Scroll down in American Express’ TikTok account, and you’ll find a video of Ira Galtman popping up from behind a bison at the Bronx Zoo.
“Ira content makes my day,” one commenter wrote, evidently already familiar with Galtman, who, as a middle-aged archivist, didn’t expect to become a social media hit for the brand when he first started filming “Ira, The Archivist” videos in 2023.
“I don’t even have a cat in my video, and people are looking at it! I don’t even have to dance in the video to get attention,” he said on a video call.
Galtman has served as Amex’s brand archivist for three decades, documenting the company’s 176-year history and preserving its historic documents and artifacts. He was a bit hesitant when the social media team first approached him about filming videos for LinkedIn, but quickly realized he was relatively comfortable talking about the stories he knows well on camera.
“I can be myself,” he said, adding that his authenticity is likely part of the appeal. “I’m not pretending that I’m trying to be an influencer.”
Galtman’s popularity coincides with Amex’s interest in courting younger cardholders, many of whom first encounter brands on their social media feeds. CEO Steve Squeri said on his company’s third-quarter earnings call that millennials and Gen Zers accounted 65% of new consumer accounts. As of January, the average age of Platinum cardholders was 33, never mind the $895 annual fee.
‘A runaway hit’
Amex’s social team started by posting Galtman’s videos on LinkedIn and Facebook, mainly for other employees, but expanded to other platforms after they were “a runaway hit,” said Aya Kanai, the head of enterprise content and communications.
“Nostalgia does very well online and in social spaces,” Kanai said.
The videos originally focused more on the artifacts, but the social media team learned that Galtman is a key part of their appeal. They now all have an endearing, almost jolly vibe, like a mix of the vintage Americana and dad-core posts on the more wholesome corners of the internet.
Galtman always introduces himself in his New York accent, often against “Modern Elevator Music/Cute Electronic Bossanova,” and launches into the history of an Amex-related object, periodically raising one eyebrow over his transition lenses. In the zoo video, Galtman explains that, in 1907, Amex helped transport 15 nearly extinct American bison from New York City to a wildlife reserve in Oklahoma.
Over time, the social media team has started tying his content to specific business events — in a video honoring the 60th anniversary of the gold card, for example, Galtman talks about a 1995 dress made from the product.
As of September, Amex had posted 20 videos of Galtman, which usually perform about twice as well as the company’s social media benchmark, Kanai said. Galtman’s videos still perform best on LinkedIn, and also do particularly well with younger audiences on TikTok. Nobody has stopped Galtman on the street yet, but he said colleagues have started coming up to him in the office or cafeteria to ask about their own business line’s history or a recent video.
Other corporate leaders have also leaned into social media for the right executives. Blackstone President Jon Gray, for example, regularly goes viral for his running videos, and McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski films taste tests from his office. Kanai said she’s keen to expand similar content to other Amex leaders, provided they’re comfortable on camera.
Keeping it real
Galtman, however, isn’t usually thinking about engagement metrics or customer acquisition when he’s filming, and is instead making sure he “feels the content.” The same ethos is true for his appearance — he doesn’t go through hair and makeup, partly because he wants “to keep it real.”
Before each video, Galtman takes time to stretch, swat away any lingering butterflies, and talk through the material in a quiet place, without his notes.
“If anyone sort of overhears me, I guess they may think, ‘Ira is really losing it.’ But I like to think that that’s not a unique thing to do,” he said.
Only a handful of people are there for the actual filming, urging him to smile more or coaching him through phrases that trip him up, like “stock certificates.”
Galtman’s mild social media stardom hasn’t changed his own online habits much. He still enjoys keeping up with rock and classical music, and following archive-related content on X. Yet he looks at posts through a different lens, now that he’s been on the other side of the camera.
“I can see a video and say that that’s really hard to do,” he said. “A lot of it is respect for some of the content.”
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