SPOTLIGHT: BARBARA HENNESSY
Barbara Hennessy, Senior Producer at Tribe Pictures (now Mountain View Group) attributes her success to her sense of humor and dedication. “Work hard, love what you do, and laugh along the way!”
She’s thrilled to report that Atlanta-based Mountain View Group just acquired Tribe Pictures. Their roster includes clients such as GE and Coca Cola. In addition to video production, they provide a range of communication services from storytelling frameworks to creating executive presentations to in-depth strategy work. She says the new company owners Thom Gonyeau and Stephen Pruitt have assembled a really talented team. Meanwhile, Tribe founder Vern Oakley, who has known both of them a long while, continues to be involved so it “feels like family.”
During her nearly 15 years at Tribe, she’s been instrumental in developing new ways to serve clients. She says, “The more things change, the more things stay the same! It’s the interpersonal relationships that keep a business going. Customer service and the understanding that we’re here to help solve the problem.”
Her problem-solving expertise shined in a particular project for a pharma group that needed help with increasing staff retention. They found that scientists were looking outside the company to move up in their careers. The company had created a custom web platform, similar to LinkedIn, where staff could upload a profile and promote themselves internally. But management’s adoption was sluggish at best.
Barbara’s team created a seven-minute scripted movie with professional actors to create a believable and engaging piece that was unlike generic corporate videos. The story and characters tapped into the company culture and felt more like a TV show. Its success reflected a 125% increase in the platform’s adoption.
Her remarkable 30-year career began in the 1980s when she worked her way from secretary to executive producer at TV commercial production company SBK Pictures in Philadelphia.
In 1993, she worked with cutting-edge technology for pharmaceutical client Merck via SBK’s doctor-targeted spin-off company Medical Broadcasting.
“It was very early experimental interactive TV,” she says about a marketing research tool her firm implemented for this project. Doctors received an all-in-one TV, VHS recorder/player equipped with a computer connection to an ISDN line. They viewed the video tape and pressed prompts to answer questions that were then submitted back to Merck’s communications department for marketing purposes. This project’s technology foreshadowed the internet and AI.
Barbara met her future husband while executive producer at SBK. Eventually, they moved to New Jersey and started a family. She left her position in 1999 to raise her first child. Although she had planned on only a year’s leave, her growing family and an economic recession had delayed her return until 2011 when she joined Tribe Pictures.
She had left the business when many projects were still shot on 35mm film and returned to a field that had been revolutionized by digital technology. About returning to a revamped arena, she says, “At first, it was intimidating. But then I realized that as much as that has changed, what I do is still the same—relationship building, helping our clients understand the process, and making sure that we understand their expectations. Only the format of the media changed.”
Barbara joined NYWICI because she wanted to stay current with industry issues. Being a member helps her learn more about her client’s concerns and pain points. Not only that, she likes that it’s a professional organization for women. “I grew up in a house full of women, six sisters, no brothers, and my grandmother. I attended an all-girls high school. It feels comfortable and it’s part of who I am.”
She has sage advice for women seeking growth in their careers. “Do your very best. Try hard every day. Make connections and do good work. If you care and you really try hard then you’ll be fine!”
She shares more reassuring wisdom from her greatest career lesson. After years of working beside agency owners and celebrities she says that it’s essential to remember that “We’re all just people! We all have a job to do.” She adds that “Nobody’s better than anyone else. It doesn’t matter if you’re working with cranky people or other people who like to laugh, like me!”
Written by Yvette Massoudi
