theintegratedproductionwhitepaper
pg 3
goodby, silver-
stein & part-
ners’ mike
geiger
pg 4
crispin porter
+ bogusky’s
david rolfe
pg 6
bbdo, new
york’s brian
dilorenzo
pg 7
case study:
doritos hotel
626
pg 9
case study: the
pedigree cam-
paign
pg 11
case study:
microsoft real
pc
pg12
case study:
fifa 09
pg 15
leveraging
digital assets
by firstborn’s
dan lacivita
Brand creativity is an almost infinite proposi-
tion today.
Here’s a small sample of the kinds of things that
ad agencies spearheaded on behalf of brands in
the last several months: web films, console
games, video- and game-driven microsites, mer-
chandise and e-commerce sites, Facebook appli-
cations, iPhone applications, comic books, music
festivals, art installations, interactive billboards,
stores, QR-code-based posters and print ads,
augmented reality experiences, impromptu
dancing in public spaces. Oh, and those com-
mercials that have been the cornerstone of
advertising for decades? They still need to be
produced—better, faster and ready to play out
on any screen. Agencies have shifted creative
philosophies, talent and structures to better ori-
ent themselves to create ideas unencumbered by
media assumptions; new agencies have sprung
up with integration and media agnosticism as
core principles.
The implications for production are enormous.
Producers must find the best and most cost effi-
cient ways to bring to life any idea, and to ensure
that idea remains great in the execution.
Producing now means solving a new range of
problems, being expert in an ever changing array
of technology, building teams to do what was
impossible the week before, wrangling more
unforgiving schedules and budgets, negotiating
with a wide range of suppliers and simply orches-
trating more moving parts.
To provide the clearest possible picture of the
integrated production landscape for this paper,
we went to the people who are leading produc-
tion at a few of the agencies on the forefront of
creating platform spanning, integrated ideas for
clients. In this paper, these integrated production
experts discuss their approach to digital and inte-
grated production, building producers and
departments and a host of other issues related to
the new realities of production. We also provide
an in-depth, step-by-step look at the production
story behind some of the year’s most high profile,
successful, and in some cases, most complicated
creative campaigns. We wrap up with some
thoughts on creating production efficiencies by
considering a digital strategy up front.
What emerges: the internet and digital technol-
ogy have been so instrumental in the changing
ad environment, that digital capability has
become the glue of integrated production. This
sentiment is repeated in these pages and
summed up by one of our heads of production:
“Integrated is all about moving the interactive
mindset to the center.”
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Project11 5/13/09 4:29 PM Page 1
department at a glanceThe Digital Group at Goodby consists ofroughly 45 people. 35 of those are producers,ranging from executive producer to associateproducer; there are two information architects,an analytics group consisting of four peopleand a small in-house Flash production groupof three people who are mainly used forpitches, presentations and smaller Flashrelated projects.
The broadcast department has about 34 produc-ers and the print department about 25 producers.
Your agency has transitioned to digital and hasearned kudos for digital/nontraditional/in-tegrated ideas. But while the agency has beendoing great digital work, you’ve expressedmixed feelings about the idea of an “inte-grated” production dept. So what does an inte-grated production department mean to you interms of structure, producers'responsibilities—what’s your ideal in terms ofthe way you guys are producing?My mixed feelings stem from the fact that most
people in the industry emphasize the importance
of the integration of broadcast and interactive
but forget about the more important integration
of digital throughout the agency. We work hand
in hand with our broadcast department when it
comes to live action shoots for digital content
and it has been a very successful collaboration.
However, live action shoots only make up about
5% of all digital projects. So I think there is too
much importance put on the digital/broadcast
integration. I feel that the most emphasis should
be put on educating creatives, account people
and planners on the digital medium. Producers
have to be able to help find solutions to technical
problems for creatives, come up with alternative
suggestions, find suitable production partners for
the individual creative team and be able to
explain the limitations and possibilities in that
medium. Creatives just don't have the time to
keep up with the fast evolving digital landscape.
We are a creative agency, so the better the pro-
ducer can help support our creatives, the more
successful our work will be. At the same time,
account people have to be made aware of and
taught the different kinds of processes and
implementation strategies. It's not as straight-
forward as in broadcast or print; every digital
marketing form like a microsite, an iPhone
application, an augmented reality piece or a
major website requires different processes and
guidelines which have to be taught throughout
the agency. Only then will you have a chance to
succeed.
Do you have “integrated producers?” Or is inte-grated about the way producers from each spe-cialty work together?We don't call our producers integrated producers,
even though they might have the knowledge of
each medium. Some of my producers have a
broadcast background and most of them worked
for small digital production shops in the past.
When we work on projects with other depart-
ments, we work hand in hand, share assets and
knowledge, which works out great.
What is/has been the biggest challenge in creat-ing a production department that can handle allthe different kinds of project that the agency isdoing? One of the biggest challenges is to identify and to
stay on top of any new technology. From virtual
worlds and iPhone applications to
Papervision3D and augmented reality. New dig-
ital marketing forms are constantly appearing on
the horizon. Hashem Bajwa, our director of
innovation [ed: at press time Bajwa had moved
to TBWA] and some of our producers formed an
Innovations Group to stay on top of the techni-
cal evolution, to evaluate its use and solutions
and to educate throughout the agency. We also
have weekly guest speakers from startups from
Silicon Valley and an internal Innovations Blog
to keep us all updated on the latest and greatest.
What are you looking for most often in newproducers? The key to our success in production is the tal-
ent and knowledge of our producers. There are
four key factors I'm looking for in a producer
(in no particular order):
You have to be extremely organized (like a
project manager).
You have to know the digital medium and
technology inside and out and be able to
explain it throughout the agency.
You have to live and breathe digital, creativity,
design and innovation, not just production.
You have to fit into the agency, culturally.
You tend to work with a lot of the best digitalproduction companies on projects. Are highend digital production costs becoming anissue?It might surprise you, but the answer is no in
our case.
We have about 50 production partners and
most of them seem to be pretty much in synch.
I think it also helps that digital is no longer
seen as a novelty practice anymore and that
most clients are becoming more knowledge-
able of the costs of different digital formats.
Do you see things evolving to where you’redoing more digital production in house?For digital production we took over the broad-
cast model. We come up with the idea and
design in-house and then look for a produc-
tion partner. It is our business model and it's
worked great so far.
We want to use the best and most suitable pro-
duction shops possible for the individual proj-
ect. With the emergence of more and more
digital marketing forms, I personally think it
will be harder and harder for agencies to have
an in-house team who can not only develop
websites and banners, but be top notch in the
development of phone applications, installa-
tions, augmented reality and who knows what
is coming up next—in a cost-efficient and
manageable way.
How do you see production and your depart-ment evolving near and long term (in terms oftalent, structure, kinds of work you'll bedoing, amount you’ll be doing in house, etc.)?I have the feeling that innovation and new
emerging technologies will keep us on our toes.
There will be no boredom. The team will
become more well versed by producing new
digital formats and learning from it. I also
would not be surprised if some of my produc-
ers would eventually like to specialize in certain
digital forms as well. The workload will proba-
bly be back with a vengeance once the economy
picks up and the group will continue to grow.
mike geiger
Chief DigitalOfficer,Associate Partner,Goodby,Silverstein &Partners
3SPONSORED BY
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department at a glanceThere are around 120 people in IntegratedProduction at CP+B. General subgroups withinare Interactive,Video, Experiential, InternalProductions and Production Services. There is a“head of”in each of these groups, and producerswork across this structure.We call all of our pro-ducers “integrated”as a prefix in their title. So,“integrated interactive producer,”and so forth.
