Am I Making This Better or Making It Mine?
Extractions from Filmmakers In Advertising Podcast Episode 016 with McCann Creative Director Nick Allen
Today we are speaking with McCann Global Creative Director, Nick Allen, who was kind enough to join us (on the Filmmakers In Advertising Podcast) to share a little bit about his methodology, his process, and how Chevy and McCann created the most tear-jerking ad of the 2021 Holiday season.
Nick is the lead creative for Chevrolet’s global brand voice and supports other McCann offices around the world. Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, Commonwealth//McCann is an advertising agency founded in 2012 as a division of McCann Worldgroup and serves as the global advertising agency for the General Motors Chevrolet brand.
We reached out to Nick after seeing, and possibly getting teary-eyed at, Chevrolet’s 2021 Holiday ad: ‘Holiday Ride’ - A spot about a father, his daughter and his late wife’s classic 1966 Impala. It’s sad, inspiring, and it tugs right at the heart strings.
Based on a true story, GM ad-maker Commonwealth/McCann worked with Academy Award winners Tom Hooper, Claudio Miranda, and Rachel Portman “to tell the story of love, redemption, and restoration.”
Holiday Ride
Speakers - Codey Wilson, (Producer at CRY), Justin Rossbacher, (Director at CRY), Nick Allen, (Global Creative Director, McCann)
CODEY: Before we dive into the questions, I wanted to share why I reached out to you, and that was because of Holiday Ride, the Chevy spot from December. I'm sure you've heard plenty of these stories already, but I took my mother-in-law to see Spider-Man, and FYI we lost my father-in-law last year, and so we’re sitting in the theater and your commercial plays, and by the end I could hear the whole theater kind of mumbling and moving around. I knew they were feeling it, but I was thinking, “Well I don't wanna cry right now, I want to watch Spider-Man,” and I look over at my mother-in-law and she’s just streaming tears. So, if that's what you guys were going for, it was it was a home run.
NICK: Oh yeah. Thank you. I'm, really happy to be here. I wish I could take all the credit for it, but I can’t. I was one member of a great team that brought it to life and I’m really obviously very proud of it and the response has been overwhelming.
It's funny that you mentioned you didn't want to cry. I was literally sitting in the edit bay, watching this thing over, and every single time you would find a different moment in the film where you would start getting choked up, and I know what's gonna happen, I’ve seen it a thousand times already, and it still gets you. I think that's the that's the marker of a well told story. No matter how many times you see it or hear it, it still pulls that emotion out.
JUSTIN: I agree. Shawshank redemption gets me every time. No matter how many times I watch it. And finding Nemo, too!
NICK: Yeah, every time. So it's funny, Shawshank redemption is one of my favorite movies and it's actually the reason that I got rid of cable, because it would be a Saturday morning and you wake up and think you're gonna be productive that day and that you're gonna get a bunch of stuff done and then you turn on the TV for a minute and, oh, Shawshank redemption's on. Two hours later You haven't moved. You're like, “Oh, I'll just watch this one scene. Maybe Andy and Red will come up with something different today. I don't know. I've gotta watch and find out exactly.”
CODEY: Nick, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself before we come back to, McCann and Holiday Ride?
NICK: Absolutely. Yeah, my name is Nick Allen. I'm a global creative director for McCann. I actually work for Chevrolet's dedicated agency, Commonwealth McCann, and Chevrolet is our only client. We have a very good relationship with Chevrolet and I've been at Commonwealth for five years now, which is, well I was just talking to my team and five years in one place makes me a dinosaur at the agency.
CODEY: It does?
JUSTIN: Why do you think that is?
NICK: I think it's one of those things where, you know, when you get to know a brand so intimately and you get to tell the story, their story, over and over, it starts to be repetitive, and you're like, “Oh I did the same project a year and a half ago,” and so you’re not learning, you're not growing. I think in the advertising industry as a whole there's a big talent retention problem.
One person can leave, or fight for a small raise, and they won't get it and they'll leave, and then they'll replace that person and give them (the replacement) that money, and more, because every agency is always trying to attract new people and not always trying to retain the people that they have. And I say that Commonwealth being the exception, of course.
JUSTIN: How does your Manchester United sponsorship work, if Chevy is your only client?
NICK: So that was actually why I took this particular role, It was when Chevrolet was the premier sponsor of Manchester United. We didn't renew our contract to be on the front of the shirt, so now I think we're just one of Manchester United sponsors.
