By To broaden the reach of three :30 spots in the Panasonic “Ideas for Life” campaign–“Life is: Plasma,” “Life is: DVD-R” and “Life is: Digital Camera”–creatives at Grey Worldwide, New York, developed a section of their client’s Web site with DVD-like special features related to the commercials. Visitors on www.Panasonic.com can get more involved with the spotwork–which features various daily events from girls riding their bicycles down a bumpy brick street to a woman scandalously wearing a red blouse to a funeral–when they click the link to a sneak peek behind the scenes of the commercial shoot. There, they can see an interview with director Andrew Douglas of bicoastal Anonymous Content (who helmed the 2005 version of The Amityville Horror), as well as outtakes, pop-up trivia and other games relating to the commercial footage.
Though it would seem safe to assume that the Internet content developed before the shoots in Los Angeles and around Buenos Aires, the idea actually was an afterthought to get people more involved in the campaign. Grey chief creative officer and creative director Tim Mellors explained that the shoots were quite interesting and it occurred to him that it would be nice to share the experience with their audience. “People are interested in trivia and details, and it just seemed like a really obvious thing to broadcast that detail.”
A CLOSE LOOK
A highlight of the Web site is the three-and-a-half-minute video interview with Douglas in which he explains that the good ideas behind the work attracted him to the spots, as did their heart. In addition, he informs viewers that a priority during casting was to find real-looking people and that they filmed in Argentina because of the European-like settings.
On why Douglas was the proper director for the project, Mellors said, “I wanted it to have that kind of very photographed, observed quality and I thought [Andrew] would be particularly good for that, which, in fact, he was.”
With the tag line “Ideas for Life,” the spots depict “little, observed life moments” and the objective was to capture the occasions like a renowned photographer would. “It’s like a Magnum photograph come to life,” Mellors related. “So I was thinking [about] people who were originally photographers and I thought, well actually, Andrew would be really good because I’ve seen stuff that he’d done and he has a very photographic sensibility.”
Other bonus features include :15 versions of the commercials, as well as :60 director’s cuts with pop-up trivia. Pop-up video fan and assistant producer Stephanie Gottlieb spearheaded the research for that section.
The site, which was created in about three days, also includes games like Spot the Difference, where viewers can watch two versions of a clip and are then asked if they can identify the differences between them, and Pan and Scan where they can take a quiz to determine how much they remember from a :60 spot.
The speed with which the site went up was necessary because the spots were set to air soon after the concept for the online plans evolved. “I think it was a chance for Grey to show that we can turn things around really quickly, and we did,” Gottlieb said.
The agency has used the commercials, print ads and a viral send-to-a-friend option on the site to drive traffic to the Web page. There are plans to add more commercials to the campaign and in turn to contribute more behind-the-scenes information on the Web site. But next time they film, agency artisans will have the Internet in mind when events take an unexpected, and hopefully funny, turn on the set.
Additional credit at Grey goes to Mike Ryniec and Jesse Vendley, copywriters; Mark Catalina and Denise O’Bleness, art directors; Aaron Royer, executive producer; and Chad Hopenwasser, producer.