Michael Gramlow

Today we got to hear from Michael Gramlow, award winning Creative Director at Lollipop. Before this he was a Creative Director, Interactive at Dentsu Canada, a Creative Director at Henderson Bas, and lots more things, both here and in the United States. Michael has Nakane Teien Kenkyujo listed under his education on LinkedIn. As far as I can tell this has something to do with traditional Japanese painting?? Look him up on LinkedIn, follow him on Twitter @mgramlow, or find his portfolio on michaelgramlow.com.

Lollipop is a creative production company that works with agencies to produce digital experiences. As the industry has evolved, Michael sees three areas of opportunity for work, each requiring a unique passion and skill set. 1) Interactive Pure Play, which includes companies like Critical Mass, Organic and Blast Radius. 2) Integrated Ad Agencies like Taxi, DDP and BBDO. 3) Production Companies which incluce Lollipop, Pixel Pusher, Indus Blue and Fuel. So Lollipop's job is to execute an idea put forth to them by an ad agency. There work is mainly produced for American companies, as their representation is in New York City.


Pureblacksunshine.com was produced for Extreme Group, for a Canadian/Haitian based coffee company with a unique marketing angle. Visitors are invited to step into shadows of the underworld, chartering a flight to a mysterious island to undertake a business deal that simulates a 'movie like' drug deal. Players who keep their cool and make it past the imposing steel door guarding the entrance to a seemingly abandoned warehouse are tested to the limits as they come face to face with the dealer, his pure organic stash, and a gun-toting gang of hired thugs.

Shot in the basement of the Pure Black Sunshine processing plant in Toronto. Michael talked about the process of creating the narrative and building a style and mood for the shoot. This one must have been fun.

Part of a holiday campaign shot for TJX Brands. This is an interesting brand experience that allows the user to customize the background using googlemaps and send a christmas carol to a friend. You can also add a reindeer which they got from Greenscreen Animals.

Nice.

Produced with Dentsu, this is a site created to support the launch of the Legendary Biru campaign for Sapporo Beer. Lollipop designed and built the site, in addition to shooting the sage video. The site itself is centered on a character - the Sage - that is the keeper of the legend of Sapporo. He leads visitors on a 'treasure hunt' through the site where the goal is to collect a number of hidden scrolls. Some are easy to find and tell a brief story about the beer, while others are well hidden and require diligence to unlock. Those who reach the end of the journey are given a message tailored to the number of scrolls they’ve discovered, while those who manage to collect all 15 scrolls are entered to win a trip to Japan. This is a lot of fun and I love this commerical.

Besides showing us about the production side of the creative industry, Michael had some valuable advices. He really stressed that we'd need to pound the pavement hard and bug people, even if we think we're annoying them. People in the industry are simply really busy and will forget to respond to you even if they want to. Guess now is as good a time as any to get started.


Today was plaid day. Wonder if Michael noticed.