Spirits were lifted by a package from Sean Wilson, a friend and former colleague at ResMed, containing the finished promo video we shot over 3 days last November. I left ResMed shortly after the shoot's completion -- does 'philosophical differences' cover my marketing manager reading from the ResMed Corporate Guidebook not once but TWICE in an effort to crush my creative rebelliousness? -- but relish the memories of working with such a patient visionary as Mr. Wilson.
At the time I joined Sean's creative team, he and Art Director Mark Ryan had successfully pitched print ads of a man and woman on a motorcycle that germinated from the product's name, 'Liberty'. I brainstormed with the team to create a narrative, and then wrote a fully realized script. Sean and I were in creative lockstep from day one; this included a shared belief that we'd bypass dialogue (thus eliminating translation costs) for a rousing, rock'n'roll soundtrack that complemented the story's boomer-targeted message.
The sad secret of sleep respiratory therapy is that the bulk of patients (almost exclusively overweight men) are forced to wear a hideous-looking mask to bed every night. How to combat such a horror show? Put him and his hot wife on a motorcycle and watch them escape the city for a gathering of friends at a picturesque beach house, with the promise of passion over the next horizon. It's THIS promise -- not technological wizardry -- that makes a man strap on such a gadget every night and keeps a wife or partner from running terrified at the sight of it.
This may sound like an easy concept to digest ... but it required continued force-feeding to ResMed's timid marketing folks who, shockingly, were resistant to visually represent the product's lifestyle benefits. (These people believe twirling, 3-D images of scary-looking devices are enough to appeal to Mr. and Mrs. Mask Wearer ... sigh.)
Sean and I continually talked up the viral marketing possibilities of such a gorgeous video ... so, if you like what you see, please share it with others who may dig watching a leather-clad husband & wife roar out of the Sydney CBD and through majestic Australian scenery.
Some photos I took during the shoot:
1 comment:
Do these folks look at advertising in other lands? The current trend is exactly what you were offering, would have been obviously succesful. One look at US TV, and we are smacked in the face with ads for ED(a very silly acronym they now seem to use for the obvious-The Wood Man Don't Cometh- and it is a bunch of way to cozy folks in the throes of very staged, supposed "romantic settings". Not a picture of a rotating P-Word, showing the noticeable effects of the before and after "juice'.
It works though, we don't need a medical manual, give us a story, we all want to be dreamy anyway.
Anyhow, thanks for sharing the mystery of Res Med-who, by the sounds of it, shall be on their own life support soon-
Happy Memorial Day- Summer is (almost) here, and the time is right, for Racing in the Street(or at least around the Lake)
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