Tool of North America and Aaron Koblin, working in collaboration with BBDO NY, led an all-star digital team including Tool’s Carlos Ulloa, to create a comprehensive website supporting the Starbucks Love Project – a partnership with RED, an organization devoted to wiping out AIDS in Africa. Koblin and the Tool team custom built the website to provide multiple visitor-participation options that each resulted in a donation from Starbucks, including an interactive worldwide sing-along to The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love, a crowdsourced tapestry of “Love Drawings,” containing user-generated drawings symbolizing love, and a CD mixed by international multimedia music group Playing for Change.

“It’s an affirmation of Tool’s expertise in digital that BBDO, who has such a rich history creating campaigns for the integrated space would seek us out to help with such an important initiative,” noted Tool Digital EP Dustin Callif. “It’s important to Tool to work on projects that are both creatively innovative and charitable in purpose. These types of initiatives allow us to tap into the top digital talent that we work with such as Aaron Koblin. Aaron was eager to take this on and he did a really spectacular job on every part of the site.”

The initial site launch on Nov. 17 allowed users to learn about the Love Project and watch embedded videos of all four tracks on the exclusive-to-Starbucks Red Love CD. Tool’s Carlos Ulloa developed an interactive CD done in Papervision3D, to highlight the impressive song list: a multi-artist cover of All You Need is Love, U2’s I Believe in Father Christmas, Dave Matthews Band’s You & Me, and John Legend’s Redemption Song. When customers spend $15 at the store, they will receive the CD free and Starbucks will donate one dollar to the Global Fund to help Fight AIDS in Africa.

Koblin’s expertise in “crowdsourcing” – corralling the resources of many individuals to achieve a greater goal traditionally achieved by a large entity – came though in one of the more unique elements of the website. The “Love Gallery” is an enormous piece of interactive, user-generated artwork that can be expanded infinitely. The Love Gallery appears onscreen as a giant graphic rectangle comprised of many tiny squares, each housing a drawing symbolizing one person’s idea of love. Anyone can create their own drawing using an easy-to-use art tool that Koblin designed, which operates with three colors, four brush sizes, four brush strokes, and a blank canvas. For each of the first one million drawings added to the love gallery, Starbucks is contributing five cents to the battle against AIDS in Africa.

Another dynamic site element – an interactive music page – went live Dec. 7th. Visitors can add their voice to a montage of over 170 recording artists from all over the world who simultaneously sang All You Need is Love, streamed live online, in the largest music production in history. As more and more people add to the track, the result will be a worldwide coalition of voices symbolically joined in a unified front against AIDS. Tool coordinated closely with Gorgeous director Chris Palmer – which choreographed the mass event – to make the musical archive perpetually available, allow new visitors to add their voices, and provide videos of each performance. For each new voice added to the track, Starbucks is donating five cents to fight AIDS in Africa. All You Need Is Love became the first-ever satellite-linked worldwide broadcast 40 years ago, and Tool’s diligent digital efforts – and their ability to unify disparate peoples for a worthy cause – epitomize the information revolution that has transformed the world in that time. Contributors to both the voice upload and the love drawings receive email confirmation and a link allowing them to view and share their submission.

In a tacit show of confidence in the Tool-designed site, Starbucks launched a huge promotion of the Love Project website, including an email newsletter; updates on Starbucks.com; an MSI blog post; announcements to their five million Facebook fans and 500,000 Twitter followers; digital advertising across Hulu, Pandora, Huffington Post, and other sites; and full day homepage ads on the websites of The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, GOOD, Salon, the New York Post, and imeem.

Breaking things off with a mobile phone company can be as exasperating as breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend. So, to aid with this frightening event, live-action and digital production company Tool of North America, in collaboration with GS&P, was tasked with the challenge of building a compelling, user-friendly website as well as creating the content to populate it, which came courtesy of Geordie Stephens. The finished product allows users to send a good-bye song to their respective carriers and then handles all the details of how to switch to Sprint.

Goodby initially licensed three notorious tracks: Madonna’s Like a Virgin, Mr. Mister’s heartbreaker Broken Wings, and Gold Rush-era tune Oh! Susanna. Then, with an eye toward how the footage would engage an audience in an interactive setting, Stephens directed a studio shoot of two hipster musicians awaiting the site user’s direction, then performing the songs-with new lyrics written especially for AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.

“I wanted the site to feel like viewers were in the studio working with the band,” said Stephens. “The agency did a nice job writing the lyrics to these “break-up” songs, and I wanted to make these simple and intimate. The comedy needed to come from the lyrics, and so I stripped the camera down to slow pushes and played to the emotions felt when partners go their separate ways. Of course, the comedy came from this couple breaking up with their mobile phone carriers.”

