, that’s like most of the city at that point, which again, that’s on that side of the world from a location geographic standpoint, but I also can’t target anything from like a demographical standpoint of like saying, so like right now with the soccer campaign, I would love to be able to say only target soccer fans, but I can’t really do that.
(00:47:39):
It has to be a little bit more broad. Now, with digital ads, you can do that with just like your typical display ads, you can do that stuff. So they’ll display to the right display people, but a lot of that in our particular business, we don’t have the ability to do it anymore because of how all the regulations have changed, but outside of financial and mortgage and stuff like that, if you got any other kind of business, get in there and play in those tools because you can hyper focus on the audience – Neighborhoods. Yeah. I mean, you can go down to the neighborhood level, you can go down to like the people that like this specific thing. I mean, it’s incredible like how you can target and that is why you can spend so much money or so much less rather money advertising on the digital and the social platforms is because you can get so specific.
(00:48:24):
So no longer am I spending – It’s not the shot kind of approach anymore. Yeah. I’m not spending a blanket amount to target everyone that drives by a billboard or everybody in the city that watches a TV commercial knowing that the reality is that maybe only 15% of those people will ever identify with that ad space. Or I go to the social channels and the digital channels and I say, I’m looking for people that fall within this exact demographic and they live in this exact area and bing, bing, bing, I go through 20, 30 dollars behind it and I just hit the exact audience I’m trying to go for. Yeah.
Brad Burrow (00:48:54):
Amazing. Is it
Will Carter (00:48:54):
Amazing? Yeah, it’s incredible.
Brad Burrow (00:48:56):
Have you guys looked at geofencing at all? Is that something that… Now I don’t know a whole lot about geofencing and it seems like a really great thing, but I’m just curious if as a bank you guys would ever look at something
Will Carter (00:49:11):
Like that. So that gets into that whole weird thing with the ability to like it blows it out to 15 miles for us because we’re a bank. But there was a point in time a few years ago before all that got a lot more restricted that you could do geofences and most all businesses can. Again, some of this is just limitations because I work at a bank and so from a financial institution standpoint, there’s this thing called redlining where we have to make sure that we’re offering products and services fairly to all individuals. And so that’s the reasons for that restriction. It’s so that – So you can’t target this intelligence so that people can’t accidentally target a demographic and only this demographic gets something and this one doesn’t. That’s the reason for that and so I’m thankful for that. But if you have any other kind of business, geofencing’s a really cool thing because guys –
Brad Burrow (00:50:00):
It feels like
Will Carter (00:50:01):
It shouldn’t even be illegal. And it doesn’t feel like it should be legal because yeah, they can go in and I mean like some things that can happen now is they’ll go in, so let’s say there’s this thing called competitive conquesting that’s fascinating to me and again, we can’t do it any really, but their businesses can go in and they can draw geofences around their competitors’ businesses. And so let’s say you go walk into one of their competitor’s businesses, you walk out of that business and you start getting served ads for their business because they want you to come do business with them. And so that’s how crazy it’s gotten smart sports for example. Again, I can’t really do it now with the bank, but like if you had a product or service that wasn’t bank related that let’s say sports driven, you could go draw geofences around the stadiums and around the like neighborhood ballparks and things like that and target anyone that comes in there.
(00:50:48):
You can also even set it to where you can control whether or not they are people that are residents or travelers. So if you’re in the hospitality industry, you may want to focus your ads more on people passing through. I mean, how many of us have traveled to another city and you immediately get barraged with all the ads of like, “Come meet here or go to this attraction.” That’s because those ads are set up to only serve those to people that are traveling through the area and people that live there will never see those ads or vice versa. As a bank, I would only want people that live here to see my ads because I don’t… Right now with the tournaments is a really great example of that. We’ve got our ads set to where it’s only showing to Kansas City residents because as much as I love that we have all these people coming here, they’re coming here and then they’re going to leave.
(00:51:33):
And so them doing business with us doesn’t do anything for us because then they’ll just end up leaving us anyway. And so those are the ways that you can think and how granular you can get in the marketing world now. I mean, the granularity of the marketing world is fascinating now and how you can super hyper target and it’s just fascinating.
Brad Burrow (00:51:52):
We did an ad for an attorney so he does DUIs and stuff like that, but higher end, not like the guys you see on some of the guys that are out there that are doing AI spots using those, but he’s more of a hiring… He’s going after somebody that’s maybe a business executive or CEO that maybe had too many and left the chief’s game. So he’s geofencing stadiums when they have games. Somebody gets pulled over and most of the time his calls or people reach out to him at like three in the morning. That’s when people it’s like, “Oh, I got to find somebody.” Well, he’s going to be top of mind to the people that have been at those events, so he’s growing his business through and he’s using the network or vibe basically to get his spots out there. But those two things are how he’s doing that.
