I’ve interviewed a number of entrepreneurs for this podcast whose companies depend on video advertising. Examples embody Ridge Pockets, PetPlate, Stryx, and even Beardbrand, my agency. However none of us matches Mini Katana, Isaac Medeiros’s firm. It produces six movies per day.
Medeiros launched the model, a direct-to-consumer vendor of Japanese-style swords and equipment, simply two years in the past. It has posted 3,000 movies so far from a formidable group of creators, writers, and editors. Gross sales have soared.
He and I lately mentioned the corporate, the video manufacturing course of, and extra. The complete audio of our dialog is embedded under. The transcript is edited for readability and size.
Eric Bandholz: What do you do?
Isaac Medeiros: I began a enterprise in 2021 known as Mini Katana, “katana” being Japanese for a curved sword. We promote Samurai-themed letter openers, swords, and associated equipment on-line.
We’ve grown dramatically. We now promote swords of all styles and sizes. We primarily market by natural movies and have huge followings on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
The movies deal with our merchandise and observe a template. They’re all related — fast-paced with the identical feel and appear. We use the identical narrators throughout all movies.
As a sword model, we shouldn’t be as huge as we’re. We carry huge consciousness to the area of interest. Our producers can not sustain, which suggests frequent provide shortages. We’re migrating to different classes, reminiscent of pens and attire, the place there aren’t any manufacturing hurdles.
Bandholz: Speak about your video manufacturing course of.
Medeiros: We sometimes publish six movies each day throughout the three channels.
We shoot two sorts of movies. The primary is generic B-rolls, which we mass-produce and fasten to scripts. Most B-roll variations are 15 to 30 seconds.
Then we’ve what we name creator-led content material, which is specialised and high-end. It’s what goes viral. For instance, we did a creator-led video that sliced a bullet in midair.
Our firm focuses on supporting the creators. They generate the concepts with scripts and submit them to our inner approval course of. If accredited, we assign a funds to it. It then will get handed on to editors skilled in our model. We’re a viral model with video content material related to our branded swords. The important thing components are the vibe, feeling, pacing, and enhancing.
Lengthy-form video is 10 instances tougher than short-form. It’s simpler to inform a narrative in 15 to 30 seconds. My model exists as a result of short-form video has opened up a tidal wave of potential attain. Earlier than, you needed to be a creator, and that’s all you possibly can deal with.
We’ve got 16 contract script writers for the B-rolls, 4 full-time in-house creators, and two in-house editors.
We even have a head of content material. She meets weekly with the creator group to maintain everybody on observe. It’s additionally a training session as a result of the creators generally miss out on analytics — what’s working. Then we’ve month-to-month conferences for your complete content material group.
Our top-performing content material on YouTube is often instructional, reminiscent of “Find out how to use your katana.” That’s sometimes high-converting stuff.
However a variety of the movies don’t convert. Extra views don’t essentially drive conversions. However we all know that broad model consciousness at all times reduces acquisition prices on the promoting facet.
We’re believers in promoting. I hope to achieve $1 million or extra in ad-driven income this yr. We’re seeing outstanding returns on advert spend on Meta.
People ask, “How do you purchase prospects?” I inform them to get good at adverts. Meta’s the primary solution to scale a model reliably and predictably. We created our katana pens and began working adverts two weeks in the past. We’re sustaining a 5 to eight ROAS.
Bandholz: Do you get a variety of repeat prospects?
Medeiros: About 35% of gross sales are from repeat patrons. I don’t imagine in one-off merchandise. We’ve got 10 new variants within the pipeline with our katana pen. Every turns into a collectible. People love gathering.
Bandholz: The place can individuals discover and assist you?
Medeiros: On Twitter I’m @theisaacmed. Our web site is MiniKatana.com. Our YouTube channels are @MiniKatanaStore and @MeeneeKatana.
