Feb. 6

Cade Martin: It’s a ONEderful Life

THE ONE SHOW HAS GOTTEN ALL WARM AND FUZZY, thanks to a campaign shot by Cade Martin, which positions the award show as a dreamy wonderland where animals and creatives frolic together, deadlines disappear and big ideas arrive in abundance.

Collaborating with Design Army, Cade was brought on to give the prestigious international show a look for its “ONEderful” theme—a world of fuzzy chicks and bunnies, happy clouds and talking bears. Hosted by The One Club, the show awards creative advertising across traditional and new media.

Amazingly, the euphoric dream world was created in camera, using props made especially for the shoot and a veritable zoo, sourced from a local taxidermist, who trucked in the 50-plus animals—including a giraffe—from Baltimore to the location shoot in Washington, D.C. The two-day shoot took place in the basement raw space of photography studio. Cade’s long-time interest in the production quality of movies helped inform the shoot.

“Most of my work is location, so this was more of a studio approach,” he said. “We created the look with about 20 movie lights so each character had its own light like a stage production. It took a full two-day shoot to tell the story.”

Wrangling bears and giraffes was the least of the complications. The shoot was scheduled for the weekend the Capital area was hit with an earthquake and then a hurricane. The trembler caused structural damage to the original location and the crew was informed two days before the shoot they lost their location. They found a replacement at 7:30 Friday night.

The also had to replace the talent after the modeling agency called the day before the shoot, and informed them the model, booked in New York City, refused to get on a train, fearing travel in a hurricane.

“You know the cliche ‘adapt and overcome’? We gave it new meaning,” Cade said. They turned to Seth Callaway, a producer for the One Show, who turned out not only to be a perfect fit for the wardrobe but for the personality of the campaign. He went from client to model before anyone could say “Hurricane Irene.”

“It couldn’t have worked out better. And I don’t think the original model could have pulled off what Seth did.”

The six-month-long campaign includes 35,000 posters distributed to more than 60 countries with banner ads running on Web sites such as Creativity (US), Campaign (UK), Design Taxi (Singapore) and LatinSpots (Latin America) and ads in international trade magazines.

See more of the campaign here.