CP+B is credited with being one of the full serv-ice/"traditional" agencies that has transitioned todigital in a meaningful way and has producedmany digital/nontraditional/integrated ideas.How has your approach to production supportedwhat the agency has done creatively?The philosophy of CP+B has always been that not
only will we conceive of unique and challenging
material, but we will also find the way to make it.
Early on—even when we were a “Broadcast”
group by name—the spirit of how we produced
forced us to take on a producer-as-generalist
model. Hence, Integrated.
For instance, over ten years ago our shoots for
our client Truth were largely real-life happenings;
they had to be staged as reality-based shoots and
carefully planned accordingly. This is where I
think we actually developed the sense of our
work as so often being larger than its intended
medium (and meanwhile authenticity became
the guiding mindset no matter what we were
making). So our TV work—and now much of
our interactive work— often became a sort of
event in itself, and media assets grew forthwith.
The production culture of Integrated best sup-
ports this broader work.
You have what you call an integrated productiondepartment. First, what does that mean to you interms of structure, producers' responsibilities,etc.What’s your ideal in terms of the way youguys are producing?As CP+B has grown we have evolved the purpose
and functionality of the Integrated Production
Department. But simply, the original vision of
Integrated sprung from establishing a production
culture that could tackle anything. Ideas were
expanding across mediums, so production
needed to as well. Hence, Integrated at CP+B
started with a firm commitment to the “make
anything happen, by any means necessary”stan-
dard. The fact is, work dies when there is an
uncertain perception of how it may be made.
For CP+B, as this developed it surpassed what was
commonly thought of as a Broadcast Production
Department. So, we made the adjustment to
Integrated, to cement our commitment to making
cross-medium work.And we made it with the
asserted step of burying the term “broadcast.”
Broadcast to us became an anachronism, suggest-
ing one-way communicating and viewer captivity.
It became especially inappropriate for the title of a
department.
integrated equals interactiveTo sum up the progress of Integrated here, it is all
about homing in on all of our work as interactive.
The quest of Integrated puts the interactive mind-
set at the center of our work.We have interactive
producing and we have television producing,
events/experiential, etc., but it is all interactive
functionally. So ultimately we want to continue to
impress upon our culture (our producers) that
our work will function on a broader level than
what we’ve traditionally been familiar with.
I call this “expanded media mindset.”All produc-
ers need it, now—whether they stem from an
interactive background and more obviously if
they come from the traditional background.
Think of the production discipline as originally
capable of ignoring (or considering foregone) the
functionality of the media it created— that was
what broadcast was. Now it is incumbent on pro-
ducers to expand their cross-medium knowledge,
and to embrace the greater complexity and tech-
nologies involved in how new media works.
Half the battle is proximity.We mix our produc-
ers. Our senior interactive-side and senior-video
side producers share joint offices. Then the rest of
our producers—video, interactive, experiential,
business managers, music and the internal pro-
ductions group—occupy the same general area,
even in L.A. and Miami. It provides cultural bene-
fits to the overall “art of producing”and again
enforces the sharing of skills and technology/
media knowledge.
We have found that our focus on broadening skill
sets is to primarily broaden our interactive-based
producers into the video discipline. Most of our
producers predisposed to interactive have basic
training already in the realm of video as well, so
this is a comfortable progression.
Then, for our producers with primary skills in
video production, there are some that we have
been able to engage and train with the interactive
skill set, and some that remain fully engaged in
TV/video. The key is that the culture itself pro-
motes broadened media and tech awareness;
everything we make can be seen as an interface.
Also, most of our new hires and younger produc-
ers we know will possess a variety of skills. In fact,
I have seen that in many cases the agency produc-
tion biz as it is now is generally less equipped from
a structural standpoint than the new producers
entering these departments.We are working hard
in Integrated to support and further develop the
skills of our entering producers.
structure and the expansion of theinteractive mindsetAll four of the producing disciplines (video/in-
teractive/experiential/internal productions)
involve collaboration and many producers extend
across disciplines. Our leaders across the depart-
ment collaborate and support one another, and
may lead any producer under them—across video
and interactive.
It is very common for our interactive-oriented
producers to work on video project work. It is
less common for our video-side producers to
produce interactive project work directly. This is
also because CP+B is a true digital agency, as
AOR for many of our clients, and thus the
process of producing interactive needs to be par-
ticularly structured and ordered. Nonetheless
short-term interactive project work still pops up
for any producer to potentially work on, and we
have account-based EPs that oversee this work.
We will continue to gain in the area of interactive
process exposure.
As mentioned, our younger producers are all gen-
erally capable of producing across disciplines. So
as we move even further toward embracing inter-
active as our focal point—everything will fall
under the umbrella of interactive—we will con-
tinue to advance the overall process of producing.
At the same time we’ll see our disciplined interac-
tive process evolve as well, as it expands within an
agency with roots in all media.
davidrolfe
VP/Director ofIntegratedProduction, CrispinPorter + Bogusky
4 CREATIVITY INTEGRATED PRODUCTION WHITE PAPER
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For example, it may be that perhaps our most
“CP+B-seasoned”integrated-project specialist is
indeed our head of video, Matt Bonin—stem-
ming from a strong interactive mindset.At the
same time, over the last four years through our
head of interactive (and now managing director
of interactive at the agency) Winston Binch, we
have vastly expanded our interactive capabilities;
large-scale interactive production at CP+B bears
little resemblance to what it was three years ago. It
is now as advanced as anywhere in the world. But,
the point is, that all of our leaders—myself,
Winston, Matt and the EPs with us—work with
the Integrated mindset. Thus, leadership can
extend across disciplines.
producer expansion outside integrated, and “pods”Another successful producer opportunity we’ve
found—and this was conceived as our interactive
output flourished—is placing producers directly
inside a complex creative team.Although we fun-
damentally support the existence of general “pro-
ducer culture”(seating our producers together)
we’ve also found it can be fruitful to place a pro-
ducer physically within a team: a creative or two, a
technology/programming specialist, an interac-
tion designer… and a producer.We look for
opportunities for this for some of our long-term
(interactive) project work. The “pod”structure
may become more prolific as we still maintain a
collaborative production culture.
What about the idea of the all-round integratedproducer?The key, of course is to hatch the new agency
producer, via Integrated. And perhaps moreover,
the new EP. We feel that by pushing ourselves to
share and broaden skills, we will more rapidly
evolve the capacity of the agency producer. We
want our interactive-side EPs to grow toward
being the top-tier of overall campaign oversight,
with everything falling within that. Once we’re
there, they wouldn’t be an “interactive-side EP,”
rather they will be truly an Integrated EP. This
will exist with our EP-level video producers as
well, but the challenge with them is to advance
their work within the framework of an interac-
tive model. The need for this will become more
evident as the interactive reshuffling of the
industry continues.
We facilitate this daily growth through the direct
correspondence between our EPs across the
department.We install leadership on particular
campaigns across the video and interactive EP
side. Some projects need to be led by an interac-
tive-side EP; for others, the more natural fit is
for the video-side EP to lead along with the close
involvement of an interactive-side producer.
An example of this is BK “Whopper Virgins,”
which was led by our video-side EP (an EP with
strong interactive sensibilities), along with an
interactive producer closely tied to him.And then
for Microsoft “Real PC”[see p.9], it was instru-
mental for the interactive-side EP to act as lead,
because there were a lot of assets coming via site
creation, TV, video re-purposed for web and expe-
riential (live events and public media capture).
