Tell us a bit about your organization and what your specialty is in the film and video space.
Urban One is the leading voice speaking with and advocating for Black America. Through our unique ecosystem of digital, audio, television, social media and podcasting platforms we create and distribute premium original content to diverse audiences at-scale.
What is your organization’s ethos and how does it set you apart from industry competitors?
The mission of Urban One’s One Solution division is to boldly serve as the nexus between Black consumers and brands offering a full-service advantage of award-winning and culture first strategies that captures an influential audience.
How can people join or learn more about what you do?
People can find out more about Urban One and our brands at Urban1.com
Tell us about your Telly Award winning piece. What’s the story behind it?
Urban One was excited to win 19 Telly Awards this year with four of them in the Business to Consumer category for custom, cross-platform campaigns. These wins highlight our team’s ability to marry relevant data with culture-first strategies and original ideation to connect brands with their targeted audiences through Urban One’s suite of platforms.
What are you most proud of about this piece? What was your biggest challenge during production and how did you solve it?
We are most proud of every piece and they all come with their fair share of unique production challenges. One of the more common factors is time and sometimes the lack of it to produce great work and meet partner delivery goals. We know that it takes constant communication between partners, sharing alternative options where needed and providing context on any required pivots or shifts is the best approach to keep the level of trust between partners and have clear and open dialogue.
Do you have any advice to other filmmakers based on your career or your team’s approach to work?
Understand the purpose of your work, the response you want from the audience and lean into insights as a north star to the content created.
Can you share a behind the scenes story or fun fact about the making of your piece?
There are many stories for each of them. A fun fact about the Dishing Out Connections campaign is that our lead talent, Urban One personality Chef Jernard Wells is a proud father of nine so a campaign that speaks to need for a powerful, reliable internet connection like this piece did is extremely relevant to his household of 11 people.
Tell us about the most memorable response you got from this work.
One of the most memorable response was the genuine joy of the win from one of our partners. They shared that this was a reminder as to why they continue to work with us and appreciate the value of our work and partnership.
Complete this sentence: ‘Great video storytelling is…’
… the ability to harness the culture that’s represented, ignite a passion from the audience for all parties involved in the work and create content that audiences crave.
