Creative
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Origin Stories
Audiences love a good origin story. Exploring a villain’s dark past or a hero’s transformative experience sparks the imagination and creates drama. The art of storytelling is impactful, whether in a campfire setting or on a computer screen. Theater, literature, film, television, and even digital content developed for marketing purposes make us stop and pay attention. An origin story helps us relate to others and shift our perspective toward empathy and understanding. The NTC Studios origin story may feel familiar to anyone working for creative marketing agencies or a media production agency, because everyone involved in the storytelling business felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the Beginning
NTC Studios is an extension of The National Theatre for Children, a touring educational theater company, founded in 1978. Our first client was Northern States Power, a midwestern utility that is now a part of Xcel Energy. We created an education-based brand strategy for them that introduced their targeted electrical safety messaging to elementary school students.
At the time, no organizations were considering a digital marketing campaign, social media advertising, or any sort of media production company for community outreach. For this project, we sent two actors, a simple set, and a trunk full of costumes into schools to teach, entertain, and inspire students, and provide take-home learning materials for their families. The goal was to promote awareness of safety issues related to electricity and change behaviors that could potentially lead to injuries or even death. Our method of delivery was education through the extremely impactful experience of live, interactive theater. Our founder, Ward Eames, started building the company while in college, based on his love of the performing arts.
He did not realize at the time that he had just launched a creative consulting agency.
Big Ideas for Wild Times
Cut to 2020. By that time, NTC had implemented tours in all fifty U.S. states in its 40+ years of operations. We expanded our deliverables to include graphic design, character design, logo design services, website design, and digital marketing. We created complete community outreach programming that engaged audiences through live events, educational materials, and digital games and activities. We developed the same type of assets for school communities that branding design firms develop for general audiences.
However, our programs were still rooted in live performance, and of course, that method of delivery evaporated quickly, as it did for so many small theaters when the pandemic hit. Schools closed abruptly, and tours screeched to a halt. Our clients still wanted to engage their customers and communities through the school channel, but the audience had left the building. Educators and students sat at home, attempting to figure out how distance learning worked. It was clear to our team that without the option of live performances, we must pivot or cease to exist.
Pivot or Else
Over a single summer, we set ourselves up to continue engaging and educating schools as a video production business. Our live theater productions were adapted and produced as educational videos. Over the years, we had already experimented with video and even television production through our syndicated educational TV series, M@d About. Still, the transition to a 100% video content agency was a stressful learning experience, made up of many trials and even more errors. 
Switching quickly from a live event producer to a digital solutions company took plenty of effort and energy. However, we knew that NTC had no future if we failed to adapt to the global situation. We had to create content, develop a digital campaign for each virtual event, and design online advertising campaigns to reach educators and alert them to the existence of our capabilities. Finding ways to be nimble saved us. We managed to keep our entire staff on the payroll throughout the crisis while continuing to provide our clients with top-notch programming.
And Now…
The NTC Studios team uses the skills that we have honed over close to 50 years in schools to inform our current creative work for all audiences because we know that growing up does not necessarily change how you learn. We have expanded our offerings to include design agency services like business video production, creative landing page design, and artwork design. The same creative spirit that fueled electrical safety education in the 1970s informs our new boutique branding agency.
We produce video content that reaches audiences of all ages and develop educational content for organizations of all types. With our in-house production studios, we can compete with other video marketing companies that may not have the advantage of our history in education. As part of our creative asset toolkit development, we produce designs and graphics to support outreach campaigns. We assist in web branding to support existing initiatives and launch new ones.
Like any brand design or marketing company, we develop effective campaigns to reach each client’s target audience. Where once we exclusively engaged with students in schools, we now engage with anyone of any age who needs information. Through video solutions, graphic solutions, and digital solutions, whether that be a simple landing page or an entire social media marketing campaign, NTC Studios supports a wide variety of outreach initiatives.
Looking Forward
Our pandemic-era origin story may not be especially unique, but we take pride in our ability to evolve, and we’re especially thankful for the opportunity to continue telling stories on behalf of our clients. As work grows in providing creative solutions for programs, projects and people to connect with, the whole team is excited to see what’s next. We have strong roots of problem-solving and thriving under pressure, which really is a superpower when you’re doing business at this time of history.
So, what story would you like us to help you tell?