“Geordie (Stephens) was the perfect choice for this type of project because he is able to see both the creative and directorial opportunities,” said Tool EP Brian Latt. “We were fortunate in that we were able to handle the online component as well as the live action, and Geordie did a phenomenal job creative directing the site experience. We’ve been working on this new model for quite some time and it’s just really rewarding when you witness a vision come to fruition.”

The site, mobilegoodbye.com, is part of Sprint’s Any Mobile, Anytime campaign.

by: Ed White – September 1, 2009

What does digital mean to you? It’s a term that has come to encompass all things to all people; it’s used to refer to everything from simply shooting on digital to animation and VFX right over to website production. Accordingly, AICP’s decision to launch a digital chapter for those working in these fields is long overdue. But is the sheer scope of its intended reach over ambitious?

“Even as recently as two years ago, almost 50 of our 270 member companies had their core business in digital production: animation, graphic design, visual effects and web development,” says AICP CEO Matt Miller. Conceived 18 months ago by Miller and Ed Ulbrich, EP at Digital Domain and now head of the new chapter, AICP Digital will redress a vacuum in the AICP on issues relating to digital production.

The group will be focusing on standardizing and promoting best practice in labor, hiring, IP, contracts, deliverables and educating agencies and members about technology, says Ulbrich. It will also aim to rework the entire outdated shoot-day model to more accurately reflect the often long-term, un-union and multitasking projects that digital companies face every day. Finally, he wants the body to tackle the pressing and continued issue of education for agency producers, clients and cost consultants.

That’s welcome news to long-time AICP member Javier Jimenez, EP of hybrid prodco Motion Theory, who was in the early consultations that led to the inception of the digital chapter. He sees the chapter as an important extension of the AICP with many issues that will overlap with traditional production companies, including egregious payment terms. But he hopes it will also educate and protect digital companies on issues specific to them. “When moving into different realms outside of simple film negative we all need to be smart about how we’re paid, how our assets are monitored and protected.” He cites the creation of digital characters as one example. “[Agencies say,] ‘You created it for the job, so we own it.’ Well, not really. So, it’s just continuing as an organization to protect ourselves.”

Intellectual property is a growing concern in the new media landscape. Tool of North America, like many traditional production companies, has plunged into the interactive field to become a fully integrated production company. It recently bolstered its digital capability, taking on a host of digital talent that it will represent as interactive directors. But with the new model have come new quandaries.

“Grant Skinner is one of the best Flash developers on the planet,” says Tool’s new digital head of content Dustin Callif. “He has libraries of code which he’s been developing over time. That’s why you can go to him and get things quicker and at a much higher level that you’d get from other Flash developers.

But he doesn’t want to give that up. He’ll say, ‘Sure you guys are paying me to build something, but guess what, you’re tapping into some libraries that were proprietary and pre-existing that I built.’ That’s one thing that I think the AICP could help govern – put language in standard contracts so it’s understood that ownership of certain kinds of IP are retained by the production company and/or licensed.”

Then there is the thorny question of compensation for developing wholesale ideas when pitching, which is part of the bigger question of the pitch/bid/production process. Compared to film there is no standard process in place, and there are huge variations in terms of execution. Consequently, agencies and interactive production companies have evolved their own unique modus operandi, often completely different from job to job.

“For us it has been really important to find a way to do projects in a way that clients and agencies are familiar with. We don’t have the AICP template, there has never been that, so agencies can’t just refer to that,” says B-Reel EP Niklas Lindstrom. B-Reel has responded with some success: they’ve tailored their bid sheets to reflect the AICP template.

Variations within digital production companies and agencies, and the interactive industry’s rapid fragmentation, might make an all-encompassing body for digital impossible, says London-based Stink Digital’s EP Mark Pytlik. His model of in-house designers, producers, creative directors and developers is, for example, very different to Tool’s repping arrangement. Although he would welcome the muscle of a governing body like AICP Digital in the UK to combat ‘scope creep’ (agencies adding on extra elements to the project’s original scope), he’s skeptical. “Realistically, I think it’s an exercise in futility to try to structure an industry around it. Everything’s going to break off, everything’s going to become more granular. Everything’s going to fragment so much more. I think it’ll be like herding cats to have some sort of governing body.”

AICP Digital faces a three-pronged challenge in trying to affect change in a meaningful way: production companies are evolving away from their original iterations and into new areas. Simultaneously, post-production and animation companies are facing new problems that have not been addressed. And lastly (and perhaps most importantly considering its exponential growth and demand), interactive companies have grown and defined themselves in myriad ways, with wildly different structures, processes and vocations.

“AICP Digital is a real opportunity to evolve the purpose and the knowledge of the organization versus changing it,” concludes Jimenez. “Instead of throwing up a big flag and saying we’re different to your standard production company, it’s about redefining and evolving the definition of production.”

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Tool of North America Director Tom Routson has some adult fun in a provocative new spot for Purity Organic.

