Teaming Up with THP

In our latest episode of Teaming Up, Erin Bagnell teams up with freelance travel journalist Lydia Mansel to discuss tourism communications. The duo talks through Lydia’s journey from full time work to freelance writing and how the industry has changed within that time. They also discuss the ins and outs of navigating the industry from all sides. Episode Highlights: Transitioning from full time to...

In this bonus episode, we’ve talked to the new leadership team at Hodges about our recent transition announcement. You’ll hear from Jon Newman, Paulyn Ocampo, Lindsay O’Bar, Greg Surber, Sean Ryan and Josh Dare about what this means to them, what their goals are for the future of the agency and you’ll learn exactly what Josh has planned for his upcoming retirement.   Related Links A different Hodg...

In this bonus episode, we’re giving you the Q&A portion from our Teaming Up Live event from earlier this summer. Senior Vice President Sean Ryan fields audience questions for  Jason Fuller , a producer with NPR’s All Things Considered, and  Adisa Hargett-Robinson , a former associate booking producer with ABC News.   Episode Highlights Who and how to pitch The impact of disinformation in the n...

In our inaugural LIVE recording of Teaming Up, we welcomed a panel of national media experts to share insights from the newsroom. Our Sean Ryan, senior vice president of media relations, served as a moderator and was joined by Jason Fuller (producer) and Adisa Hargett-Robinson (reporter and media producer). Sharing their insights to a packed house, the trio unpacked a day in the life of a national...

In our latest episode of Teaming Up, Lindsay O’Bar is joined by Onie Girton, senior vice president of sales and client services at Hilldrup. Hilldrup, and Onie in particular, represents our longest standing client relationship. We’ve been working with her since we onboarded Hilldrup in 2011. Building and nurturing relationships is a critical part to our business, and to the work Onie does at Hilld...

In our latest episode of Teaming Up, Paulyn Ocampo is joined by Ashley Brooks, of council at Roth Jackson. The duo focus on the legalities and guardrails we should consider as we navigate the integration of tools like ChatGPT, Jasper and Claude in our industry. These large-language models are being trained on billions of pieces of data, but is what about the ethics? Was copyrighted material part o...

In our latest episode of Teaming Up, Adrienne Maxwell teams up with Addison Clark’s Anne-Stuart Teter to explore all things search engine optimization. Addison Clark has been behind Hodges’ SEO for several years, while also supporting clients like Virginia Spirits in its optimization efforts. SEO goes well beyond identifying the right keywords to have on your pages: there are both content and tech...

As you can see, Hodges has been busy getting our new brand up and running, so we were a little bit behind launching the newest season of Teaming Up – but we’re back! In this episode, Diana McMahon, vice president of InUnison, joins Meg Irvin, APR in conversation about all things local (and in our case, all things Richmond). The pair talked about InUnison’s mission to support locally owned, indepen...

For our final episode of the year, we’re going back to the podcast roots by pairing up two Hodgers in conversation. It only seemed appropriate to close out our latest season with a conversation with our founders to talk about all the Hodges’ happenings our team has been going through this year. In this episode, you’ll get the TL;DR version of the journey we’ve taken as an agency over the last 12 m...

In this episode, Alejandro Leon and Adriana Velasquez discuss the nuances of Hispanic communications in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Adriana, born in Lima, Peru, and Alejandro, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida with roots in Colombia, share their experiences with bilingualism, cultural differences and how that all ties into marketing and communication. Episode Highlights Bilingualism and Spanglis...

In this exciting episode of Teaming Up, Sean Ryan connects with Ryan Nobles, who shares his journey through the world of journalism — detailing his career from local news in Utica, NY, to covering major political events for CNN and NBC. He reflects on the evolution of political reporting, the challenges posed by misinformation and the importance of building relationships in journalism. Nobles also...

In this episode of Teaming Up, Greg Surber, APR, is joined by Amy Baril to talk about their respective professional development organizations, how the two organizations collaborate in Richmond and the importance these organizations play in the personal and professional development of its members. Surber is the incoming president of PRSA Richmond and Baril is the current president of AMA Richmond....

In this special bonus episode, we’ve compiled some of the soundbites from our interview sessions with the kids of Hodgers during our inaugural Bring Your Kid to Work Day. You’ll hear from kiddos between the ages of 2 and 16 talking about their favorite things and taking guesses about what exactly it is their parents do.   Episode Highlights You’ll find out Ben Ryan’s favorite snack Harper Ryan’s d...

