The exploration of branded content–and using TiVo, for example, as a platform for entertaining client messages–has led agency Team One, El Segundo, Calif., to create a series of three two-minute HD documentaries shot in Paris and produced by Boxer Films, Los Angeles. Jeffrey DeChausse directed for Boxer.
Each documentary in this Science of Desire series–billed as being presented by the 2007 Lexus ES 350–profiles an artisan sharing insights about his art. The individual subjects in each piece are: Jean-Michel Doriez, a perfumer with Jean Patou, Paris; Pierre Marcolini, a master chocolatier; and Christian Pol-Roger, a fourth generation champagne vintner.
In the latter, Pol-Roger refers to the wine being fermented to make champagne as “a liquid diamond.” He parallels the wine cellars to “a university” in terms of the sparkling libation developing potential and personality.
His advice to the consumer: “Look for a brand that has a great reputation to lose.”
A voiceover then intervenes, accompanied by footage of a Lexus being put through its paces on a winding road. “Passion is the product of skill, dedication and patience,” relates the narrator. “An entirely new ES: The Lexus ES 350. The passionate pursuit of perfection.”
The other two documentaries are similar in feel and message. Doriez relates that when he creates and develops a fragrance, he thinks of a moment in the life of a woman. He notes that when you smell something and have a good memory attached to it, you will probably want to smell that fragrance again. After we see him painstakingly seek “a fragrance that feels like sunshine,” the voiceover observes, “Desire is too precious to be left to change–The Lexus ES 350.”
And Marcolini sees his role as a matchmaker helping to create “a marriage” between “chocolate and the person,” an attraction which spans taste, sight, mind and emotion. The voiceover shares, “Seduction just doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a trap laid with hard wok and dedication–The Lexus ES 350.”
The documentaries are tagged with and hopefully will drive traffic to the Web site address AllNewES.com/desire.
Plans call for the Science of Desire mini-documentaries to be shown not only on TiVo On Demand and on the Web, but also in theaters.
Director DeChausse’s support team at Boxer included executive producer John Clark, head of production John Quinn and producer Mark Fox. The DP was Jordan Valenti.
The Team One creative ensemble included executive creative director Chris Graves, group creative directors James Dalthorp and Jon Pearce, associate creative director James Hendry, senior copywriter Kathy Hepinstall, and group management supervisor, integration manager Ginge Chistensen, and executive producer Jack Epsteen.
Editors were Rob Groenwold and Pedram Torbati of B17 Editorial, Los Angeles.
