Capitalizing on Americans’ resolve to improve themselves at the outset of a new year, Aquafina turned to Tribal DDB, Dallas, to engage their consumers at this time of fresh starts. The result is ResolutionsOnFilm.com, which presents 10 short films that were inspired by real people’s New Year’s resolutions. The featured goals range from the sweet intention to hug more to one man’s ridiculous desire to eat more toast.
“They like to really cut a pretty big swath during the New Year’s period in that a lot of their advertising has to do with getting people to resolve to drink more water,” Tribal DDB executive creative director Scott Johnson shared. “They think that’s a pretty easy resolution to keep, one that’s good for you as opposed to some of the tougher ones to keep like lose fifteen pounds and quit smoking.”
This year Aquafina will have a significant presence at all of the major film festivals, Johnson noted. So when they created this site, the interactive agency incorporated the brand’s interest in using independent films as an important platform in 2006.
To find out what people were resolving to do in the ’06, Tribal DDB staffers sought input from consumers through Pepsi’s X-tras database (Aquafina is a PepsiCo. product). They sent an e-mail blast to members of the online club, which notifies them about special promotions. Additionally, people who submitted their ideas to the earlier incarnation of ResolutionsOnFilm.com could virally send movie posters the site rendered (based on their submissions) to friends. The site began accepting consumers’ resolutions in the beginning of December and the first film went up on the site Jan. 2. Online ads were also a part of this initiative.
FIRM RESOLVE
From the titles of the shorts it’s apparent that the strong-willed main characters want to improve areas of their life that go beyond normal weight-loss goals. To capture the resolutions on film, Tribal DDB partnered with Subliminal, Burbank, Calif, to assemble directors for this large project.
The resulting films are Travel Around the World on a Scooter written and directed by Chris McKenna; Get Over My Fear of Heights and Dogs directed by Ryan Barri; Hug More written/directed/edited by Dina Mande; Create a New Genre of Music directed by Ariel Danziger; Eat Less Bacon written/produced/directed by Zack & J.C.; Stop Siphoning Gas from My Neighbor’s Cars directed by Jody Lauren Miller; Become U.S. Air Guitar Champion directed by Brent Jones; Spend More Time Working on Anger Management directed by Jane Selle Morgan; Book First Gig in Front of a Live Audience directed by Adam Martin; and Eat More Toast directed by Nic Wrathall.
Except for Dina Mande who is also an executive producer at Subliminal, the directorial talent was pulled from a program she founded called Group101Spots. The collective offers aspiring commercial directors the opportunity to create one spec spot per month for several months. Throughout the process industry mentors critique the work in order to improve the participants’ final reels.
“Luckily with our relationship with Group101, we have access to a lot of really great talent and [the agency] knew that we could recruit them and pick the best ones and help shepherd the project through,” Mande said.
On why Subliminal was right for the project Johnson remarked, “We liked what they could do in terms of being able to offer a large number of directors who they could round up for us to choose from, and the other thing they did, which was impressive, was they didn’t blanch when we told them how fast all of this had to happen.”
The entertaining nature of the work is exemplified in films like the documentary-style, Stop Siphoning Gas from My Neighbor’s Car. In it, the main character Jeff confesses that he had been stealing from others so he could keep his lawnmower gassed up. Throughout the almost two-and-a-half-minute film, we see that his siphoning problem extends beyond vehicles.
Jeff also draws milk out of a jug with a tube and then releases it into his bowl of cereal. His father says his grown child is a “sick boy” while his mother admits there were signs. The problem was ruining his life, Jeff confesses.
At the end of the short, Jeff tells us he has been clean for eight months. The final screen shows a bottle of Aquafina next to a note that the film was “inspired by Christopher’s resolution to ‘stop siphoning gas from my neighbor’s car to for my lawnmower’ in 2006.”
ENJOYING THE JOURNEY
From the outset this project was collaborative. Initially members of the Tribal DDB creative teamJohnson, creative director Scott Biggers, and art director Jordan Kretchmermet with the directors individually to discuss the helmers’ script ideas. “We intentionally wanted the directors to take a leading role in this, Johnson said. “The goal here and one of the most important things we did was we told these guys, don’t try to make an Aquafina commercial, that’s not what we’re doing. We want it to have entertaining, engaging, amusing content that was original and that reflected the voice of the director.”
When assembling the various directors for the project the creatives wanted diversity, Johnson related. This resulted in varied films on the site with different voices and approaches to the overarching theme. “The directors got to function more as filmmakers rather than commercial directors with this,” Mande said of the process. Executive producer at Subliminal Steven Gould also oversaw this venture.
The number of films that ended up on the site was essentially a reflection of the budget, Johnson shared, which he also pointed out as a challenging part of the process. “We wound up with, I’m guessing, twenty minutes of really high-quality, original entertainment content and we did it for a fraction of the cost of a single big brand TV spot and that’s a pretty neat story if you ask me.”