“The Songstress of Springfield” Sets Records Over 4th of July Weekend

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A Union Station performance of the National Anthem by Vanessa Ford received more than 33,000 video views

Springfield, MA (July 26, 2021) – Springfield Union Station announced today that a recent performance[VIDEO] of the National Anthem by Vanessa Ford, “The Songstress of Springfield,” has set viewing records.

“We suspected that a video by Ms. Ford, who is well known for singing The Star-Spangled Banner at various area events, would be very popular,” stated Nicole Sweeney, Property Manager for Springfield Union Station. “But this video exploded on YouTube and Social Media over the July 4th  weekend.

The video was planned, recorded and produced by GCAi’s Darcy Young at Springfield Union Station. It was shown on social media and YouTube as well as featured on springfieldunionstation.com.

According to performance data provided by GCAi to Springfield Union Station, the video also received 34,000 engagement actions (like, shares, comments) and the two-minute performance accumulated over 25 hours of viewing on YouTube alone. Additional data demonstrated that the video’s popularity extended well beyond the Springfield area with Boston, Hartford, and New York City joining Springfield in the top five audience metro areas.

“In the end, the data provided two things,” said Ms. Sweeney. “Patriotism is alive and well in the Northeast Corridor and Vanessa Ford is a true local treasure.”

Ms. Ford began singing in the church choir at the age of seven, and she loves every genre of music. She is an aficionado of classical music, jazz, pop, traditional hymns and contemporary gospel music and has performed the National Anthem for many local college sporting events, for Springfield Police Academy graduations, and for a multitude of high profile local and national events.

About: First opened in 1926, Springfield Union Station featured gleaming terrazzo floors, a restaurant, lunch counter, barbershop, shoeshine parlor and small shops to service hundreds of daily passengers who boarded up to 130 trains every 24 hours. The station closed in 1973, which also launched a 40-year quest by present day Congressman Richard E. Neal to return the historic building to service. Neal eventually secured the funding needed to completely renovate and reopen the historic building. Today, Springfield Union Station is not only a train station and bus station but also included a state-of-the-art intermodal transportation center with local and long-distance buses and a new parking garage. Additionally, an architecture firm, two restaurants, a convenience store and the Hispanic American Library make their home at Springfield Union Station.

Media Contact

GCAi for Springfield Union Station

Darcy Young, 413-736-2245

dyoung@gcaionline.com

 

GCAi-LA Coworking Space Comes with Coffee and a Porsche 911

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At the time, it would have been hard to imagine a more elegant place for James Garvey to knock out digital marketing campaigns. WeWork’s coworking space at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, CA, brought together an eclectic group of startups most of which skewed toward the fashion-tech industry. On any given morning, you had the space to yourself and during the day you might run into celebrities like Kris Jenner in the lobby.

Then came that thing we all went through over 2020 plus. As if it has suffered the impact of a California earthquake, and helped certainly by its other mega-financial failings, WeWork’s Pacific Design Center space showed some fractures. Communication broke down, free coffee became sporadic, and positive tests by tenants went up. Like virtually every other tech office in the world, James and GCAi-LA went home and ordered coffee from Drive, the official coffee supplier to Formula 1.Enter The Motoring Club in Marina Del Ray which GCAi moved to in mid-2020. Owned and managed by Michael Rapetti, The Motoring Club is a collector vehicle storage space with unique social club space for conversation, collaboration or just inspired work, if a vintage motorcycle parked next to your table does that kind of thing for you. Indeed, the closest thing to a cubicle is Michael’s ultra-boxy 1995 Range Rover Classic.

Michael is probably the most driven (yup, that’s a pun) car nerd on the planet. His hands-on approach to the club was evident with his communication efforts during the thing. On behalf of club members, Michael leveraged all the tools at his disposal, especially social/tech like Instagram, to keep members informed. If you didn’t feel like checking your email for Michael’s weekly updates, you could just watch The Motoring Club’s Instagram story (@themotoringclub) and get up to speed (another pun) in a matter of seconds.

The Motoring Club is located in Marina Del Rey, an unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles, located directly south of Venice which is known for being edgy and a little grungy, but extremely unpretentious. The club is located about a mile from the shopping and nightlife on Abbot Kinney Blvd., and from Deus Ex Machina a coffee shop and lifestyle brand popular with the surf and motorcycle community. 