Routson’s lens opens on a frumpy chain-smoking woman behind the counter of an adult novelty store. She’s in the middle of a phone conversation, rattling off a list of sex toys to the caller that include the Penetrator, the Annihilator and the Wang-Zilla. But a curious thing happens when she takes a swig of her Purity Organic fruit juice. Her colorful language and matter of fact tone change. She softens and suggests cuddling, hand holding and long walks together instead. It seems that after a taste of her Purity Organic she become as pure and nurturing as the drink itself.

Tool of North America’s Sean Ehringer has launched a humorous, multi-medium campaign designed to win free T.G.I. Friday’s Jack Daniels Hamburgers for 500,000 people.

Sept 21, 2009

By Noreen O’Leary

What happens when a social media strategy takes off faster than expected?

TGI Friday’s found out this month when, after just six days of media support, its new marketing character, Woody, achieved a Facebook promotional goal expected to occur over almost 30 days. The momentum swell that initially buoyed the brand online, in fact, threatened to drag it down — until some quick thinking helped save the day.

TGIF’s enviable “problem” began with the creation of Woody, developed by its new agency, Publicis, New York (which worked with sibling Digitas on the campaign). Earlier this month, to prove his self-described “No. 1 fan” status, Woody needed to acquire 500,000 friends on Facebook by Sept. 30. Each friend would receive a coupon for a free Jack Daniel’s burger or chicken sandwich in return.

After a soft launch on Sept. 2 and subsequent e-mail campaign, Woody picked up 80,000 friends-even before TV and digital banners were launched Sept. 7. Sunday, Sept. 13, Woody hit the 500,000 mark. “[It was] fascinating to watch this explode,” said Rob Feakins, president, CCO, Publicis, New York, of the highly successful campaign.

It was also stressful. With two weeks of paid media to go, the agency knew it had to add to the strategy. So on the 13th, after an exchange of 80 agency/client e-mails and five conference calls, it was agreed the promo would be extended.

As it turned out, that was a very good decision. That same Sunday night it became clear that Woody’s friends who joined after the 500,000 level was hit were unhappy they’d missed out on the promo. The negative chatter carried over into Monday. People voiced frustration about not getting a coupon; accused Woody of working for TGIF; and complained about the use of marketing ploys in social media. On Monday, Woody offered six free chicken wings during that night’s Monday Night Football at participating TGIFs. Few were appeased.

On Tuesday, Woody hinted good news was in the works. Later that day, an online video was posted extending the promo to the first 1 million sign-ups. By late afternoon last Friday, Woody had 784,000 friends. (It’s not expected he’ll re-up his goal a second time.)

“It was interesting to see how quickly the page turned,” said Feakins. “With social media and advertising we’re at a collision point. You have zero control when things are good … or when they go south.”

Facebook has obviously become fertile ground for marketers. But with Woody, Publicis is seeking to create a more long-term bond with friends than a short-term bump in restaurant traffic and sales.

“The question is, how do we use Woody going forward?” said Feakins. “This is different from other ‘free’ promotions. The burger was the mechanism, but Woody allowed the introduction for TGI Friday fans to get together. Can these guys sustain each other three weeks from now? Have we garnered the loyalty of his fans?”

Given the fact Woody is positioned as a fan and not a brand spokesman, his persona has to be handled carefully, which is why he won’t be making regular appearances in TV ads. A major concern was whether the Facebook community would accept an actor among them, and while there were opinionated comments about that role, Publicis said he received over 200,000 viewings of his videos and more than 100,000 wall postings. The feedback to Woody, said Feakins, was “shockingly positive.”

Client: TGI Friday’s
Spot Title(s): Cranky Guy, Getting Ready, Pit Stop
Air Date: September 2009

Agency: Publicis NY
GCD: Simeon Roane
Art Director: MaryAnne Infante
Director of Broadcast Production: Nadia Blake
Assistant Producer: Tim Bierbaum

Prod Company: Tool of North America
Director: Sean Ehringer
DP: Marten Tedin
EP(s): Brian Latt, Jennifer Siegel
Line Producer: Lauren Bayer
Production Designer: Janet Nelson

Editorial: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Dave Koza
Assistant Editor: Mike Rizzo
Producer: Melissa Miller

Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Tim Masick
Assistant: Drew Geary

Post/Effects: Schmigital
Lead VFX/Smoke Artist: Jimmy Hayhow
After Effects: Adrianna Merlucci

Sound Designer: Sam Shaffer
Stereo Mixer: Sam Shaffer
5.1 Mixer: Rex Recker @ Audio Engine

Back To The Wild is the humorous new web film for Nature Valley courtesy of Tool of North America Director Geordie Stephens and McCann Erickson.

As Wildlife Freedom Expert Jack Deer travels the plains of his Freedom Institute, we follow along as he prepares to release something special back into the wild. Operating under the principal that everything natural should be returned to nature, Jack sets out to free that most pure of species: the Nature Valley granola bar. As he launches the granola bar into the air, it falls to earth instead of flying free. Jack explains that it’s grown too close to humans and doesn’t want to leave when suddenly an African bushman sprints past him, swiping up the tasty granola bar.

