J. Toscano is the founder of Backstory — a political media creator whose weave of creative and strategy tiptoes outside traditional bounds to engage increasingly skeptical audiences across all platforms. His creative-forward ads and doc-style videos express the authentic voices of the candidates he is helping to elect and the causes he believes in, tapping into feeling and emotion to cause target audiences to think and behave differently.
How many years have you been a judge?
This is my first year!
What excited you about judging for the Telly Awards?
Being exposed to the breadth of creative work submitted.
What was your first job in the industry? What did it teach you?
I was first exposed to advertising on the client side. I jumped in with the agency of record who supported my interest in learning what they do (after I promised them I would not be “that” client who gets in the way of the agency’s creative process)
What project are you most proud to have worked on?
In the 2020 election, we did a ton of social media content and paid ad content to make sure voters who may have been fooled by Trump in 2016 did not make that mistake again in 2020. Working with a veterans group, we went hard at him with veterans and military-connected families and reduced his margin with those voters by 19 points.
What’s the most challenging part about your job and/or the industry?
We work hard to create political advertising that stands out from everyone else’s, which is difficult in the political and advocacy space in which we work, because of regulatory restrictions and clients who too often want to go the “safe” route and avoid creative risk.
What do you look for to determine excellence in video?
Story and feeling. In this time of heightened cynicism and discerning viewing habits, viewers whose day we interrupt deserve to be engaged or entertained or delighted or saddened and inspired but most of all – informed by our work.
What are your current roles and responsibilities and what do you love most about your job?
I left a very senior role in a large full service ad agency to found a boutique creative agency to focus my time and skills back in on creating. Back in 2017, I saw an explosion coming in the types and forms of creative content that would be needed and wanted to be in the forefront of hands-on content creation.
What initiatives or projects are you working on now that excite you?
Every project excites me. We are always pushing the edge in the political and advocacy advertising niche space. We have used AI tools to expand our ability to create, without handing the creative process over to the drones.
Do you have any specific practices you lean on to spark creativity?
I’ve taken filmmaking and writing workshops with Sundance Institute, Joan Scheckel Filmaking Lab and others to spark my creativity.
What inspired you to pursue your career path?
The opportunity to be in the fight to make the world a little better.
In your experience, what is a significant change you are seeing happen in the video, television, and/or film industry, and what insight can you share about how to navigate it?
As networks disintegrate and platforms proliferate, there is a real need and opportunity to expand what we think of as creative and advertising, both in format and content. In this time of heightened cynicism and discerning viewing habits, viewers whose day we interrupt deserve to be engaged or entertained or delighted or saddened and inspired but most of all – informed by our work.
