MarionMade!: Terry Cline's 'Veterans Banner Campaign' captures Remi Award

Special to the Marion Star
·3 min read

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Marion native Terry Cline always has strived to make his hometown a better place to live, work and play. Whether it’s been through the business he founded or volunteer activities, he has sought to use his skills in video production, marketing and advertising to help promote a wide range of events in Marion County.

Challenge Productions/Aerial Imaging, which Cline founded in 2006, has been honored for its work numerous times during its history. Accolades include two Emmy awards, an Edward R. Murrow Award, multiple Associated Press and WorldFest-Houston awards, a Columbus International Film Festival award, a Telly Award and a TOCA Award, to name a few.

In 2023, he captured a gold Remi Award at WorldFest-Houston for his video “Veterans Banner Campaign,” which highlighted the joint project Cline and local veterans organizations spearheaded to sell and display banners bearing the images of Marion County military veterans.

Terry Cline, center, owner and operator of Challenge Productions in Marion, created a video to support and promote the Marion Military Banner Campaign. The video won a gold Remi Award at the 2023 Houston International Film Festival. Vietnam War veterans Randy Drazba, left, and Frank Hickman, right, are key players in the success of the banner campaign.

"I've been fortunate to win a few times before at Houston, but this was special," Cline said. "There was a field of more than 40 entrants in the category, and we got the gold Remi out of it. I think the video projects Marion in a good light. It promotes Marion.

“Marion is just like any other city on the planet. We've got our problems, but we deal with those problems and we rise above those problems because there's a lot of good people here," he added.

Showing Veterans Memorial park in a different light

Cline said he considered how best to communicate to Marion County that the Military Banner Campaign was getting underway and he had always wanted to film Veterans Memorial Park on Delaware Avenue at nighttime, so the idea just fell into place.

“Nobody ever sees Veterans Memorial Park at night; it's always during the daytime. So the video shows it − no pun intended − in a different light," Cline said.

Cline has been working with Veterans Memorial Park for more than 20 years to promote projects and events there. He created a marketing video to help promote fundraising for a monument in the cemetery.

Cline is the founder of The Industrial Channel, a website that is the result of a partnership between Cline’s Challenge Productions and the North Central Ohio Region Industry Manufacturers Workforce Alliance, also known as Manufacturing Career Connections (MCC).
Cline is the founder of The Industrial Channel, a website that is the result of a partnership between Cline’s Challenge Productions and the North Central Ohio Region Industry Manufacturers Workforce Alliance, also known as Manufacturing Career Connections (MCC).

Lone resume, worthy projects

After earning a bachelor of fine arts degree in cinema production from The Ohio State University, Cline began pursuing his goal of being a content creator. He has volunteered his talents to benefit many community projects in Marion County. He has served as a marketing, advertising and public relations consultant for the City of Marion’s Lincoln Park Family Aquatic Center and helped create and organize the Marion Community Garden.

Teaming up with NUCOR Steel Corporation, Cline created a marketing video for the company’s Operation Steel Warrior initiative. He also created a documentary for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Dave Mason’s concert to benefit the Work Vessels for Veterans project.

Cline also served as the marketing director for Marion Wings & Wheels, a 501c3 nonprofit group that sponsored an annual event at the Marion Municipal Airport. He conducted fundraising activities and created advertising and public relations materials for the event.

Cline also is the founder of The Industrial Channel, an informational and promotional website that is the result of a partnership between Cline’s Challenge Productions and the North Central Ohio Region Industry Manufacturers Workforce Alliance, also known as Manufacturing Career Connections (MCC).

The Industrial Channel is the communications vehicle for the MCC, which serves Marion, Crawford, Delaware, Hardin, Morrow, Richland, Seneca, Union and Wyandot counties with the goal “to convene, educate, and mobilize key stakeholders in the region to promote development of a skilled workforce.”

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Terry Cline uses video to tell Marion's story, earns Remi Award