Executive Spotlight
Christopher Botvidson
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Founder, Executive Producer, Director, Fuel & Spark Media
- Industry: Advertising / Marketing
Business Founded: 2020
Phone: (817) 756-9877
Email: [email protected]
Address:
440 S Main St.
Fort Worth, TX 76104
How long have you been in your industry?5 Years
Why did you choose your industry?I love visual storytelling. I graduated college with a degree in graphic design, and have been in the industry since. I gravitate toward video production because I love getting out of the office and being on set. There is an element of creative problem solving on set, and I love having to put my McGyver hat on. Is McGyver too old of a reference? Do people under 40 know who that is? Anyway, film/video is my favorite medium because we get to tell stories with light, sound, performance, visual composition and writing. All with strategy in mind, of course.
Who are your typical clients?Our clients fall into two main buckets. One bucket is ad agencies, marketing firms and PR firms who need to outsource production. We love working and collaborating with agencies because they typically look for a high quality and high performing product, and that's what we are all about. We also work with marketing and communications departments of brands to support their digital advertising and outreach efforts. We really enjoy the creative collaboration that we have with marketing and brand managers to develop ideas and strategies to help grow their brands.
What do you like best about being in this industry?The creative community is generally full of people who are interesting, fun and quirky. And they all geek out on their specialties, and at the end of the day, we are all wanting to create. We are collaborative and always willing to help each other. Even though our clients are highly focused on results, sales, revenue and hitting targets, they are generally fun and creative folks in their own right. So I guess the people are what I enjoy most.
What are common problems you see?The commoditization of video content is real, and AI is creeping in quickly. iPhones are capturing amazing looking footage, and there are creators out there of all ages who are ridiculously talented. Even ChatGPT is helping people develop great ideas who otherwise wouldn't be able to. If we start to rely on AI too much, we may loose some of the truly visionary ideas that only the creative human mind can conjure up. I believe softer skills are going to be the key separator for our industry. Being reliable, efficient, communicating well and getting along with clients, professionalism in meetings and on set, these are the types of things that clients will be basing their decisions on. Also, just being someone who is on the same page, understands the objectives and is willing to collaborate and compromise is key. Oh, and delivering quickly and on time.
What advice/tips do you have for clients?When talking to a video production partner, I would urge clients to communicate the bigger picture when it comes to building video content. If we know how you plan on using the content, and how long your campaigns will run, we can develop ways to maximize your budget and get enough content out of our shooting days to last months, or the entirety of your campaign. Let's think about how we can create different pieces of content for the different layers of the marketing funnel so you have a multi-layered campaign that will perform. Also thinking about A/B testing early on will help us think of alternate ways to package the final ad creatives so you can test and iterate. Sure, there is still a need for the big budget commercial spots, but being strategic and maximizing production budgets has become more important.
When is your busy season?Generally we are steady all year. Late summer and early fall tend to ramp up to get holiday content created and out the door.
What keeps you up at night?Cash flow is the biggest challenge professionally. We are turning our focus to attract more annual contracts so we have predictable recurring revenue.
How do you market yourself to grow/expand your business?We're starting to put a big focus on email marketing and LinkedIn, and asking happy clients for introductions. I am always trying to develop relationships within our industry by attending AMA, AAF and PRSA events. We have also just brought on a fractional business development professional who is helping with cold outreach and scheduling meetings.
How involved are you in the community?I am on the board of Accelerate Fort Worth, an organization dedicated to fostering the small business and entrepreneur community in our city. I have served on the board of AAF and support local non-profits by attending fundraising events.
What is your favorite not for profit or charity?We recently did a project for Raquel's Wings for Life. They have pilots who volunteer their planes and their time to fly cancer patients to MD Anderson in Houston to get treatment. It's hard not to love them.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of getting into this business?Know your shit and build your relationships first.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?Between running a business and having a 4-year old, free time is limited. I love to go fishing, and I am excited to pass that along to my son. I like to sneak in an old fashioned or two when I can, and I have recently been doing screenwriting once everyone else is in bed.
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