Polka dots and cherry blossoms.
They speak volumes about Dmitri Vietze, founder and CEO of rock paper scissors,
a public relations firm based in Bloomington.
Vietze is wearing those playful patterns when we meet for an interview this summer
at his Fourth Street office. They are a definite tipoff to the warmth and joviality he’s
infused into the company – one that he started 20 years ago in Portland, Oregon.
Not long after, he “temporarily” moved to the Hoosier state so his wife, a Bloomington native, could get
her master’s degree from Indiana University.
“We thought that we would be here for a few years, but life is just too easy and good,” he smiles.
“We began to build this team and it’s a great place to raise a family (he’s got two kids). It’s functioned so
well for both.”
A good tale
An engaging personality, Vietze admits, “A lot of this has been about my own curiosity along the way and
realizing that I have a bit of knack for telling people’s stories.”
That storytelling began in the music industry as “the way of helping (independent) artists get some interest
and then more recently, pivoting into doing more PR for technology companies in the last seven years. That’s
where we’ve seen the growth – to where the tech has surpassed the music part,” he states.
“We’ve been so focused on delivering value for our clients that we’ve gained a strong reputation within
those individual industries.”
The tech turn happened as a natural evolution to the core business. Vietze partnered with SproutBox, a
By Rebecca Patrick
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
A high-level grad student
recently told rock paper scissors
leadership that working at the
company was “more stimulating
than it was in academia. There’s
so many ideas here, and we’re
pushed to share those ideas.”
September/October 2019 – BizVoice/Indiana Chamber 39
Bloomington venture capital company, and
started StoryAmp, a platform for connecting
musicians and the press in an automated way.
The end result was that rock paper
scissors got so much media buzz for
StoryAmp that other music technology
companies – and later other tech clients –
started to knock on its door.
Vietze, who is from Nashville,
Tennessee, went to a music school as a
teenager in New York City, his parents’
hometown. He finds the music work
particularly poignant.
“When you’re working with
international artists … there’s an emotional
connection to helping those people. A lot of
them have pretty tragic stories, honestly,
about the kind of economic or global
hardships they’ve gone through where they
live,” he offers.
“They are looking at the dream of
breaking (on the music scene) in America and
are turning to us. We’re responsible for
telling their story.”
As it happens
Each narrative is unique and develops
naturally, Vietze stresses.
“A lot of times we have to step back and
pace (the PR campaign) at the pace the client
can go with (so they can meet the demands of
possible media coverage). And even to help
them clarify what their vision of the company is,
etc. … We’ll just meet them where they are.”
That kind of free-flowing process appeals
to Vietze and is reflected in the company’s
tagline.
“It’s ‘deeply eclectic’. It’s open to things
that happen in the marketplace and things
that different team members bring to the
table and so forth,” he explains.
“You almost get a sense of it once you
see the types of companies and artists we work
with. It’s really about looking for interesting
things and following our curiosity and then
delivering value through this storytelling;
that’s us.”
Vietze points out that the publicists at
rock paper scissors – currently seven in total
– are known for their relationships with
media and their story pitches. “I travel around
quite a bit (to conferences) and hear from
(media members), ‘I always open your
emails. You have the best angles.’ That’s
what it’s all about!”
A sampling of rock paper scissors’ clients
features: CD Baby, the world’s largest online
distributor of independent music; LyricFind,
a major lyric licensing service; and Regatta
VR, an immersive learning company out of
Bloomington that, among other things, is
using virtual reality to teach sensitivity
training around sexual harassment.
Rock solid foundation
To produce great work means having an
internal culture that fosters collaboration and
creativity.
Sheryl Woodhouse, chief operating
officer, readily lists some of the core values of
the place she’s worked at the last four years.
“Diversity is very important to us.
Access and equity are important to us … and
of course, innovation. That also summarizes
the type of clients that we go after,” she
notes.
“Here in the office, I think there are
several things that may separate us from other
companies. We have an exceptionally high
level of intellectual curiosity in this office
and, in fact, we have five Ph.D.’s on staff. I
think it’s quite rare outside of academia.
That’s in addition to kind of all the fun things
you might expect out of an innovative
entrepreneurial environment.”
Those “fun things” include bringing dogs
to work, Friday yoga, jam sessions – several
of the staff members are musicians – and
monthly pitch-ins. Of the latter, marketing
director Eleanor Rust raves, “As somebody
here put it, teamwork is better with tacos!”
Woodhouse’s demeanor makes it clear
that her next sentiment is the most
meaningful to her.
“My co-workers are kind and I don’t say
that lightly. We have 18 very distinct
personalities in this building, but what they
all have in common is our people are really
Indiana Vision 2025: Dynamic and Creative Culture
The innovative ideas the team has had for client publicity include a 2017 President’s Day lyric infographic
that showed which commanders-in-chief have been used in the most lyrics. “We got dozens of articles
for that (including Billboard) showing that Obama was huge in hip-hip,” CEO Dmitri Vietze notes.
40 BizVoice/Indiana Chamber – September/October 2019
good to each other and it’s a very supportive work environment.
“What’s kind of interesting about us is we are taking people from
Indiana and other parts of the country and putting (the message) out
there to the world with our awesome Midwestern values. It’s lovely.
Some of the best people I’ve worked with in my career are in this
building.”
Vietze nods in appreciation. “That’s the kind of thing that makes
me so proud. That’s the kind of thing that I don’t think I did; it just
happened … it evolved. We really got lucky.”
Doing something right
Or rather, they made their own fortune. From the get-go, Vietze
could sense he was on to something good.
He fondly recounts his very first music project with a group out
of San Antonio. It had found music written in the 1600s about having
seen the Virgin Mary in the sky.
“They recreated the music at the time of that sighting. We got tons
of press for it – hundreds of articles. I was like, ‘OK, this works!’ ”
Fast forward to now. Rock paper scissors has become the “go-to
PR firm for international (music) artists in the United States,” Vietze
proclaims. From places like Japan, Latin America and South America,
to name a few.
The company boasts doing more than 2,000 projects to date for
clients on six continents. Ironically, that includes very little local work
– though the leaders are open to it – and it is even more international
than national.
As of August 2019, 27 clients were currently in the firm’s portfolio,
serviced by the 18 employees Woodhouse mentions – comprised of
publicists, creative team leaders, salespeople and more.
Only four years ago, the workforce count was at seven.
“We’ve more than doubled our staff in that time and doubled our
tech clients,” Vietze states.
“Something that Sheryl has done is make sure we don’t give too
much work to our employees so we actually do a good job.
“I say, ‘More, more, more!’ and then Sheryl puts that into
achievable perspective,” he laughs.
Woodhouse translates that enthusiastic directive to having 25
employees by the end of 2022.
Rust is impressed by the company’s steady, continual growth. “It
seems like we keep setting new goals and then reach them faster than
we expected.”
The only downside may be the need to look for new digs in the
near future. But it will still be in Bloomington.
As for that “temporary” move 19 years ago, Vietze laughs and
acknowledges the firm is here to stay.
“(The city has) treated us really well. We may look to open another
office somewhere someday, , but we’re not looking to go anywhere. ”