By A SHOOT Staff Report

"I would argue that mobile, tablets and smart phones are becoming the first screen."
    That observation came from Tom Dunlap while serving as a panelist at a Digital Hollywood session last month. Earlier this year, Dunlap joined creative agency 72andSunny as chief production officer, coming over from RSA Films where he was executive producer with a focus on branded, digital and multi-platform entertainment. At RSA, Dunlap was involved in several groundbreaking initiatives that bridged the world of marketing and entertainment, including: Hyundai's Re:Generation Music Project, AT&T's Daybreak online series, Friday Night Fights for Activision's Call of Duty Elite service, and Budweiser's Bud House.
    Dunlap's experience in production began at TBWAChiatDay. He was director of integrated production at Deutsch as well as at Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam. Dunlap was also a member of the inaugural 2012 Cannes Lions Branded Entertainment jury.
    Also serving on the same Digital Hollywood panel as Dunlap was Dustin Callif, managing partner, digital, at Tool of North America. Callif noted that brands need to explore the opportunities that are unfolding across different platforms. He suggested that it makes good business sense for clients to allocate at least 10 percent of their advertising/marketing budgets for pure experimentation and exploration. Recently Tool and London-based Mustard Films created and produced BMW UK's Become Electric, a 360-degree interactive film for agency WCRS, London. The experimental film, which marks the launch of BMW's first electric car–the BMWi3–was described by Callif as being "a visual test drive wrapped in storytelling."
    Last month, Tool and The Martin Agency won a News & Documentary Emmy in the New Approaches: Documentaries category for the JFK Presidential Library and Museum's interactive documentary, Clouds Over Cuba.
    At a separate Digital Hollywood panel discussion, Steve Harnsberger, director, strategic business development for Deluxe Digital Distribution, said that multiple screens are gaining momentum and are doing so internationally, noting that Netflix has expanded to Germany and Amazon is set to launch Kindle in Japan. "This is a global phenomenon," affirmed Harnsberger who related that after just eight months Netflix is being watched by 17 percent of Scandinavians. Being able to put video on any screen ala Netflix, said Harnsberger, "will not kill TV but be the second age of TV…accessing it at any moment in any location."
    Craig Lister, VP, solutions lead at RAPP, said as a panelist during the same session that IPTV, the proliferation of tablets, and phones growing into tablets will continue. Multiple platforms, he continued, mean that clients and brands need to better manage "customer touchpoints across the ecosystem."
    In that vein, SHOOT surveyed ad agency artisans, posing the following question:
    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 their feedback.

 

Peter Albrycht, sr. VP, director of digital development & integration, Leo Burnett The most innovative project produced by our team this year was the world's first live portal, which allowed people to interact between India and Pakistan through Coca-Cola machines. The project's ingenuity comes from its cutting-edge technology, taking an active shutter 3D projector and putting a 3D glass lens on the camera. This project created an opportunity for citizens from these two battling countries to meet face to face via Coke dispensers. An infrared touch screen was also part of each machine, which showcased a series of interactive animations. There, users could trace a peace symbol or a smiley face with the animation as a guide, resulting in a free Coke.     The goal was not to take over the conversation of peace between the two countries, but to join in and attempt to make a positive impact on the relationship between India and Pakistan. These countries have had over four decades of conflict, with many families split across the border. Leo Burnett looked outside of current media channels and invented a different way for people to communicate and share a brand experience.     Coke's words: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/happiness-without-borders

Mike Au, sr. producer, JUXT, a Project Worldwide agency In the first half of 2013 we launched the Play Action broadcast application for the NFL Network. Think CNN Election Night touchscreen, but with football. While exploring this space we discovered that most interactive broadcast aids of this type are really just smoke and mirrors and rife with performance issues. In contrast, we created a rock solid application that accessed the NFL database in real time to elegantly display real time stats and visualizations. As a result of spending months exploring ways of analyzing and displaying NFL statistics, I've been able to assemble a virtually unbeatable fantasy lineup to compete in our inter-office league."

Justin Booth-Clibborn, head of integrated production, BBH New York As part of the launch of the "Greatness Awaits" brand campaign, BBH created a digital initiative to give gamers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bid on items from the launch film using nothing but their hard-earned, gold PlayStation trophies. Bid for Greatness included an online platform that gamers could log-in to using their PlayStation credentials for the chance to win high-ticket items from the film like a custom Assassin's Creed costume– something we knew gamers would jump at a chance to own. The idea: reward greatness and take gamers deeper into the campaign.     Since we were using PlayStation trophies as the currency for bidding, our biggest challenge was integration with the PlayStation Network API. We worked closely with Sony and our production partner Haus to ensure a clean, simple yet secure, user experience. And of course, we had to build in ample time for testing/QA.    Post launch, optimization was extremely important. We paid close attention to what gamers were saying about the experience and tracked their conversations across social channels. As we all know, when people talk about your brand on the Web, you need to listen and react quickly.     The campaign was a tremendous success and we recently worked with PlayStation to roll out the next evolution: Greatness Exchange- a digital initiative that, with one gold trophy equalling one sweepstakes entry, gives all gamers a shot at winning items used in the latest PlayStation commercials, including "Perfect Day," along with a few other once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Essentially, giving all gamers a chance at greatness.

