Now Playing: Spec Commercial | Ritz - Rolling Jackpots

Today, we released our first Spec Ad into the wild, and we couldn't be prouder of the project overall!

Please check out our new ad: Ritz - Vertical Jackpots on YouTube here:

The 16x9 Version

The 9x16 Version

Finding inspiration from slot machines, and the excitement of winning a jackpot, I came up with this idea that crescendos towards the biggest jackpot of all: a gazillion Ritz crackers. I also researched previous ads from the brand to get a sense of their style/tone.

From there, I scribbled out an A/V script and drew up some storyboards to better communicate my idea to Jeremy at Selluloid Pictures. We reviewed the boards together and then locked everything down. Here's some example slides from my boards below:

We ended up changing the direction of the words to come from the opposite end as the cracker because it was easier to read the words that way.

Adding confetti was part of the original idea, but it made the screen too busy and took too much attention away from the crackers in my opinion. So we got rid of it.

The additional bit of drama with the lights out and box opening was something that I wasn't sure we could pull off as I had originally imagined. However, Jeremy was able to bring that cardboard box of Ritz to life in a way I couldn't even imagine, and it really elevated this food commercial as a whole.

I want to emphasize that this is a spec commercial and was not commissioned by Mondelēz International, Inc. The ad is not affiliated with Mondelēz International, Inc. in any way other than the fact that we used their product and logo to create a spec food commercial for presentation purposes.

Lastly, to make this ad concept perfect, we'd upgrade the VO. Maybe, I'll come back to this to put that polish on in the future. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy our efforts for this spec commercial.