Six months ago, David Rolfe decided to buy a Mini Cooper. As a senior producer on the Mini account at Crispin Porter+ Bogusky (CP+B), Miami, Rolfe thought he might be able to negotiate a special deal on the new automobile.
Unfortunately for Rolfe, the dealer wasn’t an advertising enthusiast. "He wasn’t interested in wheeling and dealing," the producer recalls. "But I looked over to my left, and they had a TV monitor, and sure enough they were running our ads on there. I said, ‘You have no idea—the four months I put into the ads that are marketing your cars.’ "
The dealer remained unimpressed. "I didn’t get the greatest percentage on the car," Rolfe laughs. "But we did get some awards."
CP+B’s integrated campaign for Mini took home top honors at this year’s One Show, in part on the strength of two Internet/cinema spots, "This is America" and "Bulldog," which were directed by Baker Smith of harvest, Santa Monica, and co-produced by Rolfe and Rupert Samuel.
At the office (if not at the Mini dealership), hard work has paid off for Rolfe and Samuel. The latter also served as producer on Ikea’s "Lamp," which earned the Grand Prix at the 2003 Cannes International Advertising Festival. The two were promoted to co-directors of broadcast production at CP+B earlier this year, succeeding Sara Gennet-Lopez, who assumed the newly created position of VP/broadcast business manager.
Sharing the helm of broadcast production at a growing agency may sound like a difficult balancing act, but for Samuel and Rolfe, collaboration comes naturally. "Dave and I work well as a team," says the British-born Samuel, who came to CP+B as an editing intern six years ago. "We’re kind of different in terms of the way we produce, so we complement each other. I would say that I’m probably a little bit more relaxed. Dave is more firm and manages all the details. At the end of the day, we’re really close friends."
COLLABORATIVE EFFORT
That friendship was put to the test shortly after Rolfe joined the CP+B staff four years ago. "Rupert and I had to share director/producer responsibility on an And 1 Basketball spot," recalls Rolfe, a former location manager, independent filmmaker and wine entrepreneur from Portland, Ore.
With severe budget and time constraints, Rolfe and Samuel were assigned the task of making "Put Me in the Game," a spot touting the footwear and apparel company’s summer basketball organization, which was slated to air during the Olympics. "We had to shoot amateur basketball players all over the country, and get [the spot] on the air in two weeks," Rolfe relates. "We were [working] separately with DPs and an art director and shooting, as well as line-producing, budgeting and throwing the whole thing together. We were constantly talking on cell phones, working literally twenty-four hours a day for about four or five days. Then we rendezvous-ed in New York for the editorial, which was another twenty-four-hours-a-day event that lasted four days."
After all that effort, however, "Put Me in the Game" didn’t air during the Olympics. "The client didn’t feel that enough kids were going to be watching the games," Rolfe explains.
Nonetheless, it spawned a strong working partnership between Rolfe and Samuel; the pair has learned to share and divide production responsibilities on a variety of projects. On Mini’s "Bulldog" and "This is America," for instance, both Rolfe and Samuel oversaw pre-production, with Rolfe playing a more active producing role during the shoot, and Samuel heading up post. "As producers here, you get very enthusiastic about certain brands," Samuel shares. "When Dave and I first heard about the Mini account, we said, ‘We’ve got to get involved in this.’ So we approached [CP+B creative director/partner Alex Bogusky] and said, ‘We want to tag-team it,’ and he said, ‘Fine.’ "
While "Bulldog" and "This is America" began as Internet spots, "we were cutting thirty-second versions within the first couple of days of off-line," Rolfe states.
Both commercials illustrate the Mini’s appeal with subtle yet effective humor. In "Bulldog," a pudgy canine sniffs the little car’s rear as a means of introduction, and "This is America" features a Mini-driving American who gets pulled over by a confused British bobby for driving on the wrong side of the street.
Rolfe and Samuel say Smith had a lot to do with the spots’ success. "It was our first [Mini work] out of the gate, and it was frankly under-funded," Rolfe observes. "Still, harvest was on board all the way through. And they did an incredible job."
"I think Baker is one of the nicest directors we’ve worked with," Samuel adds. "It was one of those situations where we became part of his team, and he became a part of ours."
When it comes to choosing directors and vendors, Rolfe says he and Samuel prefer "the collaborative ones." Creative vision is also important. "Alex creates an atmosphere around here where you are really responsible for the work that you do," explains Rolfe. "You always want to make sure [a project] is perfect from top to bottom. And the better the visionary you have attached to the job, the better it will ultimately be."
"We like to find somebody who can handle a challenge and keep moving forward," Samuel shares. "Not a director who views a challenge as a hit to their ego, but someone who says, ‘Let’s see what we can do with that.’ "
When he was producing Ikea’s "Lamp," Samuel worked closely with the agency creative team and director Spike Jonze, who helms spots out of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ), to make sure the tone was on-target. "I always try and get the creatives to pull references for certain looks and styles," he relates. "That way, we can try and mold all the elements together in a certain direction."
One of the most difficult elements in "Lamp" was casting the talent. The spot, which tells the tale of a little red lamp abandoned by its owner in favor of a sleek, new Ikea model, culminates with a deadpan Swedish man telling viewers, "Many of you feel bad for this lamp. That is because you [are] crazy. It has no feelings. And the new one is much better."
Samuel and MJZ producer Vincent Landay searched far and wide to find the perfect Swede for the job. "Initially, we were going to cast in Sweden, but I had a real issue with trying to get somebody from Sweden coming in under the right work permits in the amount of time we had to shoot the thing," Samuel remembers. "So Vince and I began searching for Swedish guys throughout the States. We did castings in lots of different cities, just trying to find actors that were Swedes, but we didn’t have much luck."
Sharing Duties
So Samuel and Landay started looking at real people. "We put out notices inside the Swedish Council about what we were looking for," relates Samuel. "This [non-actor] saw one of the notices and turned up at one of our castings. When we saw the tape of him, we all laughed so hard. Then we got a phone call from Vince saying, ‘I think we found the guy,’ and it was the same bloke."
In their new, shared position, Samuel and Rolfe will continue to play an active role as producers, as well as oversee the production department. "Including Rupert and myself, we have five producers," Rolfe notes. "We also have a music producer, Bill Meadows, who we brought on a year ago."
Though they’re thrilled with their recent successes, the new production heads don’t have much time to celebrate. "I’m about to do a big Ikea campaign," Rolfe reports. "And we’re going in a slightly new direction with ‘Truth’ [the American Legacy Foundation anti-tobacco campaign] on a national level, along with Arnold [Worldwide, Boston, which shares the account]."
"We’re hoping to do some work for Virgin Atlantic, and there’s going to be some Mini stuff coming down the road in the not-so-long future," Samuel adds. "It’s great because there are interesting projects coming through here all the time. We’re always kept busy."
