JCPenney
Chictopia, an agency commissioned by JCPenney, were about to do their first ever commercial. Four of them.
Chictopia was an agency that specialised in social media, working with influencers and an entirely different world to that of purposeful creative. JCPenney had come to them with a moderate budget, and Chictopia — an ambitious two women keen to make the most of it — had gone all out on a concept that spanned years, had multiple characters, a whole set of messages and scenes that doubled and tripled up on the message in one scene, while other scenes seemed from different spots entirely.
They were, as far as I could see, in trouble.
Graciously, they were willing and ready to collaborate. So I went to their offices and broke down their creative with them, pulling apart key beats, asking them to clarify the purpose for each scene, bit by bit unearthing the motivations and helping them find where they’d nailed it and where they’d misfired.
It was a deeply constructive, open-hearted process we all bought into. Out the other side we came away with a more realistic set of creative demands, spread out across 4 commercials instead of one.
Managing again to pull a big scale miracle out of a modest budget, the spots were glossy, heartfelt and sweet. Blanket, the hero spot, remains as one of my favourite ever works. Tender, evenly paced, textural and true (see the final script for that here)
Produced by The Wild Factory