“The challenges for all of us in this business are twofold,” relates Tim Pontarelli, group creative director at Leo Burnett USA, Chicago. “One is to up the entertainment value. That’s what will generate attention for your story. Otherwise you’re just telling a story like every other story a viewer has the option to look it.
“The second challlenge,” continues Pontarelli, “is to get clients to understand that. In many cases that’s the bigger of the two challenges.”
However, challenge number two isn’t all that daunting for Pontarelli when it comes to client Hallmark, which garnered its first primetime commercial Emmy Award last month for “Required Reading,” a two-minute-and-45-second ad that ran during a Hallmark Hall of Fame telecast.
Indeed Hallmark has understood the value of entertainment dating back to the Golden Age of Television, owning and presenting top drawer TV movie fare over the decades. “Hallmark commercials air during Hallmark movies. That’s an environment that attracts the kind of viewers over the years who actually look forward to seeing the Hallmark commercials. They’re not getting up during the commercial breaks,” says Pontarelli. “The commercials have a standard for storytelling excellence.”
Furthermore the ads aren’t hard sell. Greeting cards are seamlessly integrated into the commercial storyline. There’s no product message per se. “The commercials and the Hallmark movies themselves over the many years are pioneering examples of what today is referred to as branded entertainment,” observes Pontarelli.
“Required Reading” tugs at the heartstrings, telling the story of Ed, a grown man who learns how to read. Initially embarrassed, he goes on to steadily make progress, to the point where he can, at the spot’s conclusion, look over the greeting cards he’s received over a lifetime, understand and appreciate them.
“It’s the kind of emotional storytelling that I think Television Academy members and judges can relate to–maybe that’s why Hallmark work has a track record of Emmy recognition,” conjectures Pontarelli, who was a creative director/copywriter on “Required Reading,” and a writer on Hallmark’s “Working Mom,” which earned an Emmy nomination eight years ago.
Pontarelli describes “Required Reading” winning the Emmy as “a great high for the agency and client, in part because it’s an award that is outside of advertising, inclusive of the bigger entertainment universe, a level we aspire to take our work to.”
At the same time, that bigger picture orientation may make the Emmy more relevant than ever to the advertising community, notes Pontarelli. “This is a time when our advertising message has to be entertaining and engaging, whether it’s a commercial or it takes the form of another longer piece of entertainment, or sponsorship of entertainment.” In this regard, the entertainment-driven perspective of members of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS)–spanning comedy, drama, hybrids of the two, and storytelling in general–could prove most valuable in assessing the new ads and branded content that need to emerge in today’s ever changing media landscape in which consumers have more control.
David Harner, who at the time was a Burnett creative director, directed “Required Reading” via Venice, Calif.-based production house The Institute For The Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness. The spot was produced on spec, with Hallmark embracing the finished work and airing it. (See separate piece in this week’s News section for the backstory.) Harner additionally served as creative director/copywriter/art director on “Required Reading,” which advanced his directorial reel. Shortly after finishing the commercial, he moved over to the production company side, joining The Institute to focus on his directing career.
Meanwhile Pontarelli continues his Burnett career which began 15 years ago. His first gig at the agency was writing the little “hold” messages callers to United Airlines (then a Burnett client) would hear waiting for reservations or other services. He steadily moved up the agency ranks, taking on expanded creative responsibilities. He even co-directed some jobs with Harner. But his focus remains on his group creative director duties. “This is an extremely exciting time for creatives,” assesses Pontarelli. “There are opportunities emerging in different forms of entertainment product as we search for and find new ways to connect with audiences.”
BILL BRUCE For the first time in the 10-year history of ATAS honoring commercials, there was a tie last month for the primetime
Emmy–with Hallmark’s “Required Reading” and FedEx’s “Stick” each receiving a coveted statuette.
“It’s a great honor,” says BBDO New York chief creative officer Bill Bruce of the Emmy for his agency’s “Stick,” which was directed by Traktor of bicoastal/international Partizan. “The work we’ve done on FedEx has done really well. This particular spot just had a big epic feel to it.”