Also, when we think of the evolving role of a very
senior producer with accomplished video-ori-
ented (broadcast) work experience, Integrated can
still inspire. The demands of video content pro-
duction will persist: long form narrative-based
producing, long form documentary producing,
TV shows, webisodes, content for gaming, etc.
And the more complex media awareness that
accompanies all of this new work can push
today’s experienced broadcast-based producer to
help broker the media opportunities for the con-
tent itself. Expansion of network relationships,
entertainment industry relationships, branded
content opportunities and distribution opportu-
nities could be the equivalent of the traditional
interactive producer’s knowledge of (and rela-
tionship to) things like Facebook, a cable
provider (Direct TV or even TiVo) or SEM func-
tionality.
the expansion of production services and biz affairsAnother interesting component in Integrated as
media assets expand is the role of Production
Services, and specifically Business Affairs.As our
productions get more complex, legal, contracts,
partnerships, true reality-based casting, UGC
usage, media collaborations and research move to
the core of the production process.
For example, this becomes relevant with regard to
“real people casting.”This used to just mean cast-
ing people that spent more time on the stage at
Second City than in commercials—but now it has
become more important to find actual,“real peo-
ple.”The precautions that stem from this put a
great onus on Biz Affairs; casting shifts to a mar-
ket-research oriented strategy.Also, consider the
complexities of long form narrative or a tv
show—whether it’s narrative-based or doc—and
the demands on Biz Affairs.And consider the
growth of legal complexities with regard to tech-
nology licensing, production partnerships and
media-based partnerships.All this elevates the
discipline of Biz Affairs.
Hence, for our group, we see the role of Business
Affairs as producing.
Where are you finding talent?There’s no question the young talents coming
from media-arts training are well-equipped to
blossom in the integrated environment. In fact,
this could be the strongest argument for need-
ing an integrated structure: new producers are
already trained across mediums. For instance,
video will always be a sub-component of inter-
active training; not to mention the process of
training in gaming, and then interactive, and
then video, the post process as a developing
hybrid between high-end post and desktop, to
3D and Flash… the blending goes on and on.
We will have specialists, but the exposure to
training across mediums for any young media-
arts trained person is somewhat mind-bog-
gling. The agency world needs to embrace this
multi-talented “producer of tomorrow” and
optimize its collaborative culture through cre-
ating a more overtly diversified production
department.
How do you see integrated production evolving?There’s no question for me that integrated is
about preparing ourselves for the content
demands of the future in our business. This is
why Integrated will always evolve as a vision.
The point is that the producer and EP of five
years from now will be a much more diversi-
fied player than they were five years ago. And
for now, for instance, an interactive-oriented
EP that grows up in the Integrated system will
benefit from the traditional producing skills
that stem from video-side producing, and vice
versa. While our new model grows we’ll see
these disciplines evolve and borrow from one
another, separate and completely co-depend-
ent at once.
But the goal and reality is (I can’t stress
enough) that Integrated is all about moving
the interactive mindset to the center.
Disciplines, vision, structure, boundaries and
leadership will take their truest form as we
continue to fulfill that mission.
5SPONSORED BY
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department at a glanceI oversee the Departments of Film and Content,Digital Production, Print Production, PressServices and Presentation Services. It’s close to100 people. Our production and creativedepartments are about to get united on thesame floor, which will be great. The Kitchen andthe Factory@BBDO, our in house post and digi-tal facilities, are one floor below. Then it’s abreezy elevator ride down a couple floors to visitPrint, Press and Presentation Services, whichare all situated together.
What percentage of your work would you con-sider to be integrated?In the past year it’s become over 50% and the
number will get bigger this year. It ranges from
boutique multimedia projects like Conservation
International [the web-based “Lost There, Felt
Here” campaign ] to global initiatives.
What did the department look like when youfirst arrived? What changes did you initiate onceyou signed on and how is it still evolving?Siloed—the old cliché. Each department was like
a different ecosystem, which evolved out of a
need to service work in a way that was account-
able to a few very specific mediums.
In a world where creative that is less bound to spe-
cific media buys or deliverables and digital work
often is at the heart of a campaign, it changes the
production process and the efficiencies.
Coming in, I was empowered to pull together
producers across departmental lines. Simply
stated, you review the creative on a case-by-case
basis and build a team. It’s your job to give the
team a singular mission, and a communication
and leadership structure that makes sense for that
project. I think the differences between siloed
work and integrated work is a far subtler process
than people like to make it out to be.
When a collective effort becomes a little more
transparent and everyone sees how each piece
contributes to the larger creative, you encourage
the cooperation and inspiration needed for
things to gel.
At the end of the day, a new model can’t really
exist if it’s sandwiched by the same behavior and
processes on either side of the work. It will always
be evolving.
Describe the production talent at your agency.Doyou have integrated producers? Or is it more aboutproducers from each specialty working together? (EVP/Director of TV Production) Regina Ebel’s
department is full of producers experienced in
producing content for all sorts of projects and all
kinds of budgets. Depending on scale, integrated
projects are done with two to four producers from
her and the other departments. Additionally, digi-
tal “natives”have been integrated into both the
account and creative groups.
There is always an assigned “lead”producer com-
ing from the department that is most appropriate.
Content might be the smart lead, or digital might,
dependent on the creative. Everyone comes out of
a project with a more diverse skill set and more
efficient communication.
Certain producers have experience that qualifies
them to lead on specific projects. The need for
“special producers”seems to be somewhat soften-
ing as everyone, on the agency, digital and pro-
duction side becomes more familiar with all the
various aspects that go into a multi-media project.
What seems to be ramping up is the need for
hard-core project managers.
Regina and I brought in (SVP, Director of
Integrated Studio Services) Drew Vogelman to
fully realize the potential of what an in-house post
facility can do for the work.With Atmosphere
BBDO producers and project managers having
integrated earlier this year, we’ll shortly be going
one step further and naming a digital head of pro-
duction. I’m also proud of how “Out of Home”
has evolved as part of our integrated efforts— the
work for BBC America, HBO, and The Economist
get me just as excited as everything else.
In house production capabilities—what are youequipped to do in terms of production,post,etc.?This has been a big evolution in the past year. We
have two in-house facilities: The Kitchen and The
Factory@BBDO. The Kitchen is a soup to nuts
postproduction facility. It’s not meant to handle
all our post work, but it’s vital to be able to effi-
ciently take on a wide range projects from creative
development to edits and graphics ready for air or
online. From a production standpoint, we’re able
to shoot interactive content to viral projects in-
house, but for the large majority of our work we
still seek outside partners.
The Factory@BBDO is a production studio
focused on the development of online marketing
communications — including banners and
microsites. It’s also home to our tech leads, who
collaborate with creatives on more challenging
projects. We still rely on trusted partners and
outside production companies to provide the
heavy lifting, but it’s helpful to have an in-house
team of developers to tackle smaller projects and
consult on larger ones. On the creative develop-
ment side both The Kitchen and The Factory
provide opportunities to gauge feasibility, inspire
execution and experiment early in the process.
Production coordinates the process. It’s a useful
way to get in early on ideas.
Please give an example of a recent project/cam-paign that challenged your department. Whatdid you learn from it?Dodge Ram Challenge. We had what was in
essence a commercial production schedule in
which to create a reality show and contest that
took place on a massive obstacle course. When
you do something of that scale and pack it into a
few weeks of prep and post, it never lets up and
makes producing spots (a dozen came out of this
campaign) seem quaint. The creation, approval
and coordination of assets between television
and web was nuts. Status meetings were referred
to as triage sessions. This might indicate how
tight and respectful everyone had to be of each
other’s roles and responsibilities.
