News
This Month’s Best Content Marketing Reads
As many know, I’m a big fan of reading everything and anything that helps us improve our strategies and processes for our clients. So, without dragging it out, I’ll throw out some of the best of the best articles in the last month that we found interesting, as well give you our take on the piece. Maybe you will find these articles and opinions equally as interesting!
“How Many Minutes Should My Videos Actually Be…?”
Here’s a quick breakdown of what we witness on a daily basis:
Some videos are 2 minutes and feel like 10...
Some videos are 3 minutes and feel like 1.5...
Some videos are 12 and don't feel long enough because the audience wants to know more...
The 'secret to the right video length' has nothing to do with video duration, it has everything to do with whether or not the audience CARES about what's happening, thus making the video FEEL short or long. We've all been there: we started watching a video, and about 10 seconds in we pause the video to see how long this is going to take us to finish. It's right-then-and-there that we lost our audience.
The goal is to tell your story and make sure your audience cares: not to think about a specific target video duration.
Our Team
President & CMO
Mike is the co-founder, President & CMO of TDC. He began his career as a corporate and interior/architectural photographer, went on to serve as the University Photographer at James Madison University for nearly a decade, then served as TDC’s Creative Director and eventual President.
When he’s not working, he can be found enjoying time with his wife and two children and riding his mountain bike.
Director of Content Strategy
Elise grew up right here in the Shenandoah Valley with a love for art and photography. After graduating from Bridgewater College in 2011, Elise has taken on a variety of creative jobs including river adventure photographer, a dairy co-op marketing photographer, and Associate Creative Media Producer at JMU, before landing at TDC. Elise loves being able to use her passion for storytelling through photography and videography to help clients reach their goals and to help team members continue to grow in their careers and skill sets.
Outside of working with the fantastic team at TDC, you can find Elise working on all manner of projects with her partner out in the countryside. Currently this includes gardening, renovating a 1974 Airstream Argosy, fostering kittens, and creating more pollinator and bird friendly habitat on their land.
Marketing Strategist
Christine specializes in visual storytelling and content strategy for brands in various industries. She is passionate about utilizing media as a tool to communicate and cultivate relationships with others. A complete type-A personality, she especially enjoys creative problem-solving and establishing well thought out processes to bring about results. In her free time she enjoys caring for her plants, reading books, and horseback riding in the valley with the Glenmore Hunt Club.
Director of Operations
Megan is the co-founder and Director of Operations at TDC. She handles everything behind-the-scenes at TDC and is present from start to finish of every single project. She also guides and supports both the Strategy and Social Media teams internally.
Megan is a wife, mother of two sweet boys, a former 7th grade math teacher, and an entrepreneur at heart. When she’s not working, Megan enjoys playing with her kids, crafting, and trips to the beach.
Content Strategist & Specialist
Brandon was born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley and loves enjoying everything it has to offer. A graduate of Bridgewater College from their art program also competed for their track and field team and continues to pursue his love of the sport by coaching. He likes to take his photography skills to the trails and shoot nature when he’s not working. When not behind the camera he throughly enjoys being outside backpacking, kayaking and brewing beer. He is proud to part of this amazing creative team!
Marketing Strategist
Raven, a West Virginia native, has enjoyed the last 6 years in education and is now putting her strategic planning and communication skills to work in the marketing world. Through many diverse experiences, she has learned a special skill set to work with people from all walks of life and help them achieve whatever they are trying to accomplish.
Raven lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia with her husband John and daughter Baylor. She enjoys spoiling her dog Boone, watching sports, and traveling in her spare time.
Web & Design Manager
Kristin specializes in creative problem solving through strategic design. She has experience in graphic design, web design, branding, and social media management, but also enjoys UX Design and has a newfound love for photography. When she’s not working, she’s likely weaving, hanging with her dog, or finding new fonts to obsess over. She’s excited to be working with the creative minds of TDC!
Marketing Strategist
Austin has an affinity for words and the stories they can tell. With a bachelor's degree in Marketing, a master's degree in Business Administration, and a copywriting program completed, he has experience with branding, digital advertising, and content marketing. He is passionate about conversing with others, understanding what drives their emotions and ambitions, and how shared experiences and understandings can complement mutual success and happiness. You can catch him on a disc golf course, a pickleball court, or at the top of a Mario Kart leaderboard (he has the trophies and stars to prove it).
