COMA: AlmapBBDO & Getty Images

 

 

Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.

Hi. I’m Thom Bregantin, copywriter. This project had many steps of which I participated, since the conception of the idea, to the story, the script and the creation of the idea for the website.

 

Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about?

To showcase once again that the Getty Images collection offers endless possibilities, we created COMA: a Getty Images Original Series. It’s the very first show made 100% out of an image bank. In three episodes, COMA tells the story of David, a patient in a coma who doesn’t remember a thing about how he wound up there. If you watch it on the website, you can also have an immersive experience while watching the episodes.

 

 

Tell us about the details creative brief, what did it ask?

Year after year, the Getty Images campaigns showcase the incredible diversity of its stock. Our task was to sell that once again in a exciting, entertaining way, like never done before.

 

Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?

Well, entertainment is already an essential component of advertising, so we knew that it had to be something like that. And these days everyone is launching their own original series – Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube… So we thought, why can’t Getty Images launch an original show too?

 

 

Can you share with us any alternative ideas (if any) for this campaign? Why was this idea chosen?  

I can’t share with you any of the alternative ideas, but I think this idea got picked because both agency and client saw the potential of the story we wanted to tell from the beginning. I think everyone (including me) was excited and curious to see how far we could take the image bank and how this story would come to life.

 

What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development?

There were several challenges. Projects like “Nosferatu – The Non Silent Film” and “Endless Stories” set the bar really high for any Getty Images campaign that comes after that. So every year it gets harder and harder to do something that still impresses everyone about the quality of the service.

Put that aside, and you still have all the other challenges of creating a series with an image bank. First, we had to find a story that made sense being told with this specific cinematic language. That’s why the story of a patient in a coma with no memory and only images flashing inside his head seemed like the perfect story to tell.

Finally, once we made a decision on the story, we had to work really hard on the script to make the character really interesting, someone you would want to follow during the three episodes. That’s why we made him witty and sarcastic. And after that, another huge challenge was the research and the editing of the images we had to use. That part was really, really, really a lot of work.

 

What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?

And in all, the whole process was very fun. I really enjoyed that I got to work on the script, that was that best part to me. And we did it in a collaborative way – me, Pedro Corbett, Gustavo Tasselli and Israel Medeiros, all got to work together on that and I learned a lot from that exchange. We tried to make something that we would want to watch, so when it was finished, we felt really proud of it.

 

Where do you see this campaign going in the future?

I just hope people enjoy watching it. If they enjoy, then they’ll be impressed about how the show was made and understand how great is this image bank we are selling. Maybe this opens up a precedent for a platform for more original shows made by Getty Images. Maybe. Who knows?