How do you see production and your depart-ment evolving near and long term?My metaphor for integrated production is that it
works like a game of basketball. Everyone is play-
ing the same game but with different positions
and skills. Assists are vital to scoring.You have to
hustle a lot and there’s always someone trying to
knock the ball out of your hands. As a director of
integration, you try to be a good coach.
There’s no crystal ball here. I see the focus on con-
tinued growth and development of our staff. I
don’t think anything is off the table creatively,
which means nothing is off the table production-
wise. Hire a poet? A physicist? It will all relate to
weaving a compelling message or brand story
through different mediums, engaging to the audi-
ence at hand.
briandilorenzo
Director ofIntegrated Production,BBDO, New York
6 CREATIVITY INTEGRATED PRODUCTION WHITE PAPER
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overviewDoritos planned to bring back for a limitedtime two flavors from many years ago, Tacoand Four Cheese flavored tortilla chips. Thecampaign was conceived as the “Back fromBeyond” campaign. It launched duringHalloween.
The campaign consisted of a packaging andonline experience. The packaging for the re-surrected flavors would entice consumers torealize the flavors were back for a limited time.It featured a ghostly face pressing through thematerial of the bag. The online campaign mim-icked the ghostly apparition in the beginningof the website—drawing consumers to thescary experience within. We created a video topromote the online experience, through theuse of sound design and quick clips from thesite to feature the terror elements within thewebsite. Through the use of Twitter, we allowedusers to sign into their account, and the sitewould haunt their Twitter account by tweetingtheir followers based upon where they were inthe experience.
We also built a Facebook application thatallows the user to upload their photo from thesite to their Facebook account and scare theirfriends. Lastly, we created a documentary forthe website. It expanded upon the cult commu-nity of the website by showing the history ofthe hotel and why Doritos investigated fearand how to exploit fear in others.See the campaign at www.creativity-online.com/integratedproductionwhitepaper.
the briefThe initial brief actually called for a website that
would display 13 scary videos that had already
been created for another campaign. Rights issues
ensued for the videos, so our creative team con-
cepted a haunted house idea for the experience.
the execution / ideationWe started by researching blogs, horror movies,
actual events, and places that scared people.
This research influenced the concept, and total
time for this phase was about six weeks.
We wanted a haunted house that was truly scary
and dark and we were fortunate to have fantastic
clients that shared in this idea. The haunted
house morphed into a hotel with challenges, and
the team brainstormed how the use of integrated
technology on our site could bring each room
within the hotel to life and truly scare people.
production / peopleAmanda Cox was the executive producer. With
many years of experience in digital and video
production, and a background in technology,
she has a specialty in leading a team in produc-
ing projects that are truly integrated. She knows
what will work, how to push boundaries, and
find vendors that will be a true partner for any
project. Maggie O'Brien was the producer. She
produced the concept, the shoot, and the entire
project, and served as the day-to-day manager
of the project for both the creative team at
Goodby and for [our digital production com-
pany] B-Reel. Maggie's ideas and research really
helped to extend the idea into other mediums.
Amanda and Maggie have worked together for
over four years on a variety of projects across
agencies. They truly are an integrated team as
they know what is possible and how to produce
the ultimate video and digital experience. Their
biggest role is to answer technical questions that
have never been addressed before, and to fore-
see potential issues and address them by inte-
grating new deliverables, such as prototypes
and models that help to produce visual experi-
ences that are typical in traditional experiences,
but that may not apply to digital. They needed
to answer questions that had no answer, and
solve issues that have never been raised in the
industry with production.
processAfter approval of our haunted concept, we
knew we wanted interactive experiences that
used technology in new ways to truly haunt the
user. Soon we partnered with B-Reel to define
how exactly the technology would work within
the experience.
Upon awarding of the job, each room and expe-
rience was mapped out in detail. At this point
we had six weeks to shoot all video, complete
postproduction, and launch the website. To
make the site as lifelike as possible, we knew we
wanted to shoot live action footage and merge
it with 3D technology.
The night shoot was held in Stockholm,
Sweden, at an abandoned asylum where
inmates still visit from time to time.
After the shoot, we began postproduction, and
built out each experience with full video with
the 3D environment overlay. Each video was
edited and color corrected for the ultimate
effect of terror.
Challenges and games were programmed next,
then tested for difficulty and fear factor.
The key ingredient that came last was sound.
Implementing terrifying 3D surround sound
for the experiences really impacted the terror
and tone of the experience.
At the end of the process we began testing,
where each challenge was carefully played to
ensure it was the correct difficulty. We wanted
people to get through the challenges, but to
spend time on each and really think them
through—as the more they thought about each
one, the more invested they became, and the
scarier the end result would be. We wanted
them to feel a personalized experience that was
more subconscious and indirect. This element
created more terror than “in your face” visuals
and traditionally expected scares.
budgetsThe Hotel 626 experience, including all of the
video production and post-production, 3D,
mobile, webcam integration, and programming
of all elements of the game was produced for
much less than it would cost for a standard 30-
second spot. It's fantastic given that we also had
a full-day shoot with talent included. Our ven-
dor in Sweden, B-Reel, really helped us to bring
the idea to life for the budget that we had, by
using their fantastic talent and local resources.
doritoshotel626
As told by MikeGeiger,Chief DigitalOfficer, GoodbySilverstein &Partners
7
GOODBY, SILVERSTEIN & PARTNERS
SPONSORED BY
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biggest challengesWe had little to no media spend to promote the
website. As a positive and negative, it was a
smaller creative project that received little
attention from others, including media dollars
and support for the project. It was only sup-
porting products that were out for a limited
time, so limited support made sense. However
it was this factor that truly helped the project to
be an immense success in the end. The team
was smaller, with little pressure, and this
allowed the idea to grow and morph into some-
thing amazing built upon trust—what we knew
could be done—and what would work. So with
no media spend and less focus from the brand,
we needed to create an even bigger buzzworthy
experience with the smaller budget. This was
perhaps our biggest challenge. With a larger
focus it might have perhaps been considered on
a wider scale of recognition from the general
public, but we had to create these instances
(Twitter, Facebook, documentary) to support
our site and spread the word.
the technologyNew technology was a huge part of this project.
How could we scare people by giving them
tools and technology that they were expecting?
To answer this question we thought through the
following scenarios:
The hotel was only open from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.,
determined by the computer clock from the
user as they arrived at the site. We wanted peo-
ple to visit the site at night, after hours, when
guards are down and they are the most
immersed in what could happen.
The team proposed having the experience be a
full-screen first person encounter, which we
knew would be heavy on the load time of the
website, and adversely affect our launch timing
of six weeks. We mitigated this by still having
the experience be first person, but in a linear
form where users could not deviate into limit-
less possibilities. B-Reel helped to guide the
project in this direction, but by also adding in
new ideas with technology that we had not yet
considered. For example, instead of shooting
the hallway scenes in pure video, we shot them
in video and mapped 3D textures on top to pro-
vide further depth.
We used audio in new and inventive ways
through the challenges in the site, so the user
would need to sing into their microphone ever
so softly during one challenge to not wake a
demon baby.
Although taking photos or uploading photos is
not new to websites, we took photos of people
when they didn't know it, and then used the
photo later in the site when they had to find
themselves in a photo lineup before getting
killed. This photo was also sent to the user via
email, and if allowed, posted to the Facebook
application.
The phone-call technology was the most inven-
tive, as it guided the user through the site so
that they could “escape” and it would know the
exact right and wrong turns they were taking in
real time. It would call the user after they had
escaped the hotel for one last scare.
the resultsThe campaign was immensely successful. The
two resurrected flavors sold out within three
weeks. Since September, the website has
received more than 4 million unique visitors
from around the world. Again, that's without a
penny of media spend. We monitor the statis-
tics and work closely with our in-house analyt-
ics team for a complete analysis mapping to the
campaign goals.