Chevrolet, and this was before my time, was with Goodby Silverstein and they had an agency here in Detroit, and for whatever reason I think maybe Goodby resigned the account, or something, there’s always change. I think McCann went after it and started this dedicated unit to service Chevrolet's business, and obviously Chevrolet, needs that type of, commitment and deserves that type of commitment.
And that's why they created Commonwealth, so that they could have that kind of dedicated unit to bring spots like Holiday Ride to life in a month.
CODEY: Did you want to be a creative director? Was there a fork in the road that contributed to you getting into this position?
NICK: I've been incredibly lucky because I never really had a plan. I just always worked hard, always put myself in the right positions and took advantage of whatever opportunities came my way.
I went to school for advertising because there was a major where you only had to take one math class, so that was why I picked advertising. I was like, “Oh, I only have to take one math class? Perfect. I'm gonna go into advertising.” And then, I met some really great professors and great mentors a few years ahead of me and I followed their lead, and I thought, “Oh, this seems pretty cool.”
Then, I ended up getting a job as a traffic coordinator at Young and Rubicam here in Detroit and was just walking around the agency, seeing what everybody did. I saw that the creatives were having the most fun, and I was like, “Oh, who are these guys? What are they doing?”
And it eventually worked. I was doing my day job as a traffic coordinator and then at night putting together a spec book and shopping it around to the various ECDS that we had, and every single one was like, "Yeah, this book's garbage and we're never gonna be able to hire you.”
And then all of a sudden I started working on real briefs in my after hours again, and I was writing better than the freelance writers that they had. I had a great ACD that vouched for me when a junior writer position opened up.
I started in direct mail, the really glamorous side of advertising… And I saw that digital was becoming a thing. So I went back to school to for web design of all things just because I wanted to be able to speak the language and be exposed to that world and at least have a working knowledge of what I was talking about.
So that kind of exposed me to the digital world. Then, a digital writing position opened up and I did that for a few years, and then I was just suddenly leading people, leading teams and became an ACD. I was an ACD for a very long time in the resume world.
Then all of a sudden, I was leading teams here, but then also working on projects around the world and kind of leading and helping with those teams and fell into becoming a global creative director.
CODEY: I love that you were doing those briefs after hours. It sounds like you wouldn't be here If it wasn't for that initiative you put in on your own.
NICK: Yeah, absolutely. I remember I had an apartment in downtown Detroit. It was St. Patty's day weekend, and I’m doing fake photo shoots in my room of running shoes because I'm making fake campaigns while the St. Patty's day parade is going on outside my door.
And that was to put together that junior book that I took to that ECD who basically said, “Thanks for trying.” But then, I was able to make connections within the creative department and kind of work on these briefs on the side.
But yeah, having that kind of dedication and, doing this stuff after hours, when, I was 22, 23, and all my friends are out partying and having a good time and I'm writing advertisements, I was lucky that it worked and I think I was in the right place at the right time.
CODEY: So most of our audience are filmmakers who own their own production companies or work for a production company. But, I would say most, unless they're with a top-tier company such as Anonymous Content, or are at another large company's level, a lot of your process is still foreign to them because until you're working at that level, it’s a bit of a mystery. So, I'd love to learn a little bit about your process.
NICK: I think that, for your listeners, the thing about whether its big budget or small budget is, (small company or large company), a bad idea is still gonna be a bad idea, no matter how much money you throw at it, and it’s really, whether it is that kind of small mom and pop, 15-second spot, or a multimillion-dollar 60-second Super Bowl spot, it will take the same, craft, care, and creativity for all of them, regardless of the scale of the project.
You can't just throw a bunch of money at it and hope the problem goes away, because whether it’s the greatest directors in the world, the greatest writers in the world, the greatest DPs in the world if it's a bad idea, it's still gonna be a bad idea once it hits the market.
On the topic of advertising budgets seemingly going down.
NICK: To use an analogy about building houses - Clients are expected to build a lot more houses now, and before it was only TV, radio, print, etc. Now, the same amount of budget has to be spread across so many different platforms and mediums that there's just not as much to go around.
We're probably just gonna keep being haunted by needing to know every new thing and technology that comes out while also being great writers. I see it in the agency world, where people will have incredible Photoshop skills, but they can't concept, they don't understand what an idea is, but if you give them an idea, they can make it beautiful.