Kedma Brown, VP, director of integrated production, Saatchi & Saatchi NY Marketing now requires a new type of thinking, planning, production and delivery process where traditional ideas are converted into innovative concepts with the infusion of technology. This is what our Integrated Production group here at Saatchi NY is all about- making really cool stuff that is media agnostic and possible through technology. One of the coolest and most fulfilling projects we worked on this year was the Olay WOW Eyes project in Times Square for the launch of Regenerist's Micro-Sculpting Eye Cream & Lash Duo.     This was an integrated and experiential activation campaign to drive brand engagement and turn consumers into advocates. Generally integrated projects consist of about 3-4 components but this project consisted of about 10. It had digital, social, mobile, PR, a live event, product sampling /trial/demo, professional makeover & tips, a live DJ giveaways, and real time projections and ecrm.     We partnered with Citizen Paine, Stuzo and Michael Alan Group/Lime Media to execute the campaign, which spanned over two weekends (4 days). We invited consumers to a custom built truck in Times Square, where they could get mini makeovers, try the product and go to the Olay street teams in Times Square and upload photos of their eyes through a mobile tablet. The image was then displayed to capture their WOW moment live for 15 seconds on the digital billboard. Consumers were then sent an image of the screen (with Times Square in the background) that could be shared as their Facebook cover photo and/or shared with friends.     As the lead agency, it was fulfilling to bring multiple partners/agencies & touch points together to deliver on the client's objectives and obtain great results. We had to identify and manage everyone's roles & responsibilities within a very tight timeframe. Managing that process was very complicated and required a lot of flexibility. We also had to determine what technologies were appropriate to help connect all the touch-points for an optimal experience across all mediums. There is no one size fits all when developing integrated campaigns. Each one is always different, which provides us a unique opportunity to test and learn new approaches for delivery every day.

Jon Ellis, VP, executive producer of digital, DDB Chicago The most fulfilling campaign I've been involved with this year? That's simple. The integrated campaign we've just created for Chicago's very own natural history museum, The Field Museum. The campaign combined a groundbreaking mobile app with broadcast and print that all intelligently drove to the exhibit. And that's because the app connects traditional advertising around town to the event by allowing users to experience teasers of the exhibition. Once there, the app turns into a useful tool that allows museum goers to build personalized tours and access extra content – ranging from informational text to video content and immersive 360 degree panoramas.     There are few accounts more interesting to work on than museums, and that combined with the subject matter being Chicago's 1893 World's Fair, it couldn't have been much more fun.     With so many different delivery channels, pulling everything together was difficult at times, but the end result is everything we had hoped for. It was really great to see all the agency groups – creative, production, account, and project management, come together to bring this to life. Check it out here:     APP STORE LINK: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id719184903     PLAY STORE LINK: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.potion.fieldmuseum

Paul Gallardo, executive producer, GSD&M Hands down, the most rewarding project I've been a part of this year is The Air Force Collaboratory—partly because the finished product represents a year of effort and growth. But mainly because of the smarts, passion and grit the team brought to the table. Our assignment was essentially to change the perception of the Air Force for STEM-oriented youth. How can we get these kids to consider the Air Force as a career opportunity?     What's awesome about the Air Force Collaboratory is it addresses a genuine marketing problem with a software solution. Put simply, the Air Force Collaboratory is a web-based platform that brings Airmen together with our country's youth to solve some of the Air Force's toughest science and technology challenges. Participants are briefed, given direction on how they can help and are provided the opportunity to contribute to real-time and real-world efforts. The platform features three main topics: next-level search and rescue technology, improving autonomy in quadrotors and helping determine the orbit location of the next GPS satellite launched by the Air Force.     Ultimately, The Air Force Collaboratory brought our agency team, production partners, clients and Air Force Airmen together to unearth answers to scientific challenges. In doing so, not only did we build something that actually works; we also opened a dialogue between the civilian and military worlds for the betterment of us all. Plus, we made up for that physics course we dropped in college. Check it out here: www.airforce.com/collaboratory

Catherine Patterson, executive integrated producer, McCann New York My team's favorite campaign of the year is the Quietest Show on Earth (QSOE), centered on a unique off-the-grid acoustic performance that took place October 8 in Joshua Tree as part of Nature Valley's ongoing "Preserve the Parks" program.     The QSOE was designed as an integrated end-to-end campaign to reach audiences nationwide. Tactical elements included site, mobile, sweeps, social and branded content. Location requirements included training teams to hike back country, hand-held and run and gun camera teams, and leading a team of 20+persons in and out of the desert without incident or injury, and the best part, staging the Quietest Show with a tiny audience of ten and featuring amazing indie folk artists Andrew Bird and Tift Merrit.     We were given a green light in May 2013 and were twin barrels burning by July. We built the site, sweeps and social between July and October, and completed location work second week of October. We partnered with Tool out of Los Angeles and their director James Cooper and had less than five days to go until we deployed the teams to the desert. Then the government shuttered the National Parks. Thankfully, we were able to move the concert, so the show did go on. It was completely awesome. We ran like hell to get home to the edit rooms and cut together the concert footage into five songs, and behind-the-scenes content that we deployed to the live site within two weeks. We get to spend every day solving new creative, technical and operational problems with the best teams ever. We're the luckiest suckers on the planet.

