The notion that award shows reflect the state of the industry is hardly new. However, that dynamic has gained momentum, propelled not only by the body of work submitted and the winning entries this season, but also the increasing inclusiveness of competitions as stellar creative erases longstanding boundaries and redefines categories.
Two recent cases in point are the high profile Cannes Lions and the Emmy Awards. Much has been made of a television commercial not winning the Film Grand Prix at Cannes this past June as the honor went to Philips Cinema 21:9’s “Carousel” from Tribal DDB, Amsterdam.
Lisa Bennett, chief creative officer of DDB West, served as a judge on the Film Jury at Cannes and observed that this precedent-setting turn of events has been misinterpreted by some as signaling that television has become a thing of the past.
She said that TV commercials made a strong showing in the competition and the industry should at the same time embrace what has become an expanded definition of film and more platforms for advertising and entertainment. “We see film in TV, in interactive, mobile, on various different screens,” related Bennett. “Film Lions encompass a much greater range of work and we honored the best examples of how film was used. This doesn’t diminish TV but adds to what we know as film. We went with great examples that would hopefully serve as inspiration to others as to how film has evolved and what we can do in the future.”
The primetime commercial Emmy Award nominations announced last month also reflect an expansive mindset, which underscores the mesh of advertising and entertainment, as well as the fact that this coming together does indeed extend to varied platforms.
On the latter score, for the second consecutive year a viral web spot which never appeared on TV–Bud Light’s “Magazine Buyer” directed by Erich Joiner from Tool of North America for DDB Chicago–has cracked the field of primetime commercial Emmy nominees. Last year another non-broadcast Bud Light nominated spot from DDB Chicago, “Swear Jar,” went on to win the Emmy.
Other Emmy-nominated commercials this year further dissipated real and perceived borders between advertising and entertainment. Consider the observations of John Leverence, senior VP of awards for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Leverence sees a parallel between two of this year’s primetime Emmy-nominated commercials and lead characters in the NBC hit series 30 Rock. This connection, he observed, goes beyond he fact that 30 Rock stars Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey are in the nominated Hulu spot “Alec in Huluwood” and AmEx’s “Airport Lounge,” respectively.
Baldwin’s 30 Rock character Jack Donaghy–the portrayal of which earned the actor an Emmy last year and has him nominated once again this time around–and Fey’s series character Liz Lemon, for which she received Emmy Awards in 2007 and ’08, and another nomination this year, are both evident in the Hulu and AmEx commercials.
“You have poor hapless Tina Fey in her persona as Liz Lemon talking to Martin Scorsese in the AmEx ad [directed by Hungry Man’s Bryan Buckley for Ogilvy & Mather, N.Y.], thinking Martin is about to offer her a choice movie role but instead is trying to get her to buy a timeshare in a condo,” said Leverence.
And Baldwin in the Hulu spot (directed by Peter Berg of Pony Show Entertainment for Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami and Boulder, Colo.), continued Leverence, is “not only a sleazy salesman but an alien looking to take over the world by turning people’s minds to mush. For those of us who watch 30 Rock, the salesman and other worldly alien apply to the Jack Donaghy character who has such a tentative grasp on reality.”
The lines between primetime TV and primetime advertising are blurring more than ever, related Leverence. (For more on Leverence’s entertainment industry perspective on the Emmy-nominated spots, see the separate story in this week’s SHOOT.) At the same time the Emmy has seemingly grown in stature in the eyes of many in the ad community, in large part because recognition from an entertainment-driven competition has become all the more valuable in a marketplace where entertainment has become essential in engaging consumers who have so much more control over the messages they see and seek out.
“The entertainment aspect is a point of entry for advertising. You cannot separate the two,” affirmed creative director Tim Roper of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami and Boulder, Colo., who worked on “Alec in Huluwood.” Looking beyond the Emmy nomination for a commercial, Roper said the next goal would be for Crispin to someday earn an Emmy nom for a show or series. “Further explorations into long-form content for clients are certainly in the works for us,” he said, noting he wasn’t yet at liberty to publicly “spill the beans.”
One road
Indeed the oft-cited intersection of advertising and entertainment has become the same road traveled by both. It’s almost as if along that thoroughfare, though, we come across street corners representing different ways in which the two can come together, often in unexpected places–like a hotel bar or an iPhone game.
