Jamie Graham, senior VP/ creative director, and Ron Harper, senior art director, both started at Arnold Communications, Boston, on the same day some three years ago. The two were quickly paired on the FootJoy account, which is a division of Titleist and FootJoy Worldwide. FootJoy makes golf shoes and golf accessories. When Graham and Harper were first brought together on the account, the company was using a fairly conservative advertising strategy. All that changed a year later, when the two creatives came up with SignBoy. "We were in the right place at the right time, because Nike was coming along, doing some very cool stuff with Tiger Woods," explains Graham. "FootJoy was worried about being perceived as old-fashioned, so they gave us more [freedom] than they might otherwise have done."
The humorous SignBoy campaign features "Duval," "Sta-Sof," "Leadership Ad Lib," "Hot Dog" and "Looping." All of the ads show the SignBoy character—who was modeled after the guy who walks to each tee on the golf course carrying a placard displaying the score—extolling the virtues of FootJoy products. For example, in "Duval," the sign-carrying golf expert is trying to give golfer David Duval advice about what type of club to use. As SignBoy tests the wind direction, he offers his humble opinion, ending with a compliment of Duval’s shoes, which of course, are made by FootJoy. The character, played by Matt Grieffer, is described by Graham as "a doofy-looking guy who walks around in very long shorts.
"We use him in a specific relationship with all the pros, mashing on them and telling them what superb footwear they have," Graham continues. (SHOOT was unable to connect with Harper at press time.) "His particular obsession is that he knows every single style and brand of shoe inside out. We engage him in good-natured banter with the pro golfers."
To date, the creatives have done a total of 16 spots, all directed by Kevin Smith of Backyard Productions, Chicago and Santa Monica, featuring SignBoy, which according to Graham, is a fairly high number of ads for a golf shoe account. "We shoot them at breakneck speed," says Graham. "I think the thing with humor is, the more you have—as long as it’s funny—the better. You don’t want to tell the same joke over and over again. So even though some of these spots don’t air nearly as much as a purist would say they should, it satisfies us because it never gets boring. I think the same is true in terms of the response that we’ve had. People who watch golf watch it religiously, so the same people who watch golf this weekend will see all the golf advertising over and over again. They appreciate the fact that we give them more, rather than less, commercials. SignBoy himself has a cult following on the tours. He makes appearances and goes to charity golf events."
Sign Of The Times
The current dilemma is deciding in which direction to steer FootJoy. "This year’s going to be interesting. SignBoy is hugely successful, but we want to keep moving him forward or kill him off completely," Graham says. "I think that nothing in between will suffice. We are certainly interested in developing other aspects of his personality, as long as it’s consistent with the golf course. Ronnie and I are pushing to have him go on the European Tour so we can do some filming over there, then maybe take him Down Under—golf after all is global, and FootJoy is a global company. I think we can expand SignBoy’s range considerably in that respect."
Smith, who has directed both rounds of the campaign, receives high praise from Graham. "Kevin isn’t a golfer, but [he is] a pretty shrewd comedy director and has a very good sense of knowing how much [in the spots] can be ad-libbed and how much we should actually script and be fairly tight about," Graham says. "The chemistry worked well last year, so we decided [if] it wasn’t broken, why change it. Kevin’s a terrific talent and he’s very, very easy to get on with. He’s one of those directors who controls [a shoot], not by having a huge, up-front ego that terrifies everybody on the set, but by having an enthusiasm and a confidence in everything he does. He’ll come up with ideas, he’ll work very much with us all, Ron and myself, as a team."
Graham is pleased that professional golfers are eager to participate in the spots. "Justin Leonard, who shot the winning putt in the Ryder Cup this year, was down in Orlando the day after he holed that shot, to film ‘Car Trunk.’ He contributed mightily to [the ad], coming up with a couple of ideas which we incorporated into the commercial. It worked out well. … We ought to give Justin Leonard writing credits."
Graham credits the atmosphere at Arnold to the success he is experiencing with FootJoy. "One of the reasons I like Arnold so much," he notes, "is because in addition to being a very cool place to work, it’s also a very warm place to work. Which is to say that you don’t—as you do in some of those ‘cool’ ad agencies [that] have a whole lot of people wandering around—feel isolated, with people not talking to one another and sort of selfishly pursuing their own interests. There is a genuine camaraderie and spirit here that is not quite the sort of thing you’d expect to find at a hot agency."
In addition to FootJoy, Harper works on the Titleist and Toysmart.com accounts, and Graham tackles an array of accounts as the need arises. "With so much new business coming in, there’s always something to work on," explains Graham. "It’s a biological, organic process [at Arnold], and you get to work on whatever is hot at the time."=
