Poking Fun at our Client's Competitors through Social Media
Turning employees into actors is the most fun we’ve had while making company videos.
Ryan Carnrick
Did anyone bring popcorn?
— episode 1 —
— episode 2 —
— episode 3 —
Why are they wearing wolf masks?
While working on our client's online advertisements we were asking ourselves how can we differentiate our client. Instead of doing the same old "we offer the best...", how about something with a twist? All the ads in the healthcare technology industry look the same, they are boring and completely forgettable.
I got it, let's pick on the competition. Deep down you know you have always wanted to pick on your competitors, but how could we do it and get away with it? Humor. We designed some concept ads making fun of their competitors. We knew the concepts were a bit out there and the client would probably hate it. The client chose one of the wilder concepts to be the new ad.
Let the fun begin!
Where are we going to send these people who click on this strange ad? We suggested doing a video, could you imagine how awesome that would be? Again our client surprised with a "sounds like fun and will probably get way more clicks". We need a campaign slogan, everyone put on your thinking caps! "Don't let the competitors pull the wool over your eyes". Let's make the competitors wolves. This sounds devious and might actually be quirky enough to work.
Spent several nights drawing various storyboards rapidly to let the ideas just flow. We wanted to come up with comedy video series that was funny and could keep going and going until we ran out of ideas or budget. Good news is that I am an endless pool of some really funny and strange ideas. Although my 9-year-old son was making fun of my wolf drawings.
Who can do wolf makeup? No one.
We wanted this video to be memorable and funny but not some strange outtake from the movie "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". We scoured the endless web for wolf masks and costumes. This one is too scary, this one is too dark, this one is too weird and what the hell is that?
During the sales pitch, everyone had a good laugh about the tail wagging in the storyboards. We needed to make a special tail, I had convinced myself that in another life I was a clothing designer. After going through 2 boxes of Band-Aids and refining my pirate dialogue, we got help from a real seamstress who probably thought we were throwing some strange costume party. The biggest question we get is "How did you get the tail to wag?" Ask Heejung the story changes every time.
Day of the video shoot, who took a selfie?
Unfortunately, we were so busy trying to get everything filmed in a very limited time space, we lost our selfie opportunity. Huge thanks to John Mikulenka for helping us out that day. John worked his charming demeanor by keeping everyone relaxed and focused.
The devil is in the details, or some call it editing.
While filming can be a beast, the cutting room is where the mysterious magic truly happens. I spent hours editing and re-editing and then editing again only to edit one more time. There was a very large air-conditioner in the room and we know it was going be a post-production nightmare. The background music choice by us was the final touch and really made the whole piece come together. We added a nice little punchy animation at the end to really drive home the campaign message.
Last minute photo shoot for marketing, ads and campaign page
This was at our request because we really wanted these Oscar actors to ham it up for marketing and advertisement. These two guys are employees at HSTpathways. They have been wonderful to work with and did almost anything I asked, I should have taken advantage of that power, muhahaha.
Special tracking links were created to measure the campaign for results. The results are coming in and it's been a wonderful journey.