The campaign was so successful for our client
that they are considering bringing back more
new flavors this year. They've seen what their
target loves, and how they react, and want to
expand upon the idea this year.
in hindsightWe of course would have loved to add more
challenges and rooms to the experience, and
different methods of scaring others. We wish we
would have had more time for production. We
would have loved to have more time for testing
the experience with focus groups of users. It
would be great to know what they were really
scared by, measure the reactions, and build this
optimization into production.
Knowing that a campaign that played to a first
person experience would entice a viral/blogger
community, we tried to make the experience as
personalized as possible. This is evident
through the use of a personal photo that is
taken and the phone call. The site had very little
branding from Doritos, which helped it to be
taken more seriously. We thought it would
hopefully prompt visitors to engage with future
experiences from Doritos as a production com-
pany and expect amazing experiences. Overall
we did our best to push the clients to believe the
site would work and resonate with the target.
We needed to know what was possible within
the timeline and budget before reaching out to
a production company. Our knowledge of tech-
nology, how it could be used and integrated,
and video production and postproduction
helped to set expectations with the internal
team and clients. With all of the budget and
timing in the world we can of course do any-
thing, but we had to put aside ideas that were
too risky with what our realistic factors were.
Thinking of these constraints but meeting cre-
ative needs was perhaps the biggest pressure.
Continuous research and staying on top of
trends helped us to elevate the idea in creative
ways without sacrificing the budget or timeline.
8 CREATIVITY INTEGRATED PRODUCTION WHITE PAPER
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the briefThe original brief for the Pedigree campaign issomething that the agency brought to the tableback in 2004. It’s actually more of a belief sys-tem than just a brief: “Everything we do is forthe love of dogs.” By 2006, the brief for theadoption drive had become: 1) raise awarenessfor the 4 million dogs that end up in shelterseach year 2) inspire more people to adopt bychanging the perception of shelter dogs from“damaged goods” to “really good dogs whocaught a bad break” 3) to let people know thatsimply by buying Pedigree they could helpshelter dogs find loving homes. See the cam-paign at www.creativity-online.com/integrat-edproductionwhitepaper.
the process / tvDog adoption is such a heavy issue and shelters
are such emotional places that TV has proven to
be the best vehicle for creating mass awareness
and impact. Our approach has been to shoot
these dogs in a very real, documentary style.
Our TV production timeline is pretty standard.
We brief creative teams in June/July and go
through a few weeks of creative development
before sharing with the account and planning
teams. Then we spend another week or two
tightening up our ideas before presenting to the
client. We go back and forth a bit, then get
approval to shoot in September and spend
about a month in pre-pro before shooting. We
shoot for two or three days, edit for a couple of
weeks, ship to testing in November, get results
by the first of the year and have spots on the air
by about the third week in January.
When choosing directors we look for people who
aren’t afraid to make an emotional connection
with their subject matter. We also look for direc-
tors who really love and understand dogs. So far
we’ve been lucky enough to work with Jake Scott,
Henry Lu, Stacy Wall and Lance Acord.
Location scouting is incredibly important. The
shelter environment is as much of a character
in the spots as the dogs themselves.
As for casting, we can’t actually cast which dogs
we will feature because we don’t know until the
day of the shoot what dogs will still be in the
shelter that day. Some of our favorite dogs get
adopted between our scout day and our shoot
day. So we begin the shoot day by walking
around the shelter and choosing the dogs that
we’d like to work with.
After we shoot, our producers keep track of the
dogs we think gave the best performances and
we follow up with their new owners once
they’ve been adopted so we can film them in
their happy new home.
One thing that’s special about producing this
campaign is that everyone who works on it
takes on the obligation of making sure that
every dog we shoot finds a loving home. We
print flyers, send out mass emails and create a
website dedicated to spreading the word about
these dogs. When we can’t find a home for one
of the dogs, and we know that their number is
coming up at the shelter, Pedigree pays to move
them into foster care until we can find them
permanent homes.
We’ve had a bunch of really great TV producers
work on this campaign. Executive producer:
Guia Iacomin; producers: Aileen Baliat, Brian
O’Rourke; assistant producers: Michael Gross,
Chris Spencer, Cia Restaino.
The role of the TV producers is the same as it is
on a traditional TV campaign, except that they
take on that extra burden of helping us get the
dogs adopted. They also have to work with all
the print and interactive producers to coordi-
nate print and digital shoots that occur on the
same set and make sure we deliver the right
content for the web stuff.
printThe print campaign follows roughly the same
schedule as the TV campaign, except there is no
testing. The tricky thing about producing it is
orchestrating the print shoot as we’re doing the
TV shoot.
interactiveInteractive follows the same general campaign
development timeline. We create the campaign
idea, visuals and concepts and then work with
our partner agency Catapult Interactive to
develop the website and banner ads. During the
production process we are on the phone with
our partner agencies weekly at first and then
daily as we get closer to the launch date. For us,
it’s most important that the website work as a
hub for the campaign. It’s the place where peo-
ple can learn more about adoption, find a dog
near them, make a donation and learn about
the dogs that were filmed in our commercials.
In 2008 Catapult brought a cool new element to
pedigree campaign
As told by ChrisAdams & MargaretKeene, GroupCreative Directors,TBWA\Chiat\Day,L.A.
TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, L.A.
9SPONSORED BY
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the campaign with the Million Dog Mosaic, a
user generated collage of dogs that created one
large image of our hero shelter dog “Oliver.” For
every dog that was added to the mosaic, a dona-
tion was made to the Adoption Drive.
documentariesIn 2008 we also shot our own web documen-
tary, DogLovers, about people who make the
world a better place for shelter dogs. Director
Ed Miller and our broadcast producer Angelo
Mazzamuto spent three weeks running around
the country on puddle-jumpers and in conver-
sion vans to capture these amazing stories. It
was pretty much gonzo-journalism. The docu-
mentaries were shot over three weeks in
January ‘08 and were debuted during the
Westminster Dog Show, Feb 11th, 2008.
westminster dog showPedigree has a proud history of sponsoring the
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which
takes place at Madison Square Garden in New
York every February. We do banners and sig-
nage around MSG, have street teams promoting
adoption and selling “Dogs rule” gear and mer-
chandise at a giant booth inside the halls. But
the most important thing we’ve been able to do
there has been to turn the whole broadcast into
a fundraiser for shelter dogs. For the last three
years, we’ve aired a spot that reminds people
that “As we celebrate the best pure bred dogs in
the world, let’s not forget the other dogs that
aren’t so lucky.” As we see beautiful images of
our shelter dogs, a call to action appears ask-
ing viewers to visit dogsrule.com during
tonight’s show and make a donation to the
Pedigree Adoption Foundation and we’ll
match your contribution.” To date, the
fundraiser itself has raised over $2 million to
help shelter dogs.
dogstoreThe Pedigree Dogstore was an idea that we
put on the table back in 2006 as a way to
build a physical space that encapsulated our
brand values. In 2007 our client embraced
the idea and we got to work producing it for
January of 2008.
