With the intention of giving their employees a creative outlet, partners Tom Duff and Randy Palmer (president and editor, respectively) of editorial house Optimus, Chicago and Santa Monica, Calif., offered their staffers an opportunity to create original content. Anyone in the shop could submit a 27-second commercial with the only suggestion being that it adhered to broadcast standards. Initially, the partners planned to air a select number of submissions, but in the end, all 27 submissions made it to air and onto the Web site, www.OptiTV.com.
Since the spots, which are airing in the Chicago area, end with a variety of three-second endtags featuring the Optimus moniker, the work also provides a branding opportunity for the shop.
“Our brand here is creativity, that’s what we bring to the table–creativity and the environment that we create in–and those spots convey that,” Duff related.
Without a product to tout, some of the spots feel more like very short films. For example, “Barnaby Owens,” which graphics intern Jason Oberg and editorial intern Frank McGrath (who is no longer with the shop) created, has an antagonizing main character. Dressed in a basketball uniform, Barnaby appears dribbling behind a man walking down the sidewalk with his groceries. The unlikely athlete soon provokes the stranger, who was minding his own business, and the two eventually face off on a basketball court.
With a different approach, assistant editors Mark Butchko and Tony Fiala created a satirical piece, “Aren’t Women Crazy,” based on a commercial running in the Chicago-area. The original spot promotes a one-man show titled Defending the Caveman. They haven’t seen the live performance and therefore admit they don’t have a right to criticize the show, but Fiala will say that the ads for the comedy about men and women don’t do it justice if the show is indeed good.
This was a nice opportunity to escape the assistant activities that they typically engage in, like making dubs and logging dailies, Butchko related. And about seeing their work on television, he added, “It’s just nice to know you have an audience that can actually see the work that you do.”
WELL ROUNDED
The idea for the project solidified in January after employee reviews, Palmer explained. In the meetings, the partners heard a common request for more challenging tasks and opportunities for staffers to express themselves.
The shop provided cameras for the participants and obviously has in-house facilities for graphics, titling, audio and cutting. The project created excitement in the office, Duff said, with approximately 80 employees from both offices participating. He plans to start another round of OptiTV in the fall and continue sponsoring the event three to four times a year.
Beyond the advantage of having happier employees and branding the shop, these commercials also give Optimus staffers insight into the problems their clients face. And Duff added, “It generates a conversation, an excitement and a buzz that I think sets us apart as a cool, creative shop.”
The spots ran in the Chicago market on ESPN, CSN (Chicago Sports Network), TBS, TNT, MTV, Comedy Central and Bravo with a total of 1,968 airings in May. The media buy will continue through August, though not as heavily as in May.
This foray into production does not signal expansion plan for the company. Instead Palmer said it just shows how well rounded the company’s employees are and that they are able to tackle anything that is thrown at them.
