People who work in the deadline-frenzied universe of advertising are well-acquainted with the constant need to quickly access quality information at all times. We're in a visual industry and living in an increasingly visual society. So there's more demand now than ever for thoughtful, simple and beautiful communication presentation.
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners executive producer Josh Reynolds knows the importance of having a tool that enables him to efficiently deliver information to his vendors and clients. Reynolds is responsible for massive amounts of the San Francisco-based agency's information, from reels to storyboards and presentations and scripts. You have probably heard the tag-line Reynolds recently coined for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' client Sprint/Nextel: "The now network." The tag-line is part of a massive brand campaign promoting the highly anticipated Instinct phone. The now network conveys Sprint's ability to deliver what you want through faster networking, faster connections, faster Internet and real time GPS. In a word, now.
For Reynolds, Wiredrive perfectly embodies that now mindset. "Our agency recently transitioned to Wiredrive for all digital media relating to the Sprint account," says Reynolds. "In the increasingly integrated reality of today, I honestly don't know how else we would keep everyone in the loop on such a rapidly evolving body of content with so many moving parts."
Wiredrive is now
"Wiredrive really took us full circle, from bid to finish."Josh Reynolds, executive producer Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
"Wiredrive has drastically streamlined the way we do things at GSP on Sprint," he continues. "We recently used Wiredrive on a Bryan Buckley-directed ad campaign promoting the new Instinct phone. The spots, inspired by the greatest product placement movies of all time, feature the Instinct as the star. This campaign was a total Wiredrive project-we used the technology to share our media across all platforms. Wiredrive really took us full circle, from bid to finish."
According to Reynolds, Wiredrive makes the world smaller and enables instantaneous creative collaboration regardless of locale. "We can be working with a creative director in Europe, a producer in New York, a scout in LA and Rich Silverstein upstairs. Wiredrive brings us all together and keeps us on the same creative page."
You never forget your first
"I remember the first time I got a Wiredrive reel. I was blown away," Reynolds recalls. "I immediately started a folder in my inbox and archived every Wiredrive reel I received. Wiredrive 2.0 has this great new podcasting feature, so I've recently taken to podcasting all the reels and sending them directly to iTunes. They're all on my computer and I don't even need to go online to retrieve them. Brilliant."
"Wiredrive is my favorite professional toolset . . . Wiredrive equates value with the synchronicity of digital media."Josh Reynolds, executive producer Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
For Reynolds, Wiredrive's podcasting features is more than a way to save reels--it's a way to view automatically-updated content from any device with iTunes installed. "Wiredrive allows me to stream content from my computer through my Apple TV. Producers and reps are amazed that I watch all their directors' reels at home using the podcasting feature built into Wiredrive that integrates seamlessly into iTunes. And the reels automatically refresh within Wiredrive so, for example, I always have the most current reel for every director on the Epoch roster. It's genius."
Reynolds is a self-professed tech geek, christened by the agency as the go-to guy for all things digital, from gadgets and software to blogging and Bluetooth gizmos. "Wiredrive is my favorite professional toolset. Much like Apple, Wiredrive equates value with the synchronicity of digital media." This is coming from a man whose office and home are outfitted with half the inventory of an electronics store, filled with extra hard drives, spare MP3 players, game consoles and HD televisions.
R.I.P. DVD
"Wiredrive makes it easy to share this information with everyone, anytime, anywhere."Josh Reynolds, executive producer Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
What's more, Wiredrive eliminates the need for producing and shipping DVDs. "People travel so much these days, and our creative teams are all over the world," Reynolds says. "We're constantly hopping off one plane only to jump back onto another. So I can't do much with a DVD because there's just no way to quickly get that to the team. I used to say, 'send me an online reel,' but now I make the specific request 'can you send it to me on Wiredrive?'"
For Reynolds, Wiredrive isn't just a better way to view creative work, Wiredrive represents an evolution in how media is produced and presented. "You're living in the past if you're still shipping hard materials. With Wiredrive, gone are the days of physically sending casting tapes, pre-pro books and reels. Wiredrive makes it easy to share this information with everyone, anytime, anywhere."
With natural resources dwindling and calls for greater social responsibility, Wiredrive provides an eco-friendly way to improve productivity without harming the environment. "I also appreciate the environmental benefit of Wiredrive. The carbon footprint of producing and sending DVDs is just needlessly large. Wiredrive eliminates the impact associated with a messenger or shipping service, and there aren't DVDs, plastic cases, and packaging to throw away. With digital information, there's no waste. Wiredrive's efficiencies save companies time, space and allow for more green business practices."
Quality control
Wiredrive gives producers the power to multi-task exponentially. Whether Reynolds is working on a broadcast television spot, content for the Internet, or internal videos and presentations, he's able to access all these projects easily from one place. There's no scrambling for multiple logins or wading through a cluttered inbox, and he can do it from just about anywhere.
Wiredrive is also a great way to control how the client is seeing everything. "Because all the information is coming from one place, Sprint doesn't have to navigate a number of different delivery platforms, which can get confusing," says Reynolds. "I deal with such a huge amount of incoming information every day. Wiredrive allows me to edit and present only what's relevant in a simple but beautiful manner. It's about quality too, because I can manage and customize the information I'm sharing."
"Wiredrive allows me to edit and present only what's relevant in a simple but beautiful manner"Josh Reynolds, executive producer Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Wiredrive functions as the agency's virtual meeting room by bringing GSP's various production and post vendors together. Wiredrive even makes it easier to bring Sprint into the fold. It's a place where every deliverable related to the broadcast department, from QuickTime files and PDFs to Word documents and charts, are presented in an elegant Sprint-branded centralized hub.
And Wiredrive is extremely easy to learn. Even people at GSP who were reluctant to learn the new technology soon discovered that the sense of empowerment and control that comes with Wiredrive was well worth the effort to conquer their technophobia.
"Wiredrive is so easy to use-from the straightforwardness of uploading and downloading files, the amazingly intuitive interface, and the speed and efficiency at which everything can be done.," says Reynolds. "Sure, there's always going to be a learning curve when a company adopts a new technology. But we only had to give our team a quick training session before we were off and running."
About Josh Reynolds
Josh Reynolds is a veteran producer who got his start as an actor at the age of 18. He has appeared in commercials for McDonalds, Carnation Instant Breakfast and Country Time Lemonade, and even had one line in "Eight is Enough." He ultimately realized he was not particularly good at acting and soon landed a job as a runner at Chiat/Day in LA. The rest, as they say, is history. Subsequent gigs at Foote, Cone & Belding; Borders, Perrin and Norrander; J. Walter Thompson and Nike followed, which in turn led to nine years of freelance producing. Josh joined Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in 2003.