TELUS OPTIK TV AND INTERNET

Critters, white space and Helvetica Neue.

I was part of TAXI Vancouver’s lead creative teams for TELUS Optik TV and internet. For 20+ years the iconic critters had been applied many ways, with many different mandates, but they still offered chances for fresh creative and smart solutions. We even influenced the future of the brand.

Problem, punchline product.

Two commercials structured to match TELUS’ ‘nasty clown’ ad. The second video is an unfinished draft, cancelled when the featured feature was deprioritized. (Poor ‘Kevin’s’ improvised line was never to be seen.)

Danny does demos.

Danny the TELUS technician was used to explain things critters can’t. Shown on TELUS Optik’s information channels and online.

In a single take, and with help from a choreographed props team, Danny demonstrates Optik on the Go (if by Go you mean “around your home WiFi” though I can’t recall why). A complimenting rich-media ad unit delivered the video in paid media.

Telus rearranged Optik TV’s channels. Danny showcased the benefits, and his boxers, to get ahead of the complaints.

TELUS left. This script went with them.

A while after leaving TAXI, TELUS had their new agency winterize this script. (If you find the video online, please send me a link!)

We have monkeys too.

In December 2012, photos were posted to Twitter of a monkey, wearing a coat, alone in a Toronto IKEA .

The internet went bananas.

I wrote a line, paired it with a TELUS image and sent it to our ECD. I knew she was with their SVP Marketing, who demanded her social team post it, immediately.

This was the first TELUS post reacting to social buzz (two months before Oreo’s Dunk in the dark). The post far-exceeded prior engagement stats. Complaints and negative comments were notably absent.

‘Cool jacket bro‘ was picked up by media and bloggers, and led to a new TELUS social media strategy.

10 years later Darwin is living the refuge life and reaction posts are common (if not overdone), but I’m still happy TELUS and their customers enjoyed the results of my goofing-off inspiration and initiative.

A TELUS campaign has to have legs, literally and figuratively.

It needs to deliver multiple messages—with consistent strategy, but without excessive repetition—across various media. And using existing animal photo and video assets. And there are rules for what these critters can and can’t do in their white world.

Make it clear, concise and charming. Have fun with it.

Ideas for non-traditional media and activations were presented with every campaign concept. Some of the examples below were produced, others are shared as comps.

Video-on-demand and PVR examples of Optik branded snacks, proposed for ‘sale’ at Save-on-Foods, another TAXI client.

Bathroom ads with lyric displays synced to songs on washroom speakers.

While on TELUS I oversaw two critter photo and video projects. Responsibilities included identifying image needs and opportunities, then presenting concepts and shot lists for client prioritization and approval. I art directed all stages, including post-production and retouching, ensuring every asset satisfied agency needs and TELUS’ aesthetic standards.

“More animal parts than in a hot dog.”

The red pandas we shot, in North Dakota in Winter, did not have the look TELUS hoped (thanks a lot, red panda instagram). Nor did they feel a short, ambitious shoot was reason to cooperate.

With scissors, tape, and very skilled retouchers, we created the required panda poses. Faces were styled in the current TELUS hyper-cute look, with expressions that could melt a heart in a Fargo cold-snap (and also sell cable and internet services).

The Otter Whisperer.

TELUS wanted computer-generated sea otters, and I was tasked to art direct. I share these, in spite of the project’s outcome, because of the experience and expertise gained.

Sea otters look slick under water, fluffy when dry, and like they use spiky hair gel when at the water line. We had to figure out water lines in the TELUS white world too.

Sea otters proved to be beyond the technology and timing available, and were retired shortly after their debut.

This project gave me the oddest praise of my career: “I’m so grateful you were the one on this. In any other hands….“.

And a really crummy nickname.