Press Box (March 2024)

The Rundown

Time is Ticking on TikTok…

TikTok has become every politician’s favorite punching bag, with talking points about the app’s connection to the Chinese government and states banning the app on state devices. The House approved legislation that demands either a full ban – or, a sale of the social media platform. The bill still has to make its way through the senate, where it is apparently losing steam. Axios has the story.

Long-Form Video is on the Rise

Social apps are aiming to keep users entertained and engaged longer. Shortly after TikTok launched a program that incentivizes users with at least 10K followers to create and upload longer form videos, Instagram expanded its test of longer Reels. Some users are now able to upload Reels that are up to three minutes long, double the current 90-second limit. Learn more about this experimental IG feature on Social Media Today.  

Deep Fakes

The conversations around AI and its current and potential impact on the marketing industry continues to rise to fever pitch. One of the more interesting (and dark) examples of AI use in the industry is revealed in this story from Marketing Brew, where an influencer’s content was used in an AI-generated ad campaign without her knowledge and consent.  

Influencing an Election?

It’s a big presidential election year, and you know the conversation on social is only going to get more saturated as we near November. This article on The Conversation talks about the DNC’s investment in content creators creating pro-Biden content ahead of the election. There are a lot of ethics and disclosures when you’re hiring content creators to publish messages, but this article does a good job painting the potential picture of influencers’ and content creators’ role in the election.

Creative Home Run

Style Weekly Food Issue

Our Creative Services and Virginia Spirits Board folks teamed up to create an eye-catching ad in Style Weekly's 2024 Food Issue celebrating Richmond's best new restaurants and Virginia-made cocktails. You can almost taste the mint julep! The Virginia Spirits Board is also the presenting sponsor of the Best New Restaurants Dinner, a seven-course dinner featuring the city's biggest chefs and new restaurants on April 24. Foodies can learn more about the event here.

Inside Baseball

Funding for Free Clinics

We’ve helped engineer a wave of media attention on the need for the legislature to increase funding for the Virginia Association of Free and Charitable Clinics. Story placements on RadioIQ, WTVR and WSLS, and in The Richmond Times-Dispatch, among other outlets, helped make the case for the $1.5 million in additional funding that ultimately was secured.   

Telehealth in Virginia on the Rise

The Virginia Telehealth Network’s annual report memorializes another year of broad adoption of telemedicine throughout the commonwealth. Sure, we wrote and designed the report, but it’s the content that it chronicles that deserves congrats. 

Experience Chesterfield…Especially This Week

Mark your calendars as Chesterfield County is launching two concurrent, week-long celebrations beginning March 29. As part of the new Experience Chesterfield campaign, the County is hosting Restaurant Week and Outdoor Fest through April 7. Click on the links for more information.   

Kingsmill Ranked

Kingsmill Resort recently landed on two prestigious lists -- #4 on the best public golf courses in Virginia (Golfpass) and among the top 25 spring break destinations for families – featured within Williamsburg (Forbes).  

Spreading the Love

As part of National School Breakfast Week, we worked to make sure that school nutrition teams were feeling appreciated by coordinating placement of letters to the editor from No Kid Hungry in papers across the commonwealth, including Loudoun Times-Mirror, Daily News-Record and others.

The Bench

Workshop Digital

We’re starting a new series where we’re spotlighting partners and vendors that we have on our bench that we can tap into to round out our team’s expertise to deliver the best services to our clients. First up is our friends at Workshop Digital.

Workshop Digital is a digital marketing agency headquartered in Richmond. Its search engine optimization (SEO), paid media/pay-per-click advertising (PPC) and website analytics and reporting experts help clients get found online. Through its proven process, The Workshop Way, the folks at Workshop Digital believe that passionate people create powerful results.

Learn more about Workshop Digital, its process and some sample case studies in its one pager overview.