Service Provided: Commercial Production + Corporate Videos
The always engaging Som Seif hosts this series of investment commercials on Air Canada broadcast with his brand of no-nonsense approach to investing. Entitled “Ask Som”, he unravels any and all financial confusion.
Purpose Investments approached us in October ’16 to discuss the next generation of Purpose commercials featuring Som Seif.
There were a number of challenges, the first being how you improve upon a very memorable and successful series of ads? How do you echo the architectural image theme of the website and most importantly, how do we emphasize Purpose’s intuitive investment philosophy? And there was a curveball – could we make a series of commercials that could be part of a larger video explaining the Purpose approach?
Back to the drawing board.
Producer Richard Quinlan and Creative Director Graeme Mathieson sat down with Purpose CEO Som Seif and marketing VP Dan Rubin for a number of brain-storming sessions. Everything was on the table. Should we turn to a cinematic or infographic approach to break from the past? Eventually we circled back to the idea of featuring Mr. Seif as the brand’s spokesperson. To continue the brand’s architectural theme we decided on a dramatic location, the Ivey Tangerine Leadership Centre at First Canadian Place.
To meet the central challenge of producing a series of commercials that could also function as a longer ‘explainer’ video, we hit upon the idea of a lecture with a series of chapters. Individual spots featured topics like Investment Discipline, Market Timing and how to beat the benchmark. Together (and cumulatively) the spots speak to the Purpose Advantage. They work as a group and individually.
Visually the spots are striking – and most importantly, the spots take advantage of one of the organizations biggest assets, CEO Som Seif’s ability to speak persuasively to a group of interested investors. Few people have that ability or comfort level.
Even though the spots are scripted, they have an authentic, off the cuff feeling, the result of a scripting process where past speeches by Mr. Seif were read, analyzed and re-edited.
A happy client and very positive feedback from viewers. Interestingly, the main window for the ads is before in-flight movies on Air Canada. The Ad’s recall rate is exceptionally high amongst its target audience.
We feel great work is the result of a thorough, open and honest working relationship with your client. Over the past five years we’ve developed a strong working relationship with Mr. Seif and Mr. Rubin, one where we can explore new ideas, crazy ideas and fresh approaches. The final ads are a direct result of the back & forth where a variety of ideas and approaches were explored, discarded, refined and polished.