 Welcome to International Hawaii on Think Tech, where we showcase local import and export companies and the trade industry. I'm your host Cindy Matsuki and today we're chatting with Brad Watanabe of BRAD Studio. Thank you so much for joining me, Brad. Thanks for having me. How's it going, everybody? We are awesome. So BRAD Studio, is that from your name? The name of the company? It is. BRAD is a nickname that I picked up back in high school, kind of picked it back up again in college and stuck with it. It's a play on my name, but it's also kind of a play on the idea of just to be rad, you know, to be special, to be different and go out there and make some noise. Nice, I love it. So could you briefly explain what your company is and how you got started and when did you start? When did you start the business? Sure. Well, I've actually been doing production for a long time, started in LA after I graduated school. So been in the industry in some way for about 20 years now. Wow. Move back to Hawaii in the end of 2006 and worked my way through doing some things for advertising agencies and that kind of thing and then started BRAD Studio technically about 10 years ago or maybe close to 11 years ago, but really took it full time about seven, seven, eight years ago. We make documentary style content, marketing content specifically driven at helping brands tell their story and we do things for social media, we do things for broadcast, we've done things for in theater, on planes, all kinds of things that revolve around video and story. That's what BRAD Studio does and that's what we love doing. Nice. What was the biggest hurdle when you were starting up your business? I think when you work in a creative industry, there's a lot of doubt because it's a very subjective industry. You don't know whether or not your art is good. You don't know whether or not the message you're telling is going to be right for a business. You never really actually get over that in some ways. The idea that you could be wrong. It's also this very personal divulging of something internal that you're sharing with the world. I think artists always struggle a little bit with that. Breaking out from working for a company who had that part of the, I guess the onus for the actual final product. I could just be an artist and work for them and it would be their responsibility to make sure it was right for a client. When you start to build your own thing, it's all on you. Taking that responsibility for the creative side, the financial side, and the rest of it, I think that was the biggest struggle. And especially when you start hiring people, then you have people depending on you too, right? Yeah, we have other mouths to feed on top of my wife and now my son. So yeah, there's a lot of other people that rely on us to keep it going. And I love your tagline, meaningful storytelling, and your videos do a really great job of doing that. And so I can see how it can get very personal on both sides, like yours and the client side, where they're kind of giving of themselves to and you want to represent that well. Who is your target market and how do you market yourselves to this audience? We've worked with everyone from like the state, the department, like the Eleanor Ardofa, we've worked with nonprofits, we've worked with really small startups, but we also work with big corporations like the Airbnbs and the Hawaiian Airlines and big hotel conglomerates, all of those types of things. So the way that we end up marketing is determined on which type of project we're going after at a specific time. But a lot of the time, there's kind of this weird gap between what people want to sell and how they want the world to view them. So we kind of differentiate there between sales and marketing, their sales and brand. And we end up being more on the brand side than on the sales side. And so that's where story I think is the most impactful is when you're trying to build your brand, when you're trying to let people know who you are, what you stand for, what your values are. And that's how we've built our particular story, whether that's through Instagram or the YouTube things that we do. It's always trying to tell our story in a way that invites people into our life, our production life, our creative process, all those things so that they can in turn see how we might do that for them. So it's not a hard sell like, hey, we're the cheapest production company around and we'll give you these many assets for this many dollars because that goes back to like a sales side of things. So when we approach how we want to be known, what kind of stories we want to tell, we also have to let people know that we know how to tell our own story in that way. So we go that route with a lot of our brand and marketing. Nice. And then the brand, I think the brand storytelling is longer lasting too, as far as, you know, when the company can use it, like it seems like it's something that would always be valuable. And then I wanted, yeah, oh, sorry. No, go for it. I wanted to let our viewers know that you are an FTZ9 tenant. And so I wanted to, I wanted to ask you if you could explain like why you're here and how you work with, like how you are in the international trade industry. Sure. I've told some people through me and I thank you that I actually worked on a project here when the Homer Maxi building was being built. I was doing a project for a keyword when this whole building was actually still in building mode. So I saw it before the floors were laid and all that stuff. So in some ways, it's actually really, really interesting to be in here now as a tenant, as