Here is the ultimate “my office is better than your office” comparison: Should you need to stimulate your thinking with an out-of-office experience, you can rent a Porsche 911 from the Motoring Club, for less than your monthly Starbucks tab, zip up PCH to Carbon Beach in Malibu and do your work from there for a change. Or maybe skip the work part and stick with the experience part.

GCAi Facilitates Business Leaders Roundtable for BusinessWest

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One year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, GCAi helped BusinessWest gather leaders from six area businesses and institutions to talk about the many ways COVID has changed their work and lives, how it impacted the workplace for associates and customers, and even how it made them all different and, in their view, better managers.

Read entire article by BusinessWest editor George O’Brien here.

John J. Garvey named to Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services Board of Directors

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BusinessWest (February 2, 2021) – “Our mission and services have expanded to meet in part the incredible needs of the community during this time of hardship,” said Dr. Calvin Hill, MLKFS board chair and vice president of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement for Springfield College. “Therefore, adding additional and talented hands to our leadership will assist us in fulfilling the words of Dr. King as we attempt to do more for others.”

https://businesswest.com/blog/martin-luther-king-jr-family-services-announces-new-board-members/

 

Shoot once, cut multiple times

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There you have it. Video production is nothing like carpentry.

Both benefit from the skill and experience of the person doing the cutting. However, you get just one shot cutting the board right. On the other hand, if you have planned correctly, the return on investment with video begins in the edit suite where the cuts can be endless.

Right about now, you probably have had enough with this strained metaphor, so here’s an example. We shot the VideoBankerITM video for PeoplesBank with the end in mind and that was multiple edit possibilities. When Darcy jumped into the edit suite, that’s in fact what we created. Video for POS, digital marketing, and television. All of these versions were different and considered not only the requirements of the platform that they would run on but also the relevance and engagement needs of the various audiences that would consume them through those different platforms.

Here are a few ingredients of our secret sauce. The most obvious focus of video production is on the visual. Sometimes the sound strategy is underplayed which is unfortunate because, well people can hear too. Critical across the board, and most often missed is the graphic and captioning strategy. In a digital environment, more often than not, video content is consumed with the sound off. For this project, John designed the graphics to be positioned in such a way that they would not interfere with captioning. In case you missed that, use captioning when you disseminate digital video because almost all users have the sound off.

GCAi production management considerations: Actors, vehicles, locations and traffic noise, weather/sunlight, lighting, sound, screen capture (video banker), diversity of actors, and preparation.

TV Spot:

Digital:

More:

Video

Case Studies

Darcy A Young, James J Garvey

GCAi Donates C-Level Video to Support Food Bank Capital Campaign

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“Nobody should have to go hungry and navigate life.”

– Christina Royal, President of Holyoke Community College.

Unfortunately, need is not the main success factor of a nonprofit capital campaign. In order to navigate and penetrate the crowded field of capital campaigns in-market, the message needs to be important but communication is critical.

GCAi recently provided the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts with a critical advantage – for free. As part of its annual community services effort, the Springfield-based digital public relations company provided the Food Bank with a capital campaign video (below) with an estimated production value of over $10,000. The video highlighted the perspectives of a variety of business and community leaders including State Representative Aaron Vega, Jacqueline Charron of PeoplesBank, Charles D’Amour of Big Y World Class Market, Christina Royal, of Holyoke Community College, and Dr. Frank Robinson of Baystate Health System.

Darcy Young and James Garvey on-location during the production of the pro-bono video.

Award-winning producer Darcy Young finished the 2-minute video with the expectation that it could be later used in smaller edits for digital marketing campaigns. “While I agreed with the Food Bank team that a long-form video would be useful for direct pitches, I felt that the individual thoughts of local business and civic leaders would make quite effective digital campaigns down the road. So, we planned and shot the video with that in mind.”

The video is currently being employed by Food Bank staff to pitch to area philanthropists and corporate charitable donors. The campaign hopes to raise the funding necessary to expand the Food Bank’s facilities including additional farmland to grow fresh vegetables.

 

Darcy Young Appointed to Executive Committee of The Children’s Study Home

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The Children’s Study Home recently appointed Board of Directors member Darcy (Fortune) Young to its Executive Committee.