In this episode of Teaming Up, Amanda Christian is joined by Megan Wilson, creative director of Sweet Talk Strategy, to talk about the evolution of email marketing and why it’s a critical channel for communicators. The episode highlights the affordability of email marketing and positions it as a safer channel for marketing compared to social media (both in trust and reachability).   Episode Highli...

In this episode of Teaming Up, Casey Prentice sits down with Brian Forrester, CEO and co-founder of Workshop Digital, to explore the evolving landscape of digital marketing and its connection to public relations. The episode highlights the importance of integrating brand storytelling, strategic execution and data analysis to create successful digital marketing campaigns that resonate with target a...

In episode 28 of Teaming Up, Michaela Mishoe is joined by Melanin Monroe, drag entertainer and event host, to discuss similarities between drag performance and PR. Our Pride Month episode delves into commonalities in our work and echoes a point we’ve made time and time again about authenticity. This is an episode you won’t want to miss.   Episode Highlights: Reading the Room — You can’t just expec...

In episode 27 of Teaming Up, Paulyn Ocampo teams up with Lilie Malaeb to explore the intriguing world of cookies, both edible and digital. While munching on a variety of cookies from Crumbl, they delve into how digital cookies play a crucial role in advertising and the implications of upcoming changes in digital privacy. Episode Highlights: Understanding Digital Cookies: They discuss the function...

In episode 26 of Teaming Up, Anna Friesen engages with current Hodges interns—Jackson Amirshahi, Rachel Spiller and Peggy Stansberry—to answer the question, “What is PR,” while dissecting common misconceptions surrounding PR and the broad spectrum that the term covers. Each intern shares their unique journey, detailing personal misconceptions and how their experiences at Hodges has reshaped their...

In episode 25 of Teaming Up, Jon Newman engages with Kelly O'Keefe, CEO of Brand Federation, in a thought-provoking conversation about sparking innovation within organizations. They explore both macro and micro aspects of workplace innovation, emphasizing the importance of observation and understanding human behavior to meet unmet needs. Episode Highlights: The Essence of Innovation: Kelly O'Keefe...

In the latest installment of "Teaming Up," Hannah Robinson sits down with Ron Carey, master storyteller and CEO of the Richmond-based creative and production company, Tilt. This episode dives into the art of storytelling through a local lens, circling around the significant yet often overlooked stories nestled within our communities. Episode Highlights The Birth of a Planet : Carey delve...

Episode Notes: In this year-end episode of "Teaming Up," Tony Scida and Casey Prentice step out from behind the scenes of the podcast and discuss the peaks and valleys of marketing and communications in 2023. They each came to the table with one marketing high point and one low, plus a few bonus picks. Then the pair looked ahead to 2024 briefly and highlighted what challenges and opportu...

Episode Notes: "Teaming Up" takes a creative twist in our latest episode, focusing on the fusion of strategy and creativity in communication. Aidan Newbold, THP’s Director of Creative Services, welcomed Christine Coffey, Creative Director of Karnes Coffey, to share her insights. Aidan and Christine dive deep into the world of creative projects, exploring how strategy plays a pivotal role...

Episode Notes: Teaming Up is putting two former Hodges interns in the hot seat, talking about a totally new topic for the podcast: brand. We asked Briana Williams, CEO of LipLoveLine, to join Casey for Episode 21, where the two discussed building a brand and the process and considerations that go into that. Williams discusses her brand story and her business evolution – from winning a competition...

Episode Notes: Back from summer vacation, Teaming Up is returning with a debate of sorts. It’s the battle of media relations vs. content marketing. We brought in one of our favorite independent practitioners, Jill Vaughan of JLV Communications, to pair up with Josh Dare to discuss these dueling tactics for our 20th episode. Over the course of their conversation, Josh and Jill talk about the pros a...

Episode Notes: On the heels of Pride Month, our next Teaming Up episode is focused on LGBTQ+ campaign development, particularly in the tourism space. We called on our client Richmond Region Tourism (RRT) for Episode 19, which was led by our very own Hannah Robinson, senior account executive, who has been working with RRT for the last three years. In this episode of Teaming Up, Hannah sits down wit...