A Viral Video Success Story with Director Judd Apatow, Sarah Silverman, Ben Stiller and More
As American Jewish World Service prepared to celebrate their 25th Anniversary, they looked to Empire Entertainment for a creative idea to reach a wide audience with a young demographic to help them develop a new generation of donors and supporters. Empire’s solution? Produce a short film to premiere at their 25th Anniversary Celebration designed to go viral in a big way. AJWS loved the concept. Empire approached one of the world’s best-known comedy directors & producers, Judd Apatow. Apatow, whose credits include the 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall among many others, quickly responded, suggesting the following creative concept: “How about this idea—a bunch of people saying, I am not Jewish and I support the American Jewish World Service.” I think people sometimes hesitate to give to organizations if they are religiously titled and this could help break that barrier. Super waspy people. Someone who is so clearly Jewish saying they are not Jewish then admitting they are at the end. Muslims. Chinese people. An animal who talks. All living things. Something in that area could be weird and fun and informative. Who’s with me!?!”
Empire brought in comedy writer and standup comedian Jordan Rubin to flesh out the script and begin the production process. Over the period of several weeks Empire, Judd Apatow and Jordan engaged in an extensive talent outreach process, ultimately securing twenty of Hollywood’s hottest actors and comedians including Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, Ben Stiller, Helen Hunt, Tracy Morgan, Don Johnson, Ken Jeong, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Danny Trejo, Lindsay Lohan, Patrick Stewart, Andy Samberg, Susan Sarandon, Denis Leary, John Mayer, Donald Glover, Lisa Edelstein, Keifer Sutherland, Brian Williams, and Gilbert Gottfried. Even Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog made it into the film.Talent on board, Empire worked with Los Angeles-based production company 13 Keys to book the crews, equipment, editors and studio spaces for shoots in both Los Angeles and New York City. Two weeks later, with nearly 12 hilarious hours of footage recorded, Judd and Jordan worked to edit the piece into a short, viral testament to the incredible work of AJWS that would resonate with youth audiences.
The resulting video premiered live at Jazz @ Lincoln Center, NYC on Thursday, October 28th for almost 1000 guests.
The results? Just over two weeks following the premier, website traffic and AJWS’ online activity continues to exceed all of the client’s wildest expectations. The video has been viewed over 900,000 times on YouTube, over 300,000 times on Funnyordie.com, and has been posted by over 100 other blogs and websites including The New York Times, Entertainment Tonight online, NY Magazine, Huffington Post, Comedy Central, & Jewcy.com with countless postings, repostings and shared views.
Moreover, the video was nominated for and won YouTube's DoGooder Non-Profit Video Award in the Large Organization category.Empire Entertainment is a leading producer of all forms of video, film, television, and media projects for our clients and a key partner in helping our clients achieve their objectives and exceed their goals.
Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
A series of breakout sessions presented content targeted to attendees’ varied interests, while imagery displayed throughout the venue showcased real-life applications of how products designed to empower developers help to unleash the power of data and reimagine possibilities that will improve our world.
Every element of Microsoft Connect(); from registration, breakfast and keynote, to lunch and evening cocktails, were custom-designed to communicate exacting brand messaging and to deliver a high-touch guest experience to this important audience. The keynote and breakout sessions were livestreamed through an onsite studio built for this purpose and content was watched online by millions around the world.
Empire is proud to collaborate with Microsoft on this annual, top-tier business communication event.
To view excerpts of Connect(); 2017, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/connectevent
