Tim is one of advertising’s top commercial writer/directors. He has won every major advertising award including several Best of Shows (including the Cannes Grand Prix) and a Best of the Decade (The One Show) for digital film.

Tim has written and directed several longer format branded films that have gone viral, including Dove Evolution, Onslaught and Becel Broken Escalator and recently Executive Produced and directed a pilot for a major cable network.

As a result of his advertising work, Tim was listed by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people on the planet.

Daniel is a writer and producer of major motion pictures and television. Among Daniel’s film credits is “Inside Man” a film he solely developed from a two sentence idea into one of the highest-grossing and celebrated films in 2006. It was eventually recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the Top 10 Films of the Year.

He has written and/or Executive Produced TV pilots at every major US Network as well as many cable networks.

As a producer and former studio executive, Daniel has collaborated with some of the greatest actors of our era including Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Robert DeNiro, Steve Martin, Al Pacino, Kevin Bacon and Jodie Foster.

Piro puts some of the most awarded creatives in advertising and talented storytellers in entertainment under one roof to create entertainment for brands.

Because audiences shouldn’t be able to tell the difference between branded entertainment and mainstream entertainment.

Technology has democratized media distribution. The airwaves and the pipelines are no longer controlled by a handful of media outlets.

Today, brands are able to distribute content and create consumer engagement without a traditional media buy.

Because of this,talented entertainment writers, directors and actors are more willing than ever to work with brands to create entertainment.

This represents a massive opportunity for your brand – regardless of budget.

If you’re an existing brand, you already have an audience.

That’s powerful.

You can use that interaction to draw more attention to your “entertaining” communication with something as simple as a jag tag.

Suddenly your brand is promoting your entertainment, which is promoting your brand.

All you need is great storytelling.

Storytelling is an art. The best storytellers work in entertainment, not advertising. Advertising is an art too, but advertising creativity focuses on finding a proposition (i.e. a persuasive moment) as opposed to finding a central conflict in which to engage an audience in a story. Neither industry knows the other craft as much as they might pretend to. And to make matters worse for marketers, the business of storytelling and advertising could not be more different.

Piro’s business experience, relationships and credentials within the entertainment industry enable us to collaborate with top writers on ideas that are born out of a brand strategy (or marketing need).

A branded entertainment idea must be inspired by the brand. But just as importantly, the story must be entertaining. Piro creates entertainment ideas based on a brand’s need, then supervises, co-writes and produces the work. Our entertainment standards are high because your audience’s standards are too.

• A better return on marketing investment / cost savings
• Meaningful, lasting brand engagement
• Increased sales
• Increased brand loyalty, interaction and reach
• A stronger digital and mobile presence.
• New opportunities for franchises, social media and event planning
• Profit from entertainment projects
• Self-sustained marketing

Most people think of IKEA as the world’s largest furniture retailer. Interestingly, they are also one of the world’s largest publishers. More copies of the IKEA catalog are printed each year than the bible.

How would Piro help IKEA leverage this powerful and unique strength?
Let’s say IKEA wants to underscore that they are the right place to shop at every point in the consumer’s life – not just for young people’s first apartment, but for all life’s stages. They retain Piro for a conceptual period, and one of our suggestions is to develop a romantic comedy (with a top screenwriter) set entirely in IKEA.

The movie (a low-budget film) is about Max and his girlfriend, Lucy, both 22. While shopping at IKEA, they discover a man who looks extraordinarily like Max, just 10 years older. They eventually approach him and realize that it actually is Max at age 32. The problems begin when they learn that the 32-year-old version of Max is married – just not to Lucy. Eventually older versions of Max appear and chaos ensues as our 22 year-old Max must fight his future self to win back his current love.

The movie would demonstrate the best of IKEA’s in-store experience and organically demonstrate products in ways that move the story forward.

Ultimately, we see a range of age profiles shopping at IKEA, but unlike a 30-second spot, which competes with other ads and interrupts entertainment, this film engages people and demonstrates the benefits of IKEA’s over 90 minutes.

Piro makes the movie (shooting in-store) for under $3 million (more if we attach stars). A DVD of the film is inserted into IKEA’s catalog. The incremental cost to distribute those DVDs is insignificant (IKEA is already shipping the catalogs).

The difference between the media value and reach of this highly engaging promotion compared to a traditional campaign (production and media) could be millions of dollars. Plus, the catalog is only one mode of distribution. There is the potential for a theatrical release, film festivals in key markets, a network time buy, Netflix, iTunes, instore giveaways and IKEA.com among others distribution outlets. The film could make a profit for IKEA. And then there are the intangibles, like what if people started to look forward to receiving that catalog every few months?

However, every client is different, so…

Well, we’d like to get to know you a little better first, but we can tell you this:

People are drawn to stories and great stories can come from anywhere…. A whiff of perfume takes a character to a parallel universe. An IBM employee makes a quantum breakthrough while alone at the office one night. A CEO fights to prevent his company from making any progress, because the product is perfect just as it is (see “Post Shredded Wheat” on the Piro Reel.)

Piro will amplify your brand’s social media and digital presence, in-store presence, event engagement and even your traditional advertising concepts through entertainment.

Brands are sacred. Not just to the companies that own them, but also to the consumers who use them. Would “Miracle on 34th Street” have been the same film if the producers created a fictitious store instead of using Macy’s? Would “Cast Away” have been as relatable if Federal Express or Wilson were substituted with Acme Parcel Service and Bob’s Volleyball? No.

Brands can and do enhance the entertainment experience just as entertainment can enhance the value of brands.

1. Assess - Piro assesses our client’s business and marketing strategy in order to identify ways to engage consumers through entertainment.

2. Concept & Collaborate – Piro develops entertainment concepts in partnership with our clients (and in collaboration with talent when needed). These concepts may be long- or short-form film or television, webisodes, music projects, gaming or anything else that leverages and combines the best of the current media landscape.

3. Produce - Piro produces the content in house. Since the Piro principals are writers, producers and directors, we can produce content without agency and supplier markups. Production costs are kept to a minimum and layers are removed.

4. Promote – Piro and its partners distribute the content through various channels, online and off.

5. Report - Piro conducts an extensive review of the project, reports metrics and determines how to grow the existing project into other media channels or create additional opportunities.