Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/87274
OAKLEY Piston (www.pistonagency.com), with loca- tions in San Diego, New York and Chicago, is an eight-year-old digital agency offering creative, production and analytic services to clients. The company previously operated under the name MEA Digital, and executive creative director David Schafer says they are hoping to continue to grow into a modern and influential agency that helps clients solve a multitude of problems. The company recently used its range of strengths in creating a new online effort for Oakley, the maker of high-end sunglasses and athletic wear. "Oakley is a prime example of what I am seeing as a modern agency relation- ship," says Schafer. "Oakley has an internal agency, and they create their assets. We run all of Oakley digitally, from their e-commerce platform to the campaign." The company commissioned drawings of Oakley athletes by several famous comic artists. The company's print ads encouraged readers to text their favorite athlete's name, which would then lead them to a branded microsite. "We basically cut out all the imagery and allowed people to create their own comic book," he says of Piston's work. "They could enter their own words and then share that with a friend." Oakley approached Piston with the idea of getting the drawings commissioned. Above all, they were looking to offer visitors an engaging experience. A small button in the corner of the site allowed visitors to shop if they were inspired by what the athlete was wearing. Success, he says, was defined by the time visitors spent on the microsite. "If some peo- ple spend five minutes doing something as opposed to a :30 commercial, everyone is feeling good. If they clicked through and bought, that was a secondary goal." rial bays and a team of motion graphics anima- tors using Adobe tools. Audio finishing is sent out of house. Budgets, says Dinsmoor, are always a chal- what people are calling a creative or brand agency, and then there is an agency like ours, that's mostly just digital. Digital agencies are perceived as not having brand skills, and like- wise, the brand agencies are perceived as not having expertise in the digital world to create all these different things and make them work." Piston, he says, wants to help clients deal with the large number of challenges they face. "If we grow the right way, we can come in and become an influential agency for senior people." ASSASIN'S CREED III, FEDEX Hollywood's Modus Operandi (www. modop.net) has worked with many clients in an online capacity. The creative digital agency recently completed work on a series of videos designed to promote Ubisoft's new Assasin's Creed III videogame, which is set for a late October release. COO Miles Dinsmoor says the company's work with clients such as Nike Golf, FedEx, Sam Adams, Pillsbury and Foot Locker has given them experience in many different online scenarios. The Ubisoft project, he says, was a way "to bring people deeper into the story and give them more content to chew on." The Assasin's Creed III project was con- ceived as a half-hour documentary, but released serially on a weekly basis. The first look was through Ubisoft partnerships, and with vendors like Game Stop. It was then posted on the Ubisoft Website and spread to YouTube and beyond. This new title takes place during the Ameri- can Revolution, and the series of six-minute videos combine game footage with behind- the-scenes, making-of elements. "We went out and interviewed experts on the period and gave additional context about what really hap- pened during the American Revolution and how the game uses that period and the themes of America," he explains. "We produced a long- form piece of content but then distributed it weekly so people got into it and followed it almost like a show. " Schafer has been a digital creative director for a long time, but still considers himself a student when it comes to online marketing. He's also noticed a digital divide between tradi- tional agencies and modern agencies. "There's Modus Operandi worked closely with Ubi- soft, from concept through completion. The studio wrote, directed and edited all of the video footage using its in-house resources, which includes four Apple Final Cut Pro edito- www.postmagazine.com Modus Operandi helped Ubisoft promote the new Assasin's Creed III by shooting a six-video series. lenge, but Modus Operandi takes pride in finding ways to stretch them. "The unique chal- lenges of this [project] was that there were multiple location shoots that needed to be coordinated, and then the schedule. It all had to get done very quickly." The whole project — start to finish — took about two-and-a-half months, and this was while numerous other jobs were going on in- house. The studio also executed a mobile-spe- cific campaign for client FedEx, working with agency BBDO and Fluent Mobile, which devel- ops ad serving technology for mobile apps. The goal was to create a floating take-over ad on mobile sites and applications. While this is common for desktop experiences, Dinsmoor says it was ground breaking in the mobile space. The project features a banner ad that would appear and later be picked up and carried off the screen by a FedEx courier. "You see banner ads that take over a screen on the desktop, and that is usually running through Flash," Dinsmoor explains. "That is something we had to over- come to create the same type of effect." Modus Operandi shot the original video elements based on specs determined by Flu- ent Mobile. "We talked to Fluent and BBDO about running the ad using Fluent's ad serving technology, and everyone was on the same page. We conceived it, shot and edited it, and worked collaboratively with them to figure out the right animation approach to get that foot- age to play on a mobile site." According to Dinsmoor, each project Modus Operandi has worked on has had its own measure of success. In the case of the Assasin's Creed III campaign, there was imme- diate access to the number of views and visi- tor commentary, all of which, he says, seemed to be positive. "In the case of FedEx and working with a partner like Fluent Mobile, they are able to track and get the analytics as to how many times people have seen it and get the actual total number of impressions. I think that was a pretty high-frequency campaign, so it was seen by a lot of eyeballs." Dinsmoor says today's online campaigns require embed and share functionality almost standard. They also need to facilitate social conversation. "It is something that seems to be a mandate on anything that we create… In terms of videos or just experiences, that has become a foundational underpinning of Inter- net advertising." He also notes the importance of mobile components as opposed to desktop-only experiences. "Most financial analysts will tell you the same thing: the ubiquity of mobile as a platform is creating new usage trends. People are consuming more video than ever on Post • October 2012 31