St. Louis, MO – November 3, 2022 – As anyone who runs an agency that services clients can tell you, it is increasingly a battle to hold onto your clients. There is always some other agency lurking in the shadows ready to go after your book of business.

The PR industry has undergone massive transformation over the last decade. Startup PR agencies are being born almost daily. Call them Covid babies of a different sort. The great resignation has only added fuel to this fire as the pandemic and WFH revolution has pushed some to start their own consulting companies in the search for a better life.

What does that mean for the established agencies?

It is dog eat dog – or flak eat flak - out there.

That is why we are sharing details about innovations being made within the industry and, more importantly, sharing success stories for those of you out there in the trenches that are innovating to survive and thrive.

Before we share Allison’s story, we need to offer this important disclaimer:

This is a mostly true story. The events depicted in this blog took place in 2021 and 2022. At the request of those that lived to tell about, the names have been changed. Out of respect for those whose businesses didn’t survive because they didn’t offer video storytelling to their clients, the rest is being told mostly as it occurred.

Okay with that out of the way, let’s tell you about Allison.

Allison is an accomplished PR professional who has an impressive list of clients who work with her firm because they trust her and know she is among the best in the industry. She has built her business over the years through hard work and a loyal commitment to helping her clients.

Her company is one of the top PR firms in her community. It is also one of only a handful of certified woman-owned business enterprises in town.

Unfortunately, Allison’s clients are considering taking their business to another agency because her firm doesn’t provide clients with high-quality video production to support their growing digital and social media needs.

Let's face the facts. Social media has changed the game in so many ways. Gone are the days when simple media relations strategies satisfied clients. It is all about digital and social media these days. "Influencers" can make or break a brand - and those didn't even exist when Allison started her business.

To compound the problems, the audience sizes for all tradition media are shrinking as more media is being produced by the mass than mass media. Allison's clients need help navigating this brave new world. They also need help with sharing their story online via content creation.

No content performs better than video. And no video is better than “authentic video” content. Allison knows this intuitively, but she has struggled to find a workable strategy for her clients.

Allison feels the pressure to find an efficient way to deliver authentic video content to her clients, but the outside agency she uses has a process that is too time consuming, expensive and hard to manage to make it viable for her clients. It is an old ad agency model that is well-suited to producing a breathtaking Super Bowl ad, but it really doesn't work for what her clients actually need.

Allison has worked with dozens of local video companies over the years and they are all similar. Their typical process can literally take months to produce a 2-3 minute video, which doesn’t work with her deadline driven clients.

While her clients don’t balk at spending $20,000 or $30,000 on a video, it is the turnaround time that just doesn’t work for her, her team or her clients. The traditional production process probably worked for Don Draper on Madison Avenue, but it simply isn't set up for the modern new media ecosystem that requires quicker turnaround and craves authenticity.

Knowing that “authenticity” is more important than production quality, Allison’s team has attempted to produce cell phone video for clients. But her in-house DIY route to video production has been a complete bust.

The last time Allison’s staff tried a DIY cell video they couldn’t figure out how to get such a large 4K file off her colleague’s phone so it could be edited into all the different formats required to be successful online today. Shooting video isn’t hard, but editing it into something others want to watch is a skill her staff has yet to master.

It is so frustrating they typically just go without video. But that “let’s just forget about it this time” mentality isn’t a good business strategy these days. Allison’s company can’t afford to lose clients. Things have been hard enough over the last few years.

They made it through the Covid shutdown and the early part of the pandemic thanks to the PPP loan program and some good paying work for local governments flush with federal stimulus cash. Now that the world is coming back from the pandemic, work from her other clients has picked up, but they can’t take anything for granted.

Earlier this summer when Allison was planning a press announcement for a client, one of her co-workers introduced her to STORYSMART, a nationwide startup that helps PR agencies like Allison’s tell an authentic story with video in a fast, cost-certain way that works for her deadline-driven clients.

