NYU's Red Carpet: New Program Pairs Movies, Marketing
Lights! Camera! Axe!
Axe? Yes, the Unilever deodorant and body spray is getting the Hollywood treatment this semester from M.B.A. and film students at New York University.
Called ProMotion Pictures, the NYU program melds the talents of M.B.A.s and graduate students in the film school to produce minimovies for marketers. Students from the Kanbar Institute of Film & Television provide most of the creative juice as screenwriters and directors, while M.B.A.s from the Stern School of Business fill the producer's shoes. The M.B.A.s ensure the production is completed on time and on budget, and they keep the creative talent mindful of the marketing strategy.
"We have to use our skills in project management, people management and cash management," says Danielle Bailey, a second-year M.B.A. student who brings experience in marketing, independent film production and movie financing to the Unilever project.
ProMotion Pictures is noteworthy because it exemplifies two business-school trends -- more real-world corporate experiences for M.B.A. students and alliances with other academic programs within the university.
"It's been an uphill battle to convince entertainment companies about the value of an M.B.A. degree, but this kind of practical student experience gets their attention," says first-year M.B.A. student Jonas Greenberg, executive producer for ProMotion Pictures and a former marketer at Twentieth Century Fox Television. "It's good for the film students, too, because they're exposed to the business side of projects that may seem like a necessary evil but that they'll have to deal with at the studios."
M.B.A.s at a few other business schools take courses in film and theater departments and perform consulting projects for media and entertainment companies. NYU's ProMotion Pictures is distinctive because of the close collaboration it encourages between business and film students on "branded entertainment" assignments.
ProMotion Pictures' client roster is A-list. Ford Motor's Volvo division came on board first for the launch of its V50 station wagon. Verizon Communications followed with three student-produced films, including the zany "Adventures of Modem Boy" about a child wired with a dial-up modem at birth who blossoms into a track star and nuclear physicist after he is connected to broadband technology. Unveiled at a gala premiere last year complete with red carpet, popcorn and candy, the Verizon films can be viewed online at
www.verizonbroadbandfilms.com. Next up after Unilever's Axe: a project for Heineken.
The Axe competition attracted 27 entries from student teams this winter, all vying for three $40,000 grants to produce a three- to seven-minute film. Each script was supposed to depict "the Axe effect," the brand's image as a scent that makes men irresistible to women, in a clever, sexy fashion -- without hyping the product. Some scripts didn't fit the brand profile; others seemed too much like a traditional commercial.
"We're trying to push the boundaries of branded entertainment and create engaging promotions that our 18-to-24-year-old target male will seek out," says Kevin George, vice president and general manager for Unilever deodorants. "The NYU students working together understand both business and creative filmmaking, a combination we don't find often enough in people. They have created scripts that fit the Axe sensibility and aren't clichés."
The winning scripts include "Behind the Eight Ball," a film noir about a detective's Axe-induced appeal to a femme fatale suspected of murder; "Axe Artisan," a special-effects-driven script in which a bumbling waiter at an art gallery comes under the influence of Axe and is spirited into paintings of beautiful women; and "Axe Team," an adventure tale told in music-video style about "a squad of paramilitary seduction professionals" who help the hero get the girl.
The students will have to stretch their $40,000 budget this spring to produce the elaborate special effects, calling in favors from their connections in the movie and advertising industries. "Our film noir is definitely ambitious for $40,000, but we're used to cutting corners in making student films," says Oskar Thor Axelsson, a film student who produced and directed television commercials in his native Iceland. "My challenge is to use my training in dramatic storytelling to create something people will stop and look at in this era of TiVo."
The film students don't feel that they are selling out by making a body spray the star of their movies. Quite the contrary -- they see it as an opportunity to break into the lucrative advertising world. "We're eventually going to make commercials, so we should start the process now," says Robert Pietri, the student directing the "Axe Artisan" film. "Most major filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee, have directed commercials." In fact, Mr. Lee, an alumnus and faculty member at NYU's film institute, is expected to critique the Axe scripts during the production process.
The student-produced films will receive wide exposure because Unilever plans to use them in various media that could include the Axe brand's Web site, video on demand, cellphones, movie theaters and a college-dormitory television network. The Axe project also might lead to job offers for some students. "We recruit students at NYU for marketing jobs already," Mr. George of Unilever says. "This could be a new way to spot talent."