Content Specialist
Geoff is an editorial, documentary and lifestyle photographer with over 25 years of diverse photography experience. A long-standing passion, for documenting experiences and collecting moments that tell the larger story, continues to inform his photography today.
Content Strategist & Specialist
Kendall is a passionate storyteller who specializes in videography and editing. She loves working with people and finding the most effective way to capture their stories. After graduating from JMU in 2022 with a degree in Media Arts and Design, Digital Video and Cinema concentration, she’s beginning her professional career here with TDC.
Outside of work, she loves spending time with her sweet corgi, playing ukulele or guitar, and learning more about Jesus. She is proud to be part of this wonderful team of creatives!
Content Strategist & Specialist
Brittany is a proud Valley local. She grew up with a love of art that evolved into a passion for photography, shooting everything from motocross to ethereal landscapes to colorful cocktails, developing a bold and vibrant photographic style along the way. Having years of commercial photography experience under her belt, Brittany likes working closely with clients to capture their unique qualities.
She also loves traveling to new places, counting Wyoming and Asheville as her favorite locales. When she’s not in the office, you can generally find her kayaking, swimming, gardening, skateboarding, taking her dog for a walk, or cooking for her family.
Assistant Marketing Strategist
Mariam is a creative multidisciplinary storyteller and problem-solver. Her creative storytelling started in the visual and performing arts as an expressionist acrylic painter, actor, singer and dancer. Wanting to take on storytelling with a more strategic approach with the goal of problem-solving and making an impact for people, she went on and fell in love with graphic design, user experience design, and marketing and design strategy. She continues to be fulfilled practicing her dynamic creative and strategic skills in this role, and learning even more ways to creatively solve people's problems.
Outside of work, Mariam continues to act, sing and dance. She also likes to build meaningful connections and create art in community with other like-minded people. She recently started to explore poetry and songwriting.
Content Specialist
Born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, Joe is a creative with a strong background in writing, but discovered a passion for photography in his college years. Upon graduating from the writing studies program at EMU in 2023, he delved into the local world of car culture and motorsports photography before finding himself at TDC. He has a strong love for learning new disciplines and honing his craft. When he’s not at work, he can often be found tinkering on old sports cars, playing guitar, or on a racetrack with a camera.
Content Specialist
Derrick Chirinos is a Harrisonburg based commercial photographer and videographer with experience in studio and documentary content. Since graduating from Eastern Mennonite University in 2019, Derrick has explored and expanded his skills into mixed media portraiture, automotive photography, and more recently, directing commercial video.
In his free time, Derrick enjoys playing in the local adult soccer league with friends from college, entering local 5K races, and writing his own comic books.
Content Specialist
Ivan is a creative portrait photographer and videographer with experience in studio and promotional content. Since graduating from Eastern Mennonite University ('19) he has done freelance work for clients in Virginia and expanded his skills in promotional content and storytelling. He also worked as a school photographer covering schools in Northern Virginia and the Richmond area. In his free time, Ivan likes to go on runs, create conceptual photographs, and listen to podcasts.
Web & Design Specialist
Noah is an innovative designer with a wide variety of experience in digital marketing, website design, and usability testing. He is passionate about creating stunning designs that prioritize usability and the user experience. Outside of work, Noah enjoys producing music, drumming, playing soccer, and spending quality time with friends and family. Noah is so excited to be apart of the brilliant creative team at TDC Marketing!
Assistant Marketing Strategist
Bastian is a true optimist when it comes to marketing. He believes that the ability to understand and persuade can be used with good intentions to create a win win scenario for both the buyer and the seller. Originally from northern Virginia with a B.B.A in Marketing from JMU, his goal is to strategize three steps ahead of competitors without kicking them to the curb.
Outside of his profession, he is also passionate about sports, food, weightlifting, video games, and music. He is looking forward to a bright future with TDC in learning the ropes of applying his knowledge and skills in the field.