The American Express archivist social media series built around Ira Galtman has become one of the company’s strongest-performing content formats, consistently generating roughly twice the engagement of Amex’s own social media benchmark, according to Aya Kanai, the head of enterprise content and communications.
Galtman has worked as Amex’s brand archivist for three decades, documenting the company’s 176-year history and preserving its historic documents and artefacts. When the social media team first approached him about filming videos for LinkedIn, he was hesitant. He quickly found, however, that talking on camera about material he already knows well suited him well enough. ‘I can be myself,’ he said, noting that his authenticity is likely part of the appeal. ‘I’m not pretending that I’m trying to be an influencer.’
From LinkedIn experiment to multi-platform hit
The ‘Ira, The Archivist’ videos began in 2023, initially posted to LinkedIn and Facebook primarily for other Amex employees. After they proved to be, in Kanai’s words, ‘a runaway hit,’ the team expanded to other platforms, including TikTok. As of September, Amex had posted 20 videos featuring Galtman.
The format is immediately recognisable. Galtman introduces himself in a New York accent, often over a backing track described as ‘Modern Elevator Music/Cute Electronic Bossanova,’ and walks through the history of an Amex-related object, periodically raising one eyebrow over his transition lenses. His delivery is unhurried, almost cheerful, landing somewhere between vintage Americana and the more wholesome corners of the internet. Kanai attributes part of the appeal to a simple dynamic: ‘Nostalgia does very well online and in social spaces.’
The topics match Amex’s own corporate milestones. In a video marking the 60th anniversary of the gold card, Galtman discusses a 1995 dress made from the product. In another, filmed at the Bronx Zoo, he explains that in 1907, Amex helped transport 15 nearly extinct American bison from New York City to a wildlife reserve in Oklahoma. The social team has deliberately begun tying his content to specific business events as the series has matured.
Galtman’s videos still perform best on LinkedIn, though the team reports particularly strong traction with younger audiences on TikTok. Galtman himself remains modest about what he has produced. ‘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.
Amex archivist social media strategy fits a wider commercial push
The timing is not incidental. Amex has been actively pursuing younger cardholders, and the Galtman content sits within that broader effort. CEO Steve Squeri said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call that millennials and Gen Zers accounted for 65% of new consumer accounts. As of January, the average age of Platinum cardholders was 33, a cardholder cohort that pays an $895 annual fee.
Kanai said she is keen to expand similar content to other Amex leaders, provided they are comfortable on camera. Galtman’s success sits alongside a broader pattern of corporate executives leaning into social media formats. Blackstone President Jon Gray regularly goes viral for running videos, and McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski films taste tests from his office.
Galtman, for his part, is not typically thinking about engagement metrics or customer acquisition when he films. Before each video he takes time to stretch, reviews the material in a quiet place without his notes, and talks himself through it. Only a handful of people are present for filming, coaching him through phrases that trip him up. He does not go through hair and makeup, partly because he wants, as he put it, to ‘keep it real.’
Nobody has stopped Galtman on the street yet. What has changed is that colleagues now approach him in the office or the cafeteria to ask about their own business line’s history or a recent video. Kanai’s team originally treated the archivist as a vehicle for showcasing artefacts; the lesson the series taught them is that Galtman himself is the draw. The two things are now inseparable.