Tool of North America director Geordie Stephens helms a memorable :60 romp for Keep California Beautiful in collaboration with BBDO that encourages citizens not to trash their beaches.

Told through a song-and-dance number wrought with sarcasm, a group of beautiful teenagers swears it’s more fun to build a “garbage castle” than throw it in the trash. Broken glass, dirty diapers, and a hypodermic needle stuck in a girl’s foot further solidifies the notion that Mother Nature is truly in danger if we don’t do our part.

“Being on the West Coast I know firsthand the terrible state of the ocean and beaches here,” noted Stephens. “Rather than showing the stark reality like a nature channel documentary, we felt it would be more powerful to expose the conditions by painting an ironic tale. By taking a tongue-in-cheek approach emulating 1960s beach movies, the spot’s lyrics leave the viewer feeling inane if they’ve ever “trashed the beach.” Much of the credit has to be given to Neil (Levy), Roz (Romney), and the rest of the BBDO crew who are all smart, funny people – that was where it all started.”

“California has historically been a very strong brand, but with high unemployment and a host of other problems tarnishing the state, this spot is one small step in trying to motivate people to take an immediate, easy action: cleaning up after themselves,” said Neil Levy of BBDO. “Tool did their usual great job bringing this idea to life. Replicating the iconic genre of the beach musical comes with major technical challenges, and Geordie and Jeff created a best-in-class team that perfectly captured that look and feel.”

Director Geordie Stephens of Tool of North America in collaboration with McCann Erickson, NY recently released a quizzically humorous :30 for Purity Organic Juice.

Tirade catches an angry business man at his worst as he curses out a co-worker on the phone. A cleverly implemented bleeping tone censors the inappropriate name calling. Clearly too angry to carry on a civil conversation, the man takes a calming swig of Purity Organic. Immediately following, the once enraged man’s tone shifts to cool and calm. He then continues his conversation with the co-worker illustrating the juice brands ability to help people “Be More Pure.”

A hilarious two-minute-plus Bud Light viral directed by Tool of North America’s Erich Joiner in conjunction with DDB Chicago has been nominated for an Emmy.

Magazine Buyer features a young man whose attempt to purchase an X-rated magazine along with a six-pack of Bud Light quickly devolves into a fiasco as he is first embarrassed in front of a childhood crush and then spotlighted on TV as “the porno guy” when an armed robber bursts in and takes the entire store hostage.

The 61st Emmy Awards will be held Sunday, Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS.

Tool’s Dustin Callif interviewed by The FWA. From his most indispensable software to the “most expensive thing he bought last week,” hear Dustin’s thoughts, opinions and favorites.

Sam’s interactive music video for the Cold War Kids “I’ve Seen Enough” has been selected as the FWA’s Site of The Day. (It’s Tool’s

Although Time magazine’s article “This Porn’s For You: Budweiser’s Racy Web Ad” fails in its attempt to link Bud Light’s “Beer & Porn,” directed by Erich, to the “cultural tipping point” of the decline of American values, it has helped generate a “boatload of hits.”

Viral Video Chart: Top Spots Get Boost From Offline Buzz

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — This week’s No. 1 spot belongs to XBox’s Project Natal video, whose 1,090% growth over last week is a record for the chart.

What drove the increased views? First of all, the body- and facial-recognition technology, which lets you control a video game without a controller, is pretty compelling — so it’s not surprising the demo has been worth its share of pass-along. But Project Natal also got an enthusiastic endorsement from Jimmy Fallon when he featured it on his show June 10. Mr. Fallon, “The Office’s” John Krasinski and “True Blood’s” Stephen Moyer played “Ricochet” and “Burnout Paradise.”

Meanwhile, the “Beer and Porn” video from Bud Light made its debut in the No. 6 spot. The video has been out since February but for some reason took off last week. Visible Measures, which tracks the video traffic for the chart, did a little investigating. Wrote Matt Cutler, VP-marketing and analytics: “We do not believe this ad ever saw TV air time and seems to have been quietly leaked back in February on the web. Subsequent copies were uploaded intermittently ever since, but the campaign appears to have taken off at the end of May when it was covered by Time magazine.”

More evidence that offline mentions can drive online views?

This Porn’s for You: Budweiser’s Racy Web Ad

By Belinda Luscombe Thursday, Jun. 04, 2009

This must have been an interesting pitch meeting: “We want the guy buying your product to also buy a pornographic magazine. A really nasty one. Then terrible things will happen to him, and he will be humiliated on national TV, and everyone will know that he — your consumer — is a total deviant.”

