New Smile Doctors T.V. Campaign

When the ad agency Archer Malmo came to us with the creative strategy for a new Smile Doctors campaign, we were truly excited by the possibilities. Smile Doctors wanted to highlight their number one priority, patient happiness, in a series of short, visually dynamic, and most importantly…fun broadcast T.V. spots.

Smile Doctors wanted to accentuate the idea that their service is all about their patients. They consider them to be more than just a patient, they’re family. They feel the experience should be fun and rewarding. In addition to creating personalized, individual treatment plans for their patients, they strive to get to know them. That’s why it was so important to convey the friendly, warm, and fun tone of the T.V. broadcast campaign.

Revelator director, Jake Eide, came on board to lead the colorful, creative vision. After initial discussions with the ad agency, Jake began storyboarding out the commercial scripts from the Archer Malmo team…detailing all of the visuals in vivid teal, yellow, and red. Jake’s main goal was to take the incredible comedic moments of each script and visualize them in a dynamic and fun way. Below you’ll see Jake’s storyboard plans and compare them to the finished product….

Jake’s storyboards helped the entire team visualize the execution and delivery of the final product. Agency, client, cast and crew were able to assess the shots, production design, and blocking weeks out from production.

Once Jake had built out the storyboards, our team started on the plan for each department. The execution of the visuals in the T.V. campaign are designed around a few monochromatic and highly specific sets. We brought in our secret weapon, Yvonne Boudreaux, as our production designer to make it all possible. Not that secret of a weapon…some of Yvonne’s credits include AMC’s The Son, NBC’s Revolution, and films such as Paranorman and Machete. We knew that with those projects under her belt, building seven sets in a few days would be a walk in the park for this production design wizard. We wanted to make sure the collection of spots all felt like they came from the same world, despite taking place with different characters on different sets.

Due to the number of set-ups, shots, and cast members in each commercial, our plan needed to be designed down to the last detail. Jake worked with Yvonne to create elevations and overheads for each set to be built, along with building style sheets for each space. These were essential tools for Director of Photography Garrett Shannon when communicating the visuals and lighting strategy to our gaff and grip crew members.

Smile Doctors and Archer Malmo team knew they wanted to add a personal touch to the spots when it came time to find cast for the project. To underscore the idea that their patients are family, Smile Doctors decided to bring out current and former Smile Doctors patients and their families to star in each segment, and had their team members play themselves! The energy our new stars brought to the set was undeniable and created a fun working environment for all. Of course, we can’t talk about on-set energy without mentioning the most rambunctious cast members we met that weekend – a litter of golden retriever puppies.

Revelator’s internal post-production team handled the edit workflow on the project. Our team brought the pop art tone from the project’s art direction into the final edit with snappy, well-timed edit and music cues. Below you can see a side-by-side of Jake’s initial storyboards, compared to the final T.V. commercials. We couldn’t be more proud of our crew for bringing Jake and Archer Malmo’s original vision to life in the final product.

In the final stages of post-production, we conducted a series of VO auditions, where Jake and the client were able to find the perfect voice to carry the fast-paced narration of the spot. After a few fun music cues and a terrific color session with the amazing Nick Smith at Finland Finish, the final product came together beautifully! In total, it took 27 crew members, 32 cast, 4 editors, 6 agency team members, and 5 puppies to pull off this campaign…and we couldn’t be happier with the results! We want to say thanks again to all of the hard-working cast and crew, who all helped bring this fun and rewarding project to life.