Video Production

When former Diamond Resorts CEO Mike Flaskey launched his own experiential and live events marketing company in 2021, MF Entertainment (MFE), he tapped The Pollack Group to build the company’s digital presence.

Our LAB186 team built the company’s website, launched its social media platforms, supported logo design, created a branding guide, and positioned MFE and Mike Flaskey as leaders in the golf tournament and live sports, music and entertainment verticals.

The team also worked with Flaskey on his LinkedIn thought leadership platform, ghostwriting articles and positioning him as a thought leader in the vacationing, celebrity golf, experiential marketing, and live events industries.

Since the launch, the agency has provided social media and content creation, media relations, radio advertising, website design, and additional digital marketing support for MFE and its clients.

Projects include coordinating marketing and public relations efforts for the Ragin Country Crawl, a benefit concert in Lafayette, Louisiana, launching and running the social media presence for the Invited Celebrity Classic to the tune of over 68,000,000 combined social media impressions for 2022 and 2023’s events, and creating the event logo, website, and social media as well as conducting media relations outreach highlighting the inaugural Payne Stewart Invitational, and its charitable beneficiary, the Payne Stewart Kids Golf Foundation.

With the passing of the California Assembly Bill 218 in October 2019, the filing deadline for lawsuits pertaining to the victims of childhood sexual abuse was extended an additional three years (however, the statute of limitations for the case of sexual abuse is still for the full lifetime of the victim).

Pearson, Simon, and Warshaw LLP partnered with Boucher LLP to seek out childhood sex abuse victims in order to investigate claims against individuals and institutions within the Catholic Church, religious institutions, school districts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Hollywood, and the entertainment industry. To assist these firms in finding victims within the state of California, the agency developed and launched a full, multi-tiered lead generation campaign.

The Pollack Group began the campaign by developing and launching a website for victims to learn about California Assembly Bill 218, as well as the law firms' partners who will be representing them, and what the contact points are for users to email or call for more information. Additionally, over 1,000 profile pages of abusers with their published information from court documents were created for the website. The agency also produced a commercial shoot with Raymond Boucher explaining the Bill and how the class-action lawsuit settlement against the Catholic Church in California will help victims. Finally, a 12-month online ad campaign was created, which managed to seek out leads of victims through Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, including geotargeting the cities outlined in the Catholic Church settlement case.

The campaign successfully added clients to the law firm's class-action lawsuit, keeping the clients' security and confidentiality intact.

Happy Wax, the leading manufacturer of wax warmers and scented wax melts, had a goal of increasing national brand awareness through top-of-funnel activities and reducing dependency on Facebook advertising. The North Carolina-based company also needed to develop corporate messaging to ensure that its communications, from the website copy to creative campaigns, would be aligned and consistent.

Companies frequently tout the features and benefits of their products but tend to skip doing the hard work to ‘find their why’, which helps build a brand and create a lasting value philosophy. Happy Wax is a flame-free, trouble-free way to set your mood free. Now, the agency could weave those messages into its media pitching. We secured coverage in national outlets like Buzzfeed, Country Living, Apartment Therapy, and others. We also proudly directed and produced Happy Wax’s first-ever commercial, which will be able to be seen on connected TV nationwide.

As unhappy as Americans were about wearing face masks altogether in the time of Covid, they were even more unhappy with wearing ill-fitting and uncomfortable ones, whether made from cloths or disposables.  Something had to give for the safety of all.
 
And just in time, Medicevo, entered the market with its revolutionary Graphene Face Mask. What it needed most was to build awareness of its  Bacterial Filtration Efficiency (B.F.E.) of 98% -- better than N95 respirators – and is reusable up to 15 wears. Medicevo sought out The Pollack Group to support its goal of becoming a true lifestyle brand, while prioritizing rapid brand awareness and sales conversions. To promote widespread adoption, The Pollack Group implemented a mask sampling and education campaign, sending masks to journalists and influencers, and leveraging a national MAT release.
 
Over the course of several months, the agency’s LAB186 digital marketing and content production studio worked through the challenges of maintaining COVID-19 safety protocols to develop high-quality, engaging content for digital marketing and advertising. While Google and Facebook heavily regulated face mask commerce,  the agency was able to circumvent this, launching several successful campaigns, showcasing diverse models and trendsetters who possess enviable style to make the masks look cool, different, and fashionable. The collective efforts successfully increased brand awareness, interest, and website traffic.

As the COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted the rental car economy, the agency helped Avis Budget Group launch an exciting and forward-thinking coalition designed to enhance the cleanliness and disinfection of its rental facilities and vehicles. ABG in partnership with the coalition announced the Avis Safety Pledge and the Budget Worry-Free Promise, raising the bar for cleanliness, disinfection and safety in the rental car industry.