somebody who gets to utilize this property. But it's been great for us to have a space kind of right at the edge of downtown in Cacaco, where things happen in the business and in the creative sectors right on the edge of the water. And so that part of it, location has been amazing. And not to toot your horn, but I'm going to do it. But you guys have been awesome. The entire FTZ9 family has been great too, as landlords, but also as like extended family. And even in just getting us in here was, I mean, when you're looking for property in Honolulu, it's not easy to find something that's going to fit you, fit your budget, fit your location needs, your client needs. And so when we found this place, I was like, I don't know, can we make this work? Because I was coming from a place where I'm working out of my home, you know, out of our law into like the first time getting space. So even in that transition of, does this make sense from a financial perspective to make this move? But when it came to like some of the international stuff, we've actually been making a lot of international video content for clients for, yeah, for the last, I think, eight years. Whether that's commercial projects that live in Japan or in Australia or in New Zealand or in Korea, we've been thinking about creative in these international places for a while. And so it was actually a really interesting fit. And for me to actually be able to see some of the other international business that goes on here, it also helps me from a creative perspective and also just from a business perspective to see what else is out there and how to help other people build their brand and build their network. Interesting. How do you, I would imagine from Hawaii, how do you find international clients? Well, I think, I think that one of my first clients has a lot to do with that. So from the beginning, right when I started Bred Studio, one of my first clients when I left the agency world was Wine Airlines. And they're still a very important part of Bred Studio's story today. We do a lot of work with them. And as you know, they fly everywhere. They fly all over the world now. And we were there when they first started some of their international routes. So in helping them market and brand and tell stories in all of these other spaces, it's also helped us to get eyeballs from agencies from around the world as well. We've also done work with like the Hoyturism Japan group and done documentary work with them. We've also done a work with Agu Rahman, who actually became a big part of our growth a few years back. And we went out to Japan with them and just to see Rahman process and tell some stories with some amazing Lillie players. We've had some really amazing experiences traveling the world. And I think there's that saying the best way to get a girlfriend is to have a girlfriend. And when you have clients that are doing that kind of thing, it also gets you the visibility of other people that want to do that thing. So just by proximity, you know, being like doing a lot of work in Japan for some of these other clients has also helped us bring in work from those places. And I think there's also this interesting closeness that you have to have with travel to start to do that at a commercial level. Because when you start to understand how international content works and audiences work, it's also easier for a client to trust you then with their international storytelling. And then doing all of the back end stuff, the travel, the lodging, all of those other things, it's just easier once you kind of are already in a system where you know how to do all of that stuff. So sometimes it's also just ease of working with somebody who's done that before. That's true, because that can get complicated. Yeah. Do you find that storytelling is an international like it's the same everywhere, like just the way you tell a story is processed the same way? I was actually on a mission trip in Japan, I think, back in 2008. And one of the gals that we met along the way actually told us that media and story is super duper important for Japanese people to hear. There's something about when they see it in video format, whether that's on a TV or on just somewhere on a screen where they actually think of that information differently than when they see it in print or on a poster or something. And so that always stuck with me, that video and story have a different type of avenue into people's hearts. And so I feel like in that regard, because you are playing with more senses, you have sound, you have sight, you have all of these different types of things, these visceral connections into people's lives that the video story world is just a really, really powerful medium just across the world. But I do feel like different people around the world also receive that information in a different way. And we've learned that a lot through some of our work with Hawaiian that our content for Australia is very different than our content for Japan. And not just Japan, but Hokkaido is different than Tokyo, which is different than Kyoto. Because different people react to different things. And even when we're doing some work with Kalikulani Hotel, because a lot of their guests are from Japan, one of their big visual cues that they would always tell us was important for anything, whether it was photo or video was blue sky. Because in Japan, like specifically in Tokyo, you see a lot of highrises, a lot of buildings. So part of that is just like feeling and seeing air. We don't think about that here, because we see a lot of sky, we see a lot of blue. And that's just commonplace. But even