Douglas Sloan, director/founder of New York-based production company Icontent, recently directed Macy’s “American Icons” ad campaign. The 30-second TV spot and long-form film for Macy’s represent the retailer’s first foray into user-generated content. Earlier this year, Macy’s invited people to submit short video clips online depicting what they love most about America. Sloan crafted a diverse range of user-generated material into a coherent spot that showcases some of these slice-of-life vignettes.
In addition to the :30 ad and long-form film, Sloan and Icontent were also charged with creating a micro-site, social media outreach, creative, copy, music direction (including a custom arrangement of James Brown’s hit “Living In America”), editorial and finishing – all completed in just five weeks. Executive producer Tania Sethi headed up the digital efforts collecting all of the video submissions.
“The interesting part of the project was creating a shot list and seeing the interpretation from a multitude of shooters,” said Sloan. “The challenge for me was creating a spot that communicated the ‘by the people’ concept while simultaneously staying on-brand. It was a different, fresh thought process that was a lot of fun for everyone involved.”
