Great glutes never killed anybody…Except, perhaps, in Verizon’s latest ad campaign.
The spot, a four-and-a-half minute short film directed by filmmaker Nia DaCosta, has all the hallmarks of a horror story: low lighting, a house in the woods, jump scares, knives, and ominous phone calls to—gasp—a landline.
The film, titled “Look Behind You,” also features Connor Storrie, whose performance—and glutes—in the HBO drama Heated Rivalry helped him rise to superstardom.
The project is a first in terms of brand film work for both Storrie and DaCosta, who’s known for her work directing movies including The Marvels and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. For Verizon, the campaign was designed to achieve something many brands strive for: mass reach by means of “living culture and conversation,” leveraging arguably one of the most talked-about assets in culture this year, CMO Leslie Berland told Marketing Brew.
“It was a bringing together of what we all know about Connor and all the things that he’s famous for, and the Verizon network,” Berland said. “There was a real spark of excitement around this idea of, ‘What if we bring together this famous butt with the…Verizon 5G network and create really fun, interesting, compelling storytelling around that?’”
Bottom line
The short film follows Storrie as he arrives at a cabin in the woods and tries to settle in for a stay, only to be repeatedly and spookily interrupted by blaring music, alarms, and unexpected phone calls. Spoiler alert (if such a thing can be said for an ad): He’s triggered them all by leaving his phone in his back pocket.
The ad’s conclusion, complete with harrowing horror-movie sound effects? “The best butt. The best network. There’s no escape.”
After the Verizon team landed on the idea, and secured the involvement of both Storrie and DaCosta, “we knew that we absolutely wanted to reach as many fans across as many platforms as possible,” Berland said. In addition to sheer reach, she said another goal was ongoing engagement, spurred on by a steady drip of content surrounding the release of the ad.
Storrie and DaCosta were first spotted together at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, sparking some initial buzz among fans, and Berland said she knew there would be a significant opportunity to keep the conversation going after the ad dropped with behind-the-scenes photos and outtakes.
To contribute to the making of the ad itself, Berland said her team spent time “listening and understanding what [Storrie’s] fandom has been tracking, what they’re excited about.” That manifested in some Easter eggs, including the setting; fans of Heated Rivalry might be reminded of the show’s iconic cottage, while horror movie buffs are more likely to connect it with classics like Scream.
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“Every single piece and part was in service of fans,” Berland said.
As of Monday, videos associated with the campaign had racked up about 35 million views and counting, Berland told us. Press coverage was another KPI, she said, and the campaign has been featured in outlets including Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Adweek, and Bloomberg. Berland has also been eyeing engagement (in the form of fan edits across social platforms like TikTok, for example) and sentiment, which she said has been “extraordinarily high.”
In terms of brand awareness, Verizon trails slightly behind T-Mobile and AT&T, according to Morning Consult, but it sits significantly above its next-closest competitor, Cricket Wireless.
Sell it
Once the Verizon team landed on the concept of a butt dial featuring “the best butt,” as Storrie’s rear-end is deservedly labeled in the ad, they approached his team, and then DaCosta’s, with the pitch, Berland said. Creative and strategy agency X&O also helped with the campaign, including the scriptwriting.
The key to landing the Hollywood talent, Berland said, was understanding Storrie and DaCosta’s backgrounds and work, then offering creative collaboration and flexibility.
“It is absolutely critical, when you are building something like this, to start there,” she said. “It was not Verizon coming in and saying, in a one-way format, ‘Please do this.’ It was very much starting from the opposite place…It wasn’t like we were trying to jam a promotion into a brand film.”
DaCosta “had a real vision” that she was able to execute, and “her involvement very much took this from a brand film to a film,” Berland said. For Storrie, the ad presented an opportunity to experiment with a new genre, if still sticking to familiar territory of close-ups from behind.
Collaborating with celebrities isn’t exactly new ground for Verizon, which has partnered with Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, and Lindsay Lohan in the past year alone. Instead, it’s a continuation of a strategy that Berland said she hopes puts Verizon “where audiences are.” For now, it seems, audiences just so happened to be standing behind Storrie—so that’s where Verizon went, too.
“I think that’s really where the future is going on this: cocreation, collaboration, to create something that all around is the best possible product,” Berland said.
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