in Australia, it's a different kind of a psychology, because they see that. In New Zealand, they see outdoors. And so the way that you market to them is very, very different. The types of stories that you're going to tell are very, very different than what you might do in Korea or in Beijing or in Tokyo. It's really good when the client knows what they want to promote to their customer. Yeah, interesting. We do have a question in from a viewer. It says social media has been leaning towards short video formats. Do you think you can tell a meaningful story in 15 seconds? It's really short. One of the commercials I go back to in every presentation I give was a Super Bowl ad almost 20 years ago. And it was a kid who walked out into a kitchen and eventually turned on a Volkswagen by using the force. And there was no dialogue. It was a super simple commercial with a really powerful message. But that commercial, it could have been in 15 seconds. It didn't need to be played out in 30 seconds. But yeah, I feel like if you have a really powerful concept, you can do that in three seconds. You can do that in 15 seconds easily. But it's much, much harder now in social media because there's just so much more noise. So it's not just about whether or not you have a good video. It's about whether or not you can actually reach your target audience. And it's not just about that one 15 second video. Now it's about the 15 second video that you put up every single week or every other day that becomes your brand. It's not just that one video anymore that Volkswagen commercial, that might have been a half a million dollar commercial back in the day for that 30 seconds for that airtime and all of that other stuff. And so that had to build branding in it of itself. And now we're using hundreds and hundreds of content pieces through photos, through 15 seconds, through 30 seconds, through three minute videos, which all are now building marketing and brand together. Wow. And so is that something you guys do too? Yeah. We've actually done a lot of work for Olukai. Olukai is the shoe slipper brand. And I feel like they're one of the brands right now that does it really, really well. They do a lot of product based stuff. They do a lot of lifestyle things. And they really have embraced the short form story. Every new feature that pops on Instagram, whether that's Reels or I don't know. As soon as a new feature comes up, they're in there trying to use it because they know that that's going to give them visibility. It's going to get them audience that they need to sell their product, but they do it natively in that format. And a lot of people in the traditional world run away from some of these new trending styles of communication because they're like, that's not going to work. That's too short. Whatever it is. But the truth is, I mean, there's definitely an art in being able to craft something in 15 seconds or in like multiple 15 second rolls. And yeah, it's the new way of communication. Yeah. And I feel like that's how consumers are in taking content now. And it's just where you have to be. It's where you have to be. Yep. It's what you have to make. And I mean, the part that we struggle with on art and just because it's not what we do, there's this department in most traditional advertising agencies called media. And they're the people who determine whether or not your ad goes in the newspaper, goes in a magazine, it goes on a billboard, it goes in radio, it goes in TV. And that department now gets jumbled into something that we call social media. It's the digital version of that. So where does your ad get placed? Is it on Facebook ads? Is it on Instagram ads? Is it going to be on Twitter? You have something on like iHeart radio as an ad versus like on local radio or something like that. But it's kind of taking what the traditional media department used to do and still does and packages that for this audience. So it's as much about making amazing visual content, telling amazing stories as it is about actually getting that amazing content to your intended audience. Do you have a secret to good storytelling if you're willing to share? I honestly think it comes from a lot of good research first because it's hard to go into like any situation where somebody's going to divulge personal information, whether it's about their business or about their history, about their family, without actually doing diligence to research where their story is. And if you kind of expect them just to answer questions, that's usually an easy way to get very rigid responses. But if you want to get something that's impactful and meaningful and deep, you definitely have to do some research. So it feels like you're starting the conversation from like at least a week's worth of like relationship. The first time you meet somebody you're never really going to get very deep. Maybe after a few months or something, you start to get a little bit more permission to hear some of those stories. But it's building trust with somebody so they know that you're going to do right by their story. It's doing that research so that they can trust you. And then it's just really, really good listening. And asking them questions. Yeah, a lot of the questions actually come through the conversation. And they get formed in real time in some ways. And you can have a great list of questions, but the best stories come from the best listeners, I think. Because you can actually pull out stuff that where a conversation should be going rather than where you previously intended it to go. And then editing is super important because people often don't say exactly what