Hello Composters! We're happy to present a guest column from Xiang Cai, a team member at BreakfastxLunchxDinner, the marketing, events and culture agency that we have been working with for many years. Shawn recently helped to direct Blue Earth Compost's first ever commercial, "Get Buckets". This piece details what it was like making the magic happen.
Behind the Scenes
As Blue Earth continues to scale their business, we at BreakfastxLunchxDinner asked ourselves: what is the best way to help them? We were given the direction that they wanted to embark on the biggest marketing campaign in Blue Earth's history to date. It would be comprised of TV ads, billboards and social media placements.
This process began in December of 2023, but really ramped up in February and March of 2024. This was a period of vigorous brainstorming. There were ideas about using giant puppets, animation, hiring actors and, the idea we ended up moving forward with, featuring the pride and joy of our home state Connecticut, the UConn Men’s Basketball Team. After quickly assembling a team of the best in the business, together with Cafeteria Media, we got to work right away on the various ideas we had for the advertisement.
When we began, there were over dozens of scripts being pitched. There was so much potential in each and every one of the ideas, we wanted to shoot them all. But, we were operating on a tight deadline as the UConn Men’s team prepared for March Madness. We had to be decisive and efficient. So, with our star Hassan Diarra scheduled to shoot with us the night of Monday, March 18th, we prepared our story board, double checked the shot list, and gathered the crew. We even enlisted the home of one of our longstanding customers and biggest supporters to offer up their lovely kitchen to be our filming location. With mics and cameras in tow, our team arrived around 5PM to the set.
For a basketball player of his caliber and seeing his focused presence on the court, one could expect Hassan Diarra to be serious and intense off the court as well. However, as I and the rest of the team conversed with him and got to know him, we quickly discovered that he was in fact very charming and humorous. He was easy going, and very pleasant to work with. With the sun still shining, I quickly went outside with Hassan to get a few high quality photos for the billboards around Hartford, while the rest of the team worked quickly inside the kitchen to prepare the set and ready the camera. Soon after, we began filming. The team quickly fell into a rhythm as we knocked out shot after shot, all with multiple takes. Hassan and our lead actress Arlene Torres worked very well together, and had great chemistry. Both of the actors nailed their lines, and were total naturals, making my job of directing very easy indeed. Even though we were operating on a tight schedule, the shoot was very efficient, and the whole crew enjoyed a lot of laughs along the way. Here's the finished product:
When we finished the main portion of our filming, the crew decided to have a bit of fun and shoot some behind the scenes and some B-roll. Hassan and Arlene tried their hands at taking some shots using the veggie scraps. The results? You can see for yourselves in our blooper reel, hahaha!
While there were some missed shots here and there, the extra training definitely paid off, as just a few weeks later, the Huskies won the championship! Was it ever a surprise? We at Blue Earth say: definitely not. Team Blue Earth believes that if you get your buckets and compost off the court, chances are that the buckets will come on the court as well. Be a team player, get your green buckets today, contribute to reducing food waste, and save our environment, one scrap at a time! For a limited time, we are offering a discount on our website. Use code UCONN24 for 24% off of the first six months of our service.