Since 1942, the Ad Council has offered trusted advice and inspiring calls-to-action. In fact, they created the category of public service advertising, and their icons and slogans are woven into the very fabric of American culture. The Ad Council is where Smokey Bear lives. The Ad Council saw that “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” and reminded Americans that, “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.”
Today, they are working with the NHTSA on Child Car Safety.
Parents go to great lengths to ensure their children are safe and protected. But when it comes to car safety, they are letting their guard down and may be mistakenly trusting their routine. This strategy connects the boundless love a parent has for their child and empowers parents to apply that love by doing everything possible to ensure their child’s safety. When it comes to properly securing their child in the car, it’s their duty to keep them safe.
VIDEO CONCEPTS: Choose and elaborate upon 4 of the following 5 concepts, but know that you must cover all 4 applicable age groups. You may adapt the concepts to your vision, but keep the core intact, and remember to follow the current campaign's format of "If you love them enough to...".
- Concept 1: Merry go round...and round....and round (for the 0-2 year-old age group that uses Rear-Facing Seats)
- If you love them enough to ride the carousel 3 times in a row....(Dad looks green from motion sickness)
- Concept 2: Bed Time (for the 3-6 year-old age group that uses Forward-Facing Seats)
- Mom gently shuts the door to her children’s shared room. “Open!”, yells her boy. Mom opens the door. “NO, closed!”, yells her girl. This repeats. Mom lands on half open, starts to walk away. “WATER?”, yells son. “One more hug?”, yells girl.
If you love them enough to do whatever it takes for them to comfortably go to sleep...
- Concept 3: Happy Fun Time (for the 6-10 year-old age group that uses Booster Seats)
- 3 people in elevator. 2 of them discuss how epic some popular series was last night. 3rd person butts in, “Anyone see Happy Fun Time last night?” (Crickets)." If you love them enough to watch their favorite shows over yours...
- ***NOTE that we like this concept, but would prefer if a 6-10 year-old child was incorporated and not necessarily a retrospective parent memory.
- Concept 4: Midnight Shopper (for the 10-13 year-old age group that uses Seat Belts)
- We see a parent shopping; it’s clearly late. They ask employees for fabrics, other items. We see them struggling to sew something, consulting instructions. If you love them enough to make then a last-minute celery costume...
- Concept 5: Rule of Fun (Applicable to any age group)
- Kid plays mini-golf - however, bend the rules according to the skills of the age group. They scoot the ball toward the hole, pick it up and toss it in: a dragon's mouth, a windmill, a POND, etc.. The amused parent watches. If you love them enough to let the rules slide sometimes...
PLEASE CHECK OUT THESE REFERENCE VIDEOS FOR INSPIRATION ON MESSAGING FORMAT:
***Please Note that only U.S. Residents are eligible to submit for this project.***
Car crashes are a leading cause of death for children 1 to 14. Of those children killed, 35% were not in a car seat, booster seat, or seat belt. Many people improperly use car seats, or don’t know the correct restraint to use with their child. Ad Council's goal in producing their humorous ad campaign is to raise awareness about properly securing children with the right seat for their age, height, and weight. To do that, they've selected five video concepts in a previous project, all focused on parental heroism. There's one video concept for each of four age groups, along with a fifth that could work for any age group, and Ad Council needs your help using them to bring these videos to life in animated glory. Any form of animation is acceptable too - 2D, 3D, stop-motion, etc. - so the specific style is up to you. Each deliverable and age segment has an existing video concept that you can reference the Background / Additional Details.
DELIVERABLES: There are 18 total video assets, broken out as follows:
- For 0-2 year-olds who use Rear-Facing Seats (4 video assets)
- :30 broadcast cut (English & Spanish)
- :10 or :15 social cut (English & Spanish)
- For 3-6 year-olds who use Forward-Facing Seats (4 video assets)
- :30 broadcast cut (English & Spanish)
- :10 or :15 social cut (English & Spanish)
- For 6-10 year-old age group who use Booster Seats (4 video assets)
- :30 broadcast cut (English & Spanish)
- :10 or :15 social cut (English & Spanish)
- For 10-13 year-old age group who use Seat Belts (4 video assets)
- :30 broadcast cut (English & Spanish)
- :10 or :15 social cut (English & Spanish)
- Compilation Hero Video depicting all 4 of the age group videos (2 video assets)
TIMELINE: For the full project timeline please see the Assets section.