they meant. So it's your job as a storyteller not just to try to change what it is they actually said, but your goal is to actually try to get them to say in the edit what you know they meant. And that's a really interesting and very special part of what we do. People hate the edit process because it's really, really hard. But that's where the magic actually happens. And as you do that, more and more people start to trust that you're going to, again, you're going to do right by their story. And then you'll get more permission for more people to do that for them. Got it. Interesting. That's, it sounds like it takes a lot of skill and a lot of practice, definitely. A lot of practice, a lot of practice. Just because we're sort of, so we're in tier four now, yay. Has the pandemic affected your business? And if so, did you have to make any changes or were you still able to keep going? Yeah. Interestingly enough, during the pandemic, we had our first son. So that changed a lot of life. Thank you. But that also made me just rethink and reprioritize what I would do for business. So in a lot of ways, the pandemic just situationally changed life for me. And I think that was a good thing. It also made me just reevaluate what was important in the business structure and the types of clients we wanted to continue to work with and maintain. And honestly, I mean, I think just like everybody else, financially, we took, you know, we took some hits. But at the same time, we also realized that coming out of it, people would need our help more than ever. Because there are businesses who are struggling or who just limped out of COVID and are on the brink on the cost of potentially nothing in business anymore. And so our goal is not to help them market a product or try to sell something cheap. Because that's a quick way, you know, they say it's a race to the bottom when you try to sell things to people. But it's to actually help them understand who they are, what they do, more than just what they sell. Simon Sinek is famous for saying, you know, people don't buy what you make. They buy why you make it. And that's a big reason why people are faithful fans of certain brands, certain products for their entire life is because they believe in a why of business, the why of, you know, everything that company stands for or more than just this is another thing that I can buy. So our goal is to help brands like invest in that build on top of that, rather than just trying to be another service who's selling the thing. And more than ever, I feel like those types of story driven brand content pieces will definitely rise above other things. Because there's just again, there's just so much messaging, there's so much noise, there's so much stuff out there that wants to consume our attention. That the depth, I think, is more valuable than ever. A good way to cut through everything. Nice. As we're slowly wrapping up, what advice would you give to someone who is also thinking about exploiting services in different countries, based on your experience? Sure. Even though we live in this really global world, and people have different needs, people with different audiences, all of that stuff, it's really important to understand your own story so that you can then share that with everybody else, kind of coming back to that brand message. When you're exporting a good, it's really easy to get stuck in the product. And there's so many products out there. But I think people will love you if they get to know you, if they get to understand who you are, and they get to know you as good people rather than just a good product. And that's why you see more and more storytelling now than ever on social, even on traditional mediums, like you see more intentional, personal storytelling. And I think that goes to show what people are also buying more of, more investing in, is that personal brand that they can believe in and love. And I think before when we were talking about how now with everything on the internet, everything, like all content is global, no matter where you are. Yeah. And so everything, everything can be seen and consumed around the world. Exactly. So I can see how, if you can tell a good story, then already you're marketing yourself globally. Yeah. And great story, transcends language, culture, all of those things. And one last question, random question. And there were so many other questions that I didn't get to, but maybe for another show. Last question. What is your favorite restaurant that you've been supporting? Do you love to eat at? Yeah. This is the random closing question. Oh man. Random closing question. That's hard. Because we haven't actually gone to that many of restaurants. Just because we have a young one, we've kind of stayed in and just ordered. We love Mitch's for sushi. We love Zippy's for like quick takeout. MW. Love Wade and Michelle, they're good people. So many great local chefs and business owners that we've gotten to know through some of our other work that I always try to give a shout out to. Nice. Nice. You can start looking for all the family friendly restaurants now. Yeah. Yeah. Such a different mindset. But that's so fun though. Congratulations. Exciting. Thank you. Yeah. Very cool. We're going to have to leave it there. You've been watching International Hawaii and think to Kauai. And today we've been chatting with Brad Watanabe of BRAD Studio. Thank you for sharing your time with me, Brad. Thanks for having me. And thanks to our viewers for tuning in. I'm Zimbi Matsuki and we'll be back in two weeks with another edition of International Hawaii. Thanks for joining us. See you next time.