It all started with a television commercial, Liberty Mutual insurance company’s “What Goes Around/Home,” directed by Laurence Dunmore of bicoastal/international RSA Films and conceived by a core creative team at Hill Holliday, Boston, which consisted of executive creative director Kevin Moehlenkamp, creative director/art director/copywriter Ernie Schenck and art director/producer Scott Hainline. The spot, which debuted on air in 2006, showed people performing good deeds and how one gesture of kindness begets another and another before completing a circle which brings us back to the original good deed.
The centerpiece of a campaign built on the mantra, “Responsibility. What’s your policy?, the commercial struck a responsive chord with the public, so much so that Liberty Mutual and Hill Holliday knew they had something special.
The pay-it-forward spirit translated into a Liberty Mutual initiative called The Responsibility Project, a strong branding foundation on which to build, prompting Hill Holliday to be on the lookout for simpatico entertainment properties.
That search turned up Kings, a contemporary drama in which a brave young soldier (played by Christopher Egan of Resident Evil: Extinction) rescues a king’s son (Ian McShane of Deadwood) from enemy territory, setting events in motion that will finally bring peace to a country.
Kings is the first of two telefilms in an NBC Universal/Liberty Mutual deal. The movies will premiere on NBC, followed by runs on cable’s USA Network and then NBC.com and Hulu.com. The films will run under the Liberty Mutual Presents banner, hearkening back to the so-called golden age of television when sponsors had a hand in programs. This time around, though, it isn’t a heavy creative hand, according to John Dukakis, Hill Holliday’s director of branded entertainment.
“We’re not getting into the TV production business,” said Dukakis. “We found a movie [Kings] that aligned with Liberty Mutual’s brand values. We only had a few comments on the script and made some small requests that were accommodated.”
A production of Universal Media Studios, Kings will run on NBC on a still-to-be-determined air date. Plans call for the network to run promos for the film during marquee events such as the Summer Olympics in Beijing and national election coverage. Liberty Mutual will also roll out commercials to promote Kings, which has a good shot, added Dukakis, at evolving into a primetime series.
Directing Kings is Francis Lawrence, who helms commercials and music videos via Hollywood-based DNA. (Lawrence was profiled in last month’s SHOOT spring edition Directors Series.) By coincidence, Dukakis has a high comfort level with Lawrence. They collaborated on a low budget music video years ago and later on the other end of the budget spectrum, a major Will Smith clip when Dukakis was an executive at Overbrook, a multimedia production company and personal management firm in which Smith was partnered. Lawrence was attached to direct Kings from the outset, prior to Liberty Mutual’s involvement.
The second Liberty Mutual Presents telemovie is yet to be announced. It is slated to debut in ’09.
Hill Holliday sister company Magna Global helped Liberty Mutual make the connection with NBC Universal and partnered with Hill Holliday in developing the deal.
Dukakis noted that Liberty Mutual will run commercials during its movie presentations and that non-competing advertisers will have a spot presence as well.
Forward thinking Fittingly the pay-it-forward scenario in the original Liberty Mutual commercial is still moving forward and paying dividends, reflecting changing business models.
Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, said of the two picture deal with Liberty Mutual, “This innovative joint agreement represents the kind of forward-thinking that results when NBC works closely with commercial clients to create customized solutions. In this case, it centers on the theme of personal responsibility–and can be conveyed in a creative and vital manner with the themes of our two new movies, including Kings.”
Mike Pilot, president, NBC Universal sales and marketing, added, “This is a great example of what can be accomplished when we work with a client earlier in the creative process to develop a strong understanding of their marketing objectives and match them with the right creative opportunities.”
Steve Sullivan, Liberty Mutual Group’s senior VP, communications, stated, “Liberty Mutual wants to create a deeper relationship with our consumers by creating a long-term emotional connection to our brand. By partnering with NBC, Liberty Mutual has the opportunity to become involved earlier in the creative process to support projects that align with our brand message promoting personal responsibility.”
Short order While the TV movies have high profile reach, there are a couple of other engaging components in The Responsibility Project initiative (residing on the website www.responsibilitytproject.com): a blog discussing personal responsibility headed by a professional journalist; and a series of web films carrying the responsibility theme.
Plans call for a new web short every few weeks with Dukakis projecting a total of 20 during the course of this year and the beginning of ’09.
Several have debuted thus far in “soft launch,” said Dukakis. RSA directors are prevalent in the mix–the first short, Transit, was helmed by Steph Green of Little Minx @RSA. RSA’s Adam Goldstein, who has an agency creative pedigree, directed the short Table Guardians. And at press time the newest short, Mandy & Lester, debuted on the website–it was directed by Lena Beug of RSA. On the site, Beug is quoted as saying of the film, “When people think about responsibility, they think about the burdens in their life. What I wanted to do was make a film about responsibility that was also fun and joyful.”
The aforementioned Dunmore has also directed a short which will debut on the site in the coming weeks.
“RSA has been a great partner in this,” related Dukakis, adding that Hill Holliday will soon bring a second live-action production company into the shorts fray.
Already contributing is Hollywood-based animation studio Acme Filmworks under the aegis of executive producer Ron Diamond. Acme helped Hill Holliday procure the rights to an existing animation short, Dinner For Two directed by Janet Perlman, for The Responsibility Project site. Acme Filmworks is also in the process of producing an original animation short for the site.
Additionally, the two movies on NBC will be promoted on www.responsibilityproject.com.
