ARROW — HERE FOR THE HOW

Contribution:
Creative Direction
Story Concept
Shooting Boards
Design
2D Animation

Studio:
Sibling Rivalry

Job Title:
Creative Director

1/7

Unsung Heroes

Over the 18 months I spent working closely with Arrow, I saw firsthand how they genuinely take pride in being the unsung heroes, the behind-the-scenes players that help other companies succeed. That might explain why Arrow— a company founded more than 100 years ago as a small electronics store in Times Square—is now a global Fortune 500 company involved in everything from sending rockets into space to helping doctors treat patients.

It might also explain why you’ve probably never heard of them.

2/7

Here for the How

Arrow approached us to develop a 360° solution centered around a series of films that would convey their values and expertise, while elevating their brand image. After a thorough audit, we positioned our efforts around the phrase Here for the How, encapsulating Arrow’s no-nonsense philosophy of always working in service of their customer’s success. Credit for the phrase goes to the talented Vicki Lemont, who is wonderful to work with.

Using this slogan as a cornerstone, my job was to develop and lead eight brand films and a number of secondary projects. In the process, I helped establish the foundation for a cross-platform content-creation library.

3/7

From technical to personal

From the outset, I proposed that each film be told from the perspective of a different Arrow customer, in order to help make the films less abstract and more personal. Each film would feature a single protagonist meant to broadly represent a someone in a particular industry, who seems highly capable and is trying to achieve something new.

Once I came up with each protagonist and their backstory, I designed semi-stylized settings for each of them, so that we could shoot them efficiently on a soundstage and have full control over the intimacy and specificity of performance, as well as consistency in the overarching quality, color, and vibe.

4/7

The brand films:
Our launching point

The protagonist scenes we shot became the backbone of the films around which we built mixed-media sequences that feel energetic and intriguing. These sequences help paint a broader picture of who Arrow is and how they can help, but the key is that we always come back to the customer and their goals.

Phase 1

Anthem

:60

Engineering

:30

Cloud Services

:30

Supply Chain

:30

Phase 2

Industrial

:60

Medical

:30

Aerospace & Defense

:60

Transportation

:30

5/7

Visual ingredients:
story-driven, modular, elegant

From the start, we knew that the audiovisual content, we shot, animated, composed, and sourced for these films would become the building block for future communications of various kinds, from print ads, to in-person events, to training and sales videos, and even sections of Arrow’s website.

I wanted to ensure that this highly-modular, mixed-media approach not only felt coherent and sufficiently future-proof, but maintained an instantly palpable quality, like the simple elegance of a glass of water.

> graphic animations

> live action shoots

> story-driven cgi

> curated archival & stock footage

6/7

Campaign extensions

From print and digital ads, to conference signage and displays, to sales materials, to internal media, to designing and launching the Arrow Library, the modular content system we created was immediately put to use, even before some of the films were finished. The success of Phase 1 and our commitment to further elevate each subsequent assignment, helped us become a trusted creative partner for Arrow, resulting in a variety of other collaborations.

7/7

Putting the system to the test

Launching the Arrow Library

The first test of our content strategy was creating the internal launch film for the new Arrow Library, a central hub for up-to-date marketing materials, brand assets, handbooks, and other tools that Arrow employees can access from anywhere at any time.

Telling Sasha’s Story

This project was perhaps the biggest test of the visual language we had developed—and of our ability to do justice to a powerful, heart-wrenching true story in just 60 seconds. I was grateful for my early experience in documentary filmmaking.

The launch film was created primarily using elements from we’d developed as part of the asset library, allowing us to reduce production costs while maintaining our established quality standards.