by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
You have been there before.
Something within the company is changing and the water cooler talk ranges from truth to rumors to flat out falsehoods.
Are we being sold? Will I keep my job? I heard “Bob” is out and “Bill” is the new president. Well, I heard ...
The old school method of disseminating internal company messages was for the owner/president to meet with executive staff who then relayed the information to department heads who then told the grunts. By then, the truth resembled what happens in the old whisper-the-sentence-around-the-classroom game you played in elementary school.
That method evolved into big meetings in big rooms with all of the employees who came to watch and listen to power point presentations that qualified as sedatives.
For years, PineRidge Film and Television has been producing award-winning programming for the Travel Channel and others. Ranging from “Passport to Latin America” to “Great Hotels,” those programs are a melding of entertainment and education. For the past year, through a new company called PineRidge Promotional Media, owner Jerry Smith and his staff have been working with local and national companies to produce slick, high-quality DVDs the companies can use to educate their employees and explain shifts, changes, mergers, acquisitions, etc.
Because Smith has acquired so much footage of practically everything, a vast majority of what’s needed for the videos is already in-house and can be quickly formatted.
“We have our own stock footage archive, our own design and animation capability, digital Hi-definition editing suites and even a studio, so we don’t have to pass on costly subcontracting to our clients,” said PineRidge Production Manager Joan McCord.
The videos tend to be anywhere from 2-6 minutes long depending on the message and the needs of the client. For example, PineRidge did a six-minute video for Johnson & Johnson Vision Care which explains the merger with Vistakon in a manner that a power point presentation never could. The video was shown to employees who have the luxury of watching it over and over if they choose. The videos are also adaptable to the Internet, making them a potentially valuable tool for the companies to use on their Web sites.
In addition to stock video footage, Smith — a talent coach by nature — works with company executives on their on-camera persona and demeanor. Smith says commanding a board room and being comfortable after hearing “action” is a very different scenario.
PineRidge has also worked with local companies such as Suddath and PGA Tour Productions and non-profits such as Operation New Hope, which at one point was on the verge of being omitted from receiving Jacksonville Journey — Mayor John Peyton’s anticrime initiative — funding.
“PineRidge has raised community awareness of our program to a whole new level,” said Operation New Hope President Kevin Gay. “Their films for Ready4Work have given a booster shot to our fundraising, recruiting and even elevated our reputation nationally.”
The company’s work also extends well outside of the First Coast.
“We contracted PineRidge to develop a movie capturing the history of the Waldorf,” said Matt Zolbe, director of sales and marketing for the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. “We are thrilled with the outcome. Through our collaboration with Jerry and his team, we were able to introduce the historical significance of our iconic hotel to a worldwide audience.”
Outside of the relative ease in producing a high-quality, informative videos, Smith maintains there is a cost-savings that can’t be realized using public relations and marketing agencies to produce similar materials.
“This is in response to our clients saying they needed a video piece explaining who they are and what the company is,” said PineRidge CFO John Howard. “They want to get away from power points. They want four minutes that will wow the room.
“When the market is like this, the first cut is marketing. We can give you what you need: world-class creative without the agency baggage. We have the license to the footage, but the company owns the video.”
Howard explained the company did a DVD for IAMS pet food. The DVD was free and accompanied the bags of food. PineRidge did the DVD for about $20,000 because so much of the footage was in stock. Howard said an ad agency, which would have likely started from scratch, could have charged IAMS upwards of $200,000.
It’s Hillary Citrano’s job to market the new company. While the videos speak for themselves, because they are so customized, Citrano and Smith are operating under an ever-evolving marketing concept. What works for Operation New Hope won’t work for Johnson & Johnson.
“As far as sales, we haven’t figured out the formula,” she said. “There is a fear of getting away from the agencies. We can do 100 percent of what they do, but better.”
Smith said his company will continue to focus on producing TV programming — some of which has won Daytime Emmys. However, there’s profit in low-cost, quality videos that can help companies explain everything from mega-mergers to new product lines.
“PineRidge is still very much in the business of television programming worldwide, but we are having a lot of fun using our expertise to heighten the image and awareness of corporations right here in Northeast Florida,” said Smith. “You are behind the times if people go to your Web site and don’t see moving video.”
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