I’ve interviewed a number of entrepreneurs for this podcast whose companies depend on video advertising. Examples embrace Ridge Pockets, PetPlate, Stryx, and even Beardbrand, my agency. However none of us match 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 to this point from a formidable staff of creators, writers, and editors. Gross sales have soared.

He and I just lately mentioned the corporate, the video manufacturing course of, and extra. All the 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 referred to 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 sizes and styles. We primarily market by way of natural movies and have huge followings on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

The movies deal with our merchandise and comply with a template. They’re all comparable — 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 convey huge consciousness to the area of interest. Our producers can’t sustain, which implies frequent provide shortages. We’re migrating to different classes, equivalent to pens and attire, the place there aren’t any manufacturing hurdles.

Bandholz: Discuss your video manufacturing course of.

Medeiros: We sometimes submit six movies every day throughout the three channels.

We shoot two forms of movies. The primary is generic B-rolls, which we mass-produce and connect to scripts. Most B-roll variations are 15 to 30 seconds.

Then we now have 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 inside approval course of. If accredited, we assign a funds to it. It then will get handed on to editors skilled in our type. We’re a viral model with video content material related to our branded swords. The important thing components are the vibe, feeling, pacing, and modifying.

Lengthy-form video is 10 occasions 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 would 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 staff to maintain everybody on monitor. It’s additionally a training session as a result of the creators generally miss out on analytics — what’s working. Then we now have month-to-month conferences for your entire content material staff.

Our top-performing content material on YouTube is normally instructional, equivalent to “How one can use your katana.” That’s sometimes high-converting stuff.

However a number of the movies don’t convert. Extra views don’t essentially drive conversions. However we all know that broad model consciousness all the time reduces acquisition prices on the promoting aspect.

We’re believers in promoting. I hope to generate $1 million or extra in ad-generated income this yr. We’re seeing exceptional returns on advert spend on Meta.

People ask, “How do you purchase prospects?” I inform them to get good at advertisements. Meta’s the primary solution to scale a model reliably and predictably. We created our katana pens and began working advertisements two weeks in the past. We’re sustaining a 5 to eight ROAS.

Bandholz: Do you get a number of repeat prospects?

Medeiros: About 35% of gross sales are from repeat consumers. I don’t consider in one-off merchandise. We’ve got 10 new variants within the pipeline with our katana pen. Every turns into a collectible. People love amassing.

Bandholz: The place can individuals discover and help you?

Medeiros: On Twitter I’m @theisaacmed. Our web site is MiniKatana.com. Our YouTube channels are @MiniKatanaStore and @MeeneeKatana.