Author: Calvin R. Evans
Published: November 7, 2005
Tool: [ email ]
know about the DJ. You know about a couple of months later, my man who does a lot of stuff at Interscope with the promotional vans, my man Dwight, do you know they went and got Dave Chappelle to host one of 50 Cent’s mixtape CDs?
Manhunt: (laughing)
Ozzie: This was like four to five months later. ‘Cause my man Shelby brought it to me and said,” Yo, wasn’t ya’ll doing something with Chappelle?” And I said yeah. And he said,” Didn’t ya’ll tell them to get on the mixtapes?” And I said yeah, but they said no. He said, “Look at this.” And he gave me a copy before it even hit the streets. That’s the type of stuff they do.
Manhunt: Wow.
Ozzie: Yeah, clownish.
Manhunt: (laughs) Now, you guys, your client list, and I don’t know if this is current, I know you had a client that included Proctor & Gamble, Kyocera, The NY Knicks, Tangeray, Target, HBO, just to name a few people. How difficult is it to handle public relations for such a diverse clientele?
Ozzie: Let Mike tell you that one.
Michael: For many of them we didn’t handle public relations, and we did different things for different clients. Some of it involved PR; specific to a campaign we were running. Some had there own PR firm. PR honestly has not been one of our real strong points. We would always bring in additional people to work with us in the PR aspects of our game.
Manhunt: Oh, OK.
Michael: Its not hard it's about bringing in the right people working on the right campaign. Clients get very touchy when they do put you in the lane to be responsible for that. Like for instance, Timberland they are a company that, in some respects, acts and reacts out of fear because they had a PR debacle about ten years ago. The CEO was quoted as saying some craziness and he says it was out of context. He said he doesn’t make boots for the urban consumer. And it just went crazy haywire on him. So now its like they don’t like to talk too much to the media. So we were running a program, for them and we had a PR person working with us on this program, but the were being very anal with every single word we put out there.
Manhunt: They scrutinized everything?
Michael: Oh stupidly, it became a headache. But to a certain extent I understand their pain, but to another extent I felt like that had to stop acting like they were so much on the defensive because it just smells funny. Like you got something that you’re afraid of. But at the end of the day, that company is different than any other company. So it’s a case-by-case, company-by-company scenario.
Manhunt: OK. Now Jack Welch says that business is simple, so don’t make it overly complicated. Do you believe that that’s a true statement?
Michael: Yeah. People tend to complicate things and it gets in the way of productivity. The better you can simplify something, and this doesn’t mean that every single business issue you will face there is some simplistic solution to it. I just mean you don’t add on to the difficulty of the problem. And people do that. People do that in life. Our job as marketers is to help people solve problems, and if we can break it down to them in the simplest terms it helps. What do they say; the quickest way between two points is a straight line?
Manhunt: Uh huh.
Michael: That’s it right there. So I totally agree with that statement.
Manhunt: Alright. Well your company is doing very well and obviously I want to extend congratulations. Do you feel you’ve exceeded your original expectations?
Michael: No. Not yet.
Manhunt: OK. Well what do we have to look forward to in the future?
Michael: Expand and diversifying what we’ve built thus far. There’s a couple of things going on. Obviously we are still at a stage where we are still growing but understand just like anybody else when business slowed down we had to chop and cut. But we had to make adjustments just like any other business. And what’s good about that is we’re all the more better for it. The company is lean right now and focused. And as Jack Welsh would say, lets not overcomplicate things here. I worked with GE for a year, the only job I ever really had. And he said he would only be in a business where he can be number one or number two in that field. If there is no way I can be that I going to cut it out. So for us, we are still doing our thing in marketing, but there are areas we need to grow into, and film is one of them.
Manhunt: Speaking of film, you had the deal with Palomar, correct?
