ROSS KISMET MICRODRAMA

STRATEGY
Gen Z doesn't watch TV, so Gen Z doesn't watch ads. We made a show for social instead.

OVERVIEW
Our job was to communicate that Ross is a place where you find the unexpected, where your creativity shines. We made a microdrama about four people with four different points of view, and one pair of boots all destined for connection. We cast influencers with actual acting chops and made branded content that felt nothing like an ad, all with the aim of reaching an audience that's allergic to being sold.

EXECUTION
We made a pair of boots the connective tissue and shot the film in-store over a two day period. Making Ross the spine gave us permission to make the brand essentially invisible. We didn’t need product plugs because the entire effort was the product. Our focus could be entirely on the story. Our four main characters each got their own episode, told through their POV. We brought the story lines together for our final epilogue episode.

SOCIAL ROLLOUT
Starting with the trailer, we released one episode a day across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. 

MEET THE CAST
To behave like entertainment, we shot content of our cast, giving people a glimpse of their personalities and chemistry without having to oversell the brand.

PROCESS
To make a show you have to behave like a show. Shout out to my team Hannah Berling and David Mattera for their dedication, talent, and fully embracing a different approach. I ran the team like a TV production: we wrote a screenplay and made a show bible, complete with character breakdowns, and we did a table reading for rehearsal. We presented and sold through the package in those formats. Creating a bible helped us and our clients understand our characters and their motivations. If we know our character’s personalities, we understand how to write their dialogue, how they dress, how they move through the world, and what we want in casting. The original score done composed by Mean Machine was unique for each episode to capture the vibe of each character.

Role: Executive Creative Director, McKinney
Director: Emma Weinswig, Florence