Ms. Young has been a member of the board since 2018 serving on the Communications Committee. She has consulted on everything from fundraising to digital marketing and, most recently, was part of the board effort to transition to a new executive director for the 155-year old agency.

One of her first acts as a member of the Communications Committee was to film and produce a promotional video for the non-profit agency. In the video, professionals from Baystate Orthopedic Surgery Center, PeoplesBank, Gomes, DaCruz, & Tracy P.C., and Sullivan, Hayes & Quinn explain not only the critical impact The Children’s Study Home has on youth but also the community. Ms. Young notes, “When I joined The Children’s Study Home board, I was blown away by the impact the organization has on Springfield and other communities. That impact stretches from the Berkshire Hills to the shores of Cape Cod.” The video now appears on the agency’s website home page.

Founded at the end of the Civil War in 1865, the mission of The Children’s Study Home is dedicated to partnering with families by providing innovative and educational programs and services that strengthen children and families; empowering them to succeed at home, within the community, and throughout life. The agency serves children, adolescents, and families with special needs throughout the Pioneer Valley, the Berkshires and Cape Cod areas. The children they serve are often struggling to cope with behavioral, psychiatric, and cognitive issues related to the experiences they have survived. The staff of The Children’s Study Home assesses their needs and develops individualized service plans that foster recovery, growth, and wellness.

As a Digital Public Relations Analysts for Garvey Communication Associates Inc. (GCAi), she has developed and implemented numerous public relations campaigns for the market’s leading brands. Ms. Young is also one of the only female video producers in the region. In 2018, she produced “Innovation Series” which won an award from the Advertising Club of Western Massachusetts. Prior to joining GCAi, she was a Field Producer, Assignment Desk Editor and Production Assistant for FOX News and ABC News affiliates.

Ms. Young is a cum laude graduate of Westfield State University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, Journalism, and Public & Corporate Communication.

 

Make Memorial Day Memorable…Or Any Holiday

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Memorial Day 2020 was like no other in recent memory. We all know why. The real question is, why did many brands and businesses treat it like it was?

You know the drill:
• Profound headline from last year “Honoring…”
• Stock image of waving flag and/or military personnel
• Most importantly – your weekend and holiday hours
• Organic post on social media

This is not only the template for Memorial Day, it will be something similar for the Fourth of July, Labor Day and so on. Business as usual during times that have never been more unusual.

There are a million alternatives to this template trap, but let’s just explore one and why it worked so well.

GCAi Client: Springfield Union Station

Concept: Memorial Day Memories

Overview: Union Station is an icon that is etched in the memories of many who have served their country, as well as their families. For most of them, it was a symbol of leaving home to serve. For some, it was a last memory of a family member or loved one leaving to serve but not return, because they made the ultimate sacrifice. This Memorial Day campaign would gather those memories and share them through social media marketing on Facebook and Instagram. From a statistical perspective, the results were astounding. The unexpected outcome was that the gathered memories promoted the sharing of even more memories. For Memorial Day 2020, Union Station’s social media channels honored actual memories of service and sacrifice not stock images and holiday hours.

Tactical: A two-phase Memorial Day campaign to collect and share memories of loved ones who left from Union Station to serve our country.

  • Part One: An initial social media marketing campaign to gather the memories and development of a website landing page to display them.
  • Part Two: Creation of a video animation to highlight sample memories and drive traffic to the website landing page (of all Memorial Day memories gathered), media advisory disseminated to select local media to increase awareness, and a second social ,media marketing campaign to promote the memories over the Memorial Day weekend.

Social Media Marketing Results

Overview:

  • Reached over 83k individuals and generated 190k impressions
  • Almost 59k people engaged with the ads, 234 of them shared it with their own audience
  • Tone: 3,084 reactions, 98.9% Positive

Data:

  • 190,507 Impressions
  • 83,248+ Reach
  • 58,726 Engagements
  • 655 Link Clicks
  • 234 Post Shares
  • 89 Comments
  • 5 New Followers/Likers

Landing Page: (view here)

  • 427 views between 5/22 to 5/25; average time on page was 1 minute and 19 seconds

Creative:

GCAi Launches New Videos for Peter Pan Bus Lines App Marketing and Perks Rewards Program

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While apps are nothing new, app marketing is. Most businesses with apps fail to move beyond the launch into actually engaging their customers in the benefits. That’s pretty shocking because the benefits flow both ways – to the customer and to the company.

