Cannes Lions

CLOUDS OVER CUBA

THE MARTIN AGENCY, Richmond / THE JFK PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY & MUSEUM / 2013

Awards:

3 Gold Cannes Lions
3 Silver Cannes Lions
5 Bronze Cannes Lions
1 Shortlisted Cannes Lions
Case Film
Case Film
Presentation Image
Supporting Content
Supporting Images
Presentation Image
Supporting Images
Supporting Images
Case Film
Supporting Images
Presentation Image
Supporting Content
Case Film
Case Film
Case Film
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Overview

Entries

Credits

OVERVIEW

Description

Branded Entertainment can be found absolutely anywhere. Our clients at the JFK Presidential Library understand that competition for attention is fierce, so they encourage us to leverage the value of history and the emotional power of JFK's presidency to make our work visible. JFK was a firm believer in using new technology to communicate to as many people as possible. Staying true to that legacy is our formula for staying relevant and visible in a crowded landscape.

Execution

On October 16, 2012, exactly 50 years after Soviet missiles were discovered in Cuba, Clouds Over Cuba went live. In addition to the documentary proper, a variety of networked and synced media was used to enrich the experience. Smartphone users could sync their phones to the documentary playback so all our archival documents, photos and videos would be added to their mobile dossiers as the film played, for review later at any time. JFK secretly recorded the meetings of the ExComm as they debated what to do over 13 tense days, and users could add these meetings to their iCal or Google calendars so they could “attend” these meetings live, 50 years later, hearing all 43 hours of meeting audio and experiencing the tension from an utterly unique insider perspective. And all the events of the Crisis were live tweeted, linking to documents, audio and video, accessible through the site.

Outcome

Within one week we had visitors from 129 countries spend an average of 12' on the site per visit. Comments on Twitter came from a surprisingly wide variety of quarters—military historians, cold war historians, alternate history buffs, documentary film schools and filmmakers, interactive media specialists, digital storytellers—the story and execution were powerful in different ways for different audiences. And the discussions continue today. Since launch we've received visits from 182 countries, and the interactive film will take up a permanent place within the JFK Presidential Library in Boston.

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