A Rock Away Hopes to Promote Local Biz Through Videos
By Katie McFadden
Thinking about elevating your social media marketing? There’s a local crew for the job. A Rock Away video marketing launched late last year and they’re ready with camera in hand to help promote small businesses with videos ads.
Take a look through A Rock Away’s Instagram (@a_rock_away) and you’ll find a series of video projects Larry Oliver and his wife, Vanessa, started working on since December. You’ll find short clips that themselves tell a full story of things like a charitable event, a music video, behind the scenes views and up close looks at the delicious cuisine offered up by Brisas Del Mar II and most recently a look into Pete & Cubo’s Rockaway Beach, where artists are hard at work putting ink masterpieces on skin and piercing body parts. The 30-second to two-minute clips serve as video ads to promote the businesses on A Rock Away’s page, and for the businesses’ own use. And the Olivers are just getting started as they spread the word to other local businesses about their services.
Originally from Rockaway, Larry Oliver spent some time following big opportunities behind the camera, as a camera operator turned associate producer for The Weather Channel, which entailed living in Atlanta, GA. But after several years in Atlanta, he was missing home. “Where I lived in Atlanta, there weren’t a lot of small businesses. It made me homesick. After a while, it was Walmart city. There were two Walmarts across from each other,” Oliver said. After marrying his wife, Vanessa, and having children, Oliver traded in the southern city for his suburban beach town back home—Rockaway. “Within three months of going to the bodega by my house, they knew my name and what my order was and gave me special prices. I didn’t have that for 15 years,” Oliver said.
Oliver found himself back home when Covid started to emerge and filming wasn’t as essential, but delivery services were. “I worked for six small businesses in Rockaway and started developing relationships with people,” he said, and it renewed his connection with small local shops. Eventually Oliver got a job in film once again, working in the New York City tourism and travel industry, producing content for different companies.
But he’s been itching to do something closer to home. “I’ve been working in corporate for a long time and doing freelance and I really like dealing with people who run small businesses, where you can speak to someone face to face. It’s just easy, especially when you make friends around here,” he said. Oliver first offered his services to a restaurant just around the block from him, Brisas Del Mar II, and he’s been stopping by other small businesses since. The latest video he produced was for Pete & Cubo’s. He walked in one day, handed them a card and next thing they knew, Vanessa was getting a tattoo there and shortly after, Oliver was filming others get tatted for the studio’s video ad. Most recently, he shot some scenes for Pickles & Pies deli on Beach 116th Street and edits are underway to produce their video ad. Larry says he handles the filming and production while Vanessa handles administrative work and the social media page, and even their son is helping out by starting to make them a website.
Larry and Vanessa have even turned the new business into a date-night opportunity. “We started Friday night date night where we’ll pick a new place that looks appealing for a date, and I’ll spend 20 minutes talking to the owner or staff, explaining what I do and giving them prices,” Oliver said. “It’s worked out exactly how I thought so far.” They already have three other restaurants lined up for filming. Oliver says he spends anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours filming depending on the subject, and then spends more time editing the clips together, to tell a story to catchy background music.
The name, A Rock Away, was Vanessa’s idea and Larry says it speaks for their mission. “A Rock Away is like a stone’s throw away. We’re hyper local and a lot of the places we’re helping so far are around the block or within a few blocks, just a stone’s throw away,” Oliver said. And he hopes to keep the focus local as things ramp up. “We’re a small business making ads for other small businesses. There’s this element of everyone has to help each other. I’m looking for these places to win. I eat at most of the places I’ve gone to, and I want them to do well, plus it’s a nice break from corporate work,” he said. “It’s really satisfying working with this footage, and I have a lot more passion for it because I’m helping people in a direct way.”
With winter being a slow time for businesses on the peninsula, Oliver is hoping they’ll take advantage of this services to help boost themselves. “My goal is for this to grow and for us to promote the peninsula. We’ve seen a lot of businesses close, and winter is tough for Rockaway, so it would feel good to help them,” he said. “Then hopefully I can get to a point where I can hire more people and make this bigger and go beyond Rockaway, but always continuing to serve Rockaway because we’re right here and we’re not going anywhere.”
If interested in finding more about the Olivers’ services, send them a message on Instagram (@a_rock_away).