The Pollack Group helped execute and drive awareness of this first-of-its-kind partnership. In addition to crafting and coordinating the announcement strategy, TPG’s team provided counsel on social media content, and TPG's LAB186 edited together a B-roll package to offer media outlets reporting on the safety partnership. The Pollack Group’s press outreach included strategic media placements securing more than 137 million earned media impressions for the Avis Budget COVID-19 Safety Coalition, including interviews with CNBC’s Power Lunch, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, LA Times and AdWeek, with syndication across MSN, Business Travel News, and major US market newspapers highlighting ABG as deploying innovative solutions in response to the global pandemic.

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Farming isn’t easy. To be successful, today’s farmer must be a master of many things. Enter XtremeAg.farm (XA), a community of highly successful farmers providing unparalleled access to their experiences, successes, failures, advice, and expertise. 

To launch the new online community, XtremeAg retained the agency to handle the production and editing of their digital content library, which includes articles and videos on farm equipment, strategies and tips, maintenance, inputs, agronomy, and many more topics. The agency’s LAB186 content production studio counseled on XtremeAg's website, segmenting hundreds of unique pieces of content, while setting up a member portal for XA’s subscription-based model. In addition, the agency worked with XA's expert farmers to acquire, edit, and distribute real-time field reports to create a steady flow of engaging content to subscribers nationwide. To raise awareness of XA’s offerings, the agency also developed XA's social media channels through organic and paid social media marketing strategies. 

Bingo Blitz, the world’s #1 bingo mobile app, enlisted Sprinkles Cupcakes founder Candace Nelson as both a spokesperson for the game and also a character in the game. Bingo Blitz developed a new game feature where users will be able to tour across Europe in Candace’s food truck to earn more points to play Bingo. In order to finish the game’s development and to create social media and marketing assets, Bingo Blitz hired the agency’s LAB186 to capture all of the video and photo assets needed for the campaign. The agency used its green screen studio to produce footage and photos that will be used within the game and also on social media to promote the game and the new game feature. Production included pre-production planning, prop acquisition, production budget management, green-screen shooting and color-correcting, as well as production management with the client.

For more than 90 years, Barco Uniforms, a leader of design innovation in the premium professional apparel industry, has been true to its mission -- to honor and serve those who serve others.

Barco initially retained the agency to increase its earned media coverage. However, our relationship has evolved into a true partnership. We have been instrumental in developing consumer and influencer campaigns to increase brand awareness – specifically, for Barco’s popular “Grey’s Anatomy” and Barco One sub-brands – and tell the company’s story in a compelling way. The agency also filmed and produced a video series to highlight Barco’s partnership with The Living Desert Zoo & Gardens. And most recently, in the age of COVID-19, we launched a media relations campaign to promote Barco’s scrub donation program, in which the company pledged to donate 10,000 scrubs for each month of the pandemic. The agency’s efforts have resulted in more than 3.6 billion media impressions worldwide.

To attract new game players to the world’s favorite social gaming app Bingo Blitz and its in-game feature, Blitzy’s Trattoria, the agency conceived and created a large-scale online recipe contest to unleash the “buzz.” We built a website with a fully-functional bingo game where visitors could participate and receive a random selection of ingredients for a submitted recipe. Subsequently, to trigger a lead generation push, we produced a Facebook Live event video, using sophisticated visual effects that called out random ingredients from a Bingo machine. To drive contest participation, we added digital and social media marketing and public relations components and produced a video with celebrity chef Ludo Lefebvre in his award-winning restaurant, cooking the recipes of the three selected finalists and selecting a grand prize winner. Campaign results? 175,000+ page views; 342,464 people reached through a call for entries video; 82,997 new engagements; 13,407 bingo players and 4,378 recipe submissions received. The chef's video alone reached 663,383 and raked in 88,025 engagements.

The world’s favorite social gaming app, Bingo Blitz, needed to attract new game players and increase the excitement of existing players for its in-game feature, Blitzy’s Trattoria with a recipe contest. The agency conceived and implemented a large-scale recipe contest to deploy online to generate buzz about the game and also to attract new players through a variety of lead generation tactics. PPMG built a website from scratch with a fully-functional bingo game, where visitors could then play to get a random selection of ingredients. PPMG planned, produced, and edited a Facebook Live video using sophisticated visual effects to call out random ingredients from a Bingo machine. The Bingo call video reached 342,464 people and collected 82,997 engagements. Following that, participants were invited to submit recipes with those random ingredients. We collected and managed recipe submissions and participant communication through a robust lead-generation CRM that we modified, customized and implemented specifically for the program. Finally, we produced a video with celebrity L.A. Chef Ludo in his award-winning restaurant who cooked the recipes from three finalists and chose a grand prize winner. The chef's video raked in 88,025 engagements with a reach of 663,383. We used a variety of digital marketing, social media marketing, and public relations tactics to drive participation in the contest resulting in 177,396 pageviews, 13,407 bingo players, and 4,378 recipe submissions. The winner? A beautiful freshly-grilled salmon.