It may sound like a new Judd Apatow movie (or an old Woody Allen one), but it’s actually a commercial for beer — specifically Bud Light, made by the brewery that claims “the beer you choose says a lot about you.” The ad never aired on TV, and careful viewers will note that all the sexual devices are blurred and the strong language bleeped. It was made to be consumed, as beer is, by people over the age of 21. But, like beer, it is readily available if you know where to look. And again like beer, it can make you laugh. (Go ahead and watch it a couple times. We’ll wait.)

The ad, which quietly appeared in February as part of a viral campaign, has attracted little notice thus far, but because it comes from a highly respected American brand, it seems to mark some kind of cultural tipping point, where pornography has soaked so far into the fabric of mainstream culture that it’s no longer seen as a stain. The phenomenon, known as porn creep, is also evident in ads from such companies as American Apparel, Carl’s Jr. and Quiznos. This is a family website, so you can Google those ads on your own.

But Budweiser is a much bigger, better-known brand. “Why is such a huge company aligning itself with pornography?” asks Michael Solomon, a marketing professor at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “Because Budweiser must have calculated it was worth the risk to alienate some people, if they could reach their core buyers.”

As marketers struggle to find ways to make an impression on a population saturated in all kinds of media, the too-hot-for-TV online-only video has become an increasingly common device. And in order to get customers to seek out and recommend the straight-to-YouTube video, marketers often reach for comedy from the appropriateness hinterlands. Especially when trying to reel in young men.

And they’re being lauded for it. Last year, Budweiser’s advertising agency, DDB in Chicago, won an Emmy for its Internet-only spot “Swear Jar,” which depicts office workers having to pay a quarter every time they curse, with the money being used to buy Bud Light. The commercial turns into a bleepfest as the cubicle mates indulge their inner sailors. But is bleeping curse words the same thing as pixelating graphic sexual toys? “Porn is the next logical step,” says Solomon.

So far, there hasn’t been much pushback. Even anti-pornography activist Donna Rice Hughes was not shocked that Anheuser-Busch, which makes Bud Light, would go there. “The line has gotten really blurred,” she says. “There’s a whole generation that has been pornified. They don’t think it’s a big deal. Budweiser’s tapping into that.”

But Hughes and other media watchdogs are concerned that marketers — and all media — are increasingly referencing pornography and pornographic motifs. “Apparently, Anheuser-Busch has decided to associate itself and its brand with something that destroys family and degrades women,” says Cathy Rose, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian think tank and lobbying group. “I think it’s a questionable approach at the very least.” She cites Focus on the Family studies that have found that 43% of families say pornography is a problem in their home. And while she acknowledges that the spot has some fun at the porn-consumer’s expense (the last joke in the ad is about the porn-buyer’s mom finding out what he’s purchasing), she says that “many of these people’s experiences with pornography is not funny. Some of their families have been devastated by it.”

Both Anheuser-Busch and DDB declined to comment for this story. But branding expert Rob Frankel contends that any controversy generated by the video will be regarded as icing on the marketing-strategy cake. “This ad is about a guy who would like a brew and some ass,” he says. “That’s right in their strike zone.”

On June 3rd The FWA named Burger King Kingon Defense Academy the site of the day.

Director Jason Zada of bicoastal Tool of North America puts the focus on wildfire prevention in the latest spot for the Ad Council, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters via Draftfcb.

After a night of camping, a young man has an enlightening encounter with Smokey Bear, who reminds him that a still smoldering campfire is a wildfire waiting to happen. With 9 out of 10 of wildfires being caused by humans, the message is clear: if it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave behind.

With the addition of respected digital talents and the debut of an impressive interactive clip, the veteran shop primes itself for the next generation of production.

By: Ann-Christine Diaz Published: May 20, 2009

Production company Tool has been around for nearly a decade and a half, in that time earning notice for top notch live action comedy/dialogue work, and more recently for expert visual artistry through its partnership with France-based Paranoid. Paranoid has since broken out on its own, but Tool has continued to move in new directions to stay relevant —this time, integrating an impressive set of digital talents into its everyday business model.

The shop has announced the signing of two noted pros from the digital world to its creative roster: programmer and game developer Jason Rohrer and Flash expert Grant Skinner. Some of you might recall Rohrer from this year’s Creativity 50. He’s the brains behind the much-lauded indie game Passage, which earned him attention everywhere from the WSJ to Esquire, where he appeared among the mag’s Best and Brightest. He also worked with EA Games and Steven Spielberg on the diretor’s “LMNO” gaming project. Skinner has earned much respect in the digital community running his own Flash development company gskinner.com, working for clients like Sony, HP and AOL; and for his experimental work on incomplet.org, where you’ll find his inventive and entertaining applications that allow viewers to use their webcams to literally play with fire or get caught in a snowstorm.

“What we’re intent on doing is creating the production company model of the future,” says Tool EP Brian Latt. “We’re creating live action content, but with the intent of being media agnostic.” Rohrer and Skinner are only one part of that picture. In January, Tool brought on as head of digital content Dustin Callif, former managing director/owner of Spacedog Media, a digital marketing agency that was bought out by Mendelsohn Zien and Hakuhodo. Callif’s role has been to work alongside EPs Latt and Jennifer Siegel to fully integrate digital into the company’s offerings and to leverage his digital expertise alongside the directors’ talents.