A common bond between “Stick” and “Required Reading” is that they debuted in program environments in which viewers wanted to see the commercials–Hallmark, as alluded to earlier, in the Hallmark Hall of Fame context, and “Stick” which premiered during this year’s Super Bowl telecast, in which spots are in some circles regarded as entertaining, if not moreso, than the game itself.
Bruce refers to the Super Bowl as the ultimate entertainment venue, a great place to launch and showcase a commercial, underscoring that agency creatives “need to continue to keep an eye on what we need to do, which is to engage and captivate, inform and excite viewers so that they will seek out this content–whatever and wherever it may be–on TV, a film on the Internet, print, any new media platform. We have to have people come to us, to want to see our product. This is no longer a medium where we can force feed our message to people–it’s not when TV consisted of little more than three networks.”
This brave new world, continues Bruce, “takes clients that have confidence in their brands and in their agency, confidence to do the unexpected so as to break out of that old model defined by reach and frequency.”
Client impetus–fueled further by the Super Bowl dynamic–made it imperative that “Stick” be entertaining, says Bruce. “We went back to prehistoric times to tell a funny, entertaining story that people would relate to,”
The 45-second spot shows us how overnight packages got delivered–or more accurately, not delivered–back when dinosaurs roamed the planet. The commercial opens on a caveman tying a stick that he needs delivered around the leg of a Pteranodon. The massive bird-like creature takes off only to be snatched out of the sky by a T-Rex. The stick falls to the ground, and the caveman goes to his boss to report that his attempt to get the stick delivered has failed. Unfortunately for the caveman, his boss fires him. The caveman laments, “But FedEx doesn’t exist yet!” His boss replies, “Not my problem.” To make a bad day even worse, a Brac crushes the caveman when he steps out of the cave.
The BBDO New York creative team on “Stick” consisted of chief creative officers David Lubars and Bruce, executive creative director Eric Silver, associate creative director/art director Jonathan Mackler, associate creative director/copywriter Jim Le Maitre, executive producer Elise Greiche, and director of music and radio production Rani Vaz. Jim Bouvet executive produced for Traktor. The DP was Tim Maurice-Jones. Editor was Gavin Cutler of Mackenzie Cutler, New York. Framestore CFC, New York, was the visual effects house.
This is the first Emmy win and second nomination for FedEx. The client’s first Emmy nomination came in ’00 for “Action Figures” directed by Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international Hungry Man for BBDO.
Besides garnering FedEx its first Emmy, “Stick” set another precedent for the client. The commercial was FedEx’s first produced in high definition. “We’ve gone HD with other clients; it’s becoming more prevalent,” shares Bruce. “As the influx of HD makes more of a mark, having your spot in HD is just as important because it says something about your brand. When you’re watching an HD channel and a non-HD spot comes on, it stands out in the wrong way. If you’re HD in that environment, there’s a subtext of the brand being in step, staying with the times and being forward thinking.”
Bruce grew up in a Detroit suburb. He went to Michigan State and got a job at JWT Detroit “after threatening to kill myself in a telegram,” he laughs. “Then I went to BBDO Detroit where through circumstances I got a chance to work on some Pepsi business. My work caught the eye of [BBDO creative maven] Phil Dusenberry and just two years out of college I found myself at BBDO New York.”
Bruce moved up the creative rungs at BBDO New York from writer to now chief creative officer. He’s been at the agency for 19 years, during which time he’s been “continually working on everything, all the different accounts. BBDO has always had something for me, the sense that we’re continually moving to another, better place. There’s never a sense of feeling stagnant. We’re not looking at things through an old lens. We’re embracing and adapting to changes.”
On the latter front, Bruce is especially enthused to work with Brian DiLorenzo, who recently came aboard in the newly created position of executive director, content, for BBDO North America. DiLorenzo, formerly director of broadcast production at Fallon Minneapolis, will be responsible in his new BBDO capacity for helping to spearhead the agency’s move into all areas of content, working in concert with Hollywood, mobile and digital carriers, the production industry at large and other relevant communities.