But, there’s more. In this case, much more. When you combine the app with a rewards program, things really accelerate. In fact, 80% of travelers purchase tickets through a rewards program. Combined with a travel app, customers gain incredible convenience and benefits that, in this case, include free travel. So, ride on any Peter Pan Bus right now and you will not only view a new app marketing video but also a new Perks Rewards program video. In between the two marketing videos is a brief welcome message by company Chairman & CEO, Peter Picknelly.

Garvey Communication Associates Inc. (GCAI) produced the three videos which are already being shown on all routes in the Northeast Corridor. Each of them was produced by award-winning video producer Darcy A. Young, one of the only female video producers in the market. The concepts and scripts were developed by GCAi founder John Garvey.

“These videos always present a creative and production challenge for us,” explained Darcy. “We have to capture the attention of a distracted bus passenger with something exciting, then shift to the sincere and more serious tone of the CEO, and then back to upbeat and engaging. It’s a lot of fun, but a lot of fine-tuning too.”

The app and rewards videos will be disseminated through digital marketing campaigns in certain markets in the near future. These videos are the third in a series of passenger videos produced by GCAi that began when Peter Pan Bus Lines separated from Greyhound Bus Lines in 2017.

The videos can be viewed at gcaionline.com/video.

“It will come alive only when the most essential ingredient is added to it – Librarians.”

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Barbara Garvey, Vice President, Springfield Library Foundation

We have come together to celebrate the completion of this gorgeous Library in our East Forest Park Community. You may be surprised to see me rather than former Mayor Charlie Ryan but when we looked at the group of speakers for today, there was no doubt that the list was overwhelmingly male. So Charlie graciously stepped back for me. Which might be fair considering that it was I who had to work hard to convince Mayor Ryan in 2005 that once the bequests and endowments were ready to be transferred from the Museums Association, we needed to have a non-profit Foundation ready to receive them. So Atty. Brenda Doherty did the heavy lifting; I helped with some of it and with Mayor Ryan’s approval the Springfield Library Foundation was born and he was its first President.

One of our most important jobs was to become familiar with the wishes of about 30 donors who had made bequests to the Springfield Library. We wanted to understand and comply with the wishes of this group of generous donors who were interested in supporting and improving our Library System. The dates on these gifts ranges from 1869 to the most recent, 2018, and their amounts range from a few thousand to Annie Curran’s gift in 1954 of 1 million dollars.

Let me mention a bit about Annie Curran who lived on Dartmouth St. in the community around what we called, Winchester Square, now Mason Sq. I like to say that she married well having benefitted from the Wills of her 3 husbands. Library lore tells us that she would send her chauffeur to the store-front library on Catherine St. to pick up her books. When she died she decreed that her gift must be used to build a new library in Winchester Square. By the time the Foundation was formed, her gift had increased to 4 Million. And so, thanks to Annie Curran, we now have the wonderful Mason Square Library the way it is today.

Thus the Foundation became a significant part of the City of Springfield’s efforts to support a modern, not just up to date, but a leading Library System among Massachusetts libraries. And, over the past 14 years the Foundation has contributed more than 5 million dollars to our Springfield Library system for projects, for books and materials, as well as staff training.

We must thank former Mayor Ryan and our Mayor Domenic Sarno for their continued and vigorous practice of supplying vital and crucially important funds from the City Budget. Thanks to the City, the State, and the Foundation this East Forest Park Library we are proudly meeting in, is a leader among the Libraries of the nation.

However, this is simply a building, superb as it is, beautiful as it is, well furnished and supplied as it is – it is just a building. It will come alive only when the most essential ingredient is added to it – Librarians. People leave money to causes they have come to value and cherish. Librarians make that possible by enabling the public to take full advantage of the variety of services the Library delivers. Librarians, as do teachers, open doors for us, inspire us to search for information, to learn, to enjoy the wide world of benefits that Libraries supply.

And so, today, we celebrate the opening of another source of pleasure, inspiration and education that we all need so much. We thank the people who helped to make this indispensable project happen. And we heartily welcome the folks who will infuse this building with life and fire: our Librarians.