电影与营销结伴进入MBA课堂
灯光！摄像！Axe！
Axe？是的。这款英国联合利华公司(Unilever PLC)生产的香体喷雾在本学期成了纽约大学(New York University)工商管理硕士(MBA)和电影学院学生片中的主角。
纽约大学的这项课程叫做ProMotion Pictures，主要是由MBA和电影学院的毕业生为营销者制作电影短片。来自纽约大学Kanbar Institute of Film & Television的学生作为编剧和导演提供了其中的大多数创意，而来自斯特恩商学院(Stern School of Business)的MBA则担任制片人。MBA要确保制作准时完成，开支控制在预算范围内，而且创意要同营销策略相吻合。
MBA二年级学员丹妮叶?贝利(Danielle Bailey)将她在营销、独立电影制作和电影融资方面的经验都带到了这个联合利华的项目中。她说：“我们需要运用项目管理、人事管理和现金管理方面的知识。”
ProMotion Pictures值得关注，因为它指出了商学院的两个趋势──MBA学员获得更多实际的公司工作经验和同大学内的其他课程相结合。
ProMotion Pictures的执行制片人、前Twentieth Century Fox Television的营销人员、一年级MBA学员乔纳斯?格林伯格(Jonas Greenberg)说，要让娱乐公司相信MBA学位的价值一直非常困难，但这种学生实践活动能够引起他们的注意。这也有利于电影学院的学生，因为他们能够从中体会到项目商业性的一面，尽管这看起来是难以回避的烦恼，但却是制片过程中必须面对的问题。
还有几所商学院的MBA学员也开设了电影和戏剧系的课程，并为媒体和娱乐公司开展了咨询项目。纽约大学的ProMotion Pictures之所以与众不同，是因为它鼓励了商学院和电影学院学生在品牌娱乐项目上的密切合作。
ProMotion Pictures的清单中都是一些鼎鼎大名的客户。福特汽车(Ford Motor)的沃尔沃(Volvo AB)部门首先登场，推出了V50旅行轿车。Verizon Communications随后推出了三部由学生制作的影片，其中包括滑稽的“调制解调器男孩历险记”(Adventures of Modem Boy)。Verizon的这些电影是去年推出的，能够在
www.verizonbroadbandfilms.com上看到。排在联合利华Axe之后的是喜力公司(Heineken)的项目。
共有来自各学生组织的27个小组角逐今年冬季的Axe竞赛，争夺3个40,000美元的资助，拍摄一部3-7分钟的影片。所有脚本都应描绘出“Axe效应”──以智慧、性感的方式反映出男性吸引女性的香芬剂这一品牌形象，同时不能夸耀这个产品。一些脚本不符合品牌形象，还有一些则更像是传统的商业广告。
联合利华香体喷雾部门的副总裁兼总经理凯文?乔治(Kevin George)说：“我们在努力拓展品牌娱乐的边界，创造18-24岁的男性目标客户希望的那种营销方式。纽约大学的学生共同从商业和创意角度理解制片，这种搭档关系常常是我们难以找到的。他们构思出了符合Axe特点，同时也不陈腐老套的脚本。
获奖脚本包括：Behind the Eight Ball，讲述一位涉嫌谋杀的美女受到Axe的吸引而迷上一位侦探的故事；Axe Artisan，说的是一位装腔作势的侍者在Axe的影响下来到画廊中，并成为了美女绘画中的主角；Axe Team，一部采用音乐电视形式的冒险故事，讲述一队民兵帮助英雄赢得了少女的芳心。
这些学生需要在今年春季动用这40,000万美元的预算，拍摄出精致的特效，凭借与电影和广告业的联系赢得赞誉。曾在祖国冰岛制作和导演过电视商业广告的电影学院学生奥斯卡尔?阿克塞尔松(Oskar Thor Axelsson)说：“我们的影片场景相对于40,000美元的预算而言显得过于宏大了，但我们习惯了在拍摄学生电影时精打细算。我面临的挑战是用我受到的戏剧性方面的培训，拍摄一部在TiVo时代人们也能驻足观看的影片。”
电影学院的学生并没因为将香体喷雾作为影片中的明星而感觉背弃了自己的原则。恰恰相反，他们将此视为进入薪酬丰厚的广告业的机会。导演Axe Artisan的学生罗伯特?彼得里(Robert Pietri)说：“我们迟早要制作商业广告，因此应该从现在做起。许多著名导演，如马丁?斯科西斯(Martin Scorsese)和斯派克?李(Spike Lee)都曾导演过广告片。”实际上，预计斯派克?李将在制作过程中对Axe脚本提出意见。他是纽约大学的校友，目前还是该校电影学院的教学人员。
学生执导的电影将得到广泛的运用，因为联合利华计划将它们用到众多媒体中，其中包括Axe品牌得网站、视频点播、手机、影剧院和大学宿舍的电视网中。Axe项目可能还会给部分学生带来就业机会。联合利华的乔治说：“我们已经从纽约大学招聘营销职位，这是发现人才的一个新途径。”
