I’m Paul Freehauf. That’s me over on the right. I’m the primary writer and contributor here at PLAY.
I am a marketing and creative professional with a couple of decades of agency and client-side experience. It all began in Boston more than a few years ago. I worked for one of the bigger ad agencies in town at the time (Cabot Advertising). It was a wonderful time to be in advertising, and I was destined to be an “ad man” until I heard about an extraordinary opportunity to oversee the marketing efforts for a regional sports network. The idea of combining sports AND marketing was enough to make me hyperventilate. So I jumped over to the client side never to look back.
At the time, regional cable networks were in their infancy, but media tycoon Charles Dolan saw the future. I landed the gig, and not only did I learn a great deal about professional sports, I also learned a tremendous amount about media, broadcast production, and the cable industry. SportsChannel New England was the home of the mid-80s Boston Celtics and we quickly became a successful premium cable channel. However, after five incredibly exciting years, the business model changed and we were about to become part of a “tier” and it was time to move on.
A quick note to all you Celtics fans…Tommy Heinsohn and Mike Gorman started their Celtics broadcast careers with us back then! And they’re still doing it! They are the best.
Having had so much overall success (and fun) working in sports and television, I thought about what I loved even more as I considered my next move. Music was the answer, and the solution was to move to NYC and work in the music industry. With another stroke of luck, I landed a position with a brand new division with the world’s #1 entertainment company at the time – PolyGram. Chock full of some of the greatest record labels and recording artists in the biz, PolyGram was about to begin focusing more on what was quickly becoming my specialty – the visual side of the business. I was brought in to help launch and grow PolyGram Video. A blessing in disguise because not only did I get to work with every record label, their artists, and their management teams, but our programming roster quickly expanded well beyond music into television, sports, feature films, and beyond.
Eventually I would leave the New York area and again make my way back to Boston. All of my experience from the previous 18+ years helped me define what I wanted to do next…on my own. It would certainly be technology-driven. After all, the Internet is the most powerful and important distribution medium available today. It would also be rooted in marketing and branding tactics.
So, here I am today, a marketing and creative development specialist, a photographer, a producer, and a self-proclaimed STS (social technologies strategist) with the knowledge, talent, and skill set to develop and execute multi-faceted digital solutions for a wide variety of clients.
I consider it a plus to have been out there in the real world back when Advertising was still a thriving industry. How times have changed. Today, just about anyone with a marketing budget and a pulse can move beyond being a mere publisher and become a broadcaster using high-quality, professionally-produced video content (formally known as commercials). And that’s really what defines what I do. I’m boutique, the anti-agency model. I/we are the little guys capable of producing big solutions.
PLAY is about engaging visual content and interactive marketing solutions. As more and more information “gets socialized,” it will become harder and harder to get, and keep, the attention of your audience. I believe content is still “king” and the best (social media) distribution plan in the world won’t pay dividends if your content isn’t robust, engaging, and entertaining. Likewise, great content and messaging without an integrated distribution strategy won’t successfully grow your circle of influence either. Let’s face it. The entire category is in-play. It’s evolving. Changes and new ideas are popping up daily. PLAY will share some of my solutions along with great ideas I stumble across while in pursuit of the “perfect” solution. All that and a lot more.
Feel free to chime in.
Best,
Paul Freehauf
pfreehauf@gmail.com
wondrousstories
www.wondrousstories.com
Paul Freehauf Photography+Video
www.paulfreehauf.com
