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Video-First Marketing: Brand Storytelling

Discover how brands are telling their stories and engaging with audiences on popular platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. Marketers share how they capture audience attention of consumers through authentic posts, great visuals and keep up with the trends on fast-growing platforms. Hear how you can have a creative career in this new era of video storytelling.

Presented with the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

The Center's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

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RYAN BEICKERT, STORYTELLER, COURAGEOUS STUDIOS (CNN, HLN, GREAT BIG STORY)
Ryan is a storyteller with more than 15 years of experience running award-winning departments in agency, media, and publishing. Currently, he is the senior filmmaker and director at Warner Media's branded content studio Courageous, where he is exploring new opportunities to keep pushing the creative storytelling abilities of brands with network partners like CNN, HLN, and HBO Max. He also founded and runs a collective of filmmakers and creatives called The Hexagon Initiative, teaches brand strategy at his alma mater, the School of Visual Arts. Ryan started his career as an editor, working for clients such as BBC, A&E, Food Network, Google, and Fuse, before moving into producing and directing. He built and ran the video department for the experiential agency MKTG for more than six years and built the branded content studio Vantage at Mic, helping to create an award-winning and acclaimed studio within the industry. His passion for bridging the gap between creative and brand is the foundation of his unique point of view.


JOHN MANNHART, SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER, AMAZON LIVE

John is a results driven digital performance marketer with over 9 years experience and a passion for exceeding campaign goals to drive business growth. For the first 7.5 years, he worked at (3) advertising agencies; starting out handling paid and organic campaigns for regional clients across IG/FB, Twitter and Pinterest. Then spent 3 years at Ogilvy NY, where he the lead paid social media strategy for international brands such as Showtime, IBM, Jägermeister, and UPS (among many others); driving conversions such as purchases and paid subscription sign-ups to deliver positive return on investment (ROI) for his clients. His career at Ogilvy concluded heading the paid social media US department. From there he spent a year as a Director of Performance Marketing leading a team of cross-functional digital platform experts, ensuring prioritization of key initiatives and executing multi-touch/platform strategies across Social, Google Search, and the World Wide Web for clients.

Currently, John works at Amazon as a Senior Marketing Manager, where he uses his expertise in data analytics, digital strategy and customer journeys to launch and lead the paid digital offsite advertising program for Amazon Live. He is in charge of driving viewership to Amazon Live and converting it to direct sales using advanced consumer targeting, high profile influencer partnerships, vertical video on IG Reels/TikTok, and more. 


EBRAHIM SHAKIR, GLOBAL HEAD, PAID SOCIAL STRATEGY & OPERATIONS, MCKINSEY & COMPANY

Ebrahim is a global social strategist with over 10 years of experience working across Asia and the US. His experience includes building and executing communication strategy for various Fortune 500 companies. While working out of Asia, his role included leading the social strategy for Nestle across various markets out of the Ogilvy Singapore Office. He has also worked on other prominent brands including BMW, KFC & Coca-Cola. When he moved to Ogilvy New York, he led the Social Strategy teams for IBM, Abbott & PPG Industries.

Ebrahim currently is the global head of paid social strategy & operations at McKinsey & Company. In his current role, he manages the various teams that work on social strategy, paid execution, and analytics for the firm globally.

On a personal note, he has worked with multiple start-ups doing pro bono work to help them apply advertising strategies to scale and address problems. He also mentor’s multiple students who are keen on a career in advertising.


Crystal Whaley

MODERATOR: CRYSTAL WHALEY, CEO & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PLAN C MEDIA GROUP

Crystal Whaley is a multiple EMMY Award-winning creative producer and development executive in film/TV/digital offering a unique combination of cross-functional skills with over 20 years of experience with a specialized expertise in content development and acquisition, strategic brand initiatives and creative direction. Crystal is responsible for the overall financial sustainability and creative integrity of multiple shows/projects, including the oversight of all logistics necessary to meet creative mandates, broadcast standards and brand recognition. She’s developed, produced, directed and supervised award winning series TV, commercials, music videos and nationally syndicated and Peabody nominated documentaries for TLC, PBS and Showtime.

Owner and Creative Director of Plan C Media Group, she’s also former VP of Development and Production of Pixel Media LLC / Lionsgate as well as a former senior producer for Sesame Workshop. A former director of video production for Arista Records and former executive producer of Free Spirit Films Inc, she’s produced a myriad of innovative commercials and music videos for award-wining artists. A lover of the arts, Crystal is a published photographer and an accomplished curator of the annual “For Us, By Us” at The Long Gallery Harlem in February 2017- 20, ALTAR: Prayer, Ritual, Offering at Photoville NYC in Sept. 2018 & Photoville Los Angeles April 2019 as well as curator for the HBCU’s Art Talk/Date: Kerry James Marshall at the MET Breuer.

She’s the producer & deputy editor of critically acclaimed photo books; Black Joy and Resistance in 2018 and MFON: Woman Photographers of the African Diaspora in 2017 as well as the founder of the forthcoming curatorial project, The M’Dear Project premiering at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) Summer 2022. Crystal made her directorial debut, Fall 2021 with her feature length documentary film, The Sound She Saw.

Crystal is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc, this Los Angeles native & honorary New Yorker holds a Journalism degree from Howard University and a Film Production Certificate from New York University.

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Diversity + Media Career Summit 2022