Viewers first learned about the condition Connectile Dysfunction during the Super Bowl. In a thinly veiled parody of erectile dysfunction infomercials, the spot, created by Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, shows a business traveler at an airport sitting in a corner frustrated because he can’t connect to the Internet where and when he wants to due to inadequate broadband coverage. Luckily the cure is revealed: Sprint Mobile Broadband connection cards.
Now the brand is spreading the cure for “CD” even further with a customizable viral video and microsite curecd.com. The microsite introduces visitors to the Connectile Dysfunction Treatment Center, an online clinic where sufferers are greeted by vivacious Nurse Debbie. From there they can meet the center’s kooky, recovering patients by taking a tour of the facility.
In the Body Therapy section, we see patients getting physically prepared to reconnect with the world. In Group Therapy, CD sufferers are shown rebuilding their confidence destroyed by dysfunction. And in Isolation Therapy, visitors can watch patients cleanse their minds of CD’s ill effects.
Before going on a tour, visitors are given the opportunity to personalize and send a video to an aquaintance who might be suffering from CD. The recipient will receive a link to the video customized with personal information like, name, partner’s name, industry they work in and where they live. The sultry Dr. Cate McManus of the CDTC playfully hints at their difficulty getting and maintaining an Internet connection in a curiously intimate way.
“We wanted it to feel like the nurse knows all about the person to cut through the usual B to B clutter that’s out there,” said Dominic Goldman, senior VP/creative director at Publicis & Riney, pointing out that B to B doesn’t have to be boring.
It also doesn’t have to be about “ramming products down customers throats.”
“The interesting thing about the site is there is very little branding. Sprint is only mentioned when you click on the Find a Cure brochure and from there you can visit sprint.com,” explained Goldman. “We felt like that allowed the piece to feel less like advertising and a hard sell and to get under people’s radars and entertain them. We were very pleased Sprint agreed to this.”
Kudos go to the actors for the entertainment value of the project. Goldman pointed out that Nurse Debbie ad libs for six minutes while people are filling out the form to admit a friend. “She was fantastic. Those characters really help bring this to life. It could have been quite flat if they didn’t,” he said.
He also praised the work of copywriter Paul Mimiaga and writer/director Lee Einhorn of Mekanism, San Francisco. The company was tapped because it could handle all the technical issues of building the site as well as the directing responsibilities.
Goldman was excited about the level of casting and production values that brought this idea to life. “It was almost like a full TV shoot for a website,” he said.
Hollywood Leaders, Theater Owners Gather For CinemaCon At A Critical Time In The Industry
The future of theatrical moviegoing is at a critical moment. More people have been going to movie theaters this year than last, but the foundation is delicate. Annual domestic box-office grosses are still down about 20% from pre-pandemic levels, competition from streaming has only intensified and there are very real worries about what consolidation might mean for the release schedule as Warner Bros. stares down new ownership under Paramount. It's under these precarious conditions that Hollywood executives and movie theater owners are gathering this week in Las Vegas for CinemaCon, the annual exhibition and trade show made famous — or at least slightly less obscure — by Seth Rogen's show "The Studio" and his "old school Hollywood buffet." Real-life Hollywood executives have bigger concerns than throwing a party, however. A critical time for movie theaters As "F1" and "Top Gun: Maverick" producer Jerry Bruckheimer said last week in a statement: "We are at a defining point in the future of this industry." Bruckheimer, "Oppenheimer" producer Emma Thomas and "Sinners" director Ryan Coogler are teaming up to do something about it. Just last week, Cinema United, the trade organization representing some 60,000 movie screens in the U.S. and abroad, announced that Bruckheimer would be chairing their newly established filmmaker leadership council, with Thomas as vice chair and Coogler as one of its inaugural members. Other members include Brad Bird, Celine Song and Jason Reitman, who will advise on issues facing theatrical moviegoing, including windows, referring to the number of days films play exclusively in movie theaters before being available to buy or rent at home, and consolidation. "Our industry is strongest when it works together... Read More