Pam Scheideler, executive VP, director of digital production, Deutsch LA I'm really excited about our work for Pop Secret Popcorn. The Deutsch invention group pitched a series of light-weight digital experiences for the brand called Kernels. The mission of the Kernels was simple: to make Pop Secret the most talked about popcorn brand online. We challenged ourselves to make 6-10 "things" ranging from games to movie partnerships, to utilities and actual hardware. The mission of increasing earned media and share of voice was accomplished — but maybe more importantly we learned a ton along the way. The Diamond Foods client has given us room to truly experiment, which is so rare. No media flight dates, minimal presentations: just make stuff and put it out there. One of my favorite experiments was a native app called Perfect Pop which used listening technology (kind of like Shazam does) to prevent people from burning popcorn. With 225,000 downloads and 4+ star user ratings we really got people talking about popping pop corn. We've decided to invest in a version 2.0 based on user feedback and features that we wanted to get in to the app initially, but weren't part of the MVP (Minimum Viable Product). You have to work quickly, learn and iterate. It's been a great process for everyone. It takes a lot of trust from the client and discipline for the teams to build real products — but we are making more, learning more, and ultimately serving the brand better. Get the app here: http://goo.gl/DC7yIT.

George Sholley, integrated producer, BBDO New York For my favorite digital/social project of the year, forgive me for tooting our own horn here but…that would have to be the documentary film From One Second to the Next.     To support the major wireless carriers' efforts around the prevention of texting and driving, we needed breakthrough content that could help amplify the idea: no text is worth a life.     Art can be derivative and our ad-world is no different, so with this project we sought to be as original as possible. Doing so, and in the pursuit of breakthrough docu-based work, we stripped away the abstract premise–"let's get someone like Werner Herzog"–and instead pursued the real thing… Wait, let's just get Werner Herzog.      This isn't the first time that an advertiser has paired with a famous director. But we were truly trying to create something unique and resonant here.     Along the way, we insisted (upon ourselves) to maintain the purity of the pursuit. We created content that transcended culture by embracing the auteurship of a master storyteller. The resulting 35-minute film is pure Herzog oeuvre.      Additionally, our project leveraged earned-media via Werner's influencer-replete audience. His rarified significance–along with the film's quality–led to it being embraced by outlets like Reddit and Huffpost which, in turn, led and bolstered mainframe support by outlets such as the New York Times, NPR and CNN.     All this earned-media success led to an increase in the work's core functional and educational utilization for AT&T and its partners: thousands of copies of the film have since been requested by driver's ed. programs, police precincts, classrooms and global civic outlets.

Greg Smith, chief creative officer, The VIA Agency Working on Republic Wireless has been a very exciting creative endeavor. First, Republic Wireless is unlike any other wireless company in their completely disruptive model – all online based, a wifi/cellular hybrid network and a ridiculously low cost of entry. So, it only make sense that we would take a non-traditional and disruptive approach to their marketing efforts. A largely digital and social play, the campaign centered around two characters, H. Bud Chadwickson, noted world class "factuarian,' and his trusty, though inept sidekick, Giles Stanley. What made this campaign so great was that we really got to bring these characters to life across the digital landscape. To that end, we went beyond just Facebook personas and active Twitter accounts. We created Linked-in profiles, faux book tours, Vine videos, google hangouts– you name it. In the end, what made it so fascinating is that the characters went from being funny and surreal, to something almost real in our minds and the consumers.

Michael Ventura, founder and CEO, Sub Rosa For us, it was the creation of the Nike Hyperfeel launch campaign – The Art and Science of Feeling. This immersive experience put participants at the front-lines, inviting them to experience the sensorial aspects of barefoot running like never before. By removing their shoes and socks and then being outfitted with a brainwave monitor, we invited guests to travel throughout a 4,000 sq. ft. labyrinth equipped with lighting, aural and textural changes to the environment. The floor itself shifted from sand to concrete to rubber to grass; all the while, we were measuring and monitoring brain wave activity. This helped us identify how different experiences were received and processed in the brain, and ultimately helped to tell the story of Nike's Hyperfeel technology as a powerful way to increase the sensorial engagement and brain stimulation that a bare foot can provide. Working in partnership with artist Aramique Krauthamer, the resultant data was passed through an algorithm that created a one-of-a-kind data visualization for the participant. The space was a highlight of New York's Fall Fashion Week and truly helped us to create an experience that won't soon be forgotten.

 

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