Callif recently helped to launch the company’s first major digital production project with director Sam Jones, a compelling interactive video for Cold War Kids’ “I’ve Seen Enough.” Unlike a lot of so-called interactive content that ultimately turns out to be just films on the web, the video demands real participation from viewers to reap full entertainment value—it features interchangeable versions of each band member performing the song with a variety of instruments and when mixed up, provide for repeated unique experiences of the tune. “Most people, when they say digital, they’re saying virals or longform content,” says Callif. “There’s definitely a place for all that, but coming from that interactive advertising background, I looked at that as kind of a missed opportunity. It’s an interactive medium, why are we not leveraging that and integrating live action and interactivity? We’ve got this active, engaged audience ready to click and do things on their iPhones—all these wonderful opportunities.”

Even prior to the signing of Rohrer and Skinner, the Tool roster had already started to reflect its new direction with the addition of live action talents already proven in the interactive space: Anders Hallberg, the Swedish director behind sites like Ikea’s award-winning Dream Kitchens; and Jason Zada, the former ECD at S.F. digital agency EVB, who helped to spearhead notable web efforts like Office Max’s Elf Yourself and the Adidas Basketball is Brotherhood site.

Multi-Screens, Multi-faceted

by Robert Goldrich published March 20th, 2009

A noted ad agency creative director moving into the director’s chair is hardly a revelation. Agencies have been a spawning groung for assorted directors over the years. But Jason Zada brings a new dimension to the transition in that his creative chops are in the interactive arena.

Zada made his creative mark at San Francisco-based EVB, an interactive agency which he co-founded with CEO Daniel Stein in 2000. (Omnicom bought a majority stake in the shop in ‘06.) For eight years, Zada served as EVB’s executive creative director, creating ground-breaking online experiences for major advertisers such as Adidas, 2K Sports, Levi’s, JCPEnney, Wrigley, Old Spice and Office Max. For the latter, Zada created and directed the “Elf Yourself” viral campaign, which generated hundreds of millions of online hits, gaining an unlikely place in pop culture.

It was during the last year of his successful EVB tenure that Zada started directing a good majority of the projects coming out of the agency. Beyond “Elf Yourself”, those endeavors included advertising for Adidas MLS (TV campaign/online episodes), JCPenney (online content) and 2K Sports (TV Spot/online episodes).

The 2K Sports fare promoted the company’s All-Pro Football 2K8 videogame. Centerpiece of the campaign was a series of six two-minute online episodes starring rapper Rakim and other hip-hop artists that paid homage to legendary football players accompanied by footage from the video game in which the legends appear. A Broadcast :30 featuring Rakim emerged from the online mix.

Zada himself emerged with a career decision some six months ago, exiting EVB to pursue directing full time. In January he landed at bicoastal Tool of North America, a production company with a pedigree in successfully bringing agency creatives turned directors into the marketplace.

At the same time Zada brings a different perspective into that marketplace. “I didn’t direct one story and force it to fit each screen for a campaign.” related Zada. “You try to come up with the right story for each medium. You don’t necessarily compress a broadcast spot for screening on a cell phone. You might, though, take the piece of that spot’s story that makes sense for the phone user and adapt it.”

“Multi-disciplinary directors,” continued Zada, “are going to play more an integral role in helping figure out the various pieces. Some of the best creatives I have worked with [at EVB, Zada found major agencies like Crispin, Goodby and BBDO tapping into his expertise] are open to collaboration. So let’s see now what we-directors and agencies-can do working side by side. That’s what I wanted as a creative director working with a director. And it’s what I hope to experience as a director collaborating with the creative community.”

Meanwhile Tool envisions Zada as being active in traditional spotmaking as well as in thinking and creating well outside the :30 and :60 box.

At Press time Zada was directing a Smokey Bear fire prevention TV PSA for DraftFCB, Irvine, California., his first job under the Tool Banner. Independently he has wrapped three episodes of a branded entertainment digital series We All Float On, which centers on two best friends in their late 20s who refuse to grow up. Zada said one brand, which he wasn’t yet at liberty to publicly identify, has already come on board, with the goal being to secure three more. The brand support is needed not only to fun the procuction but also a media plan to drive viewers to the show.

“This series is being done from an entertainment-first perspective,” said Zada. “We’re developing great entertainment and finding brands that fit and can properly integrate themselves into the show.” He noted that Tool has helped in an advisory role.