As for the latter medium, earlier this year Peter Thwaites of Gorgeous Enterprises, London (who’s repped stateside by Anonymous Content), won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award as best commercial director of 2008 on the strength of two spots, one of which was Barclaycard’s “Waterslide” for BBH London. The spot shows a swim trunks-clad employee taking a wondrous amusement park-like commute home from the office–his mode of transportation being an enormous waterslide that winds its way throughout the city all the way to his suburban abode. Along the way he slip slides through a grocery store where he buys a banana which he pays for by waving his Barclaycard past a sensor. He is able to use the card repeatedly without slowing down his slide home.
While Thwaites’ DGA win came as a surprise to many award show handicappers, even more unexpected has been the success of an iPhone game spawned by his entertaining wild ride of a broadcast spot.
Developed by London agency Dare Digital Ltd., the “Waterslide Extreme” game has earned billing as the most popular free, branded game ever released by the iTunes App Store–to the tune of a reported 4 million downloads.
“Waterslide Extreme” players navigate their way along a huge urban waterslide, scoring points during their journey. Barclaycard scores points in turn for the subtle connection to the convenient manner in which its card can make purchases, hardly slowing down the consumer during whatever commute he or she might undertake.
Furthermore, Dare Digital has launched a YouTube channel featuring a waterslide competition in which consumers can create their own video adventures, with winners receiving Amazon vouchers. and other prizes. This is the beginning of challenges and contests that will be part of the Barclaycardcreate channel.
Raising the bar
Another example of an unexpected place in which to find the intersection of advertising/marketing and entertainment is the earlier alluded to hotel bar–in this case at the upscale Chambers Hotel in Minneapolis. While room occupancy was healthy at the hotel, the bar needed an infusion of customers. Thus to drive traffic to the bar, agency Barrie D’Rozario Murphy (BDM), Minneapolis, came up with an edgy security camera surveillance piece, 30 minutes in length, featuring interiors of guest rooms and guests’ recreated private moments.
Directed by Peter Nydrle of West Hollywood-based NYDRLE who worked with a cast of hotel staff and actors, the hot new video entertainment provided the exposure that made the bar a controversial and in-demand city venue.
While this was staged material, the action still had a voyeuristic appeal, leaving viewers to wonder if what they were witnessing was real or not.
BDM co-president/executive creative director Stuart D’Rozario explained that the Chambers Hotel is a cool hangout which exhibits world renown art. “It’s part of the Minneapolis art tour so to speak–a collection of edgy, contemporary art from star artists. We thought wouldn’t it be cool to do something on the two TV screens in the bar that felt like edgy art. The fake security camera feel starts out quite mundane. Nothing happens by design, it’s quite boring. But then you see a few things room to room that pull you in, hints of activity you shouldn’t be seeing. Some people complained, others have approached the hotel about buying the video as though it were another valued art piece in the hotel. But the bottom line is that more traffic was being driven to the bar and those who came stayed considerably longer than they had before. It became a destination unto itself.
“It all comes down to the relevance of the entertainment to the advertiser’s brand,” continued D’Rozario. “For another hotel, this would have been a totally wrong idea.
For its relevant entertainment value, the “Chambers Video Art Piece” this year garnered a Cannes Gold Lion as well as an AICP Next honor.
Next insights
Speaking of what’s Next, Jamie Barrett, partner/creative director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, recently came off of chairing the judging panel of the AICP Next Awards, part of the AICP Show. The gig also entailed him emceeing the AICP Next session at the Museum of Modern Art in N.Y., during which insights were shared by the creators of honored work, case studies presented, and the audience got to participate in the proceedings, including by voting for their favorites among the work honored in the competition.
“The work itself was inspiring but you also couldn’t help but be inspired by the vibe of the event,” related Barrett. “The audience, fellow judges, panelists–it felt like we were together in a high school auditorium learning stuff. It used to be that we could experience the best work by turning on the TV or opening up a magazine. It was easily digestible, you knew the format–one commercial versus another, an apples-to-apples comparison. But now you need much more to truly appreciate the work. People had put together videos explaining different facets of projects. For its great Oasis album work, the BBH team brought several of the street musicians to the MoMA auditorium to perform to give us a taste of what onlookers experienced in New York venues when they were first exposed to the Oasis music as interpreted by the street musicians. You have digital, experiential, film–work coming in so many different forms, shapes and lengths.”
