Immersive experiences, a calculated global “stunt,” the first cooking show on Vine, an inclusive Tribeca Film Festival initiative, web films and apps are among the mix of work cited by agency creatives and execs as being their most notable digital fare thus far in 2014.
With this year’s AICP Show and the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity having recently entered the industry’s rear-view mirror, this piece isn’t so much a preview of what could crop up next awards season but rather a look at what work resonates personally and professionally for the agency artisans behind it.
SHOOT posed the following question to a cross-section of agency folks:
What has been the most significant and/or fulfilling digital project (web/viral film, mobile, website/microsite, experiential project, part of an integrated campaign, etc.) you have worked on this year and why?
Here’s a sampling of the feedback we received:
Scott Arenstein, partner/account director, Hello Design, Los Angeles
To help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, we had the opportunity to work with the LA Philharmonic to build an engaging digital destination, highlighting the milestone. In order to show a glimpse into the uniqueness of the concert hall and generate a sense of desire to experience an LA Phil concert in person, we developed an immersive experience showcasing what makes the hall a special landmark and why artists from around the world aspire to play there.
We used photography and an interactive 360-degree video, filmed with a custom-made camera to create a unique insider’s perspective of the hall. Visitors to the website were dropped virtually into the center of the stage while LA Philharmonic Music Director, Gustavo Dudamel, conducted classics by Mendelssohn and Mozart. Users could control the camera angle to see the various sections of the orchestra play. While audiophiles were transported to the heart of the musical experience, architecture buffs could explore a special design section of the site. The content offered a behind-the-scenes look at the hall’s architecture and acoustic details including: an interview with Frank Gehry, architectural sketches, and the full acoustic design story complete with diagrams.
Since many of us at Hello Design are music and architecture lovers, we knew telling the LA Phil story through ambitious original content and behind-the-scenes access would provide an unparalleled and engaging experience for fans. We’re thrilled at how the online celebration of Walt Disney Concert Hall’s first ten years captured the magic of the Philharmonic and the hall. Maybe not quite as special as the real thing, but perhaps a close second!
Andrew Christou, chief creative officer, Publicis Seattle
The most interesting thing we’ve done this year in Seattle involved three whole media components stitched together to make one idea. When T-Mobile wanted to tell America that they no longer will charge you for Data when you travelled overseas, we wrapped our heads around the best way to demonstrate this unprecedented move and came up with a stunt. We sent a young man named Jeremy, to backpack across Europe for 35 days with his iPhone which was on AT&T. We asked him to “share out” his adventures through the typical social media channels. We then aggregated his daily social feeds (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) and built a customized website where people can “guess” where he is. If they were accurate, those people were entered to win a five-city worldwide trip to any of the 103 countries T-Mobile offered their data included.
For TV, Jeremy’s parents used a web cam style approach to reach out to the World Wide Web and ask anyone and everyone to please “find their son” and to have him “shut off his phone.”
Thirteen spots later, a customized “Catch Jeremy” game site, and a stunt that ran up a $74,000 dollar bill, Catch Jeremy was not only the most integrated endeavor for T-Mobile yet, but the first moving breathing “Live Ad” that changed as fast as Jeremy moved around.
Of course, we were all very thankful that T-Mobiles CEO paid Jeremy’s bill in person at the local AT&T store.
Mimi Cook, chief creative officer, Y&R California
Although we’ve done a variety of digital campaigns and executions in the past year, my personal favorite was for Blue Diamond Growers. We launched “Recipes Made Breezy”–the first-ever cooking show on Vine. We got to try something new by combining stop-motion filming with Vine, which was still a pretty new technology at the time (and didn’t have some of the features it does now).
We had learned from the brand’s social media fans that they love Blue Diamond Almond Breeze almondmilk in their smoothies, and were always looking for and sharing new smoothie recipes. So, we set out to provide them with content that was both useful and entertaining–an online cooking show made entirely of Vine videos.
They tricky part was figuring out how to make these six six-second videos play back-to-back in chronological order, with an introduction, three different smoothie recipes, a “commercial” for Blue Diamond’s new Almond Breeze Iced Coffee, and a closing–just like you would expect from a cooking show. At the time, we were only able to film and post one video at a time, with the newest Vine appearing at the top of the stream. Our solution was to give the director six different iPhones so he could separately film each segment and control the order in which they were uploaded–i.e., posting the ending of the show first and then the show opening last–so that they all appeared on people’s Vine feed in the right chronological order.
By the end, we had launched the Almond Breeze Twitter account, increased the brand’s Vine followers by 600%–and figured out a use for Vine before Vine did!
