Teletech Video, known back in the pre-digital film reel and celluloid days as a major spot duplication and distribution companies, has a new name and a new outlook on business.
“October.tv” is the new brand, announces Chris DeWinter, executive producer and partner with managing partner Chris Palese and senior editor Ashley Nath.
“Coming up with a new name was difficult,” DeWinter says, noting that the partners had been wrestling with finding the right name since, well, last October.
“October is the month we moved over here into our own space, and we have October anniversaries in our families and of course it’s a big sports month.”
But what put a final stamp on the name was the line from Nelson Algren’s book, “Chicago, City on the Make.”
“Once we read the line, ‘Chicago is an October sort of city, even in spring,’ we know October was our new name,” DeWinter says.
October.tv has come a long, long way from the original old-line Teletech. It’s very much a contemporary content production/post company, serving such clients as Abbott Labs, BP petroleum, Enterprise car rentals, Aldi’s, ESPN, American Express, Allstate insurance and Impact business solutions.
In fact, says DeWinter, “We just had the best growth quarter in the past four years.” He attributes the growth to “our bringing a skill set to the table, our long term client relationships and being transparent, diligent and effective.”
Teletech’s transition to full HD production/post services began in 2005 when Palese joined the company, reactivated idle Avids and started a creative content division. Nath also joined Teletech in 2005 and DeWinter followed two years later.
The company currently has a full-time staff of seven, plus the services of permalancers and freelancers.
“We used Teletech’s infrastructure and grew our business digitally, in the medium range type of services of content creation, editorial, motion graphics, touch screen apps and websites 2.0,” DeWinter says. “We over serve our clients, giving them the most that we can.
“The medium space is great place to be. We work on broadcast, corporate, social media, really everything. Last year our projects ranged from $1,500 to $250,000, so we are very approachable.”
The partners bought the company in 2011 from the estate of the late Jeffrey Huffer, son of founder. They moved Teletech from its long time address at 540 N. Lake Shore Drive and spent the month of October building their current 5,000-sq. ft. operation on the first floor of a former toy factory at 413 N. Carpenter.
DeWinter’s phone is 312/670-2017; Email, cdw@october.tv.