Since we didn’t have a lot of experience
building stores, we brought in freelance pro-
ducer Audrey Eden and a production com-
pany named Gigunda to help us out. With
their help we designed the whole thing from
top to bottom. We also had to make branded
“Dogs rule” shirts in lots of different styles,
scarves, dog bowls, tennis balls and even a
custom coffee table book full of our favorite
dogs. We also had to co-ordinate with a local
shelter to get real shelter dogs into the store
every day. So we had to merge a lot of tradi-
tional print production projects along with
the overall production of the store itself.
account teamWe didn’t have an “integrated producer.” Our
account team basically became the integrated
producers keeping us up to speed on all the var-
ious deadlines and keeping the information
flowing to everyone who needed to stay up to
speed. In just two weeks we brought in over
50,000 people (to the store) and created mil-
lions of free PR media impressions.
superbowl Everyone knows that dogs make the best pets,
so we created a campaign that explored what
life would be like with different animals as pets.
Traktor directed the spots, featuring a rhino
wrecking a living room, an Ostrich running
amok after a postman, a wild boar in the back
of a minivan and a cape buffalo in the park.
We shot extra material with the actors to
explore why they had chosen such ridiculous
pets and we used those films to expand the
story online. For every view of the commercial
and behind the scenes films online, Pedigree
donated a bowl of food to a shelter dog in need.
So far over 2,000,000 bowls have been donated.
the resultsResults were tracked in terms of sales, dona-
tions, and brand equity measures. The clients
are responsible for tracking sales and dona-
tions, and we use an independent research com-
pany to track brand equity.
From its inception, the adoption campaign has
proven to be highly effective at driving sales and
raising perceptions of the brand. It has also helped
us to raise over $4MM for shelter dogs to date.
In terms of sales objectives, by the end of the first
quarter in 2008, Pedigree was not only 50% above
objective, but it set a new sales record by growing
total brand sales by nearly 5% in incremental sales.
Pedigree also outperformed total dog food cate-
gory growth in this period by 30%. (Source: IRI)
The campaign also significantly improved per-
ceptions of Pedigree’s brand quality, familiarity,
relevance, popularity and uniqueness, at levels
that outperformed the average gains for the cat-
egory. All of these factors strengthened
Pedigree’s overall brand equity score by 32
points over the previous 6 months, which rep-
resents a 28% increase.
10 CREATIVITY INTEGRATED PRODUCTION WHITE PAPER
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the brief / the backgroundMicrosoft tasked us to create a compelling wayto celebrate the diversity of Windows users in away that’s consistent with a brand that is realand inclusive. It didn’t take long to come upwith the “Real PC” campaign. Microsoft imme-diately saw the power of giving as many peopleas possible the ability to express their “PC-ness.” See the campaign at www.creativity-online.com/integratedproductionwhitepaper.
microsoft realpc
As told by PamScheideler,ExecutiveIntegratedProducer, CP+B
the processThe way those expressions were used (TV, inter-
active out of home, on the site, in banners) was
constantly evolving. But once we had the green
light to move forward with the proposed cam-
paign, the first assignment was to collect the
content. Enable the interaction.
In some cases, collecting content meant a video
producer shooting celebrities around the globe;
in others, it was a street team with a handheld
camera, or a video “pod” in a mall, or giving
“people of interest” a special site to upload
themselves, and then eventually a website for
anyone around the world to use to enable peo-
ple around the world to record themselves with
a webcam.
Microsoft was committed to a broad campaign
that was far reaching, so we knew we had to pro-
duce a campaign that would extend across vari-
ous media. The “Real PC” campaign was flexible,
allowing us to customize the PC stories for the
medium. For example, putting Fatal1ty in an in-
game placement. Or Pharrell on music sites.
Some executions grew out of the idea and gained
momentum as we were in production. When
[user-generated] content started pouring in, we
knew it was interesting and inspiring enough to
use a TV spot to tell those stories. We weren’t
sure what we were going to get. Some executions
were planned at the outset, while others, like
extended syndicated videos, came later.
Video production for the first celebrity spots
was the first out of the gate.Then we started
building the public site, which was intended for
the masses to use to upload content.
That had to be able to scale to thousands of
concurrent users. While that was being built, a
separate production team focused on “seeded
content,” so when the site went live, we had
hundreds of “PCs” at the ready. That also led to
an execution called “extended stories” (but
that’s a different story). Seeded content was
really important because we used the back end
intended for the public, but a super stripped-
down front end with no campaign creative,
because it was still under wraps. We used the
seeded content as a test for all of the content
distribution down the line. So we were taking
content in, before we actually knew which
media and formats we were going to need.
We then created a workflow to process all of the
pieces of content we collected. We called it “the
hopper.” The hopper basically took all types of
images and video content from different out-
posts—and spit out the correct formats for
banners, the site, taxi toppers, and interactive
out of home. We knew we had real estate in
Times Square and thought about playing static
“filmstrips” of PCs that uploaded via the site.
Then we decided to up the ante—and try to
collect and post live. We needed to create an
express lane to try to get people up on the signs
while they were standing there. We added some
SMS capability—so you could show yourself on
the sign on demand. It was important that there
was real payoff for people.
The People: 14 producers worked on the jobExecutive Integrated Producer: Overseeing
integration; executive producer:celebrity/scripted broadcast; senior producer:online video media placements; senior pro-ducer: content seeding; 2 producers (1 senior):interactive OOH (with 40+ field production
team); senior producer: site development; 4producers: online media; producer: UGC
broadcast; producer: extended stories; pro-ducer: U.K.
the role of the integrated producerWith an effort of this size, one person had to
keep an eye on the macro level. I had to know all
of the inputs and all of the outputs and commu-
nicate all of the interdependencies. There was a
lot of triage and trade-offs. We had a phased
rollout, so making sure that everyone under-
stood where they were in the launch sequence
was critical. Launch readiness and hour-by-hour
work-backs were really important.
Few people really understood the infrastructure
powering the campaign and enabling the inter-
actions. We had to keep those systems up and
performing for the duration of the campaign.
Creatives kept asking for the “ship” date, but we
didn’t have one ship date—we had dozens. We
had to make some game day decisions. Those
days were hard, but that’s when producers really
started acting like a team.
the technologyThere was tons of technology. Hosting infra-
structure, real-time content moderation, outgo-
ing email, PII (personally identifiable
CRISPIN PORTER + BOGUSKY
11SPONSORED BY
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the backgroundJonas Vail, Agency Planner: FIFA is one of EASport’s two biggest franchises globally and thelead title each year for EA in Europe. In effect,the success of the EA Sports label in Europerests on the success of each year’s FIFA game.
Additionally, at the beginning of 2008, newlyappointed EA Sports Label President PeterMoore set out a new vision for the label:become a world leading sports brand to com-pete with Nike and ESPN.
Each year, FIFA faces very tough competitionfor market share across Europe from its maincompetitor, Pro Evolution Soccer (PES). FIFA 08put the franchise in a good position– taking56% market share, versus PES, across Europe bythe end of 2007 (up from 49% in 06). However,to realize Peter Moore’s new vision, the fran-chise would really need to bring the broader“football fan” audience into the fold as well. Seethe campaign at www.creativity-online.com/integratedproductionwhitepaper.
the briefGrow the market by reaching out to main-
stream football fans; maintain the respect of
core football gamers, and convert as many PES
fans as possible.
the componentsNeil Henry, Agency Producer: The campaign
first came to life online. Pre-launch banners
and emails directed people to the website where
four films introduced real local club fans, pre-
As told by W+K agencyplanner Jonas Vail;agency producer NeilHenry; interactive pro-ducer Jamie Kim, andACNE EP Richard Bjorlin
information) capture, handheld applications for
street teams, dynamic content feeds going out to
Times Square, video pod content integration,
assets for taxi toppers. Our deep technical capabil-
ities made this possible. We wouldn’t have been
able to do it with partners alone. We had a lot of
great partners, but CP+B was responsible for all
aspects of the integration.