Will Carter (00:52:43):
You said my favorite words right there, which is top of mind. If there’s anything I could drive into people’s minds from a marketing world, it’s the importance of top of mind awareness. And this is like just advice for anyone like, yes, you’re going to spend money on ads and yes, there may be times that you don’t get immediate return off of that. But to your point, if you’re not top of mind when someone finally does make the decision to need your business and you’ve been forgotten because someone else was doing it better than you, then you just, all those dollars you were spending initially, you just wasted. It’s a long term play and I feel like I have to explain that more than I ever should, but it’s always a long term play when you’re trying to get someone’s business. There are definitely like service industries where it’s like an immediate gratification type thing where like I served you an ad for a coffee, you’re going to come buy a coffee that day, but –
Brad Burrow (00:53:38):
Heating and air
Will Carter (00:53:39):
Conditioning. Yeah, heating and air conditioning. Anything that’s service related or anything where it’s relationship built, you’re not going to get those immediate results the minute you start advertising. And so understanding that your advertising dollars are an investment in your future, it will happen, but you may not see it for a few months. You may not see it for a year or two. But again, eventually if you’ve done it well and you’ve stayed top of mind aware when I go to… I mean, I can use the bank as a great example. People don’t like to move their bank accounts. They just don’t. I mean, most of us probably started in a time when we had an account because we got it with our parents when we were younger, or maybe it was an account we got at the college we went to at the bank that was on the campus.
(00:54:23):
There’s different things like that. And so then they will never leave that bank. And so to get someone to switch, but what we find is when people do typically switch banks, it’s because there’s been some sort of disruption at theirs or something’s gone wrong at theirs. Well, guess what? If we were never top of mind aware to those people, they’re never going to even consider coming to us. And so it’s all about that. I mean, it’s a long-term play guys, but it’s definitely one that if you want to win your markets and your particular business, you have to play that and you can’t always expect immediate results off of what you’re doing.
Brad Burrow (00:54:56):
And that’s a big issue for us as a company too,
Will Carter (00:54:59):
Because
Brad Burrow (00:55:00):
That happens a lot in our industry too. It’s like, “Oh, I forgot about you guys.” I remember you guys did that, but I forgot about it.
Will Carter (00:55:08):
And it’s how do you stay top of mind aware with the people that you need to stay top of mind aware with and I think that’s where the ability to do some of this targeting really lies now because I think for you guys specifically, I imagine your target audience is anyone that’s working in the video production space and anyone that’s looking to shoot a commercial or a podcast or things like that. And so trying to understand what that audience is and how you target that audience. Me, I haven’t really started the ads yet, but I’ve been considering doing some ads for the film company. Again, it’s still part-time for me, so I don’t want to get too overboard there because I’ve got my main job here, but I do want to grow more knowledge of what we’re doing and so I need to be targeting cinephiles and people that like to go watch movies, people that care about watching movies.
(00:55:55):
I don’t want to just target the broad population. So I have a very small subset of people I need to be targeting and I was talking to a nonprofit yesterday and they’re trying to get some donations and I was telling them, they had a lot of kids working in this. It was like a simulation and I was telling them, I’m like, “You guys are the stories that need to be told us because your story is the one that’s going to resonate with people, not the executive directors and the people that are the spearheads.” I said, “You guys benefiting from this or the story.” So it’s always like, where’s the niche? How do you find your niche and then how do you advertise to that niche? Because the whole idea of just broad mass marketing, it doesn’t work anymore. I mean, you’re just wasting dollars is what you’re doing.
Brad Burrow (00:56:37):
I think the challenge for smaller companies is figuring out who that audience is.
Will Carter (00:56:42):
It is.
Brad Burrow (00:56:44):
Who is that target demographic? I assume you guys probably know that pretty well.
Will Carter (00:56:48):
We do. I mean, there’s things that we do like we have what’s called a lookalike audience and so we know who our customers are
(00:56:55):
And so it’s easy to… In the world of like digital now, every one of us that’s watching this or sitting here talking, there’s a demographic profile that’s tied to each of us. They call them personas and you fit into one of the… There’s probably like 80 personas out there, but I guarantee you fit within one of the personas. You guys have 80 personas? We don’t particularly, but just like in general, in the digital space, there’s all these personas. So when you’re marketing out there, my persona is he likes film, he loves music, he will make purchases at these particular places, but not over here. There’s a whole persona just for me and there’s a whole persona just for you. And so when I start advertising into the world, when we know who our customers are and this is something I don’t think a lot of businesses even realize is you can work with groups that can take your customer data but strip out all of the data that’s related to like any personal identifying information.
