Digital Commercial: "What's in Your Wallet?" Chip Cards

A digital commercial we created for a UK agency which spearheaded the rollout of chip cards.

Challenge

CapitalOne needed a digital commercial to help roll out its new chip-enabled credit card feature in the USA. It was challenging because the project involved multiple stakeholders: there may have been more than half a dozen end clients who came to watch. And the brief included shooting on location in New York, where anything can happen (and frequently does).

Solution

The end client worked with UK agency Vivid Lime/ICLP to create a great and effective story and script. But they needed help making the production happen in New York City. Harry Scotting from ICLP contacted us, and we worked with them to bring his agency's vision to life. We work well with international clients, because we keep them involved and informed throughout the process, bringing our on-the-ground experience while taking care to keep budget in mind along with creative brief. Harry and creative director Neil Barrie came to New York, and we shot the spot on location at a very cool electronics store called AC Gears in the village.

During filming, there was a situation across the street which involved several emergency vehicles. Everyone was OK, but their flashing lights interrupted filming: they were ruining our shots because of the bouncing red lights all over our set. We quickly came up with a solution: we moved our G&E truck to park directly between the emergency vehicles and the glass-windowed storefront, then we quickly threw up some visual barriers to block most of the light. Of course, this meant re-lighting the scene with additional lights. But we did it! We worked with Harry to determine what shots we could prune to stay on schedule yet deliver what the client expected. 

We had another situation in post-production, when the client radically changed their mind about the voiceover, yet insisted we still show a specific set of actions that had been timed out to the original script. Harry and we found a way around this that pleased the client while saving them the cost of an expensive reshoot.

Together we stayed on schedule and on budget, with a creative commercial the client liked.

Results

The agency and the client were impressed not only with what we achieved creatively and budget-wise, but also how we communicated and helped realize the vision despite the challenges on the day. The digital commercial was used as a centerpiece of their campaign.