• Pilgrimage to Portland

    Traveling from time to time is something you sign up for when making the choice to pursue a career in video production. It can be very exciting at times; getting to check out new places that you otherwise might never think of visiting. And although video production is a creative field, there are certainly those other times when the required tasks during the trip aren’t as artistically refreshing as one might hope.

    Last week I got to visit the Matter office in Portland, Oregon for the first time. Among my list of tasks were to take headshots for all of our staff, shoot some office B Roll, and give an overview presentation of Matter’s in-house creative services to the PDX staff. After a day and a half of this, I was to then hop on a plane to San Francisco to staff a Media Training event for a client. While all of this stuff is useful for the company and good professional experience for me, I needed to find a way that I could bring back more than just photos of smiling faces and a PowerPoint deck. Enter Nick and Cait.

    Nick and Cait are two of our staff members who recently jumped ship from Newburyport to Portland. They’ve been working from the Oregon office for a couple months now, so with their help I created this short doc about the migration process and how it’s affected each of them. Working on this project allowed me to get outside for a while to shoot B Roll around the city and take in some of the sights, all while telling their unique story.

    Breaking the norm of telling a client’s story to tell one of our agency’s own was a nice change of pace. From a Matter perspective, I hope this will help folks realize that moving 2500 miles away from home doesn’t have to be all that intimidating.

    Matter

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  • The PR Power of Pink Surgical Gloves

    Visual storytelling.  For much of the year I’ve been talking with colleagues, prospects and clients about the powerful and very real impact that this kind of story-telling has on any communications initiative.

    Obvious to any audience who experiences and embraces visual elements, the impact of these story-telling tools has been proven by countless marketing studies. It’s a fact that supporting your PR and social media campaigns with visual imagery makes any communications effort more effective, powerful and engaging. And, it’s also a fact that we opened Studio-C by Matter Communications, a comprehensive physical creative studio, to stay ahead of the communications trend and to be certain that we were able to offer our clients the most comprehensive, visually impactful programs.

    Increasingly we’re asked to make a client’s communications program “come to life” by incorporating visually arresting visual elements.  A product or service that has energy and excitement becomes more so when it is complemented by logos, icons, infographics and videos. Few of the supporting elements are as powerful as a well-produced video. And, few communications situations are as tailor-made for video as one we encountered recently.

    As part of our public relations and social media program designed to promote the new Gerrish Breast Care Center at Anna Jaques Hospital, a leading healthcare institution located north of Boston, we developed a video to help tell the story of not just the Center’s opening, but also to deliver a message about how valuable it is when individual networks come together and become something bigger and more powerful than they could be on their own. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

    The video features courageous members of our community who have survived breast cancer and, while emotionally moving, it also conveys the hospital’s excitement about the new services being offered to its breast care patients. And, it’s extraordinarily powerful when juxtaposed against the same story communicated by traditional PR alone.

    By the way, Danielle Perry, the smart and savvy Director of Communications at Anna Jaques, entered that powerful video in a contest that highlights Breast Care Awareness with pink surgical gloves as the connecting theme.   You can vote for the video until November 8th by visiting this website:

    The PR Power of Pink Surgical Gloves

    Take a look and at the video and let me know what you think, and do consider casting your vote!

    Scott Signore

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  • The PR That Fuels Election Day

    Fall is fully upon us – and there’s no looking back now. The leaves have fallen from the trees and the clocks are set back marking an earlier end to the light of day.  It’s playoff time for high school sports – the undefeated girls soccer team here in Newburyport seems to be on a particular roll – plans are being made for Thanksgiving, and our cities and towns are full of signs encouraging us to cast a vote in one direction or another. It’s election day here in Newburyport and all across this dynamite country.

    Here are five ways that a political election is like our day job:

    First, all political campaigns are about influencing decision-makers. A vote cast for a preferred candidate equates to action by a member of a key audience. Our PR programs are designed to reach those whose opinions will be swayed, and so is the intention of all campaign efforts. The seemingly endless volume of advertisements, editorials and yard signs are all for exposure and influence – sound familiar?

    Second, impactful messaging is key to success. I consistently remind our clients that smartly laying the ground-work in advance of programmatic execution should be a priority. Politicians across our Commonwealth similarly sit with advisors, family and friends in war rooms, breakfast diners and every spot in between sharing their messages based on key care-abouts. Like we do for our clients, these opportunistic politicians determine what they want to communicate, to who and how.

    Third, connecting face-to-face still matters. While the PR category has evolved, we haven’t lost sight of the power of connecting in person – with clients, customers, media and business partners. The bulk of what we do is electronic, but a typical relationship highlight is a first handshake or dinner and drinks at the end of a long planning day. So much of what we do can be done remotely – we live it daily – but the power of in-person dialogue is stronger than ever.   Candidates spend time, energy and money on air cover for their campaign – then they go with gusto. They shake hands – a lot of hands.  And, during that process the interpersonal connecting allows for the exchange of information, as well as meaningful and potentially vote-swaying moments between candidates and constituents.

    Fourth, it’s a measurable program. Like the qualitative and quantitative metrics we establish at the start of our client programs, results will be tallied. Election committees won’t need to collect brand sentiment or key message pull through, but it’s aligned to the way we work: we define the intent of a program, and measure throughout.

    Fifth, it’s a lot of hard work. Recently I shared with a small group that my agency’s time having fun – celebrating wins or the end of a long week – is discussed far more often than the many long hours of work put toward the project that resulted in that particular outcome. Being a top-notch PR person takes a lot of work, and I’m fortunate to be surrounded by so many smart and savvy  professionals who are dedicated to the success of their clients. It’s hard work. And, so is campaigning for office – in any state or county in this nation. It’s a serious commitment, no matter the sought-after office. It’s energy and effort at all hours of the day and in the week, and it distracts from other serious priorities. It’s a serious sacrifice.

    Be certain to vote today and no matter the candidate of your choice, I suggest taking a moment to reflect on the luxury we citizens have as we, collectively, get to choose our leaders. And, best of luck to those elected officials who will greet a number of new “clients” beginning tomorrow morning.

    Scott Signore

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