(00:57:59):
And what it does is it’ll ingest it and take your customer data to put it into like a model where it models and says, okay, based on like who your customers are, these are the types of people that typically respond to your marketing.
(00:58:13):
So guess what? I’m going to go advertise to the people that respond to my marketing, not the people that never look at it and could care less because why would I waste all that money on people that don’t care? And so that’s one of the things you can do. And again, I say that with a lot of caution because you’re never giving customer data away when you’re doing that. They build like this profile and it’s more of a generalization is what it is, but it can look at like habits from that. And so I think for a business looking at some of that, have you ever thought about taking your customer database and exporting it and running it to see what kind of a persona you’re getting or doing some market research to figure out what are the trends, like what our customers look like what?
(00:58:58):
And all of a sudden you might be very, very surprised. I was just at a presentation with a group a couple of weeks ago here in Kansas City. It was one of the sports teams and they were doing this very, very practice. They just did a big study on what does their fan base look like. And you have to do those kinds of things because the other thing is it doesn’t always stay the same. It changes over time. And so your customers today may not even be your customers in five years. You may have a different subset of people that are doing business with you. So understanding that’s getting very, very important in this day and age.
Brad Burrow (00:59:34):
Yeah, I agree. So I want to go ahead and wrap up. So what Hoodow films, what’s the future look like and for the bank from a marketing standpoint, those two things, hit those two things for me. Yeah,
Will Carter (00:59:47):
Absolutely. So Hoodau Films, I started it three years ago and it was just because I wanted to get back into filmmaking. I’d always wanted to do that and things are going great now. We’ve got four movies that are in production as we speak right now Now two that have already – Are these
Brad Burrow (01:00:01):
Shorts or are they full?
Will Carter (01:00:02):
These are all shorts, but as we go into next year we’re going to be starting to move into the feature space. So what I’ve been doing is – I know a
Brad Burrow (01:00:10):
Guy that would love to help you.
Will Carter (01:00:12):
Yeah, I know. I know a guy that I might need some help from. We’re sitting here at the table together guys. By the way, that’s how this business works. If you’re working in any of the media, it’s about the networking. It’s about talking to people and making friends. I can’t tell you how many people I work with that it’s because we made the introduction and we had the coffee or we did the thing. That top of mind awareness in our own industry is huge.
Brad Burrow (01:00:37):
By the way, in full disclosure, I reached out to you
Will Carter (01:00:41):
On LinkedIn. He did, which by the way, I ignore most of my LinkedIn, so Brad’s one of the lucky ones. But we had somewhat of a connection through the bank and everything. I was really excited because obviously you work in a space that I care about and he reached out to me and I was like, “Yeah, let’s get together.” And I came and checked out the studios one day and you guys immediately, we were talking like we’d known each other for years and I think that’s it. People don’t realize how much of a people relationship building business that what we do is actually. So everyone I work with, it’s people I’ve built relationships with. And for the people that don’t carry those relationships, we probably don’t work together a whole lot. It’s my top of mind awareness people that always show – You get
Brad Burrow (01:01:22):
Trust and
Will Carter (01:01:23):
All that stuff. You know they’re going to
Brad Burrow (01:01:24):
Come through all that stuff.
Will Carter (01:01:26):
So this year we’ve done four short films that are in production and those range anywhere from five minutes to like 25, 30 minute short films. And so we’re going to actually be releasing all of them in the fall. I’m actually putting together a big screening night in the fall where we’re going to do all of them at the same time and do a big premiere for all of them. Awesome. At a
Brad Burrow (01:01:43):
Theater?
Will Carter (01:01:44):
In a theater. Yeah. I’m going to work with a couple of theaters here in Kansas City to get it. Awesome.
Brad Burrow (01:01:48):
Well, you got to let us know about
Will Carter (01:01:48):
That. Yeah, I 100% will. And then all of that is leading up to next year where we will likely shoot our first feature film. I’m kind of targeting next summer to do that if everything works out for
Brad Burrow (01:01:59):
You. You going to take the summer off
Will Carter (01:02:00):
To do that? I won’t take the whole summer off, but I will take a lot of my PTO to do that. I will say on the bank side too, it’s a really good relationship I have because again, I have a CEO that’s so incredibly supportive of me as a professional bank marketer, but also incredibly professional of my passion too and letting me do all of that. And so it’s just incredible. And so a lot of times when I’m doing my movies, I’ll just take PTO for a few days at a time whenever we’re shooting. You got
Brad Burrow (01:02:30):
To cast him in one of the roles.
