Alex Burton

Writer/Director - Alex Burton

Music video parodies can be risky. The trick is to own the silliness. We tried to make a song that we’d actually like listening to, and write some pretty relatable lyrics about every day life. Millions of people ate it up. We also had some pretty smart strategy involved.

This was an original composition with a modular arrangement, allowing us to rearrange the verses of the song and the corresponding video to create multiple versions that were targeted at different demographics. This allowed us to serve audiences with content that led with the portion of the track that was most relevant to their interests. The result? We had massive organic reach, crushed all of our KPIs, and doubled the industry average in ad recall and purchase intent. After the video launch we kept the campaign going with a retargeted GIF campaign and geo-targeted snapchat filters,

Director - Evan Savitt

Producer - Alex Burton

A horror movie trailer for a carpet cleaner? It's not that weird. Hear me out. This was one of three different videos we created as part of a wider performance testing strategy to help the brand enter their first true ad campaign with a big splash. True to our hypothesis, The Stain movie trailer was far and away the high performer. Why? In order for this video to be impactful, audiences needed to be sucked in by the story. By going all in on horror movie and movie trailer tropes, audiences kept watching, not realizing it wasn't an actual movie until the very end. Simultaneously entertaining and impressing audiences, benchmark KPIs for view through rate and engagements were shattered. Go big or go home, you know?

Director - Alex Burton

Personal credit isn't the sexiest topic in the world, despite its vast importance to our everyday lives. In fact, our insights recognized that many people aren't aware of their credit scores because they're actually too afraid of what it might say. So we decided to prove to one woman that facing your fears isn't always as scary as it seems. 

Alex Burton - Director

Jordan Lietz - Producer

This was BuzzFeed's first foray into UGC-driven branded content. With some smart casting choices we were able to pull together a collection of funny, relatable, real-life moments that really resonated with pet owners of all kinds. With 15MM+ views, and hundreds of thousands of shares, likes, and comments, this video really over delivered on organic reach and engagement metrics, making it BuzzFeed’s most-shared branded video of 2016.

Director - Alex Burton

Samsung VR came to us looking for help promoting their holiday, “The Night Before…” an interactive pop-up installation, powered by virtual reality, that was making limited runs in New York City and Los Angeles.

Early on we decided not to show any of the VR video and keep the content focused on reactions and experiences in order to pique curiosity and create a sense of wonder around the possibilities of Samsung VR. We leveraged real people, and mixed in some extra star power from Anthony Anderson (Black-ish; Law & Order; Barbershop) and Justin Hartley (This is Us; Smallville, Passions). It proved to be a winning combination as the video smashed our performance benchmarks and drove a spike in social conversation around the brand.

Alex Burton - Producer

Jesse Burton - Director

This was one of a pair of spots produced for Interactive Brokers for Bloomberg TV. Always a company that marches to the beat of its own drummer, IB let us take things in a different direction. We built an office on a sound stage, and subsequently destroyed it to create the pre- and post-apocalyptic sets. Some incredible graphics work from Moving Picture Company tied it all together into what is guaranteed to be one of the most entertaining spots you'll see from financial services client this year. 

Producer - Alex Burton

Director - Evan Savitt

I produced this national broadcast spot for Stainmaster. The :15 and :30 versions are running nationwide on multiple broadcast networks.

Director - Alex Burton

Producer - Amanda Widoniak

How do you make taxes both entertaining and adorable? The solution was to tease relatable moments out of a handful of well-cast participants. In order to organically feature the tech without alienating audiences, we kept the content focused on the parent/child interactions, and never lost sight of the heart of the video. 

Director - Alex Burton

Producer - Cameron Fife

The folks at Denny's know how popular they are for after hours snacking, and decided to embrace their status by bringing their new pancake recipe to an actual late night party for this series of unscripted short form videos made specifically for Facebook. This was an actual party, with real people (not actors), who thought we were making an unscripted video about being a fun host. To enhance the authenticity, I tracked down the partiers the next day and got them to hand over all of the videos, pictures, and snaps they had taken throughout the course of the night. The videos racked up millions of plays and thousands of shares, likes, and comments. I learned two things on this shoot: I'm pretty good at throwing parties and never let a PA be the bartender.

Alex Burton - Producer

Jesse Burton - Director

One of two spots created for Interactive Brokers for Bloomberg TV, this one takes a humorous approach to sell viewers on IB's virtual trading platform. It's a classic combination of high production values and great storytelling. 

Director - Alex Burton

Producer - Amanda Widoniak

The challenge with this video was finding an angle and a look that would allow us to build on the success of "People Who Hate Cats Live With Cats For A Week," while still retaining its own identity. We took a more focused, doc-style approach, cast a lovably strange couple, and created a video that celebrates the unique weirdness of cat owners. 

Vlasic came looking to dip a toe into social at a time when they weren’t really running any advertising. It was super important to them to include key marketing language that made more sense for a TV commercial. So, we made a video about how bad they are at making commercials and generated a ton of positive brand sentiment - and sales - in key markets across the midwest.

Producer - Alex Burton

Director - Evan Beamer

When CHASE came to us about their new mobile consumer app, we knew that we wanted the simplicity of the product to be front and center. So we created this series of fun, short-form videos that demonstrates just how simple it truly is. Make no mistake, this production was a monster undertaking, and CHASE asked us to oversee not only our own production, but also their other agency partners that were working on related content. The result was an expertly managed process that not only produced a great suite of videos, carousels, and other ads, but our efficiency of production saved the CHASE team a ton of money. Turns out clients like it when you do that.

Every year Johnson & Johnson brings together hundreds of executives, recruiters, and MBA candidates for a few days of interviews, workshops, and informational sessions about J&J. When we put together an overhaul of their recruitment marketing efforts, not only did they get a visual refresh, but the language pivoted away from what J&J is as a company, and more towards how candidates can grow their ideal careers at Johnson & Johnson. This video - and the event it’s covering - continue to be centerpieces of J&J’s elite MBA recruitment marketing efforts.

Alex Burton - Producer and Director

These videos are part of a broader recruitment marketing campaign I put together for Novartis Oncology. The company has a long history of leadership in the diversity space, and it was important to highlight not just the traditional ways in which we think of diversity (gender, race, ethnicity, etc.), but also how Novartis employees lead diverse lives outside of the workplace. Whether they’re ambassadors of ethnic music, or dedicated parents, their diverse experiences play a role in the thought leadership that they bring to the office every day. And these well-rounded perspectives are what make Novartis great.

Alex Burton - Writer, Producer, and Director

When the Health & Safety team at Novartis asked me to create a communications piece that drew attention to workplace safety, it took a little convincing to take a lighthearted approach to a serious topic. Originally intended for a domestic US audience, the piece was so successful it was ultimately translated into a dozen different languages and pushed out globally to all Novartis locations and all 130,000+ employees.