In 2011, Campbell County native Rudy Harris and his wife, Tammi, had an idea that would change their lives forever. Rudy was unemployed, because five weeks before their wedding he lost his job working at a video production company. Tammi, at least, had a freelance editing gig for a local photographer. He went to his father and asked if his company was hiring, and his father’s words put Rudy on the right career path.
“He looked at me and said, ‘We are always [hiring], but no, you’re going to regret it forever,’” Harris said. “‘You need to go and try. You might be homeless. You might fail. You might have to move back home in our basement, but that’s okay—but you should try it.’” Those tough words of encouragement helped the Harris’s start their own company, Harris Media Co., a creative content studio.
“We built two different brands or sides of the business: one doing the personal side of the photography world—the weddings, the baby portraits, senior photos, all that—and then we were trying to build the commercial side knowing even at that point the wedding side was not tenable for us,” he said. “We did build a good business on that side, but eventually we said, all right, enough’s enough. We got to go full force into the commercial world. And that’s the first step to where we are today.”
At first the couple worked in their pajamas out of their home; Harris said they were a “pajama startup.” Eventually they moved into a brick-and-mortar on Pike Street in Covington, and in 2020 they bought a building on Monmouth Street in Newport, where the business resides today.
“When we started the business, we basically had an empty glass and we’re like, Let’s try to fill this cup up,” he said. “And we filled it up and it was like, oh man, this is awesome. After a few years, the glass got full. We said, man, we need another cup, and another cup was an employee. We hired our first employee and then their workload got full. We said we need another one now and another one. Because as the amount of work that came in, we had to have more and more people. As the boss, I’m no longer managing the water within the cup but the cups themselves.”
They have 10 full-time employees who create between 150 to 200 projects a year, and on average they deliver more than a thousand videos to their clients. All of that meant they needed a new cup.
“We needed that next level creative brain, someone that’s been in that room pitching the concepts, building the decks, directing shoots, because I was doing that,” Harris said. “But as we have grown, I have not been able to do quite as much of that as I once did. We needed it not only to elevate our business, but also to better serve the clients we have.”
In February, Harris hired Ryan Neltner, who had a background working in design and advertising, most notably for Curiosity Advertising and Lightborne Communications in Over-the-Rhine. During that time, Neltner and Harris crossed paths frequently and developed a friendship based in creative. Later on that connection came to fruition when Neltner came aboard as Harris Media’s first creative director.
“In my interview I said to Rudy, ‘How do you feel about mugs?’ And he said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Well, mugs hold water too, but they’re different than cups,’” Neltner said. “I think a big reason why I’m here is my background is a little different than what Rudy is typically used to. I have a different experience coming from over a decade in the agency world of dealing with small local companies but also huge national, worldwide brands.”
One reason Neltner accepted the position was because he appreciated Harris’s ability “to go above and beyond the ask consistently.”
“I’ve seen plenty of examples in my time here where the ask is one thing and we’ll give them that, but there’s opportunities for something else for what they really need that can make a bigger impact,” he said. “It’s sort of like when you’re in a relationship, you don’t always do what’s best for yourself but sometimes you say I’m going to do what’s right for you, even if it means I’m going to have a little more stress. And that’s how I operate always to my own detriment.”
Building trust with their clients—most of who are repeat customers—is important, and Harris does that by simply being himself.
“I’m the same person to you, to Ryan, to my wife, to my dad,” Harris said. “I was a server way back in the day and all my friends who were servers, they had their server voice. I never spoke like that. What you see is what you get. I’m a pretty transparent person.On the other side, I genuinely want what’s best for people in general. We have talked people out of using us. I have told people you don’t need a video. You need something else entirely.”
Establishing that trust with clients but also caring about them paid off in March when the American Advertising Awards awarded Harris Media with four Addies, including Best in Show for their work with longtime client LifeCenter Organ Donor Network.
“It was shocking because some of the other award winners were so amazing and so funny, but our piece was heavy,” Harris said. “It wasn’t a jovial piece but something that’s pretty in your face. It’s validating [to win]. It makes things worth it. It makes you feel like someone else is paying attention.”
As for the future, Harris Media took another step into growth, purchasing and expanding into the building next door to their current studio, yet they want to remain a small team who challenges what video production can be.
“People aren’t going to look unless we’re reinventing,” Neltner said. “If we’re just doing what everyone else is, it’s hard to get noticed. We’re trying to develop new ways of approaching and making creative that gets people to raise an eyebrow and say, what’s going on there? How can I be a part of it?”
For Harris, his long-term goal is to attract people to his shop to see for themselves all of the amazing things they’re accomplishing.
“What I told Ryan and our team here that the goal for this year and probably for the ongoing future is to be a magnet,” he said. “I want people outside of the shop, both our competitors, potential clients and just the community, to physically want to see what is going on at that shop in Newport. Why are they so happy? Why are they so fun? Why are they doing such good work? How are they doing so much work? How are they doing this? Why are they doing this? I want people to want to be here.”