STORYSMART was able to turn a high-quality video story around quickly – in a matter of days – not months using an Emmy Award winning TV reporter from their nationwide network. Allison’s team was amazed at how easy the process was from the initial intake through to final approval of the video.

It was turnkey easy for them. They didn’t have to manage the process at all. It was stress-free since someone else was handling the video storytelling heavy lifting. Allison's team could focus on drafting talking points, pitching the media, organizing the press conference and preparing the client.

The easiest part of working with STORYSMART was the fact that they follow a journalism interview model that aligns perfectly with an agency like hers that works exclusively with traditional media. She is set up to help her client nail media interviews, time and again.

Following a journalism model, STORYSMART was able to produce an authentic story that was exactly what her team was pitching to the media. All the work Allison’s team does is designed to spoon feed stories to the traditional media so they get her client’s story right.

What worked well for Allison’s team is that STORYSMART reporter was just like a media outlet they were pitching, but the reporter worked for them!

What Allison thought was really smart about the STORYSMART model is that they used a journalist interview to make her client feel comfortable on camera. There was no teleprompter or big “Hollywood” style crew like a typical production company would send. That smaller footprint, along with how the reporter made her client feel comfortable forgetting they were on camera translated in more authentic sound bites.

And as part of the process, STORYSMART delivered a half a dozen videos the client could easily share on all their different social platforms. They even delivered the closed captions for each video and a written blog post for the main story.

The client was able to share the STORYSMART story immediately following the press conference and their followers could actually watch it. They were not prevented from seeing the story thanks to a media pay wall.

Allison’s client was so happy that they can’t wait to work with her and her team again.

If your run a PR agency, digital marketing firm or advertising agency, don’t wait to lose your clients because you haven’t figured out video. There is a better way.

Isn’t it time you offered your clients efficient, high-quality video storytelling as part of working with you and your agency?

Make STORYSMART part of your in-house client service team so you hold onto your clients. You have nothing to lose in giving us a try. There is no cost to you or your agency. We provide transparent cost-certain pricing and an agency-friendly process with all of our work.

Whether you are an agency organizing a press conference or a brand manager rolling out a new campaign, STORYSMART can help you take care of your clients by providing high-quality, authentic video storytelling from some of the best names in television journalism.

Set up a free call today to talk about how STORYSMART can help meet your unique video storytelling needs with their customized cost-certain premium video storytelling solutions.

NOTE – this post was made possible thanks to dozens of PR professionals that have shared their stories with us about the challenges they face with video as part of market research we are doing as part of the ITEN V elocity Accelerator program in St. Louis.

About STORYSMART

You have a story to tell, but don't have the time or resources to do it yourself. Telling your story well with video can be hard. And let’s be brutally honest. No app will turn you into a great filmmaker. Few people are capable of producing a do-it-yourself (DIY) video or film we actually want to watch, much less remember.

To do justice to your story on screen, you need the right skills and equipment, not to mention time, money and talent.

That is why STORYSMART developed our premium video storytelling as a service. We are here to help clients tell their story in the amazing way they deserve with a proprietary done-for-you video storytelling service unlike any other.

STORYSMART provides a nationwide premium video storytelling service that empowers individuals, families, celebrities, small businesses and other organizations to have their stories told professionally while still retaining their intellectual property rights.

STORYSMART provides clients an experienced television reporter or journalist filmmaker to help them tell their story following our proprietary high-integrity brand journalism system. Our transparently priced premium services for businesses and families ensures that each client gets an authentic, high-quality story they own the intellectual property rights on forever.

About Ron Watermon

Ron Watermon is the founder and CEO of STORYSMART, a premium video storytelling technology startup that empowers anyone to have their stories told professionally while ensuring they retain the intellectual property rights on their productions.

A creative and innovative communications leader with nearly three decades of experience, prior to founding STORYSMART to provide Storytelling for all, Ron Watermon was responsible for modernizing the St. Louis Cardinals communications by leading the team’s investment in video storytelling, brand journalism, fan engagement and social media.