Will Carter (01:02:31):
Right. I know. He’s great on camera. You have to talk him sometime. But it’s good. I have a great relationship with them and they understand that I’m a creative person and to work for somebody that gets that and that promotes that and understands that it’s a beautiful thing because it could be very much a like, you can only do this or you can only do that. And I have a boss that absolutely supports me being the best of both worlds. And I think because of that, I do cooler stuff for them because I’m always in my creative head and I can be a better marketer because sometimes the projects I’m doing over here inspire me to do the projects over here and vice versa. So I think there’s a lot there. And with the bank, obviously right now I think the feature film coming next year for Hoodow, I think that’s the next step for us.
(01:03:18):
And it’s one of our stories that we have now that we’re actually expanding out just because of the cool location that we’re able to shoot at and all the different things. So we’re really excited for that. But on the bank side of the world, I think the bank is, it’s always something different every single day. Right now it’s the tournament, it’s the soccer tournament and everything is soccer related. And coming up in August, we’re going to be having a lot of fun. And I can’t say this because we’re okay to say this, but we’re going to be presenting the Harry Potter match at Sporting Kansas City in the fall. So we’re having a absolute blast coming up with – Now
Brad Burrow (01:03:54):
Think of the creative possibilities
Will Carter (01:03:55):
For that. Oh, you have no idea how far we’ve already gone with that. There’s so many different things that we can do. And so we’re building this massive activation out for pre-game and even the halftime show is legit theme to Harry Potter. Oh, that’s fun. There’s going to be some super fun stuff at that match and I’m really, really excited about it. So we’ve got that and then back to school’s coming. So all of our relationships with the University of Kansas and Park University and Mizzou and University of Central Missouri and all the things. So all the partnerships with the schools are starting back up and fall is a big time for us with that. So just there’s all kinds of things going on. And then again, just what is the next thing? I know we’ll probably be building a couple of more branches in the future, things like that.
(01:04:40):
So just trying to keep up with what’s the day to day, where’s the market going and what’s next for us.
Brad Burrow (01:04:45):
So to wrap up, we can do two things. Tell us how people can find your work. Give us the website. I don’t know if you want to give out your contact information. And then I always have all of our guests do the movie voice because the name of our podcast came from this goofy thing that
Will Carter (01:05:04):
I
Brad Burrow (01:05:04):
Always used to do with people where I’d go, “In a world with
Will Carter (01:05:07):
Real media.” I love that.
Brad Burrow (01:05:09):
You’re a movie guy.
Will Carter (01:05:10):
Oh yeah. So
Brad Burrow (01:05:10):
You’ve got to give us your movie voice,
Will Carter (01:05:12):
But
Brad Burrow (01:05:13):
Tell us how to get ahold of you first.
Will Carter (01:05:14):
Yeah. So if you want to get ahold of me, all my social medias are the exact same. So it’s Will Carter AD personally and then the company is Hoot Owl Films. So H-O-O-T-O-W-L Films. So Hoot Owl Films. I’ll say that slow because I tend to slur that together. Sorry. And then the bank side of the world, if you want to follow any of our bank socials, it’s Central Bank of the Midwest is our local Kansas City market. And then I’m also Will Carter on LinkedIn. You can connect with me on LinkedIn like Brad did and that’s a great place to connect with me. I’m all over all the socials. Yo won’t have a problem finding me, both the company and me personally. So definitely follow me. I don’t know, I’m just going to say this in a world where we’re sitting here doing podcasts in 2026, things could change drastically today or they could wait for a month, but what’s most important is that you keep supporting your local media companies like Real Media.
Brad Burrow (01:06:13):
Awesome. Great job. Well, thanks everybody. Thank you very much for joining us. This was really a blast. This was a lot of fun. So share this content, tell people about it, subscribe. We want you guys to follow. We’ve got a lot more great episodes coming and go check out Will’s stuff. It’s really awesome. It’s that you’ll find all of his content out on his website and support your local filmmakers. We are trying to make Kansas City into a thing and it’s happening actually. It’s really cool. So thank you for joining us and we’ll see you on the next episode. This has been In A World with Real Media. Thanks for joining us and be sure to subscribe on iTunes and follow Real Media on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn so you never miss an episode.