Actor Brand Examples and Guidelines

When we guide our clients through the branding process, one word that comes to mind is thorough. It’s a detailed process of introspection, feedback and dreaming to create an authentic and unique story about an actor’s product.

What results from this work is a series of brand guidelines for our clients, which consist of elements ranging from positioning (target audience and how you’ll stand out from the pack) to visual elements such as a color palette and typography. However, what we will focus on today are the foundational elements: our brand promise along with our unique assets and descriptive traits.

Brand Promise Examples

A brand promise is the experience a company’s customers can expect to receive every single time they interact with that business.

In every aspect of your marketing plan, whether filming an Instagram story or talking about yourself to an agent, you must make a very specific promise to our audience. The goal is to set an expectation for your work. This seems obvious, but oftentimes actors are afraid to promise something to their customers for fear of disappointing them, “boxing in their talent” or simply not understanding the concept of why this is important.

But we must set an expectation for ourselves and our work. It helps our audience contextualize our place in the industry and attach specific meaning to our talent so we are not one of the thousands of faceless (albeit unique) actors trying to get a break.

Let’s look at some examples of specific brand promises.

• To inspire collaborators to work hard but play harder.
• To instill fearlessness by leading with honesty in my work.
• To thrill audiences by consistently engaging with the unexpected.

Yes, these are more general than “Rudy is a dark brooding leading man type with surprising vulnerability.” However, this general promise is colored by the various descriptive traits and unique assets that you bring to your promise (keep reading, it’s coming up!).

What’s most important to remember is this statement promises the experience your customers can expect.

Descriptive Traits + Unique Assets Examples

If your brand promise gives you a specific and target goal that colors all your marketing efforts, your descriptive traits and unique assets message out and specify how you will do that. They also begin to differentiate you from your competitors who may have a similar brand promise to you.

Taking the brand promises above, how you “play harder” or how your “honesty” manifests itself will be completely different from Bill or Betty. Promises are an important part of your story because they express the “point,” and your unique assets and descriptive traits are the methods you will use to arrive at that point.

Here are some examples of some unique assets, or the valuable skills and attributes you bring to the table.

• A deep emotional well
• Strong physicality
• A strong understanding of human psychology
• A wickedly dark sense of humor

Now here are some examples of descriptive traits of you and / or your acting, which tend to be more surface level but are equally important.

• Sensitive
• Goofy
• Soft
• Boisterous
• Intense

Something important to consider when it comes to descriptive traits and unique assets is that they must be considered from three different perspectives: who you think you are, who others think you are and who you want to be. Talk to your consultant for more information on our unique branding process.

As stated above, these two elements are the cornerstone of a brand. Once you determine these things it will be much easier to determine what font to use, what your Twitter profile should say or what to wear to your next audition.

Also by Artist’s Strategy:

Do You Have a Career or a Hobby?

“How Hard is it to Become an Actor?” …LOL

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