EXPOSURE:
TARGET AUDIENCE: Parents and caregivers of children 0 to 14 years old.
TONE:
- Concepts should build on the existing campaign platform (“Things You Do For Love”) to complement the core campaign.
- Use positive tone and approach.
- We may see children in situations that cause anxiety (sometimes real, sometimes metaphorical), but it is always implied that there is a solution. We don’t get too dark.
- Empower with knowledge they can understand and act on.
EXECUTIONAL MANDATORIES:
- Although each video targets a different age range and a corresponding car seat type, your animated videos should NOT depict children within car seats, and should avoid any scenarios involving cars. This is a consequence of regulatory guidelines.
- This is a life or death matter so never make light of the issue.
- Your pitch must outline videos that touch upon each of the four age ranges.
- You can use the same assets for English and Spanish, but the content must be relatable in both markets.
- Endcards will be provided to you by the client describing the age group and car safety solution. The endcard will be 5 seconds in length for broadcast spots and 3 seconds in length for social cuts.
- Social cuts must be optimized for a sound off environment and have a front-loaded message. Please describe your social cut solution in your pitch.
- If you need help with translation from English to Spanish, the sponsor has offered their translation capabilities
- Children are loved ones, not things (shouldn’t compare children to cargo/animals/etc.)
- Avoid any negative messaging that would allude to death or serious injury.
- Don't make any references to religion/religious figures (including "God" or “oh my god”)
- No language that could be considered racist/homophobic/misogynistic.
- No profanity or allusion to inappropriate behavior or action.
- No references to politics, or individual policymakers or elected officials.
OPEN BID:
- This is an open bid project, so you will get to set your own budget proposal within the $20,000-$30,000 range. The Sponsor is interested in seeing tiered pricing options, so please feel free to submit various versions of your pitch at budget, target, and reach price points within that price range.
- By participating in this open bid project, creators acknowledge that the Sponsor is under no obligation to greenlight a bid. Though most open bid projects on our platform do move forward with a greenlit bid, we will notify you in the event the Sponsor decides not to fund any bids via the project forum. Regardless of the result, all open bid submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by the Sponsor and the project team.
In order to be considered for this project, you must include the below materials in your pitch submission. For examples of effective pitches, check out this gallery.
- TEXT (REQUIRED): 500 characters or less synopsizing how you plan to approach and execute this video.
- LINKS (REQUIRED): To your previous video work. Please specify your role (producer, director, cinematography, etc.) and DO NOT INCLUDE LINKS TO YOUR SHOWREEL. Please link to individual videos.
- TREATMENT (REQUIRED): A detailed narrative description of what's going to happen in the video. If it's helpful to you, we've provided a treatment template, which you can find here.
- STYLE FRAME (REQUIRED): Upload a PDF style frame depicting what your style of animation will look like when fully completed
- BUDGET (REQUIRED): This is an open bid project, so you’ll get to set your overall budget proposal. You can download the budget template here. The Sponsor would like the producer to create 18 videos with a total cost of $20,000-$30,000.
- SCRIPT (Optional): This should include dialogue from the video you intend to create.
- STORYBOARDS (Optional): Additional concept art, storyboards, shot list, anything that helps get your point across. You can download the Tongal storyboard template here.
- PITCH VIDEO (Optional): This is your opportunity to be face-to-face with the Sponsor and show them what you're capable of. Consider submitting a pitch video in which you tell the Sponsor what they can expect should they choose your pitch. Also, test videos, animatics, etc. are welcome. For some examples of effective Pitch videos, check out this gallery. All Pitches will remain private until after the Sponsor gives creator(s) the green light to move forward.