Ryan Gorcey: Connecting People Through Storytelling
Public & Media Relations
Telling Your Organization's Story
Most Recent Work: Film & Entertainment
Leveraging my experience as a frontline journalist and features writer, as well as my in-depth understanding and knowledge of film, entertainment, and pop culture, I am currently consulting with production company Dream Mechanics Entertainment, a tech-driven animation studio founded by writer/producer Devon Kliger which specializes in advanced motion-capture CG animation. Along with streamlining and optimizing the company's social media (IMDb, LinkedIn, etc.) to increase metrics presence, I have also consulted on investor relations and helped to create business development materials, including writing the company trailer.
Media Relations
"I thought you'd been on the job for 15 years."
Having spent more than a decade as a professional sports journalist, and having spent time as part of sports organizations' communications teams, I've been exposed to the full spectrum of media relations, from award-winning to floundering. There were common themes among the most ineffective comms departments, just as there were common themes among the best, and I've learned from each interaction. I learned from some of the best, including Raymond Ridder (President of Communications for the NBA's Golden State Warriors, who has won the league's Brian McIntyre Award for best PR team eight times) and Wesley Mallette (current Athletic Director at UC Riverside and former Director of Strategic Communications for Cal Athletics, with more than 10 years in senior marketing roles at MTV Networks, Victoria’s Secret, and Black Entertainment Television, Inc.), as well as some unsung heroes in both professional and college sports (Matt Fontenot at University of San Francisco, Bob Rose at the Oakland Athletics, Mara Rudolph at Cal and the NBA, and Doug Drabik at Stanford, to name a few).
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When taking over as Director of Communications at Stephen Wise Temple, I took the lessons I learned and approached my role as the head of publicity with a service-first attitude. I'd been on the other side, so I know the types of stories reporters want to tell, as well as the resources and access needed to tell them. I also have a deep understanding of the constraints of deadline like few other media relations professionals. So, I prioritized building earnest relationships with local journalists, relationships based on trust, mutual respect, transparency, speed and honesty. By doing that, I was able to shape the public discussion around the organization and secured unprecedented featured media coverage. When one reporter asked how long I'd been on the job, I answered: Less than two years. His reply:"No. Really? I would have thought you'd been on the job for 15!"
Featured Media Placements
Press Releases
Most (good) journalists will use your average press release only for facts, figures, and quotes, but if you can make that press release into something more, they can be a starting point for future earned media coverage. Always remember to give the important facts and figures -- the Who, What, Where, and When -- but don't forget the Why. By treating his press releases not just as house ads for an organization, but a chance to tell human stories that organically present those dry facts in a compelling way, I entice journalists and community members, leaving them interested, intrigued, and invested, eager to learn more.
SEO Blogs: Making Your Own News
The goal is simple: Give people a way to get lost in your world. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a vital part of this, and many of its components (key words that directly relate to the subject and are instantly recognizable; informative ledes with the five Ws, headlines, subheads, and decks) are direct parallels to journalistic writing. Search engines prioritize stories with certain Goldilocks lengths -- not too long, but no shorter than 300 words -- that prompt a writer to actually put time and thought into composing them. Linking back to previous works relating to the subject, inserting clickable calls to action, and creating a system of subject tags will pull your customers in, and give them a way to share your news, becoming your biggest advertisers and promoters, because we all know that word of mouth is the best kind of advertising.
Wise School Teacher Sarah Shpall Surprised With Major Award
How Wise's Aaron Milken Center is Prioritizing Sustainability
JDAIM at Wise: Working with Israel ParaSport Center
Yom HaShoah at Wise: Trudie Strobel Tells Her Story
Wise Student Takes Family to Volunteer at JCC Krakow
Executive Announcements
Writing a compelling executive announcement press release is the same as writing a newspaper profile: The story sells the person. By giving the press and investors a full picture of the individuals you are adding to your corporate family, you generate interest, establish personal connections to the brand, and demonstrate your company's values and priorities.
Driving Sales for
Branded IP-Driven Consumer Products
It's difficult to stand out in the crowded field of sports and entertainment memorabilia, but in the spring of 2021, Julien's Auctions brought me in to consult on one of their biggest auctions to date, a Hollywood Legends & Icons offering that spanned everything from Aliens to V: The Final Battle. Through meticulous research and an encyclopedic knowledge of movie history and pop culture, I uncovered several hidden gems and used narrative storytelling to draw attention to them in the auction catalogue.
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Because of my unique combination of pop culture knowledge and journalistic research skills, enhanced by my journalistic prose style, narrative ledes, and marketing copywriting techniques, I was able to increase the auction's expected take by 10%.
In further work, I went on to unearth original sketches by Matt Jefferies of the very first Klingon D-7 cruiser for Star Trek (1966-1969). Immediately identifying the class of ship and its designer thanks to his pop culture knowledge, I delved further into the design history to discover that the sketch was the 19th of a known 24 iterations drawn by Jefferies over a two-month period. My notes helped the piece sell for nearly six times its estimated value at auction.
My research into a late Disney Imagineer's collection & my ensuing product copy helped net a large return at auction.
Originally misidentified as coming from "Waterworld," my research & writing raised this piece's value by 5x.
A folded up piece of notepad paper provided the clue I needed to turn this "Batman" prop into gold.
Thought to be fan reproductions, I uncovered these Kryptonian symbols' real provenance. Featured in a later auction, they went for nearly double the estimated value.
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