TV
TV
Fun. Fun. Fun. Yes, a ton of hard work too, but what a great opportunity to make mini-movies where you get to flex your creative muscles and produce something that not only satisfies your showbiz impulses, but sells product too! And of course, it doesn’t hurt to get some industry recognition and haul home a treasure trove of national advertising awards. I wrote and directed all of these spots. Also handled the music selection, sound design and (gulp), even the editing.
Bad Dream
Georges Duboeuf Wines was a successful, worldwide brand, but had never created TV ads. For our first spot, we had a $30K budget. Still tight, so we crafted a dream sequence in a white seamless void with nameless characters wearing masks based on the iconic Beaujolias Nouveau label.
Bad Dream won 2 Tellys, 3 Visions, 2 Communicators, and a Summit award.
Award categories: best copy/concept, editing, use of music, creativity/editing, best low budget and best food & beverage ad.
Wine Tasting
After the success of our Beaujolais Nouveau ad, we were tasked with promoting their Beaujolais Villages brand and the full line of varietal wines.
Wine Tasting was a fun goof on the pretentious lingo used by wine fanatics. The performances were hysterical and the tagline kicked ass (literally). It won 3 Vision awards, 3 Communicators and a Summit award.
Award categories: best copy/concept, editing, use of music, creativity/editing, best low budget and best food & beverage ad.
French Lesson
French Lesson is romantic, seductive and playful. it wraps with our new positioning slogan: Georges Duboeuf…How the world speaks French.
The campaign was a resounding commercial and critical success. Sales dramatically increased and distributors reported selling out their orders faster than any previous year.
French Lesson won 2 Tellys. 3 Visions, 2 Communicators and 2 Omni awards.
Award categories: best copy/concept, editing, use of music, creativity/editing, best low budget and best food & beverage ad.
Fast Paced Life
B&B Pool and Spa Center was a family business. They’d never done a TV ad and had a paltry budget. We sold them on a $5,000/spot budget used for stock footage, voice work, public domain music and studio time.
Fast Paced Life won 2 Tellys, 3 Visions and a Summit (best low budget).
Award categories: best copy/concept, editing, use of music and best low budget.
You’re Due
The two remaining ads in our first campaign for B&B Pool and Spas utilized the same stock footage, voice actor and opera music, but the concept and copy added two new slants to the same theme: You Deserve it!
You’re due won 3 Visions, 2 Omnis and 3 Communicator awards.
Award categories: best copy/concept, editing, use of music creativity/editing, creativity/ writing, best commercial ad, best cable ad.
Water Rights
I must admit, I really love this concept and copy. No spoilers, just watch and enjoy, because you’ve earned the right!
Water Rights won 2 Tellys, 2 Omnis and 3 Vision awards.
Award categories: best copywriting, best concept, editing, use of humor and best in product category.
Rationalize This
After the success of our first campaign for B&B, they loosened the budget pursestrings and we were able to do some location shoots featuring their sumptious pools. Copy and Concept still ruled and we scored more awards:
Rationalize This won 2 Visions and 2 Communicators.
Award categories: best copywriting, best concept, creativity, and best low budget ad.
Are You in Bali?
The second spot in the new campaign added a dash of sex sizzle and hedonistic abandon. Why not have a resort vacation in your own backyard?
Are You in Bali? won 2 Visions and 1 Communicator.
Award categories: best copy/concept, best, editing, best in product category.
Neighbors Will Talk
This spot is probably the lowest budget ad we’ve made, combining stock footage and product stills with location shots. But the real star is that tagline!
Neighbors Will Talk won 1 Telly. 2 Visions and 2 Communicators.
Award categories: best copywriting, best concept, editing, use of humor and best in product category.
Car Cash
Our award-winning radio campaign for Car Cash was extended to this regional cable spot. Once again, the budget was negligible, so we used the same white seamless environment as our Bad Dream ad. The toy car garage and playful, simple as ABC instructions made this another big winner in sales.
Evertroll
These spots were directed to a very targeted audience: serious fishing aficionados. The Evertroll battery had a distinct advantage over all competitve batteries. It lasted much longer without a recharge. Since our viewers really liked to fish, these spots practically wrote themselves.
Two of the leading bass tournament winners served as our trusted spokesguys, a built-in endorsement that captured an amazing market share right out of the starting gate!
“I have had the great pleasure of working with Long Advertising on the launch of the Evertroll battery into the sports fishing market. The launch was done so well that the industry regards it as a model for the best marketing practices…The product went from non-existence to being desired by 40% of the surveyed sample in one year!”
VP Worldwide Marketing, Evercel
Video
When you do a lot of business-to-business advertising, especially for the big Fortune 500 multinationals, you probably do a lot of corporate videos too. Sometimes the client is very clear that they want a “just the facts ma’am” explanation of goods and services, like the Printasia video below, or a facility tour, like International Paper’s Mansfield video. Once in a while, you get more creative leeway, and can solve the marketing challenge from a more conceptual angle, like this video, Put it on Paper:
Put it on Paper
The challenge: try to stave off the (inevitable) shift to digital media. This video was made for International Paper in 2004. The seige was well underway. You’ll get a chuckle out of some of the examples used to illustrate the “essential” nature of paper, but I’m still quite proud of the copy, production values, editing and most of all, the luscious soundtrack.
Carl Royce (featured in the piano shot) worked with me on the score. It still makes me smile every time I hear it.
The Image Bank
Hats off to Rick Ench, my production partner and the director of most of these coroprate videos.
My contribution was focused on the music, sound design and editing. This Image Bank spot is all about the music and cuts, and it was a ball to work on, since they had an incredible array of stock footage to choose from.
The only downside: some of the shots that we didn’t love were considered a “must” for the client. Roger that!
IBM: Knowledge is Power
This is the intro section to a much longer corportate video pitching IBM’s Information Services. Fun to do (from my perspective) because I love working in post-production, slaving away over the editing and sound design duties.
The Book of Paul Trailer
Okay, ready for an intermission from the coroprate reel? I know I am. This is a “book trailer” I wrote and directed to promote my novel, The Book of Paul.
I used a Kickstarter to fund the very limited budget, and cast some terrific actors as the novel’s main characters. The Book of Paul went on to become a horror bestseller on Amazon with over 300 four and five star reviews!
Printasia
A straightforward sales video for a product/service that was obsolete by the time the video went out to potential customers. Desperate to hold onto an evaporating market share in photo printing paper, Ilford Photo dipped their toes into the “digital” stream.
The water was cold. Included only to illustrate that I can write an effective sales pitch with how-to-use instructions like a good soldier even though I knew the product was doomed from the start.
International Paper: Mansfield Mill
This was a PR project as much as a facility tour of International Paper’s Manfield Mill. The number one job was to preach the gospel of environmental responsibility and effective stewardship of natural resources. Videos were made of every mill, using the intro and wrap.
Questions? Comments? Quotes? Collaboration?
Want to know more? Ask me anything. I’m here to help.