“This isn’t at all knocking the work I’ve previously done, but Tool gives me an extra edge,” observed Zada. “Being around extremely talented folks on the production side and seeing high quality, world class production value coming out of Tool is inspiring. It will elevate my work. The other factor behind my decision to join Tool was I wanted to go to a place that is open to looking at where the industry is going and that wants to get more involved in the digital side of things. The directors here are so creative. I am learning from them and hopefully they can learn from me on some level, particularly in the digital space. It’s one big learning pool.”

Zada recalled that EVB opened as the dot-com biz was “going down the toilet. But we has this idea to do really interesting stroytelling online with brands, kinds of storytelling that weren’t being done at that time in the digital space. We got much more into this sort of filmed entertainment on the Internet-and that eventually led me back to filmmaking which back when I was a kid. You find that true innovation and pioneering can blossom even during down times like when the dot-com business looked bad. Today I’m in love with where we are at in the industry. Obviously no one is in love with where we’re at in terms of the economy. But there are still incredible opportunities.”

“In some respects,” said Zada, “it’s a scary time. You don’t know where the cards are going to fall. But it’s such a fascinating time. Yes, money is moving into digital. But TV is never going to go away. It will just transform and we have the chance to be a part of and to help shape that transformation.”

Director Erich Joiner of Tool of North America and JWT collaborate on a hilarious new campaign for Heineken, set to air on Italian TV and online at www.areyoustillwithus.com.

What do you do when you invite a few guys over to watch the game and enjoy a few cool refreshing Heinekens, only to realize that one of your buddies brought his girlfriend along? And what if that buddy was wearing a “Go Team” sweater personally knitted by said girlfriend? In Football Match, one of two new spots for the world’s most famous Dutch beer, Joiner examines this awkward phenomenon using his deft comic skills to deliver an instantly memorable campaign.

Moving finds the same rugged brood of guys moving into a rustic house together. This time one of the housemates shows up with a flashy new washing machine, prompting looks of disbelief from his friends. Soon the new washing machine settles into its rightful place; on the porch, full of ice where bottles of Heineken wait and chill.

Bee.tv’s city anthem, animated basketball and more.

PUBLISHED: MAY 26, 2009

In this week’s edition of the Creativity Top 5, Jon Kubik and Adam Noel hand-draw ad ideas in their new blog “Steal Our Ideas,” Apple and TBWA/Media Arts Lab rig up another banner for Apple, director Sam Jones crafts an interactive music video for the Cold War Kids, 180LA and director Hilton Tennant paint an animated web video for Adidas Basketball films, and Dentsu, Tokyo and director Emil Moller mash-up the city’s stories for Bee.tv.

Creativity Top 5 – May 26th Podcast

BY CLIFF KUANG Fri May 22, 2009 at 1:05 PM

To promote their new song, “I’ve seen enough,” the Cold War Kids produced a regular music video. But they also hired Tool of North America to create an interactive version of the video, which lets you remix the song while it plays. Warning: do not proceed unless you have some time to kill playing DJ. Check it out.

If I’m doing my math right, there are 625 versions of this track for you to create online.* As the track plays, there’s an animation of each band member. Click on the colored pillars above each person to give them a new instrument. Click on a band member to mute them (and load up video of them looking bored and frustrated).

The future of music? Probably not. But the future of music promotion? Absolutely. I can only imagine what a huge band with massive resources, such as Radiohead (which has a history of innovative music videos) could do with an online interactive album.

The Brief:

Bicoastal Tool of North America’s Erich Joiner puts an end to mob protection in the latest campaign for Miller Lite via DraftFCB.

In Protection C-Store two wise guys approach a store clerk stocking the refrigerators with cans of Miller Lite. When the mobsters offer to provide the store with protection, they are rebuffed by a clerk who explains that Miller Lite’s cans have a new Taste Protector lid and that’s all that is needed to lock in Miller Lite’s great pilsner taste.

Protection Bar finds our wise guys walking into a bar to offer their services to the bar owner. When he declines, the thugs persist, reminding him that bad things can happen to people who decline the kind of protection they’re offering. Unfazed, the bar owner shows them a bottle of Miller Lite with the new Taste Protector cap to demonstrate that he has all the protection he needs.

When it comes to locking in the great pilsner taste, some may say that Miller Lite is in the protection business!

Doner tapped Tool of North America director Tom Routson and the brilliant team of animators and VFX artists at Psyop to deliver an inventive new spot for The UPS Store.

Gladiator opens with an all CG dazzlingly designed and animated opening sequence created by Psyop. As our hero small-business owner steps into a boardroom to give his presentation, he enters what quickly becomes a Roman coliseum. His briefcase transforms into an employee from The UPS Store who helps him do battle with the snarling beasts and gladiators inside. The inspired animation gives way to live action footage, directed by
Routson, that whisks us inside The UPS Store. With its expertise in packing and shipping, they can also take care of your postal, document and business
service needs – making the small-business owner feel anything but small.

Erich Joiner of bicoastal Tool takes the baton on two quirky spots for Priceline.com via Butler Shine Stern & Partners. The spots feature the infamous William Shatner, as the Priceline Negotiator, demonstrating confucius-like wisdom as he teaches us how to negotiate our vacation pricing.

