the integrated production

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the integrated production white paper 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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Creativity Magazine: The Integrated Production – White paper on digital and integrated production processes.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: The Integrated Production

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.”

white paper corrected version528.qxp 5/28/2009 12:05 PM Page 1

Page 2: The Integrated Production

Project11 5/13/09 4:29 PM Page 1

Page 3: The Integrated Production

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

white paper corrected version528.qxp 5/28/2009 12:05 PM Page 3

Page 4: The Integrated Production

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

white paper corrected version528.qxp 5/28/2009 12:05 PM Page 4

Page 5: The Integrated Production

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

white paper corrected version528.qxp 5/28/2009 12:05 PM Page 5

Page 6: The Integrated Production

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.

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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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