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When GoodJanes, a beauty company using naturally derived ingredients to promote health-conscious options for its users, came to the agency, it  tasked it to build and drive awareness and interest to promote sales for its new beauty and makeup product, the Kiss My Lash Mirror, a patented triangulated mirror. To first promote consumer engagement with their product, we audited their site for SEM and SEO and for navigational ease. Subsequently, we made recommendations for changes and, simultaneously, the agency’s LAB186 created video assets to use on the GoodJanes website and social media platforms. Moving on to editorial media, we targeted beauty and lifestyle beats and influencers offering immediate product trial to each and suggesting to hundreds of influencers to create social media posts and reviews in their blogs and on YouTube videos and include them in holiday gift guides. The results were vast, across blogs, social media platforms and media -- such as being on Daytime TV and The Lifestyle List “Fall Beauty Must Haves” segments and making the Luxe List’s “Fab Fall Finds” segments across U.S. markets, among others.

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The second-oldest U.S. Navy museum, the United States Navy Seabee Museum, turned to the agency to create brand-new, high-quality informational videos as an added new element for its visitors, as well as to launch new social media campaigns and build an enhanced digital curriculum for students. To support the museum’s mission, namely to “select, collect, preserve and display” historic material of the Naval Construction Force (known as the Seabees), the agency created five videos featuring interviews and 3D-animated graphics as a showcase for guests and servicemen, alike. From showcasing the Seabees’ humanitarian work, to a deep-dive showcasing one of the museum’s specialty vehicles on display, these videos combined creative storytelling with video production capabilities to share with the general public today and for generations to come, the stories behind an impactful military organization.

Click here to view all five videos.

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In anticipation of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, USA Triathlon became the first sport to begin preparations and training for the Games. As such, the team sought out the agency to build enthusiasm for their first Los Angeles-area race, the Legacy Triathlon. The agency promoted USA Triathlon’s news that it will launch a series of annual races in Long Beach on the very site of the future Olympic course – where the next generation of Olympians will be presented.

The agency facilitated several partners and supporters, including the City of Los Angeles and the City of Long Beach, and brought local, national and international media attention to the unveiling of the Legacy Triathlon, while also streaming to an online audience through Facebook Live.

The City of Santa Monica needed to better understand the community for more informed policies and community initiatives, but realized that it lacked the right type of data. So it set out to do something that had never been done before: integrate the science of wellbeing into the foundation of the local government. The core of the Wellbeing Project, the city’s winning entry in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayor’s Challenge, is a comprehensive index of analysis developed in partnership with renowned research firm RAND Corporation and New Economics Foundation. The agency worked closely with the project to distill and communicate the data for public consumption, consulted on website development and to assist in strategically implementing change within the city based upon findings. The launch of the index solidified the city’s thought leadership platform in sustainability and health and wellness.

The American public has a love affair with speed. We leveraged that “love” to engage consumers, and spark interest and demand for the one-of-a-kind speed measurement device Pocket Radar: the world’s only palm-sized, full-performance speed radar device. When it launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the dual messaging platform that we created had to resonate with two sets of audiences — professionals and everyday consumers. Pre-show, we sent creative media mailers to pique curiosity and generate word-of-mouth buzz. The product’s innovative technology, a break-through Doppler radar sensing and processing system, earned it a CES Innovations Honoree award, which was highlighted and leveraged to secure one-on-one interviews and post-show product reviews. The resulting coverage totaled 202,722,673 media impressions.

The Santa Monica Pier, the West Coast’s last remaining pleasure pier, turned 100 years old. Its rich history conjured up nostalgia of a bygone era. When called upon to awaken memories, our agency brought it all back by engaging the surrounding community as well as national and international tourists as part of the celebration. We launched a nationwide online and offline media blitz focusing on the iconic pier’s legacy and its value for future generations, as well on a series of celebratory events such as the SideShow at the Pier, Schools Out!, La Monica Ballroom Redux and Centennial Day, to gain exposure and get a myriad of stories out about the pier. Social media outreach alone netted an estimated 3 million impressions plus 400 million media impressions.