“Brian’s experience and involvement in these areas will be great to tap into,” relates Bruce. “There are areas we haven’t even touched on yet which we’re looking forward to getting into. Everything is open, but it’s all dependant on what a particular client’s needs and objectives are and how we can best fulfill them. If it makes sense to come at people with a TV show or a comic book or a movie or an online film, that’s what we’ll do–whatever it takes so that we can talk to who we want to talk to in the most relevant, powerful way.”
MARK MONTEIRO “Three years ago we weren’t on the map yet creatively as an office,” says Mark Monteiro, executive creative director of DDB Los Angeles. Since then, the ad shop has scored creatively on assorted fronts, the highest profile creative achievements coming for Ameriquest Mortgage, which won the primetime commercial Emmy in 2005 for “Surprise Dinner” and followed that up this year with a nomination for “Concert.” Both “Surprise Dinner” and “Concert” were directed by Craig Gillespie of bicoastal/international MJZ.
“Now we’re probably the most awarded agency in Southern California and the challenge is to maintain that. Prior to this, there was some comfort in obscurity,” says Monteiro tongue slightly in cheek. “But now you have to keep the creative momentum going, finding the people internally who can do just that, while making every effort to keep your key talent and restaffing when other agencies come and take your people based on the great work they’ve done.
“What’s great,” quips Monteiro, “is I no longer have to go into a new business pitch and say, ‘Swear to god, we’re creative. We’re good. Let me show you a Belding Award from 1963.’ The work we’ve been doing in recent years is generating interest. The awards and the results of the work are starting to translate into new business–particularly in that we’ve been able to be creative for a client [Ameriquest] in the sub-prime mortgage category. That, the work for Wells Fargo directed by Rocky Morton [of MJZ], for Epson and highly creative stuff for smaller accounts [L.A. Film Festival] has registered in the marketplace.”
In “Concert,” a father is driving his daughter and her girlfriends to a rock concert. He pulls over so that the girls can make a quick stop at a mini market. The girls get out of the car, but the daughter, whose garb is a bit risque, comes back as the father hands her some money. Cops witness the girl leaning back inside the car to grab the cash and assume they’ve got a bust for soliciting a minor. The now familiar Ameriquest slogan appears: “Don’t judge too quickly.” As we see the Ameriquest logo, we hear the arrested man’s explanation: “I’m her daddy.”
The DDB ensemble on “Concert” consisted of creative directors Monteiro and Helene Cote, art director Sarah May Bates, copywriter Josh Fell and producer Vanessa MacAdam. The DP was Tami Reiker. Editor was Haines Hall of Spot Welders, Venice, Calif.
While it may seem like it to the outside world, DDB Los Angeles hasn’t been an overnight success. “Our very first assignment for Ameriquest,” recalls Monteiro, “was a number 10 direct mail envelope piece. There were years of grunt work, but we and the client built on an idea that people relate to, which eventually graduated to the Super Bowl with a campaign [including “Surprise Dinner”] last year. The idea is that you, the customer, are more to us. As a company we will treat you with a little more respect than others out there in this category. We won’t rush to judgement…We won’t judge you too quickly. We’ll take the time to know you and your situation. Once you establish that thread, you can do anything–a direct mail piece, a NASCAR sponsorship, a Rolling Stones tour, the Super Bowl.”
Monteiro broke into the biz writing brochures for Honda Motorcycles at Dailey & Associates, Los Angeles. This landed him a job working on Yamaha Motorcycles at Chiat/Day, during its genesis as a creative hot shop in 1984. Aside from some brief detours at Tracy Locke’s Los Angeles office and Team One, El Segundo, Calif., he has gone back and forth from TBWA/Chiat/Day to DDB to Chiat and back to DDB. His current tour of duty at DDB has been for seven years and counting.
“I don’t think the industry creative challenge has changed all that much,” Monteiro observes. “Yes, we have to deal with new media, all the new channels, TiVo and branded entertainment. But at the end of the day, they’re just tools to me. How am I going to use them in the most creative way. Using a tool, how will I reach people better than the other guy using the same exact tool. It all comes back to the idea.”
