Hi Lawyers!
You may have seen my post last week about using humor in your advertising, and gotten a chuckle about the second video in my series about the Judges v. The Lawyer.

If you missed last week’s law firm humor post and video here’s the link:

(https://gomediamarketing.com/lawyers-how-to-use-humor-for-advertising-on-tv-and-social-media/)

Last week I talked about how you can make fun of yourself if you do it right, (for you light hearted lawyers who want a little fun with your video advertising). But I also explained how you can’t make fun of the clients, or the process of law.

But first a lil’ personal invite!

🎉🚀 Get Ready for the Ultimate AI-Powered Zoom-tastic Extravaganza! 🚀🎉 Ok you missed the early bird special but there’s still time. Aug 4 at 12 noon Pacific! Join me for some fun and learning!

🚀 Blast off into a virtual galaxy of fun, laughter, and mind-blowing AI insights! 🌌 Prepare to be amazed as we unveil the secrets of AI-powered marketing for law firms like never before! 💫

🍿 Popcorn ready? Snacks within arm’s reach? Awesome! Now get set to embark on an unforgettable journey, where we’ll be sharing the COOLEST AI programs that will supercharge your law firm’s marketing efforts! 🍿🍿

🌈 Prepare for jaw-dropping revelations as we unveil the ultimate AI mastery techniques! Be the AI MARKETING WIZZARD every law firm dreams of! 🧙‍♂️✨

Ok… all silly aside… I hope you’re pop in and join me where I can walk you around the A.I. creative programs I’m using these days for law firm advertising.

Reserve your seat now at my fun summertime Friday lunch Zoom Meeting:

“Revolutionizing Social Media Engagement: Harnessing the Power of A.I. for Lightning-Fast Posting!” Aug 4, 2023 @ Noon Pacific

DIRECT LINK:
(https://gomediamarketing.com/product/utilizing-a-i-to-creatively-speed-up-social-media-posting-meeting-clients-with-social-media-aug-4-2023-noon-pacific-live-one-time-zoom-meeting-1-hour-walkthrough/)

And now back to your regularly scheduled program:

Today’s post is sharing a little more of our comedy story. This is our journey toward using comedy in lawyer ads, and some of the bumps along the way!

Again I’m outlining some of my work with attorney Mike Sullivan (Thank you Mike for being the brunt of the joke and such a cool dude) … and how I basically used “duct tape and bubblegum” on a shoot that did very well.

Comedy can be very forgiving in production. (I wasn’t intending it to have to be THIS forgiving)…

Mike is an early adopter, and a guy who takes big chances that pay off just as big. He’s a lawyer and has a background as an engineer and has built an amazing practice in Kentucky. I interviewed him a while back if you want to see it here.

To be honest, when we started this journey using comedy, I did not think it would work!

My problem with trying new things (on the marketing side), is that we aren’t just creating media here, we’re doing all the marketing too. If it’s not successful who gets the blame? My agency!

The agency needs to do everything to turn media into clients that’s our “gig”. I wasn’t sure (back in about 2017) how to utilize comedy for lawyers. It concerned me. But we had a full roster of clients so if this didn’t work and Mike fired us we’d be ok. (But that’s not the story!)

The caveat here; is that we always film “warm and fuzzy” spots as well as a variety of educational videos. This is to be sure our marketing campaigns have a great balance when they go live.

Ok, perhaps I have over explained here. Today I’m talking about the production side of comedy for lawyers one of Mike’s most memorable past commercials.

One thing you need to think about if you’re thinking of going this way, is that when you have actors, locations, lighting, gear, dialog on locations etc. it’s a lot more work (hence more expensive usually)!

Comedy can be more work in three ways:

• More work pre production planning i.el writing and scripting
• More work in production – shooting all the right angles; and
• More work in post production! (editing can be a lil’ bear too)

So we were off to Kentucky with scripts and shot-lists… my beautiful Canon, my Sennheiser mics… I felt ready.

I brought one of my actress friends (aka the lead singer in one of my bands) Mel Chappell. We flew out to Mike’s house and setup to film in a spare room. I had the gear shipped to Mike’s place.

Lighting, stands and tripod, green screen and teleprompter were shipped and on the way!

But as I was boarding the flight, United Airlines took my bag and I had a bad feeling about it.

Sure enough my Canon (love of my life)… was smashed (and it’s irreplaceable. The only function it had left was to record audio with a grey screen. Do not check your cameras no matter what the gate agent says.

Off the plane we were on the hunt for a new camera. Normally not that big a deal. But because of Covid, there was not one camera in all the greater Louisville area with audio inputs. What’s the deal?

Camera: So with my Canon smashed, we got a really bad camera, and used my Canon for the audio.

This means lining up the audio and video later in post production (more than doubling the time to edit).

Green Screen: Green screen didn’t show up. Luckily I’d ordered green paper worked for the whole shoot.

Lighting: Lighting didn’t show up either. Home Depot was the only option at that time.

I got a lot of painter’s lights. Also we found that Mike’s son had some lighting in his closet.

Needless to say, this was one of the most low budget productions ever using what I lovingly call “duct tape and bubble gum”. But everyone was good sports and we did have fun!

Something else that kept me afloat during the ill-fated KY Pirate shoot, was realizing that with comedy, having a cheap looking production can add to the humor. Think of “When Nature Calls” with Jim Carrey.

So we marched forward.

Mike had a funny idea that we’d poke fun at the gimmicky lawyer commercials out there. And this spot came in as one of his “top phone ringers” of recent times. IT WORKED!

We filmed a bunch of different gimmicky silly commercials and they were hilarious! We shot many many more ads that week. I think about 11 of them were usable and made Mike’s phone ring and get new cases.

Fast forward — They worked so well that last week, we filmed the sequels (here in Sausalito with my studio, lights, green screen, audio and amazing actors… it wasn’t “bubblegum and duct tape” like the other shoot) and they are funny.

We’ll be releasing the sequels soon! I’d like you to see them once approved by the Bar Assn. in Kentucky.

I hope you enjoy this post and it gives you some ideas for your own productions. Let me know if I’ve inspired you.

By the way LAWYERS… you’re all very sneaky! hahaha Almost no one responds to these emails, although we get thousands of opens every week (which is why I keep sending).

Do you like Mike’s idea of poking fun at gimmicky lawyers enough to try it yourself? Let us know!

I’d love to hear your thoughts!! I promise not to sell you anything – this is my passion and besides… we are a super busy agency and probably don’t have time to sell you anything anyway!

Stay engaged, get to know us! Reach out anytime by email with comments, ideas or questions: Mary@GoMediaMarketing.com (Here’s to your success!) You keep me going with these emails and social media posts!

Also… if you don’t know about it yet… please join me on my Zoom Meeting August 4th at Noon Pacific for how we use A.I. to get creative and speed up the time it takes to create media in Marketing Lawyers… learn more click the button: