load rage

Load Rage Against the Machine

“So, how do you come up with that stuff?”

When I tell people I work in the creative department at an ad agency, that’s almost always the follow-up question. “Oh, so you’re kinda like Peggy Olson?” is a close second.

The answer isn’t Mad Men glamorous, but it is a lot of fun. Unless you have a serious case of writer’s block. Then it feels like getting hit by a bus with someone else’s ad on it and it’s way cooler/better/funnier and you should just give up.

But that rarely happens.

Here’s what I’ve experienced as a copywriter: creatives thrive on developing ideas for people and products we can get behind. The more we can relate, the more ideas we’ll come up with in a brainstorm session and the smoother the process is in bringing the final idea to life.

The Client

That proved to be great news for one of our latest clients, Vast Networks. The company’s product is a perfect solution to a problem we’ve all faced — slow internet connection.

[Cue “Psycho” music]

We’ve all been there. That spinning wheel is enough to make you throw your laptop out the window.

We needed to develop a campaign that made Vast stand out from the competition and established their network as fast and reliable for businesses.

Our Creative Process

In the initial creative brainstorm, we threw everything on the wall (minus the laptops). Motivational posters, cool animations, guy punching a computer – random things that are fast and reliable as a metaphor.

Hold on — back to “guy punching computer.” All of us agreed there was something relatable to that rage. We just needed a theme line to tie it all together.

The furious typing began: Something like “Road Rage,” but related to being able to connect and downlo-

Load Rage.

Eureka! “Load Rage” was like hitting the creative mother lode. And in one of those rare moments where the creative team, account team and client aligned, the idea was a go.

Then, we started the actual work (yes, creatives actually enjoy doing this for a living).

In our world, it’s sometimes called The Execution. Maybe it’s because all those other ideas died, but it’s where we take the sole survivor — in this case, “Load Rage” — and make it come to life via all the various mediums. Digital, broadcast, print, you name it.

What We Delivered

In the span of a few short weeks, we launched a brand new website to highlight all of the selling points (mobile-responsive too, of course).

We spent many, many hours Photoshopping to establish the gritty look and feel we wanted to capture on camera.

We perfected the font treatment (“scary, but not slasher-film”).

load rage

We wrote scripts that translated this very visual concept to radio.

We held a video and photo shoot featuring talent that highlighted all of the key audiences Vast aimed to reach and we filmed them in full-on Load Rage mode. That meant bats swinging and hands punching.

Two broken monitors (don’t worry, they were already going to e-waste) and several hours of post-production later, we were ready to launch the full campaign.

Once the ads were up and running, the calls came rushing in. Today, Vast Network is known as the ultimate fast and reliable connection for businesses across the Central Valley.

So if you’re looking for a fresh approach to your creative, call us. We’ll crush it (don’t worry, your monitors will be fine).

Katrina Riggs, Copywriter (Kinda Like Peggy Olson)