Young Lions 2020 – ‘Falling on Deaf ears’
‘Falling On Deaf Ears’ is a project created, written, shot and produced by myself and my colleague and copywriter Ben Razey of Javelin for the Cannes Young Lions 2020 competition in the ‘Film’ category. We were nominated and shortlisted in the final three, but unfortunately came up short to some fantastic opposition entries. However, Lust for Life, the charity selected as this years brand for category, we were excited for the opportunity to work with and get inside the mind of a Brand at the focus of such an important cause.
Wellbeing is one of the luxury commodities of today. It’s become a cultural cachet, and the current narrative around mental health is encouraging people to come forward and talk about their issues. This is a great and necessary movement towards normalising the stigma around the subject, but all of this conversation is creating white noise.
It begs the question– is anybody really listening? And therefore, is anybody truly acting to create change? Our ‘Falling on Deaf Ears’ campaign highlights how, despite the evergreen talk around mental health, nobody is truly being heard - not by the system, nor by the government. We want to incite young people to actively use their voice to create systemic change.
In the 45 second film, we see someone receiving therapy. We purposefully made the experience look positive, but created a sense of pace and frustration – much like how people feel accessing the current service. As we move through the video, we used pointed audio-visual motifs to highlight some of the issues that currently reflect what can be found within the Mental Health Service in Ireland. We overlaid a jarring ‘white noise’ to not only arrestingly cut through other tv adverts, but moreover represent how people who seek out mental health services feel like they aren’t being heard – and even when they try, there aren’t always resources available. We incorporated absurd satirical visuals through props to add humour to such a serious topic, but also highlight some of the true, relatable and incredulous things people face when dealing with mental health, as well as when seeking out help from mental health services. This advert should feel gritty and provocative - good intentions don’t make for real change. Our call to action highlights how the power for change will only happen when we proactively speak up.
Aviva – fai Junior Cup 2016
Aviva are the annual sponsor for the FAI Junior Cup, the biggest semi professional football tournament in Ireland. ‘Put Your Name on it’ was the concept I developed along with an art director in Javelin for the online launch of the campaign in 2016. The brief outlined that Aviva wanted to celebrate the clubs that make the competition what it is every year. With a strong community fanbase for every team, we created a passionate idea exploring the one aspects of each club that they wear with pride the most, their name. The wide variation in names provided a great niche to engage with so many participants. I created a list of over forty different club names and along with a copywriter in Javelin we produced a script that featured almost twenty. A name features in each shot in the ad labelled on everything from jerseys to pitch banners and club houses. Using footage I had dug up from several clubs I storyboarded the final concept that was signed off by the client and went to production.
The video consisted of footage that featured team names in the script that I sourced and a two day shoot to capture the additional club names we required. As well as ticking names off the list, the shoot provided the opportunity of some extra cutaways for opening and closing sequences that I could direct. I directed the shoot travelling around Ireland from once clubhouse to another, studying each location to identify our best opportunity for shots. Some examples of these are shown below. The video received exceptional engagement on Facebook, a huge opportunity for clubs to share content they were featured. The composition of a genuine visual style, gritty VO and the courageous tone in the script created great excitement and hype around the competition that year, and discreetly warranted a tip of the hat the all those involved.
Irish Ferries – Epic Sale 2016
‘Epic Sale’ was a concept I produced for Irish Ferries for a promotional campaign they ran in 2016. The main offer made my direction clear to me and that was to amplify the scale of this sale. I looked at the relationship between the words ‘sale’ and ‘sail’ and explored different avenues through which I could play with this similarity. I concluded that rather than a ship sailing the sea, a ‘sale’ could sail the sea. Manipulating the word into an enormous ship ploughing the seas allowed the clients main message to be the focus of the visual. It also lent itself to creating a huge emphasis on the epic proportions of their sale. The absence of real ships was a concern, however I subtly brought the product into play for the client, by merging the text into the shape an Irish Ferries vessel. I created sketches, shown below, of the offer layered onto the outline of a photograph their ship the Oscar Wilde which were later advanced into artwork by an illustrator. Subtle yet an obvious, the ship shape ticked the final box on the project for the client. The campaign was developed for press and digital with some examples shown below.
KBC – Student Campaign – The Bank You Choose
Collaborating with a copywriter in Javelin, I developed the Student Campaign for KBC Bank titled ‘The Bank You Choose’ in 2016. KBC were searching for a new way to make their brand accessible to young college students, so our primary task develop a tone and visual that resonated with them. We concluded that for students, college is a time when a world of possibilities stretches out ahead; where they are free to carve their own path and not make the same embarrassing mistakes as their parents. It was imperative to choose the ideal decade style for visual reference and the 1980’s was the perfect match. I tackled the art direction by taking an old-school graphic and photographic approach, showing the errors in judgement our parents made when they were of student age- haircuts, fashion, movie taste and music taste etc, suggesting perhaps you shouldn’t follow in their footsteps in every way.
KBC approved the idea out of five that we presented and it went into production across all social and online platforms. It was rolled out through a carefully considered social strategy and an array of digital display ads. The content generated high levels of engagement on Facebook and with website click throughs from banner ads. Above all, the annual campaign saw an increase of 17% in subscriptions for KBC versus the previous year.
Barbiere – The Italian Job
The ‘Italian Job’ is a freelance project I developed, pitched and executed along with my freelance partner Joe Roche. Barbiere are Italian Barber shop and a long standing client that i’ve produced a litany of online content for. After identifying several areas for room to improve with their social strategy, I collaborated with Joe and created a proposal for a project that coincided perfectly with the launch and opening of their new branch on Baggot Street. Our main objective was to capitalise on the event by generating social media interaction, exposure, and an extensive content.
We devised an extravagant PR Stunt from a simple idea where by potential customers could post a selfie on Facebook or Twitter to avail of a free haircut on the launch day. The rationale for the stunt was to position Barbiere as the leader of promotional material in their industry whilst increasing their online presence and engagement. We rolled out a series of sponsored social posts announcing the upcoming event, an example of which is shown below. ‘La Dolce Vita’ or ‘The Good Life’ is the Barbiere mantra, and we felt a master barber cut on the house wasn’t enough. We plucked inspiration from Peter Collinson’s Italian job by securring a deal with Frank Keane Mini for the use of three brand new Mini coopers on the day. Barbiere branded, we transported entrants from their work to the barbers and back. Evidentally where we coined the name and hashtag for the campaign. The reason for the drive – aside from the live visual experience – is also to reflect Barbiere’s aesthetic; a vespa typically connotes freedom to zip amongst the traffic in an Old Italian city. The cars we acquired for the event, achieved the same continental effect.
We produced a promotional video in the run up to the event which we rolled out across different platforms to generate hype and interest. The key details of the promotion were an essential component to communicate, however the main purpose of the Italian Job promotional video was to strengthen the ‘La Dolce Vita’ ethos behind Barbiere – an asset to their brand identity. The campaign was a smooth success, as we were completely booked out with entrants within two hours on the day. This was a testament to the execution of a campaign on a very limited budget. Social media engagement figures we boosted exponentially across all platforms; Twitter engagement increased for the client by over 500% and Barbiere gained almost 1000 new facebook followers in the following week. Furthermore we achieved some great exposure for the brand with the coverage from the Irish Daily Mirror, Dublin Live and Entertainment.ie.
Toyota – ‘Yuko’ Launch Video
Along with another art director in Javelin, developed a digital launch video for Toyota ‘Yuko’, their car sharing service that was initiated in 2018. We developed an idea that set Dublin as the context and then visually outlined the problem that Yuko was here to solve in an over-exaggerated manner for dramatic effect. We then combined this with shots of the different Yuko vehicles driven by various specific demographics that Toyota had identified the project the serve. Young adults in the Toyota Yaris, a professional in the Auris and a family in the Prius. Then brand friendly graphics were created to deliver the three simple steps to avail of the service. I designed the graphics mockups pictured above, the proposal on the right was approved immediately by the client. We produced a video that defined the what Yuko was in a fun and imaginative way, focusing on plenty of product shots and communicating the key information to customers online.
We shot the video with Element Post Production and DOP Burschi Wojnar, who was a vital choice to executing our vision. Carrying out the shoot in one day, we split the production team into two crews. Seeing the project through to fruition is an important part of a project like this for me, so I took on the role of directing the second crew for the day and even making a small cameo to acquire a desired shot. Furthermore to this, I oversaw and assisted in the motion graphics development which was an essential component to delivering the three sign up steps.
Shaws TV Concepts – 2016
Shaw’s Department Stores provided Javelin with a brief looking for a batch of ideas for a TVC in 2016. Working alongside a copywriter I created, developed and storyboarded two ideas that were presented to the client. Shaw’s are a very traditional and conservative brand, so I provided one idea (above) that was simple in it’s purpose of displaying both the brand and products clearly through a straightforward narrative. The video would be shot in store, immersing the view in the experience and providing a multitude of product shots as three women browse the rails. The endframe would be reached through a smooth zoom transition into one of the women’s Shaw’s branded shopping bag, strongly delivering the CTA and key information. The second idea steered down a slightly more abstract path with an animation suggestion. ‘So good, you want it all’ provided the opportunity for a playful and engaging visual through exaggeration of the notion. An animated character would propose the assumption that a trip to Shaw’s for their would be too good to be true. The character, laden with shopping bags and boxes, would stumble from left to right across the frame. This humorous image would be eventually interrupted by a red stage curtain dropping down from above, knocking her off balance and toppling her load. Playing on the comical nature of the script, this allowed a transition to the endframe again with the details and CTA.
Toyota – ‘Better Toyota Club’ App
Toyota strive to be number one for innovation in their industry, always trying to stay one step ahead. They back numerous innovation projects every year using their products in an attempt to assist those people in difficult situations. Everything from Wifi hub Land Cruisers in the Outback of Australia where there is no signal to developing a device to help the vision impaired walk. Toyota wanted us to channel our creativity and produce an innovation project in 2018 as they looked for a different angle. I was presented with the opportunity of working on the concept that Javelin pitched.
Working alongside another art director, we created the ‘Better Toyota Club’. An app powered by Toyota that would assist the elderly and disadvantaged individuals in need of transport. Toyota would generate a database of volunteer drivers and user profiles. People in need of a lift, whether it be to the hospital, back to nursing home or even a spin down to post office, could request assistance to nearby registered drivers via the app. I helped develop the concept and then worked on the design of the app for mobile. Above is a mockup of the interface I designed for the application. The key to the design, and considering the average demographic of users, was simplicity. A large tiled button format of your regular destinations, simple branding, and an easy to navigate structure. Unfortunately the project never reached production stages as Toyota were already involved in seven innovation projects that year, but they have signalled intentions of revisiting the idea later in 2019.