Before the global water scarcity and drought crisis reached its present fever pitch, the 75-year-old irrigation manufacturer understood that it faced a potential environmental crisis perception — simply for being an irrigation company, which carried an implication of wasting water. The agency positioned the company as a thought leader in water conservation as it relates to the lawn and garden industry, and created a new campaign coined “The Intelligent Use of Water.” We developed a roadmap for a sustainable, multi-pronged program with multiple touch points that included industry white papers, bi-annual Intelligent Use of Water global summits, film competitions, awards programs, partnerships, grade school curriculums, Tournament of Roses Parade participation and more. Its position as an industry leader in landscape water conservation insights, was solidified.

Making a film for a green cause requires an imagination…and talent. Long before it became common practice to crowdsource for talent online, we tapped social media to invite filmmakers around the world to enter Rain Bird’s Intelligent Use Of Water competition for the best short films that would portray the urgency of the global water scarcity issue. The experiential campaign included a microsite and digital communications to engage Millennials on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. We tapped into online forums for filmmakers. Grassroots efforts included street teams sent to 40 schools nationally to promote the competition to students, film professors, and with the American Film Institute and American Cinema Foundation. We received 87 film entries in three months, showed finalist films at a guest-only LA event and awarded monetary prizes for top winners.

More than 40,000 commuters drive through Century City every day, causing tremendous traffic congestion in Los Angeles. The Century City Transportation Management Organization (CCTMO) was organized by area business leaders looking to increase awareness of the benefits of alternative transportation.

We created a commuter’s resource platform, Commute 90067, and launched an awareness campaign about the benefits of alternative transportation for commuting. The platform efficiently charted out bus routes, paired carpoolers and organized vanpools.

The Commute 90067 campaign included traditional and digital advertising, transit and street pole advertising, street team marketing, incentives, and events. Additionally, we developed partnerships with commercial real estate companies and their business tenets to communicate Commute 90067 to their staff through meetings and incentive programs. The extensive awareness program enabled CCTMO to reach its goal of reducing traffic into and out of Century City by 12,000 cars.

When the city of Beverly Hills, renowned for its special glitz worldwide, turned 100 in 2014, it wanted to celebrate in a big way. A  block party was staged on Rodeo Drive, creating a family-focused experiential event replete with a commissioned birthday cake by agency client Luxe Rodeo Drive Hotel, created in partnership with famed pastry chef Donald Wressell of the Guittard Chocolate Company. The staggering 4,000-pound chocolate cake that depicted Beverly Hills City Hall and Rodeo Drive served 15,000 people, which generated hundreds of millions of earned media impressions as well as social media mentions. To build up momentum to that day, we “seeded” media stories, planned mini events, held a cake-tasting preview for media, showed off with a 3-D model of the cake design and shot a video of the “making-of-the-cake” — a time-lapse video that wowed viewers around the world when released.

Crucial.com, a division of Micron Consumer Products and a leading online retailer specializing in computer memory upgrades, needed to increase awareness of their do-it-yourself memory upgrade as an easy solution for computer problems that plague consumers on a daily basis. In Phase 1, we utilized consumer survey research, satellite and ground media tours, media mailers, infographics and aggressive media relations strategies, to speak to the computer-induced frustration and stress that results from an underperforming computer, with the easy solution, of course, offered by Crucial.com. In Phase 2, the agency commanded audience attention through creative campaigns such as “Love Your Computer”, “Get Tough on Your Computer”, and the nationwide search for the “Official, Unofficial Office Computer Go-to Superstar” – and resulted in over 100 million media impressions.

National Public Gardens Day was all about fostering public programs, resources and educational initiatives to instill the importance of environmental preservation and landscape water conservation. In partnership with American Public Gardens Association (APGA), the agency created an annual National Public Gardens Day to inform of the vital role of APGA’s more than 500 gardens and arboreta in promoting environmental stewardship, plant and water conservation and education. On-the-ground agency partners were tapped in five markets to stimulate local interest and support a national media outreach program. On the pre-celebration day a Satellite Media Tour was launched together with a government outreach program and an expansive social media component. The result was a staggering. The 782 million media impressions promoted ecosystem management and the efficient use of water.

With more than 2.5 million men and women serving in the armed forces and more than 4 million family members, the troops and their families depend upon the USO for critical programs and support. While the USO thrives through donations from major corporations and strategic partners, the agency, as their agency of record, saw an opportunity to tap an under-represented source of income through grassroots individual fundraising. Events such as Barbecue for the Troops, (leveraging the quintessential summer backyard barbecue), and Dance for the Troops, targeting school dances and New Year’s galas, were designed to mobilize individuals into throwing fundraisers in their local communities. Each campaign was supported with media relations, strategic partnerships, and organizational outreach.