Michael: Yeah. That was one of the things that got shut down as a result of our chopping, but it was one of those type of situations where you live and you learn. You set up a situation and then, ah, guess what? We overcomplicated the matter; you know what I’m saying. The vision for that was to have a production unit that was kind of an attachment to our marketing firm where we could produce film and other film related products, and bring our marketing and advertising clients into the mix where we could to provide an outlet for them to do branding content, marketing integration, and all the stuff that everybody in the industry is talking about now. We did that back in 2000, this was five years ago. It ran its course because we birthed a bona fide production company, which means we hired and signed on twelve or thirteen directors that were on our roster. And we were responsible for their livelihood, which means we had to sell their services for music videos and commercials. So what did that mean? We have to hire a staff of sales people, you have to hire a staff of assistants, and all the support for all of those directors that depend on you as the production company to sell them so that they can make a living and build their careers. And I’m like, wait a minute, what have I gotten myself into. That’s not what I set out to do. So meanwhile, we were only able to produce one documentary, which was a really good thing, it was a product-integrated documentary for Russell Athletics about the evolution of the t-shirt industry.
Manhunt: OK
Michael: We did that, we did a couple of things for Tanguray where we did some product tie-ins and some short films that we did. But the truth is we were never able to fully realize the whole goal of that company, the vision if you want to call it, because we got bogged down in the day-to-day inner mechanisms of running a production unit. It was also a time when the commercial business was really going through a slow period. Music videos, unless you had one of those top five directors that you could call by name like Little X, Chris Robinson or whoever, your not getting a lot of videos that is going to support your revenue base. So after all the work of doing the business of Persaud/Palomar after two years, we weren’t making that much money. We were making some money, but the amount of money we were making at the end of each year, and on top of that your not really able to realize the true vision you had for the company, you wonder why are you keeping it around. We had to shut that joint down; you know what I’m saying?
Manhunt: Got you, got you.
Michael: Now we’ve established all these relationships and connects with all these directors and people that we can got to anybody in the world and work a deal. We don’t have to have all of that overhead support. It's not necessary. Now our approach to the film game is, lets raise a fund of money to produce a slate of films. Now we’re not going to be depend on…we don’t need to have a production company and a roster of directors. No, we need above and beyond anything else, capital. So that’s really the agenda right there. We’re out talking to folks and that’s looking very good actually.
Manhunt: That’s excellent man.
Ozzie: And the thing to add on to what Mike said is to not follow the game. Don’t be a follow, but instead be a leader. There’s a lot of groups out there who want to same director, but a lot of times if you get the same director, you get the same vision. And a lot of times they will work one good video and the rest of the videos will look like garbage but everybody will pump it up like it’s the next hottest thing and the video is garbage. We know we have a lot more creativity. You’ve got to stay ahead in this game. That’s one thing that we had coming up, even when we came up in school, we were different from everybody else. We didn’t think like everybody else, we did things different from everybody else. And I think that was one of the things we went back to, like we’ll sit around and start laughing and start giving quotes from movies that we used to look at. You know, that’s important because when we first started this it was fun. It was fun to see who could come up with some real creative stuff and bring that creativity out. And I think it became so much business along the way, we lost the fun in this.
Manhunt: And that’s unfortunate that sometimes that happens, but I think its important that you guys go so far back that you know each other so well, that you have each other to lean on for support and I think that’s very important. I think that’s rare to find in an industry like this, you know? The personal ties that you can rely on. Everyone can lean on each other.
Ozzie: Well they know I got love for them and the love is always there, because if I’m down with you, I’m down with you. You know what I’m saying? I’m not one to turn my back on you. There’s going to be hard roads, especially if you are a black business. If you look at anybody, they had their rough roads. They came up and all of a sudden they take a hit. And that’s going to happen. The thing is its not just taking the hit; it's how you survive the hit and how you come out of it. Are you going to survive the hit and come out and do what you do?
Manhunt: Right, exactly.
Ozzie: You know, people say stuff all the time about us like, “Oh we don’t hear ya’ll there.” Yeah, cause we back in the lab regrouping. There’s no time to be at the party popping bottle and flossing.
Manhunt: (chuckles) We got work to do.
