As part of a new product launch for Hood, we had the opportunity to shoot in a ~fancy-schmancy~ volume studio.
Hood Dairy
Out of my agency's 6 year AOR relationship with Hood, I was the account's lead designer for 5.5 years. While I primarily worked on their paid and organic social media campaigns, I also worked on their digital ad campaigns, website redesign, and deck design for yearly leadership summits.
COVID
The majority of the time I was working on the account was overshadowed by COVID. I'm talking EARLY days, full lockdown COVID. This brought many challenges, both creatively and logistically, but creativity thrives under constraint and through a lot of flexibility and DIY-ing, we continually delivered unique and interesting creative year after year.
Dairy for Days
Now for some impressive numbers…
Launched 25+ unique campaigns a year
756% increase in video engagements
306% increase in the number of people reached at similar cost per person
This concept revolved around our access to state of the art cameras and studio technology. Even though we were just shooting cottage cheese, we felt cool as hell using robotic arms and generated video backgrounds. AND our videos were 90% finalized straight out of camera.
Many a DIY shoot predated our top of the line experience shooting in a volume studio. I was not only an art director but also a food stylist, prop master, hand model, lighting assistant, production assistant, and god knows what else.
When we were tasked with creating a video to promote a new flavor launch–BUT without actually being able to shoot the package/product, and with zero existing assets–we were initially less than pleased. However, the final idea was simple and effective, and I gotta say I'm pretty pleased with myself to this day about it.
Some ideas just don't make it past the cutting room floor, and (in hindsight quite understandably) Superhero Sour Cream was one of those.
As a stunt for National Ice Cream Sandwich Day, Hood actually renamed the town of Sandwich, MA to Ice Cream Sandwich for a day. This incredibly fun graphic was born out of a lack of access to the Cape and a need for some kind of asset. Behold, video magic!!
If you've spent any time in New England in the summer, you know about Hoodsie cups. For years, the iconic wooden spoon was not included in packaging. However, Hood decided to give the spoon a joyful homecoming and re-introduce it to the product. To help promote the change, I designed rich media ad units, but instead of a simple full screen takeover, I created an interactive game experience.
Another immersive game ad unit I created, this time for Sour Cream. This unit is still playable here (compatible with desktop and mobile).
