Ads & Curation - Why are they interrelated?

Culture-relevant

As marketers, we craft stories to connect with buyers, get some head-nodding or a ‘heck-yeah’ and the coveted likes, follow, share, repost and ultimately the buy.

Jim Beam, a beloved whiskey brand, now owned by Suntory Holdings formed in 1943 after prohibition ended, ran a TV ad in May 2024. The spot, aptly named “People are Good” focuses on humans and has little to do with the taste and attributes of the product. Instead it’s focused on the outcomes and yes, the value. In other words, bringing people together to experience life’s precious moments. As a viewer, it pulls you in, tugs at your heart-strings. It’s real and therefore believable.

If you follow Jim Beam’s previous spots, they embrace the word “good” and all the meanings you can put into that. Owning a word, especially one as broad as “good” is difficult and Jim Beam does an excellent job communicating their meaning behind it. Check out this former spot “Sweet Caroline” which is elegantly done and it’s fun to watch. You can’t help yourself but sing along.

Story-shaping

At the outset of making this “People are Good” spot, the agency explicitly asked to source footage that should look and feel like a composite of everyday American life with both high-quality and raw content intermixed. It was important that the substance of the scene and the subjects in them should dictate if it makes the cut. Above all it had to feel real therefore not from an original shoot using talent. In this spot, it should not look like stock footage.

The creative team had a script and storyboard they wanted to follow and so curation needed to dig deep and find those perfect gems that would go with the script to depict all the wonderful human emotions. From laughs, cries, snorts, roars and of course cheers. The beautifully crafted script was essentially the “word storyboard” and now the footage and images needed to bring that to life. This is a great example of when words and imagery come together and really bring home the message. It’s using the viewers ears and eyes together, drawing you in so you can’t not pay attention.

Finding the perfect gems

When curating it often feels like digging or as our executive creative director, Tom Christmann likes to say you need to become a digital anthropologist. Catch+Release curators know how to do this in a highly efficient way and to look very closely at all aspects of the still or video. If movement, light, shadows, number of models, geography, angles, fast-moving, even blurry are all parts of the brief, those are the guideposts to curating for the gold.

Other important considerations, And, not so obvious

When promoting an alcohol brand, you have to abide by specific laws such as no promotion of the use of alcohol with anyone under the age of 25. That means if the model in a piece of footage is under 25, it cannot be safely used. The trained curator will know what to look for and it’s especially important to save lots of assets as alternates, which is crucial when you’re on deadline and need to clear fast, for use.

Consider your brand’s customer demographics

Besides age limits, other demographics need consideration. Is this for a certain age range, gender or need to focus on the key activities a customer engages in. During this time, it was peak soccer season and World Cup Men’s Soccer was occurring with Copa America about to get started. Including the stadium cheers became highly relevant, based on what was happening in the culture during that time frame.

Besides sports you see footage from music, entertainment, BBQs, parties and outdoor adventures. The shots and footage are cleverly woven with the script to bring the entire story to life. It’s the combination expertly curated and crafted that brings joy and a smile to your face. I might add the last piece of footage with the suited man dancing and clapping is actually a Catch+Release employee on our curation team. This very joyful man is also part of the Catch+Release Creator Community and we encourage you to sign-up and get paid for doing what you love and in this case, participating in a joyful capture.

Curation. We recommend starting early.

In exactly one day you can find ideal assets. The trick is to invest the time and energy to uncover those unique, highly compelling visuals as it can really make or break a campaigns’ success.

The goal is to not rush this of course so we always encourage early curation and you can start with some searching in the Catch+Release Creator Community. This is just a small slice of the internet but it’s a great place to ideate and shape the outline of the story.

Next you want to cast a wider net and continue searching by adding additional or related topics to curate with C+R’s expert team. In this Jim Beam spot, an additional topic might be looking for “couples together doing outdoor fun activities” or “fans at stadiums elated when a goal is scored”. Self-curating as a team is a great way to collaborate and get started early. In this way you gather as you go which also can reshape the narrative and make it stronger.

Some images and footage will immediately ‘speak to you’ and some you may have to find alternatives and may require extra time and patience to get the real gold that will make your story stand out from the crowd. After all, your customers deserve it. Your team deserves it and loyal brand followers will pay dividends down the road.

Cheers to curation!