I’ve you’ve got milk, had beef because it’s what’s for dinner, or marveled over eggs being both incredible AND edible, you understand what a government check-off program is.
The Paper and Packaging Board is unique in that it doesn’t sell a product, but an idea. Paper and paper-based packaging are there when it matters — when you need to be your most productive, effective, successful, and remembered.
I led creative across four pillars: productivity, packaging innovation, learning, and security. And our lean, mean production approach taught me something I never knew about myself: I’m great at interviewing people on camera. Watch your back, Barbara Walters (um, RIP).
When success matters, choose paper.
Through a video series entitled “Papering Your Way to the Top,” we showed how using paper is key to success no matter your field. Then we gave our audience the tools to take what they learned and use it.
First we traveled to Toronto to interview journalist David Sax, author of The Revenge of Analog, to learn how this evangelist for vinyl, printed books, and carrying a notebook uses paper to organize his ideas and structure his writing.
Then we headed to Heilbronn, Germany (which required flying into Stuttgart, birthplace of former Liverpool FC coach Jurgen Klopp #YNWA), to interview conductor Case Scaglione, who uses paper to annotate scores, record his evolving thinking on different pieces of music, and socialize his ideas throughout the orchestras he leads.
Social cut-downs were treated as :15-second training modules, condensing our main lessons into the simple reasons why anyone looking to achieve success should choose the right tools, always carry a notebook, and start on the page.
We turned inspiration into action
Not content to share the stories of successful paper users, we wrote an article about how even Silicon Valley turns to paper to generate its best thinking, and created a printable PDF with 52 original paper-centric brainstorming cards. Distributed throughout P+PB social channels, including an Instagram saved Story so our prompts would be always at-the-ready, we reinforced paper as an essential tool for strivers everywhere.
When learning matters, use paper.
You learn more effectively when you read paper books and take notes on paper. It’s science! But how could we inspire lifelong learners everywhere to take up the cause?
Mental Floss, formerly a magazine for people who slay at trivia night, was making a comeback to print. Thanks to a savvy media buy that recognized that paper, too, was making a comeback among students, our team had 15 juicy Mental Floss pages (and just one month!) to make an argument for paper. So we started with a manifesto on the inside cover, laid out our argument for why paper was the best way to read, write, and focus, and closed with an exhortation to join our revolution on the glossy back cover. We were also a finalist for Best Brand Publication – Print and/or Digital in Digiday’s 2020 Content Marketing Awards.
The depth of information contained in our articles, and striking visual style of our illustrations, made our Mental Floss work a treasure trove when it came to transitioning this campaign online.
When the experience matters, choose paper packaging.
You can’t choose what your purchases are packaged in, but you can learn to appreciate the thought that goes into every unboxing experience. Interviews with packaging designers and packaging facts served up with a mesmerizing visual device helped our audience understand what’s in a box.
For this series, we filmed on-site at a DUMBO loft filled with specialty foods, a high-end packaging design firm in Warren, RI, and an orthodontic manufacturer in McMinnville, OR.
We also kept the social channels nice and warm:
The most impressive thing about the work above? That we were able to create it while building two websites (“How Life Unfolds” for consumers, and “The Paper & Packaging Board” for the paper industry); refreshing broadcast, print, and animated vignettes starring the brand’s paper and box characters, Page and Casey (guess who’s who); creating real-time industry conference coverage; and concepting and producing too many social posts and original articles to count.
BTW, Casey’s the box.
You made it all the way down here?
Well then you must be the kind of committed paper superfan who deserves something I never in my career thought I’d make: a 20-minute documentary film about people from the paper industry. From pitching the initial “Paper Makers” concept, recruiting real people (including interviewing the inventor of the 12-can perforated dispenser box!), cutting it at the start of lockdown, and developing cut-downs and accompanying article content, this was an experience I will never forget.