Bill Dunn
Creative Content Director
"The best content isn't made to reach the most people, it's made to reach the right people."
Joshua Topolsky
The House of Peroni
FASHION COLLABORATION
The Droga5 team found eight emerging fashion designers who had the right stuff to go even further. We took them on to the next step by providing them with studio space in East London, mentorship from the likes of Alexander Fury and Pandora Sykes and the occasional free beer. It culminated in each producing a capsule collection which they showed at London Fashion Week 2019. Our challenge – aside from managing a very complicated project – was to create a video which told the whole story in 30 seconds.
Love Match
360Ëš JOINED-UP TVC & CONTENT
I devised the new campaign for Mercedes-Benz Approved Used cars with TV, social and digital in mind from the start. Rather than write a TVC and just cut it down for social, Love Match was planned to be modular so that each of the dates and the final resolution could be used as a short 10-second hit on Facebook, or a digital banner, as a 30” TV spot, or enjoyed on YouTube as a 60” “director’s cut”.
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Our content had to be rooted in the digital world. When we need something – from a new pair of jeans, to a new partner, to a new used car – we search online. And what we see doesn’t always match up to the promise, unless you go through a company you can trust, like Mercedes-Benz Approved Used.
By setting our film in the world of online dating we knew we were in an environment that our target audience would engage with. One in five UK relationships now start online, and 25% of Britons have at least one dating app on their phone. (infogram, Telegraph)
Love Match is branded social comedy for the digital world. I've written for the BAFTA-award winning sketch show Smack the Pony, and director Ben Taylor has directed the critically acclaimed Catastrophe starring Sharon Horgan, and the TV sketch show Cardinal Burns.
We added engagement by having our lead actor “break the fourth wall” – chucking out all the normal rules of acting by glancing at the camera to give little expressions of disappointment or exasperation. It feels like we’re with her – she’s talking to us.
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Our suave “Older Than Advertised” date was played by James Coombes, the Milk Tray Man in the iconic TV ads of the Eighties.
No hearts were broken during the making of Love Match.
Being Human
INNOVATIVE AI PITCH WIN
BBC Earth wanted a vehicle to promote "Being Human", a varied series about the incredible potential of the human body and mind.
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"What if," I thought, "we got an AI robot to watch the series and then describe its amazement and awe at what being human felt like?"
We went to Hong Kong to find Sophia, the most advanced and humanoid robot. She's the brainchild of Hanson Robotics. She said her lines like a pro, giving a different emphasis with each take. Her eyes even followed us around the room. Our film was intentionally a little Pinocchio-like – after watching the BBC Earth series, Sophia realises she can never quite share in the magic of being human.
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The BBC loved it so much that what started as a series of idents, bumpers, social posts and trailers developed into more ambitious content. Sophia was asked to travel to the UK to conduct an interview on Facebook Live with one of the show's stars, Dr Michael Mosley.
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It also created the most debate the BBC has ever had on its social platforms when we posted short teasers with the question, "Will robots ever be human?"
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Directed by Chris Thomas.
Social Dynamite
EFFECTIVE STORY-DRIVEN CONTENT
The skills of a good editor and journalist combined with social media's restricted yet infinite palette helped me transform Mercedes-Benz's social offering.
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Sometimes, that involves meticulously planning innovative ways to add engagement to Mercedes' involvement at big events like London Fashion Week, Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Silverstone Grand Prix, using Facebook Live as a broadcasting device.
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Sometimes it involves thinking – and editing – on your feet, like a reporter. Editing bite-size clips on an iPhone at an event. Choosing one picture from the 50 a photographer has just emailed you. How can I best tell this story? Keep your head… What does it need next… an interview, a boomerang, a rewind, a video or a still image?
They're the same questions I used to ask as an editor and writer; it's just now the results are so much more immediate.
Sir Paul Smith x Defender
A STORY-DRIVEN DRIVE
Land Rover is more luxury and design-driven and less utilitarian these days. But there's still a lot of love for the iconic Defender, the vehicle that started it all. So when long-time Land Rover lover Sir Paul Smith decided to put his colourful design mark on one of the last Defenders off the production line, I created a film to celebrate it.
I've worked with Paul many times over the years, and I wanted this to feel like he was driving through London chatting comfortably with an old friend – even though I was actually crouched uncomfortably in the boot shouting questions over the back seat with the sound man next to me.
Like everything I do, the content is underpinned with a story. Paul wanted to be a racing cyclist until a bad crash meant his life changed direction and led him towards the creative field.
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It was directed by Zac Assemakis, who also works on Top Gear.
