Light Up Cincinnati TV
Concept 2: Welcome to the Fast Life
Dave’s alarm clock goes off and he jumps out of bed completely dressed and ready for the day in his Cincinnati Bell uniform. He heads downstairs and through the kitchen and living room. (Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa are doing yoga in Cincinnati Bell sweat suits and the kids are searching or watching stuff on their ipads/laptops. (Dog or fish looking at pics of their “prey/food”)) Dave goes outside and grabs an iPad and uses the newspaper app and sees that it says “GIGALIFE SWEEPING THROUGH CINCINNATI.” Smiling, he tosses the iPad to his neighbor and says “Give this a try!” So, the picture zooms out and as soon as the neighbor catches the iPad he turns into a Cincinnati Bell guy and his house is really bright and shiny too.
Concept 1: Gigabot
Gigabot is in the basement of the Cincinnati Bell building and flips a switch, which makes bright green waves of light and panels explode from the floor and carry him off screen. The light waves travel and take over the city as we pan out and see that it is heading towards suburban areas. The Cincinnati bell logo and stuff comes on the screen with the cityscape in the background and Gigabot falls and lands next to it or grabs it. VO says “Fioptics Gigalife-A faster Internet for a Brighter tomorrow. Cincinnati Bell. You. Entertained.”
Concept 3: Exhausted Parents
V1: A dad is holding and rocking his baby and trying to play a video of a lullaby on an iPad but the video keeps stopping to buffer, which makes the baby cry more. Someone knocks on the door and the dad opens it. The Cincinnati Bell installation guy hands him a Gigalife box. Next thing you see is the baby asleep with the video lullaby playing and green lights emanating from the iPad. Dad is asleep in a chair next to the baby. VO comes on “At speeds 100x faster than the average Internet, Gigalife can change your life. For the sleepless nights you have and the peaceful ones you deserve, trust Cincinnati Bell. Cincinnati Bell. You. Entertained.”
V2: A couple is trying to sing to their baby but they are both tone deaf. The mom whispers, “try the video” and the dad answers “Internet’s out again.” They look really tired. Product screen comes on with VO: “For the sleepless nights you have and the peaceful ones you deserve, trust Cincinnati Bell. With speeds 100x faster than average, you’ll never have to worry about your Internet connection again. Cincinnati Bell. You. Entertained.” Flash back to the baby sleeping in the crib with the lullaby video playing. The parents are asleep, slumped on the floor by the crib.
Concept 7: Super Installation Man
A Cincinnati Bell Gigalife installation man gets struck by lightning while at a traffic light. Suddenly he is transformed into Super Installation Man. He zooms through neighborhoods and fires “Gigalife lightning power” through some sort of weird futuristic gun thing (or maybe finger gun). Every house he hits starts shining and shimmering green with light streaming out the windows and some futuristic inventions pop up. VO: “Cincinnati Bell is bringing the bright ideas of the future into the present with Fioptics Gigalife. Coming in at a whopping 1 Gigabit, Gigalife is 100x faster than your average Internet. Try it for yourself and experience the 1 Gigabit speed first hand. Cincinnati Bell. You. Entertained.”
Concept 5: Potato Clock
A guy enter a room and his friend is trying to supercharge his wireless router with a potato clock so he is like “dude, what are you doing?” The laptop guy says “What? The tinfoil didn’t work!” Behind him is like 30 boxes of tin foil unwrapped and strewn about the room with extra discarded potato clocks. The friend says” It’s Internet, not 50s TV. Will you please just try Gigalife? Look, its 100x faster than average Internet, so it’s like 10,000,000x faster than whatever you’re doing.” The first guy says “alright, alright” and plugs in Gigalife and everything lights up and the Internet is super fast as he searches for potato recipes. The friend says, “told you so” and the laptop guy chucks a potato at him and smiles. VO comes on “Fioptics Gigalife, 10ox faster than your average Internet. Cincinnati Bell. You. Entertained.
Concept 4: Cheetah Baiting
Harry: Tell me again why there’s raw meat in your
backpack?
Bill: Someone has to test how fast Fioptics 1 Gig is. It’s
gotta at least be as fast as a cheetah. If I pull the
backpack behind the 4 wheeler, the meat will attract the cat.
(very matter of fact) (rev 4 wheeler)
Harry: So where do I come in?
Bill: Stream that video of me feeding marshmallows to wallabies.
Loser returns the cheetah to the zoo.
(Silence)
Bill: Ok go! (rev engine and click mouse)
Harry: (Click mouse again) Done! Fioptics 1Gig wins again! Wait, you
STOLE the cheetah?
Bill: Borrowed! (engine going and cats chasing) 80
VO: Fioptics 1 Gig Internet, faster than a cheetah chasing a meat
filled backpack. Some restrictions apply, see store for details.
Cincinnati Bell. You. Entertained. 104
Concept 6: Reluctant Friend
Fioptiguy: We’ve been trying to load this video FOREVER! (frustrated)
Reluctant: But it’s almost done I can tell! Just a little bit longer! (whiney)
Fioptiguy: I missed my date last night, YOU haven’t eaten since yesterday
and NEITHER OF US has showered since last Tuesday! It’s time
to get Fioptics 1 Gig Internet.
Reluctant: What’s that?
Fioptiguy: Just what I said! It’s 1 Gig Internet, only from Cincinnati Bell, and
it’s 100 times faster than average Internet.
Reluctant: Sign me up!...(completetion noise like a ping) Hey! The video
finally loaded! (Cat, I’m a kitty cat, and I dance dance dance and
I dance dance dance) 77
VO: Fioptics 1 Gig Internet. Load videos in an instant. Some restrictions
apply, see store for details. Cincinnati Bell. You. Entertained. 97
I refer to this as my first crack at "real advertising" because TV is what most people think of when you say advertising. About a month into my internship I got to try writing TV commercials for Cincinnati Bell. I thought this would be easy since I love making up and telling stories. I didn't realize how much strategy and thought had to go into these little 60 second stories, though, and that stumped me for a while. Once I understood the "format," for lack of a better word, the writing got easier, though I'm not entirely happy with my end result. I may go back and attempt these again at some point, but for now I'm just glad that from this I was able to grow as a copy writer.