Little known fact: Action star Dolph Lundgren is a genius. Yes, that Dolph Lundgren. Rocky’s monosyllabic Russian nemesis Ivan Drago. It’s this surprising, perception-shifting nugget that creative content agency Juniper Jones utilized in promoting National Geographic Channel’s new season of Brain Games. Season 5 premieres on Feb. 14.
Past promos for Brain Games had focused, by-and-large, on camera tricks to promote the show. Juniper Jones was committed to thinking outside the box and proposed comedy as one avenue. Although comedy generally falls pretty far outside the norm for Brain Games as a property, Nat Geo was open to the idea, as long as the creative supported the endeavor. Once Dolph Lundgren was on the table, Nat Geo jumped at the prospect.
Nat Geo creative director Tyler Korba scripted a spot premised on Dolph as prisoner, trapped inside his own body and strength. Although his IQ is 160, he can’t function as a smart man because his powerful body keeps getting in the way. Fortunately, Brain Games provides him with the perfect outlet.
Juniper Jones exec creative director Kevin Robinson directed the promo.
ANA’s Marketing Word Of The Year
Content marketing is the ANA’s (Association of National Advertisers) 2015 Marketing Word (actually, it’s two words) of the Year based on votes cast by 297 of its marketer members. Content marketing won, with programmatic (ANA’s 2014 Marketing Word of the Year), transparency, and storytelling placing close behind. This is the second consecutive year the ANA surveyed its members to identify the Marketing Word of the Year.
“The selection of content marketing as ANA Word of the Year wasn’t surprising, as we’ve seen lots of interest throughout the year in various ANA discussions and forums on the topic,” said Bill Duggan, ANA group EVP. “Members are realizing that ‘content’ provides the means for engagement and ‘marketing’ is required to drive awareness of content—so the resulting combination of ‘content marketing’ is powerful.”
People On The Move…
Animatics shop Animated Storyboards (ASB) has launched an office in Toronto. Maria Hanafy will lead the new studio as managing director, along with four additional staffers. This marks the 10th office for ASB, with current shops running in NY, Chicago, L,A., London, São Paulo, Bangkok, Tel Aviv, Düsseldorf and Shanghai. Hanafy has nearly a decade of experience in production, with a background ranging from the agency to the production company, casting and post sides of the industry. After earning a degree in radio and TV from San Francisco State University, she worked for local cable stations, producing, shooting and editing on-air prom content. Shortly after, she landed a gig as a casting manager at Talent6, spending nearly two years with the S.F.-based casting agency before shifting to the agency side as an associate producer at Publicis & Hal Riney where she handled radio and video production for clients including US Cellular, Hewlett-Packard and Walmart, working with internal creative teams. In 2012, she returned to production and post as an associate producer at Acme Posts/Hamady Productions before joining ASB in 2013. Prior to spearheading the Toronto office, she produced projects for clients out of ASB’s NY and Chicago offices…