Ozzie: Exactly, we got work to do. We got to go back in the lab, regroup and say, “OK, we took this hit, we got a couple of Super Bowls under our belt, but now we got to regroup. So now that we’re regrouping like Mike said, we’re taking the business and doing a lot more. Like I look online and look at what some of these other people are doing, I say, yo they still following the same nonsense. You at the people in the business and everybody is follow no body is trying to lead and be the next to say hey let me take a different road. ‘Cause half the stuff they are doing we already did! Like half these people doing all these Remy Martin photo sweeps. I’m like, “Mike, how long ago did we do that?’’
Michael: Yeah. So that’s what happens when you’re the first doing something. You create a model that people follow. And I’ll tell you something; people give us credit though. Like whenever I sit on a panel, I see some cats out in the audience and they’ll stand up, and they may have their own company, but they’ll say, “yo, I started my company because of what ya’ll were doing.”
Manhunt: That’s tight.
Michael: You how many times that has happened man? That happens so many times with these young cats. They’ll say they are doing what they are doing because of what we have done. So it’s a compliment, but it make it important that we move on to the next thing. And you’ve got to do that for client’s anyway because if you are presenting and pitching ideas that are regular and already out there, even if you started it, you’re looking kind of old. And they feel like your really not telling them anything new.
Manhunt: OK. So you’ve always got to reprove yourself over and over again.
Michael: It’s the type of business where hype and buzz definitely work in your favor, and clients are always looking for the next best thing, the next flavor of the month. We were fortunate to work with some clients for a long time. But some, I could tell they are constantly out there looking and that’s the game their in. They’ll pay you for a while, but you’ve got to stay on your toes man. Otherwise its like, “OK these cats ran dry on ideas.”
Shawn: Innovation. That’s what they want man innovation.
Michael: Exactly, that’s it. Innovation is what they want.
Ozzie: You’ve got to stay on top of your toes, and truthfully its good that you do. Like everybody wants to talk about Puff, but I give him mad respect because that guy is always finding ways to reinvent himself.
Michael: Yeah.
Ozzie: And he keeps a hustle going.
Michael: And he tries hard on that to. ‘Cause people have, and still do talk a lot of garbage about him, but he stayed in there.
Ozzie: They wrote him off.
Michael: I’ll never forgot when he did his show at the Source Awards years ago when he came out with that second album Forever. And he had that song Public Enemy #1 and he was wearing this silver outfit, he was dancing, and people were straight booing him. This is hip-hop, the Source Awards; people are booing you. It's embarrassing right now. It was quiet. You could feel it, nobody was checking for him right then. It was ugly right there, but yo he took it. And I know that that hurt him, but he was like, yo I gotta come back. I mean it was horrible, but what’s funny if you really looked at it, Puff is a performer. And maybe for that audience, he maybe should’ve known that they weren’t going to accept it too easily. And maybe because he stuff wasn’t necessarily rimming at the time, you know how the hip-hop game is. I felt like if he were placed in another situation with that kind of show, I don’t know if any of ya’ll saw it. (Everyone acknowledges) Yo, he put on a show. I mean dancing; it was a real live show. Meanwhile, other guys come up on stage with their microphone, walking around and just talking some stuff. You know what I mean?
Manhunt: Definitely.
Michael: Then, like two years later, he put on the show when he had that song out. You know the J-Lo song. I Need A Girl with Usher. And he did that performance at the MTV Music Awards and Usher came up, Pharell was on stage with him, Buster. And cats was jumping out the ground and coming out the ceiling and all that stuff. That was a crazy performance. I don’t care what anybody says. That was one of the best ones I’ve ever seen on that. That’s what he does.
Manhunt: No doubt. He’s tried and true. He’s been around long enough where you can say what you want to say about dude, but he is tried and true. He’s not going nowhere.
Ozzie: You’re right. And I think the same thing holds true with what we do. People say stuff but they see us on the come back. But he just come back slowly. We ain’t up in everybody’s face ‘cause we never been like that. We always come at it slowly. Take a little hit, take a little hit, take a little hit, and then suddenly BOOM we hit you.
Nuff said. Peace to Michael and Irwin Persaud, Ozzie Gibson and Shawn Stiebel for taking the time to do the interview. Check for more on the Persaud Brothers at their website, www.persuadbrothers.com