We had partners for hosting, corporate site inte-
gration, PII collection, video upload, moderation,
the Times Square Alliance, Momu for video pods
in the UK. There is a huge list. Edit houses, video
production companies.
helpful skillsetOur experiential production lead, Brian Schultz,
and his understanding of live media really rede-
fined interactive marketing. They captured 10,000
PC stories and interacted with 25,000 consumers
over 20 days. The thrill of seeing those teams col-
lecting stories and putting them on the Times
Square sign was contagious. Our technical team
was constantly monitoring the data being col-
lected and eventually reduced the time from cap-
ture to post to around 12 minutes. That was big.
on the client, microsoftI think the client agreed to do something very
risky for them. We were generating new ideas
about how to use the content. They were good
about helping us focus. The Microsoft online
team came onsite and rolled up their sleeves on
the countdown to launch. They were good part-
ners. And they all had a lot of launch experience.
lessons learnedWe really learned the value of video encoding.
Getting all of the content to be auto generated,
resized, tagged, and stamped out was a challenge.
We developed some important skills to automate
the distribution of user-generated content to var-
ious media channels. Getting a real person’s
image into a banner and seeing them post it on
their blog within an hour was powerful.
Integrated production doesn’t have to be a 16-
legged race. If one piece of the project has
momentum, let it go. Just make sure to synch
daily and, in some cases, hourly. Also, clearly
defining the connective tissue and integration
points is a critical success factor.
the results We measured our success by the reaction gener-
ated: whether people liked the ads, if they
thought they were memorable, how they
impacted perceptions of the Windows brand,
and even direct engagement with the campaign.
Microsoft has a sophisticated method for
tracking and measuring and optimizing. Our
team does too, so that’s a good fit. We have an
incredible amount of data from this campaign.
One of our favorite statistics is that over one
billion “Real PC’s” were seen. Which is how
many PC users there are in the world. So that’s
a nice number.
In addition, research showed that viewers
thought the ads were both memorable and lik-
able. They said the ads reinforced that Windows
as a brand “fit my lifestyle.” Perhaps most tan-
gible, they grew preference for purchasing PCs
with Windows, resulting in a 10% lift over
baseline.
12 CREATIVITY INTEGRATED PRODUCTION WHITE PAPER
fifa 09 campaignW+K / AMSTERDAM
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dicting the result of two, upcoming FIFA 09 10
vs. 10 matches.
One match was Manchester United featuring
Wayne Rooney and nine gamers at a pub in
Manchester, taking on Real Madrid star
Gonzalo Higuain and nine gamers in Madrid.
The second match was France’s Olympique
Lyonnais vs. Germany’s Schalke 04, featuring
Karim Benzema playing for Lyon, supported by
fellow French international Franck Ribéry and
nine Lyon fans, against German striker Kevin
Kuranyi and nine fans in Germany.
These matches were filmed, with four-minute
versions to premiere on the site, and 30 and 20
second versions for TV at launch.
The longer films were so well received inter-
nally at EA that the U.K. decided to launch the
TV campaign with the four-minute version of
the Manchester United vs. Real Madrid match
and took over an entire half-time break of the
Man. U vs. Chelsea match on Sunday 21st
September, 2008.
Online the films allowed people to watch the
matches, flip between locations and watch live
action replays from the game. This was a break-
through online experience for EA, because it
allowed people to see and experience the poten-
tial of the game at its best, before investing in
the game themselves. The 30- and 20-second
versions of the matches then ran on TV in all
the other key FIFA 09 markets.
Print and outdoor ads showcased the energy
and excitement of the pro/fan teams at these
FIFA 09 match events and were shot on location
at the same time as the films.
the processNeil Henry: W+K worked extremely closely
with our production partners to lock-down a
logistically tight schedule as our timeline was
dictated by the players availability and we were
shooting in four different countries in Europe
in 16 days.
We spent roughly three months from start to
finish on the production of the campaign:
Creative conception and prep: three weeks; Pre-
production we allowed 10 days for meet
ings and prep; shooting: 16 days for prep, pre-
light and shoot for four locations; postproduc-
tion: Five weeks
The shoots took place in Gelsenkirschen,
Madrid, Lyon and Manchester. The shoot days
were not a traditional 10- or 12-hour days, and
the EA client was extremely brave in allowing us
to shoot within a three-hour shoot window
(per shot) to a TV running minutes schedule
which was carefully planned and storyboard
approved beforehand.
The camera crew/photographer were prepped
beforehand to capture the required approved
storyboard, print shoots and required interac-
tive footage during the three-hour window.
The event could only be viewed on six monitors
in the satellite bus in which the directors were
dictating the action. During the shoot the main
concern was keeping up the high level of energy
and realness within the crowd. Thankfully we
had an amazing TV technical director and the
1st AD’s did an amazing job along with the
puppet master plants in the crowd.
We ended up capturing over 100 hours of
footage on HD. Russell Icke and Sam Gunn
from the Whitehouse did an amazing job edit-
ing multiple four-minutes edits for online/TV
and cut-downs within a five-week window and
the same should be said of Glassworks
(Amsterdam) who handled postproduction and
Kaizer Sound Studios (Amsterdam) for music
It was good to have offline, postproduction and
sound in one building in Amsterdam. The five-
week timeline was extremely tight for the scope
of work and detail involved.
interactive phaseJamie Kim, Interactive Producer: The digital
campaign was kicked off with banners, and an
email blast encouraging users to the so-called
“pre-launch site.” The site showcased four films
of real local club fans predicting the scores of
the up and coming matches.
At launch, banners and a launch email pushed
users to the launch site, which centered on pre-
senting four-minute match films specifically
created for the web. A key requirement of the
site was to allow a user to choose his/her team
and switch seamlessly between each team’s view
of the matches.
A typical approach to executing this site would
have been to load two separate videos, which
would then be toggled. Taking that route would
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mean that there would be no assurance that
both videos would load at the same rate. A clean
and instant switch would be difficult to achieve
and this would impair the overall experience.
It was essential to preserve the idea of a live TV
broadcast of the event. We needed to come up
with a solution that would have little to no
loading and buffering sequences throughout.
The solution was to render a single video that
combined both views. Adjusting the “viewport”
in Flash could toggle the viewpoints of the
matches and the user would only be presented
with the selected viewpoint accordingly.
We secured fluent streaming by preserving the
actual video dimensions, which were rather
limited, and blew them up on the site. Adding a
semi-transparent TV pattern on top of the
video masked the pixilated look that occurred
as a consequence. The effect was one that we
embraced: it gave a kind of jumbo-tron feel to
the videos much like a real-live sports event.
The success of the digital campaign had much
to do with the consistent integrated production
approach between the production parties in all
the mediums. During the conceptual stages of
the project, our creative and production teams
worked very closely together to think of effi-
cient and clever ways to meet all our needs.
Print, Broadcast and Digital production teams
shared the burden of managing the budget,
production timings, shoot time and deliver-
ables. In specific, digital deliverables were
directly affected by the finished deliverables
both from the print shoot and the specially pro-
duced edits from the Broadcast team. The lines
between the various teams blurred over time,
making the entire production process both
effective and a lot of fun.
the players TV producers: Neil Henry and Kimia
Farshizad; interactive producer: Jamie Kim;
executive interactive producer: Myke
Gerstein; print producers: Annette Krutzik and
Miranda Kendrick
Neil Henry: The campaign was integrated from
the beginning and all the producers ranging
from traditional TV/interactive /print had to
work in unified tandem. It was also great to
work with a traditional interactive creative team
as this brought another dimension to the cam-
paign and brought an energized organized
chaos throughout the process.
