BRAND CONTENT FOR VANITY FAIR

To introduce the 2017 Lincoln Continental to the "creative elite" HNWI target audiences in the US, we extended our campaign called "That's Continental" across select Conde Nast publications. The program had two narrative goals: to introduce the car as a supporting character for the creatively inspire, and to convey the Continental notion that we go out into the world, we get inspired, and we bring it home.

For this project, I developed the creative brief for Conde Nast and presented it to their team, and we worked together to scout the ideal subjects. I worked to develop the interview format, and provided creative direction from the shot, through the edit, into the publication of the content on Conde Nast channels and in the client digital properties. Deliverables included the film, photography, written content, an interactive web unit, dynamic digital ad units, and unique social creative for various targeted audiences across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

THE STORY

We were delighted to have the opportunity to tell the story of director Barry Jenkins, who at the time of filming in early December 2016 was at the center of the Oscars speculation for his film Moonlight. (He would go on to win Best Picture.)

To make sense for both the audience and the brand, I developed the brief to tell a yet-unheard story about Jenkins and show his unique artistry and inspiration. I wanted to delve into his background and understand what shaped him as a filmmaker, the inspiration he took from different places and experiences in his life, and the way he brought it back to his craft in the making of Moonlight. We discussed his individual approach to making film, and shot the piece from a first-person perspective, with Jenkins addressing the camera directly, to convey a more warm, human tone and move away from the typical "talking head" format of documentary. To integrate the product, the new Lincoln Continental, Jenkins drove us from the neighborhood where he grew up in Liberty City, Miami, to the beach and the diner where he set some key scenes in Moonlight. 

A few key product features were shown, but it was important that the car take a supporting role to Jenkins' narrative, both for authenticity of the story and to create genuinely interesting content for audiences without the bait-and-switch feeling of a blatant product play in an entertainment space.

This was one of my favorite projects created with a media partner because I was able to showcase an important community, a brilliant creative mind, and get the client's product out to a new audience in an authentic yet compelling way.

PUBLISHING

This story was published as sponsored content on Vanity Fair online and in Vanity Fair social channels. We interviewed Jenkins a little further to develop extended content on the client platform, Lincoln Now, and created unique social posts that we targeted to film-loving audiences and conversations surrounding the Oscars. The result was that new audiences interested in Jenkins' story were subtly introduced to the Lincoln brand and its halo product, the Continental.