In Help, a hopeless man receives coaching from the `Priceline Negotiator’ on convincing his wife to travel during the recession. With an earpiece and the Negotiator’s notes, the man delivers a strong argument but impresses no one with his poor and creepy Shatner impersonation.

In Travelnapping, a couple is suddenly abducted by the Negotiator, then given a speedy lesson on the benefits of Priceline.

Bicoastal Tool is proud to announce the recent signing of internationally recognized director Jason Zada. With nearly two decades of experience working with both the advertising and digital content sides of the business, Zada had developed an impressive multiscreen storytelling ability that allows him to create unique work for nearly any product, client, or audience, and to deftly transfer a message across all mediums, from television to the web to print.

“What stands out the most about Jason is his ability to use a cross-section of media to tell one cohesive story,” remarked Tool Executive Producer Jennifer Siegel. “As Tool looks to maintain its position as an industry leader, it’s important that we continue to recruit top talent like Jason who understands that the industry is changing and aren’t afraid to adapt.”

Prior to joining Tool, Zada was the founder and Executive Creative Director of EVB, a digital content marketing agency globally recognized for its innovative creative and production. Nearly every major advertising agency – Crispin, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and BBDO, among others – tapped Zada’s talents. Over the course of his tenure, EVB produced award-wining work for clients such as adidas, Wrigley, Old Spice, VO5, 2K Sports, Burger King, A&E, MTV, Levi’s and dozens of other notable brands. Not solely a lead creative at EVB, Zada also directed all of the agency’s high profile campaigns. Perhaps his most famous work was the Elf Yourself spot he did for Office Max, which was viewed by 193 million people in its first six weeks, making it the most successful viral website of all time.

“Every great project that came out of EVB had Jason’s stamp on it,” noted Tool Executive Producer Brian Latt. “That sort of sustained excellence for years on end shows an incredible ability to execute a range of projects that don’t always necessarily fit neatly into the :30-or :60-second box. Jason is part of the next generation of talented, capable directors with a strong command of the digital world but the ability to create incredible traditional commercials as well.”

Zada is equally enthusiastic about his new home. “I’m extremely excited about working with Tool in both the integrated and traditional advertising space,” he stated. “The industry is rapidly evolving and Tool is just the sort of innovative shop that will challenge me to turn out work for every medium using all the skills I’ve mastered over the past two decades.”

A winner of more than 50 industry awards, Zada has appeared in Adweek, Creativity, `boards, Shoot, Communication Arts, The New York Times and Contagious, among a plethora of other newspapers, magazines and books. Jason frequently speaks at prominent industry events, including the Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival and South by Southwest.

Tool of North America earned top honors in TBS’ year-end “Funniest Commercials” contest and had two additional spots nominated for the annual event, in which fans log onto the network’s Web site to vote for their favorite humorous spots of the past year. Bud Light Deli (dir: Erich Joiner), Mini Cooper Demon Carts (dir: Geordie Stephens), and Priceline Tae Kwon Do (dir: Erich Joiner) were the three spots selected for the recognition in 2008.

Bud Light Deli, which earned the #1 slot for funniest commercial of the year in the fan vote, features a pair of workers in a deli, one of whom turns down a Bud Light so that he can “cut the cheese,” a clever double entendre that ostensibly refers to the enormous hunk of white cheese awaiting sculpting on a countertop but can easily be interpreted as crude toilet humor. “I couldn’t cut the cheese this morning,” one man says, “my girlfriend was here.” The second man replies, “I cut the cheese in front of my girl once…I never heard the end of it.”

In Demon Carts, the camera pans over a landscape of flipped-over and dented cars before focusing on our hero Mini Cooper, which zooms across the parking lot, deftly dodging an armada of shopping carts continuously deploying in a futile effort to dent or destroy the vehicle. Once the Mini has dodged dozens of its miniature enemies, it parks safely amidst the scattered and overturned carts, and the driver casually exits and locks the vehicle.

Priceline’s Tae Kwon Do features William Shatner as the “Priceline Negotiator,” a bargain-hunting pseudo superhero in a three-piece suit who receives a call to assist the members of a Tae Kwon Do studio with finding hotel rooms. He walks in as the group’s leader is proclaiming that they can’t afford to take everyone. Shatner tosses a throwing star to nail the leader’s sleeve to his desk and prevent him from booking the rooms. Several of the crew members commence attacks on Shatner, which he dodges before proclaiming, “I’m here to help; I can get rooms for the whole team, all at half off.” The spot ends with Shatner and the group leader ducked over the computer, marveling at the great deals they found on Priceline.

“Our team has a reputation for churning out funny spots like these,” said EP Brian Latt. “I’m really happy to see their efforts validated by TBS and all of the fans who appreciate a commercial with a comedic edge to it.”