Brand Storyteller & Creative Director Copy
SINK OR SWIM
A Branding Guide for Small Businesses
8. Think BIG. The CVB Story
One afternoon, I accompanied our newest sales representative to meet with the St. Joseph, Missouri, Convention and Visitors Bureau.
I asked, “What are you currently doing across all media?”
They had an existing print campaign called “Bring the Whole Gang!” Its brochure featured a group mug shot of outlaws and encouraged residents to organize get-togethers and seminars with help from the CVB.
My hometown, St. Joseph, Missouri, is proud to be the home of the Pony Express.
I pitched my idea.
“We’ll start with a Pony Express rider galloping across an open field. He dismounts and runs into a saloon, where he delivers a letter to a gang of outlaw gamblers. One of the bandits fires his pistol, and a bullet ricochets in comic fashion, knocking off one of the other outlaws’ hats. The spot ends with the bartender taking an old-fashioned flash-powder photograph, which morphs into the group shot from the existing brochure.”
The CVB manager was thrilled, but the new sales representative with me was awestruck and a bit overwhelmed.
“How are you going to do all that, Chris?” she laughed.
“Trust me,” I answered.
My niece took horseback-riding lessons and connected me with her instructor. Just like that, I had my Pony Express rider.
I contacted the curator of the Patee House Museum—the former headquarters of the Pony Express—to ask permission to borrow its old-time tavern room. That gave me the set for the outlaws’ card game.
I called a friend who owned the stables where my niece took riding lessons. That gave me my location for the Pony Express rider. With a little editing magic, I added graphics to the exterior of one of the buildings at the stables, and it became my saloon exterior.
Now, I needed to find my bartender.
Confession: I may have created this entire commercial so I could cast a man who bagged groceries at my neighborhood store. For years, I had thought he bore a striking resemblance to Ben Turpin—go ahead and Google him; I’ll wait—and I had always wanted to use him in a commercial.
I crossed the street from my house and tracked him down in the market. He was understandably suspicious when I approached. I handed him my card, but he remained skeptical. He didn’t understand why anybody would want him to appear in a commercial, but I persisted.
He agreed when he discovered it was a paid gig.
He really iced the cake and helped create the Old West feeling I wanted for the commercial.
All I had left to do was build the old-fashioned flash-powder camera. An afternoon in the studio with a cardboard box, some black paint, three 1-by-2s, and a piece of black cloth was all it took.
A pyrotechnics kit from my high school band days—which I had already used in several videos—was waiting for me in the studio closet with a full can of flash powder.
I booked a day for the shoot and invited some outlaws to a card game.
At some point, I asked, “Does anyone know where I can find a spittoon?”
One magically appeared. I’m pretty sure it belonged to the museum.
The shoot and edit went off without a hitch, and I earned the faith of our new sales representative in my ability to take a project from big idea to big production.
Thinking big doesn’t require unlimited resources. It requires believing in the idea strongly enough to find the resources it needs.
The finished ad is below.
The finished ad is below.