For Tool, Interactive Storytelling is About Talent over Tech
This US studio has made the transition from traditional production to a new and evolving form of narrative for brands with projects like 'David on Demand.'
For Tool, Interactive Storytelling is a Tale of Talent over Technology
After investing heavily in the transition from traditional production
to a new and evolving form of narrative, Tool of North America
is making major inroads with its digital projects.
By Anthony Vagnoni
At Tool of North America, they see the future of advertising, and they're busy figuring out how best to tell its stories.
The company is well aware that the advertising landscape is changing rapidly. Agencies and clients are now tapping into online resources, smartphone and tablet apps, and integration with Xbox and other videogame systems, adding to the basic requirements alongside standard TV, web and print elements that most campaigns call for.
For most production studios, it would be daunting, if not impossible, to develop such a multifaceted campaign with its various forms of deliverables. But, for the rapidly evolving Tool – born as a traditional live-action studio in the TV-centric universe of 1995 – meeting the needs of these sorts of projects has become standard practice. The studio has combined a deep understanding of agencies' needs with a growing expertise in the changing digital landscape, transforming itself into a company that can solve digital problems for brands and clients.
"We've staked our reputations on the execution of comprehensive, interactive campaigns that push the boundaries of storytelling," says Tool Digital Executive Producer Dustin Callif. "We've been able to establish ourselves as a go-to shop for experimental, innovative and challenging projects at the nexus of the digital and live-action realms, continually redefining what is possible in these new spaces.
"As the digital landscape sorts out, the studios that survive will be the ones that can create engaging content on multiple platforms in a variety of formats," Callif continues. "Tool can not only create that content, but we can tailor it to any existing or emerging medium, and we can do it from concept to completion, handling all aspects of any project."
The company has been quietly building a strong body of work to back up Callif's claims. One of the keys to its success in the digital arena, Callif adds, is its hybrid approach that includes a dedicated staff that executes and oversees its digital productions, combined with world-renowned interactive directors working across multiple disciplines.
An example is Carlos Ulloa, who specializes in interactive 3D projects that leverage the Flash-based design tools Papervision 3D and Unity3D. Another member of the Tool digital team is Grant Skinner, a highly regarded interactive developer whose work concentrates on Flash and HTML5.
The studio has expanded this crew over the last several months, adding an interactive design director and a director of digital production to complement its roster of interactive talent with senior-level in-house resources. This unique production model lets the studio cover a wide range of disciplines, representing some of the top talents in the digital world as interactive directors who execute advertising projects with the in-house team.
"We present our integrated interactive and live-action model to agencies with an emphasis on the talented directors who, along with our in-house team, can execute a digital and broadcast production from soup to nuts," says Tool Executive Producer Brian Latt. "We can handle the entire integrated production from live action to post production to digital production. For digital shops, we can shoot the live action and then hand it off to their internal teams for the post/digital production. That way, they're getting the best of both worlds. They get the creative vision of our directors, who understand the process of shooting nonlinear digital projects, and can tap our internal digital team, which collaborates with our directors and the digital shops on devising the best ways to approach the shoot and production for an interactive experience."
Over the past year, Tool has rolled out a series of groundbreaking digital projects, including the first-of-its-kind interactive "Touching Stories" iPad app, a unique series of four videos combining live-action and interactive content shot and created by Tool with technology partner Domani Studios. Users touch, shake, or turn the iPad screen, providing them with the sense that they are part of the unfolding story. Design writer Alissa Walker covered the project for Fast Company in a July 2010 story; check it out here.
Another highly successful Tool digital project was "David on Demand," the Cannes Lions Twitter/live-action social media experiment featuring Leo Burnett Creative Recruiter David Perez, who volunteered to make himself subservient to the every (legal) whim and demand of Twitter's masses in exchange for a trip to Cannes. Tool Director Jason Zada worked with Tool's in-house creative and technical team, bringing the unique online interactive experience to life.
Perez was a smash hit, as the project quickly turned him into a media star in his own right, with coverage of his zany antics showing up not just on industry trades but on almost all the major new outlets, all of which picked up the story of this intrepid guy doing the bidding of his Twitter following. (Click here to view a video case study that deconstructs the project.)
Tool is also carving out a special niche in the world of interactive website design. Recent efforts include crowdsourcing expert Aaron Koblin and Ulloa's custom built, comprehensive site supporting the Starbucks Love Project, which was created for BBDO. The website features included an interactive worldwide sing-along, a crowdsourced tapestry of user-generated drawings symbolizing love, and an interactive 3D CD. The site took home a Cannes Lion, two Webbys, and a New York Festivals Award.
Other sites included Jason Zada's colorful and entertaining augmented reality site for hotels.com and his Cargill salt site (check it out here; for a case study video, click here). The latter starred TV personality and award-winning author Alton Brown. Zada worked on every element of the Cargill project, designing the set, shooting all live-action footage and integrating it with the digital components. He also led the Tool team that constructed the website and worked with the agency creatives on scripts and story trees.
In the music video realm, Tool created an online interactive video for the Cold War Kids' single I've Seen Enough, which allowed fans to endlessly remix the video and switch individual performers mid-song. The video garnered every award in the industry, from a Webby to a Clio to an AICP award.
The knowledge base Tool has developed while working on these projects leaves it well-positioned to take agencies and brands into new forms of storytelling. From its origins as a production company that worked in linear bursts of fifteen or thirty seconds, the company has become a fluent and engaging creator and producer of interconnected digital narratives. "The key is really all about creative problem-solving," says Latt, "regardless of the screen or the delivery platform. At the end of the day, you judge a production company by its ability to solve problems for clients and deliver great content that gets results and achieves creative objectives. That's exactly what we're doing, only now it's taking a whole new and very exciting shape."
Published 20 January, 2011
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