Grain Creates Web Commercial With McCann Relationship Marketing For Sprint; New Companys First Spot is Rare Example of Synergistic Web, Print & TV Campaign

Business Wire, Feb 20, 2001

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)

February 20, 2001-Grain, a design and production company specializing in creating commercials for the Internet, has completed its first project, a web commercial for Sprint developed by McCann Relationship Marketing.

The new web spot, directed by Grain Creative Director Alex Weil, is a rare example of synergy between web ads and TV and print campaigns. It also showcases the company's niche: "Grain is set up to enable clients to quickly and easily create web ads with the same spirit, texture and branding as television commercials," said Weil. The spot can be viewed at www.sprintbiz.com after a click on the Sprint Small Business Challenge link.

"As we were recently finishing our second TV spot with Charlex, we were speaking about Grain, their New Media launch," said MRM Group Creative Director Nancy Greenberg. "We loved the way Charlex branded the Sprint arrow as we moved it from print to TV, so it was a natural progression for Grain to take it to the web. All of us collaborated in building the arrow's integrity and character, which reflects the 'footprint' of the Sprint brand --authentic, approachable and direct. We knew Grain could translate the arrow while maintaining its integrity."

"We'd like to give credit to MRM and Alex Weil for influencing us to take our web presence to the next level by fully integrating the Sprint brand across all channels," said Sprint Business Strategic Communications Manager Esther Palomo-Meska. "Now we have a spot that fits perfectly with our existing campaign, as well as a blueprint for maintaining this synergy in the future. It was a great team effort by all parties."

"Internet advertising will be more than just the distant cousin of TV and printit's actually becoming an integral part of the creative process," said Frank Corkrum, MRM Creative Director.

MRM initially created a stand-alone print ad featuring a "Sprint Red"-colored arrow. One year ago, Creative Director Kathy Buist suggested developing the first TV spot along the same lines. "Sprint had a lot of faith in us to take it from print to TV. They needed a campaign that could be produced quickly, and we worked to adapt the arrow to deliver the message about Sprint lowering rates for small business in a vibrant and clear way," said Buist. "Grain's web spot matched the TV spot's impact. Clients will be looking for synergies like this."

Rapid progress from concept to execution was necessary. Grain delivered a 45-second animation-rich Flash file of less than 300k in less than 6 days that matched the style, flow, and "look and feel" of the television and print work. Weil credits Grain producer Rob Appelblatt's experience with web development with making the project sail smoothly.

Like the TV spot, the web spot is entirely animated and set to a walking bass score. The "star" is a constantly moving red arrow whose movements are accented with sound effects. The arrow swoops across the screen, bursts out of a spinning animated newspaper, swirls into a coiled phone cord, rings bells, makes 3D zooms to key Sprint messages and easily leads viewers to the order page.

The Grain team of Alex Weil and designers Erik Karasyk and Jeff Stevens worked to bring the red arrow alive and give it a distinct, playful personality. They created the spot in Flash 5 in combination with 3D Studio Max on high-powered NT systems. 3D Studio Max is a 3D program especially compatible with Internet animation. Karasyk, 23, and Stevens, 24, are graduates of the Savannah College of Art and Design. "These two young guys are part of the recent crop of artists whose technical abilities are intertwined with their artistic sensibility and design skills," said Weil.

When creating web ads, many designers will just transfer existing imagery and creative from print or TV ads onto the web, and the result is "lifeless and dull," according to Weil. "In this case 'techies' who don't understand advertising and branding wouldn't know how to retain the personality of the arrow character. The web is a distinctly different medium - it demands even more of a visual emphasis, as well as a more economical use of sound." One key difference between the Sprint TV spot and the web spot involves the voiceover, which is intrusive to users. The Grain team replaced it with two lines of text: one in red that is the "voice" of the arrow, and another in black which provides the messaging and explains the offer.

Working in Flash poses technical challenges to the utilization of motion and sound. "The biggest challenge was getting the flash file size down to 300k so it would work for the average dial-up web user while retaining the full creative impact," said Karasyk. "We used 3D Studio Max to create the swooping, in-depth motion of the arrow, and hand-optimized the images frame-by-frame. It's a lot of work, but this way we can make the motion perfect, create realistic effects, and save file size in every possible place."

"We were always focused on the fluidity of the animation pacing and editing, because we wanted it to play like it was on TV," said Stevens. "Flash pieces tend to drag in terms of momentum. Flash characters are also hard-edged, which works against realistic motion, so we used motion-blur effects to compensate. To get a life-like appearance for the arrow itself, we created a 2D pencil sketch and then traced it into Flash."