INTERVIEW - Jon Sharpe
Creative Director, PLAY
Q. Give us
a background of your company.
Play is relatively new having only opened in
2005 but we’ve been doing pretty well.
We’ve won 24 loyal clients, hired 23 talented
staff and scooped awards from the likes of the
IAB, Campaign, Revolution and MSN so life is
good.
As an advertising agency, we believe that people
are interactive so brands should be too. Interactive
ideas are a powerful currency in today’s
cluttered environment so we develop innovative
campaigns that help brands engage consumers
across media including the Internet, Mobile
and Outdoor.
Q. What is
your approach to developing interactive media
solutions?
The challenge for today's brands is not so much
what they should say but rather what they should
invite consumers to do so our campaigns are
based on a dialogue rather than a monologue
with the client’s brief always dictating
which channel/s we use to provide the most effective
solution.
Q. What was
the creative inspiration for your winning project?
The whole campaign is based on the thought that
WAGs (the wives and girlfriends of England’s
footballers) will do anything to get one step
ahead so we focused on the theme of sabotage
in environments in which you would expect to
find the WAGs – gossiping, shopping etc.
Q. What technologies
were involved with making the project?
After shooting the footage on HD we then handled
the initial edit within an Avid DS system, overlaying
the footage with particle elements along which
various pieces of CGI which were aligned via
motion tracking from various key points applied
on the shoot. This was then taken into a grading
suite before finally compiling the movies into
FLV’s which were then imported into Flash.
Q. What were
the biggest challenges to making the project
and how did you overcome them?
Without a doubt, the biggest challenge was trying
to get giggly, hyperactive girls to act during
the shoot. If they weren’t squeezing our
design director’s bum they were gossiping
about who they’d seen out the night before.
But after a few jokes they were actually very
obliging and really threw themselves (literally)
into the roles.
Q. Did the
project achieve its goals?
The project certainly achieved its goals and
even surpassed expectations. During its first
week the campaign had a 44% interaction rate
compared to an industry average of 9.50% (Double
Click) which led to a significant increase in
viewership and strong brand awareness.
Q. Where
do you / your team turn for creative inspiration?
Anywhere and everywhere.
Q. What trends
do you see in interactive media production today?
The number of households with Broadband connection
is constantly increasing and more users are
being able to access rich media content online
which is great for us because it means that
video can now play a central role extending
the parameters in which we have to work and
essentially allowing us to be more creative.
Q. What are
some of your favorite websites?
It’s probably an obvious choice but nike+
has won us over this year. It just does exactly
what great websites do best: immersive, personalized
experiences that build powerful connections
between brands and consumers.
Q. What projects
are you working on now?
We’ve been working on an integrated campaign
for the Heinz brand Amoy to encourage young
busy couples to break their ready meal routine
and get creative with Amoy stir fry sauces.
We’ve also ventured to St Andrews in Scotland
for a shoot with the talented young golfer Paula
Creamer to complete the second phase of a campaign
for RBS and we’re currently psyching ourselves
up for a launch that we are devising for a new
wine client – there’s a chance that
we may be accused of breaking the law but that’s
all I can say for now so watch this space.
Q. What is
your overall feeling about the Horizon Interactive
Awards?
The creative that’s entered into the Horizon
Interactives is of a very high standard so to
receive an award is an outstanding achievement
for any agency.
Q. What does
it mean to win the Horizon Award?
As a relatively new company it is a real honour
for our work to be recognized by such a prestigious
awards body and impressive panel of industry
experts and it has motivated the team even further
to produce more great work for next year’s
awards.