Fiesta Parade Floats (FPF), a 35 year-old builder of parade floats for the annual New Year’s Day Rose Parade, had kept a relatively low profile despite having assembled a team of world-renowned design and floral technology experts. We leveraged every opportunity to maximize media exposure by expanding the focus beyond the parade itself and on to the development of the floats from the float design and construction process through the final pre-parade flower decorating. Over five years of working with the local, regional and national media — the last week of the year, working from 4 am to almost midnight, daily — FPF was catapulted into the limelight by an enchanted media.

The challenge for Luxe Hotels was to design an experiential and lifestyle synchronized communications platform that was workable for both Luxe Hotels (branded properties) and L.E. Hotels, a collection of premier independent hotel properties worldwide, across 31 countries. Multi-channel digital communications streams had to work in concert with each other regarding overall positioning and messaging, and needed to be dynamic by design, addressing different audiences from various angles. The programming was designed to be foundational and sustainable, as the brand expanded. We implemented an overarching brand platform and specific programming per business unit, that included a Brand Share of Voice and Consumer Engagement as well as Partnerships and Quarterly Engagement, Influencer Marketing and Special Promotion programming that would be tied to seasonal happenings, news cycle or opportunistic events.

The company that first introduced drip irrigation technology to the world over 50 years ago, needed to expand its presence in both traditional and new crop markets as farmers were increasingly faced with drought conditions and decreased access to water. Netafim looked to the agency not only to bolster its media relations and marketing programs, but also to pave the way for a transformation of the way the company positions itself and its product offerings. The agency has been instrumental in helping Netafim restructure its dealer incentive and marketing program, forge relationships with key agricultural and environmental influentials and academics, develop sales and marketing tools, as well as conceptualize and execute marketing and advertising campaigns for the landscape and agriculture divisions.

Bob Evans Farms (BEF), a leading producer and distributor of refrigerated breakfast and dinner convenience food items, retained The Pollack Group (TPG) in 2016, initially to leverage the brand's philanthropic "Our Farm Salutes" (OFS) campaign, which entailed providing meals and donations to programs that support the military, active-duty veterans, and their families. In addition, TPG secured a partnership with The Gary Sinise Foundation, producing a variety of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) featuring actor, activist, and director of the Foundation, Gary Sinise.

In support of OFS, TPG conceived the idea to paint the original Bob Evans Farms barn, an iconic symbol in Rio Grande, Ohio – purple, representing the color of all military branches. The purple barn visual, attracted significant media attention from regional news, military media, and food trade outlets. Results from data indicated an uptick in favorability perceptions for the BEF brand.

Following the media success of OFS, BEF expanded the program in 2021, utilizing TPG for its Heroes to CEOs (H2C) program. TPG focused on the H2C’s 2021 and 2022 winners to garner regional and national media relations. The agency booked The Today Show in November 2021, highlighting Ryan Onda, winner of H2C, among numerous podcast interviews, local segment appearances, and more. In addition, TPG penned a MAT release on how military service prepares veterans for leadership business roles, which resulted in over 180 million impressions.

The OFS program laid the groundwork for a broader FY22 Breakfast Innovations public relations campaign. TPG leveraged editorial media interviews to encourage Life Hackers and Young Achievers to try BEF new breakfast solutions and encourage repeat purchases of BEF grocery food items. Creative concepts were crafted and implemented for BEF news hook creation, disruptive event(s), and strategic influencer partnerships. 

TPG also developed and implemented an “always on” PR plan that increased household penetration for BEF grocery items. To further engage with consumers interested in BEF refrigerated breakfast items, TPG conducted a survey that polled over 1,000 working Americans to better understand their breakfast preferences, before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings were favorable to BEF and the success of their heat-and-eat products were distributed in a MAT release, securing over one million impressions.

TPG arranged for BEF and the Gary Sinise Foundation to join forces again, released a series of new PSAs, and offered Gary Sinise as a source on various national news segments. Sinise detailed the hardships veterans have as they acclimatize back into civilian life after service, and how the Gary Sinise Foundation, as well as BEF, were working to improve their conditions upon returning home. In addition, Gary Sinise was invited to speak on top-tier media outlets such as FOX News, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Yahoo Finance, and KTLA.

TPG played an integral role in increasing BEF’s overall brand awareness and household penetration by leveraging elevated earned media impressions, resulting in an ROI of 2.40 for BEF’s Q1 and Q2 in 2022 alone, as well as a netted a $1.79 contribution per dollar spent on PR efforts.