By Ground Media

As social distancing increased and film productions became impossible, David Rochkind, Ground Media’s Founder and Creative Director, took stock of what the company could do to stay active and participate in the crisis.  After a career spent in journalism, Rochkind knew that there was a need for a robust public health communications response and that Ground’s approach to storytelling could help get the message out. “With or without clients, I wanted Ground to stay on mission ,continue with our approach to social impact storytelling campaigns  and be part of the solution,” Rochkind explained, “And from a business perspective I knew that in order to come through this we needed to stay active and keep working.”

The team at Ground set out to create a series of pro-bono PSAs, largely in response to a call from the United Nations for the global creative community to help with the production of vital communications assets. Ground specializes in documentary storytelling, but the current moment demanded a new approach. By combining user-generated content with original animation, the agency was able to create three PSAs that they are providing to the United Nation’s campaign, distributing themselves and offering pro-bono to any impact organization that could make use of them. 

The first PSA focused on the importance of staying home and tells the story of Michigan State Rep. Robert Wittenberg and his wife, Kimberly,  who welcomed their their second child into the world on March 17. With Wittenberg’s own words, and imagery created by the family, Ground created a 60-second spot that reached 20,000 people within the first 24-hours of its release on social media. The story of the PSA was also picked up by The Detroit Free Press, Wittenberg’s hometown paper. 

Ground is set to release animated PSAs on how to stay healthy while shopping and the continued importance of social distancing in the coming days. Any organization that could use these videos should contact David Rochkind at david@ground.media.

Ground Media

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