LOS ANGELES- “This is good news for your [SHOOT’s] readership–the amount of production should increase,” said John King who recently returned to Fallon Minneapolis to run its Connection Planning department.
The catalyst for a significant production upswing is the changing media landscape. “The ratio of money spent for production as compared to placement is shifting,” observed King. “With new ways of distribution [e.g., online entertainment, cell phone/hand-held devices, as opposed to just buying primetime broadcast time], there’s a need to put money towards making different forms of content instead of getting it placed. There are multiple audiences and you need more at-bats to reach them.”
At the same time, King cautioned that commercial production houses “have to learn new tricks…Some of this new production isn’t going to be classic [spotmaking].” (See separate story on Saatchi’s pair of documentaries for Toyota.)
While Connection Planning is now a well known term, it wasn’t during King’s first tour of duty with Fallon when the agency contends that it originated the discipline. Some eight years ago, Fallon defined Connection Planning as breaking traditional creative and/or media confines to find better ways to connect with people. This resulted in breakout work that included the TED airlines launch (a discount United Airlines carrier), BMW’s “The Hire” series of shorts and EDS’ Super Bowl advertising, including the lauded “Cat Herders” spot in 2000.
“Once the creative group figures out what the idea is for a brand or company, our job is to help that brand behave in a way so that it gets credit for what it stands for out in the real world–that is how we defined Connection Planning from the outset,” related King. “Today that definition is more relevant than ever but it’s harder to attain. You have multifaceted targets, many of whom are part of the creative process now. They will remix, mash up and forward on content. There’s more social media as people interact with their own content and their own audiences.”
Plus, noted King, “Viewer tolerance has gone down. People don’t want to be bothered by advertising. They’ve gone to great lengths to create their own little worlds–they’re on the do-not-call list, they have TiVo, movies are in their mailboxes. To get into their bubble, you have to have some pretty good stuff. The creative bar has been raised.”
King left Fallon in ’05 to become the VP of marketing for Gartner Studios, a creative design/stationery company twice listed on Inc. Magazine’s 500 Fasting Growing Companies in America. He’s enthused to be back at Fallon during this pivotal juncture.
King described his Connection Planning mission this time around as being “to improve communications effectiveness by fitting brands into people’s lives, not just their media. This can entail traditional means as well as new ways to reach people. The promise of the Connection Planning discipline is bigger than ever with the emergence of social media. When we started Connection Planning, it was a luxury. In today’s media landscape, it’s a necessity.”
DDB
King returns to the agency business as many industry eyes are on bud.TV, the online entertainment network which went live on Feb. 5, the day after the Super Bowl. DDB Chicago is a lead agency on content for bud.tv.
At press time a number of people were having difficulty accessing the bud.TV content and passing it on. This was reportedly due to Anheuser-Busch (A-B) wanting to keep underage visitors from being able to gain entry onto the site. These issues not withstanding, reviews of the bud.TV programs have been favorable thus far.
SHOOT got a look-see at several properties out of DDB Chicago, including The Arrogant Fake British Rich Guy, Guided Meditation With The Billy Lama, Donnie Briggs: Life Coach, Future Man, Channel 5-4-6 Puppet News Team and Ice Vision & Chef. The quirky, tongue-in-cheek humor of these series is true to the spirit of the client brand, a Bud personality that’s been honed over the years in its advertising.
“The goal is to create content of entertainment value that’s in sync with what the brand is about. We are programming for a network so the idea is to have a program that some people will relate to–while others might enjoy another program or programs,” said David Rolfe, production director, content at DDB Chicago. “While all brands can find ways to communicate and create dialogue through content, Anheuser-Busch is in a special position. The launch of a bud.TV network is a natural extension of the entertainment and sports cache the brand has built over the years through its advertising spanning the Super Bowl and other sponsorships.”
The Arrogant Fake British Rich Guy and Guided Meditation With The Billy Lama were directed by the team of Don & John–Don Shelford and John Knecht– of bicoastal HSI Productions. “I know them [Don & John] from their agency creative backgrounds,” related Rolfe. Shelford and Knecht were creatives at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and later went to Amsterdam where Knecht served as a copywriter at 180 and Shelford as a group creative director at Wieden+Kennedy. Shelford’s agency creative pedigree also includes his tenure as an art director at Arnold Boston where he worked on such spots as Volkswagen’s “Bubble Boy” and “Chain Reaction.” Shelford and Knecht came aboard HSI as a directorial duo late last year.
Meanwhile Donnie Briggs: Life Coach, Future Man, Channel 5-4-6 Puppet News Team and Ice Vision & Chef were all directed by Matt Piedmont, who as earlier reported came aboard DDB Chicago as executive producer of bud.TV. Piedmont was a writer turned producer on Saturday Night Live from ’96 to ’02, and a writer on such feature films as Joe Dirt.
Global reach
“An online entertainment network the scope of bud.TV offers a benefit that even the Super Bowl can’t offer–worldwide reach 24/7,” related John Immesoete who created and developed three other bud.TV shows through Seed, a sister shop to longstanding Venice, Calif.-headquartered Backyard Productions.
The three bud.TV shows from Seed are two reality series–Truly Famous and What Girls Want (episodes ranging from five to six minutes each, co-directed by Immesoete and reality TV vet Rick Telles)–as well as the comedy Replaced By A Chimp (one-and-a-half to two minutes, all directed by Immesoete). Seed worked directly with A-B on the series, with Backyard producing four episodes for each.
Immesoete is creative director/partner at Seed, and a director on the Backyard roster. A-B naturally gravitated to Immesoete for bud.TV due to the client’s comfort level with him, dating back to his days as a group creative director at DDB Chicago where he had a creative hand in assorted notable campaigns for Budweiser and other A-B brands.
“Anheuser-Busch was into branded entertainment long before it became a buzzword,” reflected Immesoete, citing the series of Bud spots featuring egotistical athlete Leon, the aforementioned “Real Men of Genius” campaign and A-B’s perennially top-ranked Super Bowl commercials. “Entertainment is in the brand DNA of Anheuser-Busch. Adolphus Busch’s main credo was ‘making friends is our business.’ Their ads really haven’t overtly sold beer. They’ve sold camaraderie, friendship and entertainment. That’s being taken to another level, another platform.”