Paul Hicks, executive creative director, GodfreyQ, San Francisco
Godfrey Q continues to create effective, smart and powerful work for some of the biggest names in the tech arena, including the globally, digitally and socially integrated “Do It All” campaign for Symantec and the “Goodbye Status Quo” work for Brocade. But sometimes in this business, you get to work on a cause that’s very close to your heart, and one that the entire agency can embrace. I am very proud of just such a campaign in production right now. We have been given the opportunity to help shape the future of our city: specifically a part of San Francisco that has the highest percentages of children, working poor, and first-generation Americans. Through a relationship with the Powerhouse Art Center at the Geneva Car Barn, we are helping create web and environmental assets that will bring to life future youth and cultural activities that are lacking now, but are critical to this community. As we spend most of our time working with companies that are driving this tech economy–and we are passionate about our clients’ great work — it’s a rare treat to focus that same talent, expertise and energy, on something that will make our city more livable for more families, for years to come.
Mike McKay, chief creative officer, Eleven, San Francisco
Of all the work we created last year, I found the digital platform we created for our client Dignity Health Hospitals to be most fulfilling. The site let users share powerful stories of “humankindness” in their lives, as well as help those in need in their city. A Rise and Smile alarm clock app allowed people to be woken up by warm greetings from people all over the world. We even created some very charming “Kind Vines’ that seemed to take on a life of their own. The entire effort enjoyed an enormous amount of share for a relatively small spend. And people really seem to be attracted to the feeling of optimism it created. Which, as you know, can be tough to find in our often cynical social landscape.
Jason Marks, executive creative director, Partners+Napier, New York
We had the opportunity to work with AT&T on their new presenting sponsorship of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The last sponsor had really been about exclusion and privilege and we wanted to position AT&T and their 4G Network as a great democratizing influence on the power of film. So we created the “Film For All” program. First, we took over the “silence your cellphone” message that appeared before every film and made it a call-to-action. We had several NYC-based celebrities–like Whoopi, Trump and Ken Burns–share the one film they thought every New Yorker should see. And we asked the audience to do the same with the hashtag #FilmForAll. The film with the most tweets will be screened this summer in all five boroughs for free. Working with our Project: WorldWide sister agency, Spinifex Group, we projected the results and an homage to New York films on the Tribeca skyline. For us, this program really encapsulated what we’re all about. We started with a big brand idea: democratize film.
We used video to get users to participate with their phones. Then we projected those results as a physical experience on the street. And the payoff is an all-borough Film For All screening that makes AT&T an active brand in the film community.
Darren Moran, chief creative officer, Havas Worldwide NY and North America
Havas Worldwide’s D-Con Mousehole Theatre series of short web films. The epitome of tragedy + time = comedy. Only without the time. So basically, tragedy = comedy. They’re simple, smart, funny. We conceived and produced them for our client pro-actively for National Pest Management Month, with very little time and money. All in all, a great example of how modern brands (and their agencies) need to behave.
Dwayne Raupp, VP, executive creative director, Organic
We recently launched the Pull-Ups Time to Potty app, a mobile app focused on helping moms and dads tackle the most important habit, potty breaks. Recognizing that the potty training journey can be fraught with frustration, we gave moms and dads a tool to promote consistency and ways to get their child excited, including fun activities and their favorite Disney characters. It was a project that brought out the best in our cross-discipline teams and one that was extremely fulfilling to be a part of. Beyond great collaboration, Time to Potty gave us the rare opportunity to deliver value that can make a difference in someone’s life while helping bolster our client’s brand promise. In a world overrun with viral “click bait,” brand popularity contests, and hollow brand promises, I felt like the Pull-Ups Time to Potty app allowed us to find the right balance between utility, engagement, and brand purpose. Stay dry out there.
Seth Rementer, creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi LA
The mobile revival of the original off-road arcade game, Super Off-Road, has to be one our most significant digital projects of the year. For the reveal of TRD Pro (Toyota’s high-performance off-road trucks) we were given the challenge of bringing the thrill and excitement of off-road racing to a mobile experience. With that in mind, we created Super Off-Road: TRD Pro Edition–a super-charged, mobile version of the classic game, with updates including all-new TRD Pro vehicles, exclusive tracks, and custom power-ups. The game debuted at the Chicago Auto Show, where fans could compete against one another on a massive digital screen, then go for a ride in the real thing on a full-size, indoor track.
Almost everyone involved in the project, even our clients, had a story about playing the game as kids, either in the arcade, or on their home consoles. The nostalgic connection gave everyone a personal incentive to create something which not only honored the original, but took the game to a whole new level.
The innovative campaign for Super Off-Road: TRD Pro Edition earned Saatchi & Saatchi LA the FWA Mobile of the Day Award (April 30, 2014). FWA is an industry recognized award program that was established in 2000. It showcases projects which use cutting edge technology, together with inspirational ideas that lead the way for future generations.
