When history is told as a story, it is remembered and valued, observed Kirk Saduski, head of non-fiction for Tom Hanks’ production company Playtone, and an instructor at UCLA Extension.
Saduski is one of three teachers at UCLA Extension profiled in an integrated campaign for the school. In the spot featuring Saduski, he tells us of the impact the classic Kubrick film Spartacus had on him as a youngster, bringing history to life through storytelling. In seeing that and other films with his father as a lad, Saduski developed an ethos which has served him well professionally in creating shows such as Band of Brothers.
Recruited by L.A. agency Sensis to lead creative and film direction, Tomato oversaw this campaign, the largest in UCLA Extension’s history, featuring multiple television spots, online content, print and out-of-home. Tomato partner Len Dickter headed the project, served as director of the live-action, and leveraged his years of experience as a creative director and writer to collaboratively work with Sensis from concept to completion. Dickter is also managing director for Tomato’s Los Angeles office, opened in 2012 as the group’s first full-service U.S. creative studio. Tomato is a company on the roster of production house Twist.
“Len Dickter of Tomato meticulously envisioned and captured the inspiring journeys of our rock star instructors, which culminated in a rich integrated media campaign unlike anything UCLA Extension has done before,” said Kimberley Nielsen, executive director of marketing, UCLA Extension.
From a brief to explore the quality of instruction at UCLA Extension, Tomato created a vivid cinematic landscape, in which real UCLA instructors take a journey through their own career lessons. Through voice only, the audience follows each instructor through their imagination and memory as they recall the moments that most inspired them, and how they use it to inspire their own Extension students. Bravely, the commercials do not even mention UCLA Extension until the closing seconds, asking the audience to engage with story alone, before the brand is revealed.
The other two UCLA Extension instructors spotlighted were Jeanne Holm, NASA chief knowledge architect, and Fernando DeMoraes, an award-winning interior architect.
