On Cannes: A New Kind of Storytelling in Ads

Susan Bonds and Alex Lieu never worked at an ad agency, yet they will take home one of advertising's most coveted awards, a Cyber Lions Grand Prix from the Cannes International Advertising Festival for "Year Zero" the immersive viral campaign they created for Trent Reznor and the band Nine Inch Nails.

Bonds is president and C.E.O. of 42 Entertainment; Lieu is chief creative officer of the marketing and entertainment firm. Based in Pasadena, California, 42 Entertainment began as a pioneer in alternate reality gaming. Now it's one of the most compelling stories at Cannes.

The firm specializes in experiential work. Its campaign for Nine Inch Nails, for example, was a coordinated online and offline effort that including scavenger hunts; cryptic, Orwellian messages on T-shirts; and thumb drives given out in concert arena bathrooms.

In addition, 42 Entertainment has created similar campaigns for Toyota, Microsoft, and other clients. Most recently, it developed the in-progress guerilla campaign for the upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight.

Portfolio.com spoke with them in Cannes the morning after their big win.

Portfolio.com: Nowhere in your bios is the word advertising even remotely mentioned. How did you end up here?

Susan Bonds: We're an entertainment company that does original content that brings people together through storytelling. The fact that we both spent time at Disney helped us a lot in that regard because at Disney the audience experience always comes first.

Portfolio.com: Your award is a Cyber Lion in the Viral genre, yet it has aspects of all three categories (Cyber Online and Websites); parsing it out like that seems confusing.

Alex Lieu: All interactive marketing is supposed to be viral. We're also entered in the Titanium Lions category (to be announced Saturday night). Even after 15 years the landscape of cyberspace marketing is changing so fast that people have a hard time benchmarking and finding value in it.

Susan Bonds: They're still trying to fit it into conventional advertising categories and media buys.

Portfolio.com: How is your creative process different than the traditional advertising approach?

Alex Lieu: We always start by observing what people are doing new on the web and then we take that and think of how to build a compelling connection through stories.

Susan Bonds: ARG [alternate reality gaming] is different because it brings together people who bring together your story across many platforms. Because it's so immersive the experience is much more memorable than simply watching a screen.

Portfolio.com: Based on the titles of some of the seminars here, storytelling in advertising seems to be making a comeback. But it's a very different kind of storytelling, isn't it?

Susan Bonds: We call it distributive storytelling or narrative. Rather than tell a linear story in a classic arc, we write the spine of a great story and then create the evidence as if it happened. Then the player collects that evidence and builds the story. Which is what we did with "Year Zero."

Alex Lieu: When they piece a story together the depth of engagement is phenomenal. We build the audience into the content. They own it.

Susan Bonds: We have a huge writing staff, from science fiction authors to TV writers to gaming specialists.

Alex Lieu: And unlike most agencies, we work very closely with the content creators, like Trent Reznor and [Batman director] Christopher Nolan.

Porfolio.com: How does this process fare with more traditional clients?

Susan Bonds: Fine. We just did something for Toyota Camry [iflookscouldkill.com]. Whatever we do is a holistic approach to connecting with consumers through storytelling.

Portfolio.com: What can you tell us about the work that's getting so much buzz for The Dark Knight.

Alex Lieu: Oh, we can't talk about something that's still in play.

Susan Bonds: Got to respect the fourth wall.

by James P. Othmer

For an interactive map of Cannes parties, click here.