The dichotomy for Barrett is that while so much is new, at the same time it’s always been with us. “To me advertising and entertainment have always been inseparable…Ads are a form of entertainment. And equally true, entertainment is a form of advertising…Every song you hear is an ad for the artist…On some level, we are selling ourselves in everything we create. Good advertising entertains. Good entertainment sells. The two converged a long, long time ago.”
Still we’re in a new era. “To be in my 40s and to be 20-plus years into an advertising career and still be learning on a daily basis is a kick,” affirmed Barrett.
Heartfelt documentary The latest addition to the body of work out of Wieden+Kennedy Entertainment is a 30-minute documentary Feel Your Heart Race (done through Wieden’s New York office) directed and edited by Doug Pray of Oil Factory, Los Angeles. The show debuted on ESPN2 last month.
The integrated marketing effort encompassed TV spots, radio, print and online content. Pray’s TV ads exploring NASCAR and its fans shot down stereotypes of the sport’s followers while providing a taste of racing’s appeal and the social community it creates.
“The documentary grew out of the wealth of footage that would never fit into the TV ad campaign,” explained Gary Krieg, head of content production at Wieden, New York. “Today clients are more open to entertainment content than ever before as long as it is in service of the idea. It was a pretty easy sell to turn our footage into a half-hour documentary.”
Copywriter Eric Steele described director Pray as “your man if you’re looking to explore a subculture you want to mine for gold. You look at his documentaries on the grunge scene and graffiti artists, and that’s what drew us to him for this NASCAR campaign. He captured the human face of these fans–which is a far cry from the redneck stereotypes.”
“I’m often an outsider to the worlds I portray in my documentary films,” stated Pray. “And directing Feel Your Heart Race, I was a fish out of water again. Though I had done my research, I was still overwhelmed by how exciting it actually was being live at the track, meeting drivers and interviewing fans. The show is for die-hard fans and complete outsiders alike. It reflects the experience of discovery that I personally went through, and defines what ultimately motivates the NASCAR Nation and its heroes.”
While the broadcast ratings were respectable for Feel Your Heart Race, the value of such a branded entertainment project needs to be measured in other “metrics.” Wieden producer Niki Polyocan described the documentary as “a love letter to the sport while giving back to the fans of NASCAR.” Blogs in response to the film were overwhelmingly favorable, expressing gratitude for showing the intelligence, passion and caring of NASCAR fans and the community they are a part of. Besides creating good will among core fans and insights into a world not familiar to those who haven’t experienced NASCAR, Feel Your Heart Race realized another client goal. “We needed to show that ESPN understood the NASCAR culture,” said Wieden art director Kurt Lenard.
Modelmaking “Agencies and advertisers are seeking a level of engagement with consumers, creating an experience that’s a product itself–social networking sites, rich consumer experiences, online games, apps for iPhone, interesting events, TV shows, varied forms of content. We’re creating relationships with consumers in different ways today,” related attorney Jeffrey A. Greenbaum, a partner at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, New York.
Falling behind this content creation curve, though, is the construction of new business models relative to compensation for creating and producing branded/sponsored fare in all its emerging forms.
“You have a number of agencies looking for a piece of ownership in what they’re providing. They feel the need to look for a more value-based compensation model,” said Greenbaum. “Agencies are trying to work through different options and possibilities with their clients.”
Similarly production houses are exploring moving when appropriate from a work-for-hire model to having a stake in intellectual property they’re involved in creating and bringing to fruition. “With markups going down in the work-for-hire situation, the cash flow and profitability problems [in commercialmaking],” conjectured Greenbaum, “perhaps in some ways this is conducive to production companies making a stronger case for the need to explore new compensation models and having a piece in the success of work they create and produce.”
At the same time, continued Greenbaum, talent agents are “trying to figure out what role they’re going to play in the next generation of advertising.
“The fact, though, is no one has totally figured it out yet,” he continued. “Obviously whoever finances these projects has the leverage. You have to be nimble about different ways of doing business and structuring deals. While content is driven by creativity, everyone involved will have to be creative on another front–in being able to be flexible and open-minded about the creation of business models relative to ownership, rights, licensing and different forms of compensation.”
