IP telephony solutions, from desktop to cellular applications, can be a dry subject, but in broadband video advertising for Avaya, they come alive with verve and humor seldom seen in IP telephony advertising.
“One of the things management emphasizes is the importance of not dropping calls. They say when we drop calls, it’s like dropping a person,” one of the spots begins. Then, employees are dropped throughout the spot, first on the office floor, later on a staircase, until finally the narrator is picked up by another employee and carried to safety.
“When you think about how much time and frustration is spent on office phone difficulties, it really makes sense to use a phone that minimizes those pain points,” said Al Patton, R/GA New York copy director. “With ‘Dropping Calls,’ we wanted to bring these pain points to life in a way that hadn’t been done before, and show how Avaya’s one-X Deskphone Edition can actually improve productivity by eliminating office phone difficulties.”
The campaign, which includes 11 clips for a variety of Avaya products, provides a “quick, easy and humorous way to look at various features across all our solutions,” said Renee Rodgers, Avaya’s director of interactive marketing.
The spots are geared to end users instead of decision makers “as a quick way to highlight the functionality to a broad audience,” Rodgers said. “We position it to end users because they influence buying decisions. Salespeople on the road see the ability they get with our IP solutions and they go back to their team and say, ‘We really need it.’ It’s an effective way to influence decisions.”
The spots can be seen at Avaya.com and Google Video. “Even though Google is consumer focused, it’s a way to get to end users,” Rodgers said. “Google wants to expand to b2b and they have a business section they’re starting to develop.” Avaya plans to play the videos at YouTube within the next few weeks.
“Dropping Calls” as well as two other spots in the campaign–“Parents” and “Not a Sharer” — were directed by @radical.media‘s Zack & JC (directing team Zack Resnicoff & J.C. Khoury) and shot in HD with film lenses. On-screen graphics and compositing were handled in-house at R/GA. The videos were created for the Web with broadcast quality standards, so they could be repurposed for other media, including TV, video billboards and handheld devices, according to R/GA’s director of production, digital studio Steve Ford. The videos were shot at Avaya’s Basking Ridge, NJ location with a cast selected by R/GA and @radical.media.
The campaign, called Snapshots, launched October, 2005, and is frequently updated with two new spots every quarter, Rodgers said.
Director Hans Emanuel Joins Caviar For Commercials and Music Videos
Production company Caviar has signed director Hans Emanuel for U.S. commercial and music video representation. The film and advertising director fuses his keen--and Berlinale Film Festival Award-winning--eye for cinematic storytelling with a commercial background across multiple genres including beauty, automotive, dance, and visual effects-heavy projects, to produce creative for clients like Kia, Nivea, Nissan, L’Oreal, BMW and more.
Caviar executive producer Salim El Arja noted, “Hans has a unique ability to blend stunning visuals with heart and humor, rooted in his confidence as a craftsman. This allows him to focus on drawing exceptional performances from actors--including celebrities--and crafting films that are not only visually striking but also deeply engaging and often hilariously comedic. His sensibilities align perfectly with Caviar’s vision, and we’re excited to collaborate with him on work that pushes creative boundaries.”
Emanuel added, “Caviar is a renowned name, certainly since I began my career. They have a solid reputation for quality work, and I’ve always respected them as a company. Life is about where destiny makes you flow with the people you need; thanks to a series of projects, I was introduced to Florence Jacob with Caviar Paris first, and the rest is history. I feel they can support my career growth with their comedic expertise and filmmaking prowess.”
Prior to joining Caviar, Emanuel had been repped by production house Stadium. He was born and raised in Santa Monica, Calif., to a Mexican-German mother, benefiting from a culturally diversified upbringing that carried through his education interests. Knowing he wanted to be a filmmaker from the start, he began his career in the luxury and beauty field,... Read More