And it really is finding what people are good at, leveraging those talents, and not being afraid to be the dumbest person in the room. When I talk to a director, I hardly know anything about what they do, but I approach it from a standpoint of - ‘He's the director, he's the filmmaker, I’m just I'm the lowly writer or creative director leveraging their strengths to bring the idea to life,’ but it really does start with that idea and that concept.
JUSTIN: How big was the production for the Holiday Ride spot? How many days was the shoot?
NICK: It was a three day shoot. We shot outside LA at big sky ranch, which a lot of other, not only commercials but movies have been filmed out there as well. All the casting was done remotely, which is which is interesting but not nearly as fun as casting used to be.
You used to get to sit in a room and you would be with your director and you would at least do callbacks in person and actually be able to be there and you could whisper to your director and have that conversation, and now the casting process is just links. It's all recorded videos and it's cumbersome. …And I realize I've digressed from the original question.
CODEY: I was gonna ask about that stuff, too. You mentioned this project airing within one to two months after you got started, right?
NICK: Yeah, I think we got briefed around October 30… It was right before Halloween because I remember it was over Halloween weekend that we were working on it.
JUSTIN: And when you say brief, is this like, “Chevy wants to do a spot. Make it heart-wrenching, go to town?”
CODEY: Yeah, I am curious to know what Chevy's intentions are when they show up. Do they walk in the room and say, guys, we want people crying before their movie or…
NICK: Yeah. They all start a little bit differently, sometimes with different objectives.
So we'll get a brief and it can be, “We need to sell more of these gizmos,” so that's the goal. Or, “Hey, we're gonna sell these gizmos,” or it's, “Hey, we had these gizmos last year and they aren't working anymore and we wanna remind people that we have these other gizmos that are good.” So then you're coming up with ideas for that.
Or sometimes it'll be, “Hey, we bought, a 30-second spot. We need something to fill it. You tell us what we should do.” In the case of Holiday ride, the brief was very simple. It was, “We wanna make a heartfelt, happy, holiday spot from Chevrolet.” That was it.
JUSTIN: Wow. Is that a golden platter to a creative director? Or, what are your favorite types of briefs to get?
NICK: It’s really funny. Sometimes having a smaller sandbox is better because you can wrap your head or head around it, “Okay, this is the immediate problem I need to solve.” Whereas something like as big as, “Hey, we need a heartfelt message from, Chevrolet,” you're just like, Wow. That could be anything, so you don't even really know, where to start.
Personally, I like focused problems. I like to think of myself as a problem solver. So it's a lot easier when you have a clear problem and you're like, okay, this is what I have to attack.
This was probably, hopefully not, but, a once in a career opportunity, which was really great to be a part of.
CODEY: So let's say you've gotten the brief, when are you ready to go back to them on that first round and say, “Here are some ideas.” How many ideas do you present when you go back on that first round?
NICK: There are no hard and fast rules, and you could talk to another creative director and they're gonna say, yeah, we only bring three things, and then somebody else might say, oh, we only bring one and it’s, “Hey, this is it. If you want it great, If not, we'll come back with more.”
I personally think the three to five range is pretty good. I think with anything more you start watering it down and ideas kind of start blending and crossing over. So, I think three to five I think is a good number.
JUSTIN: That makes sense.
CODEY: That’s good. Justin, think, I think we're gonna learn from that. I think once or twice, we've had a few blenders in pitches and we realized it after the client blended them for us.
JUSTIN: That definitely happened. We’ve had clients combine ideas that were too similar before.
CODEY: With Holiday Ride, did you guys have it on the first round?
NICK: Yeah. There were two that played in the same world that approached it differently, but it was a story of loss and a story of redemption, but I think Holiday Ride was a clear favorite out of the gate.
CODEY: So before you and your team even went to present, did you feel like Holiday Ride was the one?
NICK: Yeah. When you come across a story like that and a script like that, you know, and you just hope that everyone else sees it the way that you do and recognizes when you have magic in a bottle. Sometimes you don't always notice, and to our clients great credit, they recognized it and gave us the leeway to pull it off.
And my boss, when we started having director calls, he and I loved it. He was just like, “Your job is to not let us mess this up,” because agencies, we can be agencies, clients can be clients, and really, we wanted to bring this thing to life in the most beautiful, purposeful, way. And our director did a wonderful job.
JUSTIN: So once they green light it, then that's when the director list comes in, that’s you guys are making calls to and trying to put it together?
