Unique insights and actionable ideas from The Darnell Works Agency’s daily quest for greatness.
As announced by Director Michael Lippert, Executive Producers Stephen Barefoot and L. Taylor Arnold, and Producers Donna Campbell and Georgann Eubanks, “Sloane: A Jazz Singer” will debut on https://kinema.com on October 1st, where it will be available worldwide for video-on-demand, live, and virtual screenings. The film is also available for independent bookings.
Read moreAcclaimed feature documentary “Sloane: A Jazz Singer” set for October 1 release on Kinema
Together with my family, I am sending my warmest thoughts to many friends and colleagues worldwide, and feeling a lot of gratitude. I truly appreciate your help in sending daily clicks to https://GreaterGood.com, where our simple mouseclicks can benefit a number of vital causes each and every day.
If you made it through that gauntlet and had your concept run on the game last night, congrats.
On International Women’s Day, UN Women’s HeForShe movement issued a global call to leaders to join the newly formed HeForShe Alliance and help accelerate progress toward gender equality.
Launched by UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson, HeForShe is a solidarity movement and an international platform that engages men and boys as allies to support the work of the women’s movement and ultimately create an equal world for all.
Read moreBold Leaders Invited to Champion Gender Equality via UN Women’s HeForShe Global Initiative
Back in 2014, a story from Chris Trimble appeared in the Guardian proclaiming video as the future of content marketing, with this dire warning: “small businesses who ignore it do so at their peril.” Since then, video usage has continued to climb, and more and more people and businesses are trying to engage, entertain and educate us with their on-screen storytelling. Bearing this in mind, I’m very happy to share some of the videos I’ve collected working alongside some phenomenal storytellers.
For your reference and enlightenment, I have chosen 10 examples apiece for three well-established niches of corporate communications. While most of these videos were designed for business audiences, each is artistic enough to appeal to just about everyone.
Cutters Studios, Another Country on Facebook: “Check out all of this year’s Super Bowl spots, via the USA Today Admeter. At Cutters Studios, we’re beyond grateful and extremely thrilled to have been a part of numbers 1, 5, 13, 22, 27 and 38.” Read on: https://admeter.usatoday.com/results/2020
Read moreJeep, Bill Murray win USA TODAY’s Ad Meter with hilarious ‘Groundhog Day’ commercial
WeatherTech Returns to the Super Bowl: See the Spot
Read moreCutters helps salute American workers in Super Bowl 50
Generally speaking, on the best days, my job breaks down to a careful balance of art and craft. I’m hoping that this art/craft angle will be an interesting way to talk about some others I admire, and what we’re achieving together. Due to the uncommon success of our joint efforts, I’m choosing Kathryn Hempel and all her colleagues at Cutters Studios as the perfect subjects to explore a new variation on the classic case study, which I’m calling a “Best-Case Scenario.”
With love to director Brad Tucker for putting us all in contact, a lot went into making Cutters Studios a solid fit for me when we joined forces last year. The very first “Cutters” commercial editorial facility had opened in Chicago 34 years earlier, but by January 2014, the parent Cutters Studios group was also operating studios in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City and Tokyo… spanning all aspects of commercial production, post-production and creative development. Relatively soon after partnering up, I learned about the Always #likeagirl campaign that Kathryn was editing for Leo Burnett and Chelsea Pictures director Lauren Greenfield, and I had a chance to counsel everyone on all the ways we might use PR to promote the work and everyone behind it.
By then, I already had a very good sense of what sets Cutters apart:
Read moreBest-case scenario: Kathryn Hempel, Cutters Studios
Happy Friday, friends! I hope your work week is wrapping up nicely and that you’ll soon be able to enjoy some well-earned downtime, like a lot of people have been doing all week in Cannes (kidding, of course). Before ending this week, I wanted to share this video I’m embedding here from experience design agency Freestate, and a few more comments about the significance of winning a Cannes Lion award.
As you can hear first-hand from FreeState’s creative director Adam Scott in this video directed by Ilan Metev, FreeState won a Gold Design Lion at Cannes in 2013 after designing the world’s largest kinetic sculptures for Blackpool’s promenade. Under the heading of “Why Winning a Lion Matters – An Agency’s View,” Mr. Scott enlightens us while pedaling his bike around the city: “Sometimes it’s hard to find your way, and especially hard given it’s so darn crowded out here…. How do you stand out,” he asks.
And about the results of winning Cannes Lion Gold, he continues: “I would say people are far more interested in our approach, and that has to be a good thing. And well, if it can happen to us then it can certainly happen to you.”
Isn’t that lovely? Also, to me, it’s a perfect summation to what it means to win a Cannes Lion.
Meanwhile, the image I’m providing here offers a newer angle into this discussion. Taken hours ago