The Descent
CREATING A BETTER STORY
Volvo decided to raise their new Volvo V60, add a lot more rough-road capability and call it the "Cross Country". Initially they asked us for some driving footage of the new car traversing some of the rutted gravel habitat where it would be used.
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But there was one thing missing from the brief – humanity. Volvo prides itself as being the most human-focused car company in the world, and it wouldn't be Volvo content without humans in it.
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So I decided to create a story. We took ultra runner Anton Krupicka, mountain biker Tom Oehler, paragliding pilot Jean-Baptise Chandelier and the new Volvo V60 Cross Country to the Pyrenees. The idea was a weekend away with a group of friends who all find different ways of getting down the mountain.
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The result? Volvo still got their driving footage for dealership use, but they also got an engaging long-form video that told a story and showed the car and its abilities.
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Directed by Martin Swift.
The Week
at Home
Katy and I were approached
by The Week to do a homes
and interiors supplement.
So we did.
Design by Ash Gibson.
Live Bravely
A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT AN ADVENTUROUS LIFE
Larry Burke is one of the most inspiring individuals I've ever met. He's the founder of the wildly successful American magazine Outside, and he epitomises the spirit of adventure that Land Rover's OneLife magazine was constantly striving for.
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I interviewed him over three days at his ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. I had some questions and themes, but we wrote and directed almost everything live on the shoot, and the result is a truly authentic portrait of an adventurous man looking back at his life, at total peace with himself and his achievements.
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Directed by Goh Iromoto.
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Luxury with a Swedish Accent
GIVING VOLVO A VOICE
Volvo sought to break away from the old “safe car/distress purchase” mindset. I used my editorial skills to develop a way for them to talk about luxury in a crowded marketplace by framing it in Swedishness and human-centric design. I knew this was going to be a big change for many in Volvo's worldwide network. So working closely with Volvo at their headquarters in Gothenburg, I wrote their new Tone of Voice document to help them sound human-centric and authentic. I then led seminars around the world with their staff, agencies and dealers to roll it out and ensure consistency.
Ice Driving
The Range Rover Sport SVR has 542bhp yet it's as capable and sure-footed as any Land Rover. The perfect vehicle to take to the ice driving capital of the world – Arjeplog, Northern Sweden.
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But how do you capture the exhilaration of driving the most powerful Land Rover ever on ice? You show the experience through the eyes of someone who's used to the environment, but not the driving. Cue polar explorer Ben Saunders, who was brave enough to take the challenge.Our footage was used in dealerships, and on Land Rover's channels.
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Directed by Ben Lankester, The Progress Film Company.
Bloody Brilliant
TEAMWORK
I'm proud of this international campaign for SCA/Libresse because it was a real team effort. It's a great example of content and advertising working together holistically.
AMV BBDO's creative team Caio and Diego made a TVC/cinema film called "Blood" – showing how a little bit of blood doesn't hold women back in sport, so why should period blood hold them back in real life?
That was the awareness part. But this campaign also needed to be practical and useful, so we teamed with Frame Gyms, Leon restaurants and Georgie Bruinvels, a University College London PhD student who specialises in the menstrual cycle.
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Together, we devised a series of dance workouts, recipes and a whole website devoted to helping women exercise and feel better during their periods.
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The project won a Gold Lion at Cannes, a D&AD award and Gold of Golds at the Creative Circle.
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Hey Student!
INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUE
Sainsbury's Bank wanted a series of content aimed at new students for fresher's week (when a lot of bank accounts are opened). They wanted to show how they understand students and their needs.
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I worked with a casting agency to find a good group of parents and students and got them to talk about the realities of student life on camera. This involved interviewing technique – knowing when to be quiet and let the conversation flow, and when to move things on with another question.
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During the interviews, both parents and their offspring found things out that they didn't know about each other. The grill story was a bit of a revelation.
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Directed by Zac Assemakis.
Fun & Games
GAMEIFYING SOCIAL
For Smart Energy GB I used script writing, storyboarding and even poetry to bring the fictional characters Gaz and Leccy to life on social platforms. I also devised “The Estimation Game”, which could be played via Facebook, bringing home the farcical nature of bill guesswork and shot in a real supermarket.
On the Frankincense Trail
I commissioned myself to do this story for LIV (Volvo's customer magazine). Volvo wanted to show the capability of the Volvo XC70. I did this by creating a story which would involve a lot of sand driving through a desert – we took the XC70 to Oman in search of one of the most valuable substances in the world – frankincense. On the way, I learned a few words of Arabic and the art of sand driving (which is basically never to brake or stop). The wonderful photographs were taken by Andrew Shaylor, one of the best travel documentary photographers working today, and the pages were designed by Tony Peters.
