Scott Rostohar Senior Copywriter, Brand Adve

ABOUT

Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson, a podcast by Dell Technologies, needed a new visual id and trailer video for social activation.

Dell's brand publishing team turned to 27thirteen, the internal creative agency for Dell marketing, to develop a consistent look and voice for Trailblazers posts across all social platforms. This concept would need to be applied activation opportunities like an #InternationalPodcastDay Twitter moment and a special episode of the podcast focused on the subject of Walter Isaacson's book Leonardo da Vinci. For roadshows, a concise trailer video was needed to convey the main theme of the show -- digital disruption in various industries -- for a wide listening audience.

27thirteen delivered a visual id centered around the use of Trailblazers' logo, a simple square outline, integrated into the foreground of active photography with bold overlaid text in the center. The agency also began producing animated GIFs with close-ups of some of the gadgets and tech referenced in the podcast.

For the trailer video, 27thirteen's pitch hit the mark for an optimistic slice-of-life vignette that poses the thesis in voice-over by Walter Isaacson: "One day you're going to be asked, 'What was it like being alive while the era of disruption was just beginning?'" We see a little girl flying a drone with a message to a friend, a teenager putting on a VR headset, and a pilot confidently working on his laptop while his plane is on autopilot. Walter asks, "Wouldn't you like to have a grand story to tell?" We pull back on a collage of images centered by the drone-flying girl to the title card "Disruption is full of unexpected stories," as Walter introduces us to Trailblazers.

The trailer and social posts have developed Trailblazers into its own recognizable brand that is able to live on Dell Technologies' primary social channels.

On accounts that share 70k followers, the project had an engagement reach of 6.72 million.


Credits:
Hayden Gilbert, ECD
Abbey Nield, Sr. AD
Scott Rostohar, Sr. CW
Sandra Reyes, PM
Peter Simonite, Director
Nick Simonite, DP
David Wolfson, Producer
Chris Roldan, Editor
JC Gama, Director of Brand Marketing
Liz Matthews, SVP, Global Brand and Creative

MADEIT CREDITS

  • Dell TechnologiesClient
  • Abbey NieldSr. AD
  • Chris RoldanEditor
  • David WolfsonProducer
  • Hayden GilbertECD
  • Juan Carlos GamaDirector of Brand Marketing
  • Liz MatthewsSVP, Global Brand and Creative
  • Nick SimoniteDP
  • Peter SimoniteDirector
  • * Dell Technologies
  • * Sandra ReyesPM
  • * Scott RostoharSr. CW

Who pooled - Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson - Trailer and Social