Jamie and Myke provided genius digital solu-
tions and gave us a multi-faceted dimensional
view of how we could really blow-up this cam-
paign. Annette and Miranda, our agency art
buyers, have an amazing eye for detail and gave
us tremendous insight into how we could create
and produce the most authentic crowd shots for
the print campaign.
production partnersNeil Henry: We considered a number of
resources but quickly chose ACNE and (Belgian
web design firm) Group94. The reason we
chose ACNE is we felt that only a multi-disci-
plined collective of directors and producers
would be able to assist us to produce this large-
scale production. The ACNE directors and
Richard Bjorlin (EP) were collaborative in the
planning phase and enabled us to plan four
huge events shoots in a challenging 16-day
shoot (prep, pre-pro) window which was dic-
tated by the players’ schedules. Working with
ACNE provided us with huge resources: five
directors, multiple producers, TV camera crew,
TV technical directors, production managers,
1st ADs, camera crew to shoot 16mm online
content, along with backing from local produc-
tion companies. ACNE Film was responsible for
the film production. ACNE did then contract
local prod co Tempomedia (Germany), Wanda
(France), Group Films (Spain) and RSA (U.K.)
to help set up the local productions.
special skillsetsRichard Bjorlin, ACNE: We approached the
filming from a different angle by creating events
that we then filmed the same way we would do
with a live broadcast of a sporting event. It was
more a case of documenting the event rather
and then editing it to a story rather than shoot-
ing a commercial shot-by-shot. We knew that
we needed a couple of key moments that had to
be staged in order for the story to work, but we
did not "direct" the action.
lessons learnedNeil Henry: A 360 and integrated approach is
the way forward and this not only allowed our
budget to stretch but it also enabled us to create
a campaign on a scale that had never been done
before at EA. It was great to work as a unified
team with everyone and see how quickly and
efficiently we could create this massive produc-
tion and make it as authentic as possible.
Jamie Kim: With an interactive production you
often create unique content specifically for the
web. That usually means that budgets are rela-
tively low in comparison to TV and the level of
finish required is again, comparatively less
demanding. Shadowing Neil in the post-pro-
duction process opened my eyes to the level of
detail and finish required to make a TV spot
look that good. I learned to readjust my expec-
tations—actually aiming higher than before.
results / trackingJamie Kim: Although we weren’t in charge of
tracking results from the campaign and it is not a
part of our job, we do know that traffic more than
doubled to the LET’S FIFA 09 site through the
placement of the print and banners campaign.
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I was asked the question a few months ago, “Do
you think clients will look for their agencies to
be more responsible with how they spend their
money due to the economy?” Of course my
immediate thought was “yes,” but does that
mean when the economy is good we should be
less responsible with our client’s money?
Without getting into a treatise on ethics, isn’t it
our job to provide the best creative solutions for
our client’s business challenges and make smart
financial decisions with regard to how we spend
their advertising and marketing budgets? We
should show marketers how digital can lead the
way and be translated across multiple channels
without introducing higher budgets or com-
promising creative.
Imagine going to your client and explaining
how you just doubled their media budget, that
you can now create the iPhone application they
thought was out of scope, or how you can cre-
ate their TV spot for half the money that they
had originally anticipated —all by creating
strategic and production efficiencies through
the planning and development of the digital
campaign. These are pretty strong statements
that will resonate with a client – especially in
these times. Budgets allocated for digital can be
stretched to other platforms and even across the
lines of traditional advertising, but this can’t be
done effectively without considering digital as
the first step rather than a separate silo. More
digital shops are bringing additional services
(3D, motion graphics, video) in-house, which
means the use of third party vendors decreases,
helping communication flow as well as possible
price inflation. In some cases, having a special-
ist involved may be necessary, but if the 3D
modeling, video shoot and Flash development
can be handled by one company, it will result in a
more integrated, and a more economical choice.
the reverse effecthow brands can make their money
go farther by leveraging digital
creative across traditional
channels
By Dan LaCivita
Firstborn recently collaborated with BBDO
Toronto to create an M&M’s TV spot for Mars
Canada. Broadcast production from a digital
agency? It may strike some as unexpected, but it
was just another extension of the campaign
where we were able to bring the digital work
into the equation. Because we used ideas and
assets that we created during the development
of the website, we were able to execute a broad-
cast spot without incurring huge additional
costs. Leading with a strong digital plan from
the beginning can create efficiencies that will
save your client money as well as create a more
cohesive campaign. By working with Firstborn
to create the TV spot, our agency partner (and
the client) saved upward of 70% on production
costs. Thanks to smart planning and an efficient
production cycle we delivered a high definition
spot, rendered out in 1080p, to ensure that nei-
ther quality nor creative were compromised.
Another great example of efficiency across plat-
forms is the concept of “Layer Tennis,” created
to promote Adobe CS3. By looking at the audi-
ence first (creatives), Adobe distilled their
research and created an interactive platform
that would allow creatives to compete against
one another (using CS3 of course) in front of
an online audience of their peers. News of Layer
Tennis spread on the most well known design
sites across the industry and on opening day,
there was an outstanding 50,000 participants
logged in and ready to go. With a viewing audi-
ence of over 500,000 over the course of the sea-
son, Layer Tennis was an undeniable success.
But the most impressive aspect of this cam-
paign, the cornerstone of the entire CS3 pro-
motion, is the fact that the total amount spent
in paid media to promote Layer Tennis
was…zero dollars. Imagine if the project started
with a kick off meeting centered on x dollars
that had already been allocated to the digital
media buy? Instead of using their audience as
the foundation for creating a successful and rel-
evant promotion, the Adobe team would have
been designing banner ads for weeks on end.
By leading with a digital strategy, they were not
only able to develop a smart and provocative
solution, but they were able to save thousands
of dollars simply because they were not forced
to work around predetermined funds allocated
to paid media for promotional purposes.
Plenty of digital companies with capabilities
that reach outside of the browser are seeing the
positive effects of this strategy. IQ Interactive
created a site for Celebrity Cruises, which was
built around HD video they shot in Europe.
With over 55 hours of amazing footage, they
were able to cut a TV spot from the same
footage without incurring tons of additional
production costs. IQ is also finishing a cam-
paign for a client where they shot footage for
the entire campaign at the same time. From it,
they are producing the TV, print, outdoor and
the site.
Big Spaceship recently created a campaign for
Adobe MAX. They were tasked to design an arc-
tic landscape drawing inspiration from the
Northern Lights that would be extensible to
print, video and other presentation platforms.
The trio of environments appeared as multime-
dia displays in San Francisco, Milan and Tokyo,
the three cities hosting the conference. The cre-
ative was leveraged in dozens of executions
including motion graphics, event graphics, out-
door and signage, print, collateral materials and
of course the 2008 Adobe MAX website.
It is essential that marketers realize the value in
not having digital being run in its own silo. It
boils down to a very simple strategy – begin the
campaign conversation with a focus on digital
and you will find that production can be lever-
aged across multiple channels even before you
begin budget allocation. You may be able to
save over 50% in your TV production by lever-
aging digital assets created for the online cam-
paign. But if the TV strategy is developed
independent of, or before the digital strategy,
those efficiencies will never be found. We need
to think digital and think it earlier, but we also
need to train our teams to simultaneously
explore outside the browser so these digital
assets can also be translated across many differ-
ent platforms moving forward. It will save
clients money and take us all one more step
toward truly “integrated campaigns.”
The creation of a truly integrated campaign is
not an easy task to master; leading with digital
strategy could very well take it to the next level
of success.
Dan LaCivita is Senior VP, Executive Directorat digital agency Firstborn.
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