NICK: Yeah so typically we sell the spot, or we sell the project, and then our producers, our production department, or agency producers, they'll usually they'll reach out to reps and send the project over and then the reps will come back to us with a list or recommendation and typically our producers have an idea of the ballpark budget that they're working with.
And then that list will be put together of people that are interested or that we can afford and are available. Then, we look at their reels, look at their resumes, and we're like, “Okay, let's have a call. Director one, two, and director five, those are the three that we think are gonna be available and affordable,” and their reel matches what it is that we're trying to do.
And then based on the treatment, on the call, a lot of times, you can tell when someone's just phoning it in. I've had directors where they don't even know their own treatment because somebody else put it together and you ask them a question about something in there and they don't even know what it was in there. It's like anything, you wanna work with people that are as passionate about the project as you are, because we're very fortunate to get to do what we do, but it's very hard, and it's very stressful. You want somebody that's in the boat with you and in the fight with you.
Based on the quality of the call, their interest in their pre-pro, in the project, their point of view on the treatment, you sometimes think, “Oh wow, this director just saw something that we didn't even see,” and a lot of times they'll bring in new ideas, different aspects, or different components of the project, so that sort of puts them above the other directors.
JUSTIN: So that's something a director shouldn't be afraid of doing, is to actually add to the spot and the treatment.
NICK: Absolutely. For me personally yeah, we might not use it, but I wanna see that they're trying to make it better and not necessarily just make it their own. They’re staying true to the original concept and to the original idea, but they're figuring out ways to do it better, or to tell it on a deeper, more emotional level.
CODEY: And the director of this one was Tom Hooper, right? The director who did The King’s Speech? That’s a serious director.
NICK: Oh yeah. It was unbelievable just watching him work and having calls with him and every decision I was just like, he has more Oscars than I do, so I'm gonna go with him on this one.
CODEY: I’m curious when you say unbelievable, is this because of star power or because you appreciated the way that he worked?
NICK: With Tom specifically, when I say wonderful, of course there's a little bit of star power, but he was so approachable and he had a clear vision. That was apparent from the beginning, how he wanted to tell this story and how he wanted to bring it to life. But, despite his numerous accolades, he was so collaborative and open to talking and working through it and it really did feel like it was a partnership.
He got the script and he came back with his treatment, and the way he saw the story, the subtext that he found within the story, that we didn't even necessarily realize was there, it was just a really great experience.
He was great. He listened to all of our ideas. He talked us through them and worked with us on them, but when something clearly was going to upset the potential of the spot, he was very quick to not only stop it but then explain why.
CODEY: It sounds like he did it in a collaborative way, which I would assume doesn't make him appear egotistical at all, just prepared.
NICK: Yeah. He understood the story. He knew what we were trying to do probably better than, we did or I did, and it was great working with him.
CODEY: It sounds like the challenge for up and coming directors who want to be invited to your table is to get repped, if I'm understanding that correctly.
NICK: Yeah. Everything, for the big brands, comes through their reps. So we'll send the spot to whatever rep and then they're like, oh, I've got this person, and then that comes back to us, and then we decide from that point.
JUSTIN: I liked what you said earlier too, are they trying to make the spot better or are they just trying to insert their voice? I thought that was a very interesting distinction.
NICK: Yeah, and that's something that happens at a creative director level too. I might see somebody's idea or somebody's script and I might have done it differently, but their way is still valid.
So then I have to ask myself, okay, is this a piece of feedback or is this change? Is this making it better or is it just making it mine? And if the answer is the latter, then it's not the right thing to do.
CODEY: What’s a common misconception about the ad industry?
NICK: One of the big misconceptions is that it's very cutthroat and everybody's out to get everybody and I've found that to be completely false.
I approach everything from: Everybody wants everybody else to succeed, and wants everybody's ideas to be great, and wants everybody's projects to be great. I think if more people think that way, the better the advertising industry will be, the better the creative arts industry will be, everybody's hoping everybody succeeds.
JUSTIN: I love it.
CODEY: Me too. I appreciate you sharing that. Nick, thank you so much for doing this. We really appreciate you taking time out of your work week to record with us and talk to us about this stuff.
NICK: Yeah, it was a pleasure. Thank you for having me and hopefully your listeners get at least something good out of this.
JUSTIN: Thank you so much, Nick.
Check out the Filmmakers In Advertising Podcast to listen to this interview and stay up to date on all of the latest episodes.