Harry Cocciolo - Writer, Director

Herb Thompson was the U.S. Army “Drill Sergeant of The Year.” He was a Green Beret. And now he is the Manager of Veteran’s Programs at ServiceNow. As part of the NextGen program, he recruits veterans to learn skills, to thrive on the ServiceNow platform.

As the son of a career military officer, it was an honor to get to know Herb and his family, and help share a small part of his amazing story.

Harry Cocciolo - Creative Director / Writer



Amazing woman, amazing story.

In just a hundred days in 1994, the genocide in Rwanda took the lives of nearly a million people. Alphonsine Imanuragua was 13. She lost her mother, father, older sister and brother.

Alphonsine survived to raise her two young sisters and a brother. She put herself through college, and worked to support her siblings every step of the way. Today they are all college graduates, working and thriving.

Alphonsine’s belief in the power of education to transform lives, led her to create the non-profit, Rising Above The Storms. To this day, the group helps street kids in Rwanda and around the world, learn and grow, giving them a chance for a better life.

She is married and lives in Seattle where she works at Cisco. This film shares her story with her 70,000 Cisco co-workers around the world, reminding them that despite the greatest challenges, anything is possible. Visit www.risingabovethestorms.com and make a contribution. Everything helps.

Harry Cocciolo - Creative Director / Writer

Cisco is a $50B, business to business, company. Cisco technology is all around us, it’s the heart of the internet, touching every network on the planet.

The challenge is communicating the brand on a human level; demonstrating what it makes possible and what it means to people.

When ‘“what it means” is saving a boy’s life, we don’t need to be clever or creative. We just need to get out of the way, and tell the story.

Harry Cocciolo - Writer, Associate Creative Director


Great strategy begets great work.

Planners asked people to go a week without milk and keep a diary of their experience. They reported that they missed the milk, but they missed the things that go with milk, even more.
The “deprivation strategy” was born.

I wrote stories about people with their mouths full of chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes, and cereal. Every film was a short, tragic tale. They say, when bad things happen to other people, it's funny. And nothing is more memorable than humor.

The campaign was wildly popular, and milk sales increased, for the first time in decades.

Harry Cocciolo - Creative Director / Writer

At the start of the pandemic, with the world moving to work, learn and live remotely, being able to connect securely was essential.

Producing a film with no ability to travel, scout, cast or manage the shoot, was new. We worked with directors and cinematographers around the world. They captured moments with family, friends and co-workers. We prepped, shot, and edited, from home.

The pandemic made the production incredibly challenging, but it also made it possible, as everyone — for the first time ever — was available.

Harry Cocciolo - Creative Director

The adidas brand has always been about passion for sport. Whether you’re a professional athlete or weekend amateur, adidas celebrates your efforts.

Nike on the other hand, is about performance, excellence, and winning. One Nike olympics ad crystalized this attitude with the line, “You don’t win silver, you lose gold.”

This campaign was adidas’ answer.

It spoke to the athlete in training, to their devotion and determination, in the moments when no one is watching.

Harry Cocciolo - Director



Anecdotes, while no doubt entertaining, are restricted by Apple NDA. 

Harry Cocciolo - Creative Director / Writer

Harry Cocciolo - Director



One of the nicest people I’ve ever met..

I loved the agency’s idea; Mr. T as metaphor for the way MasterCard protects your money. It's engaging and fun.

"T" as he likes to be called, is a delightful guy. Hard working. Not a prima-donna And he’s still in incredible shape. He said he had recently lost a few pounds, "I'm feeling good! I'm down to the same weight I fought Rocky!"

Director - Harry Cocciolo

When I direct, I think of the shoot day as our opportunity to collect moments. Like a painter hundreds of years ago, collecting colors in the wilderness.. What we gather on the shoot day, is all we get. Then in the edit, we paint. 

This is a simple scene. It was only going to work if the moments in the boy's performance were engaging and authentic.

Working with kids can be challenging. When kids act it looks like acting. But when kids play, it looks like fun. I try to create the environment where they’re comfortable to play.

This boy was great. He was silly and full of energy between takes. But when the camera rolled, he was genuinely in the moment.

Harry Cocciolo - Creative Director

Track and field shoes are a fraction of overall sales.

We used striking imagery, celebrating individual, inspirational, athletic excellence, creating mini-posters, for the bedroom walls of high school athletes across the country.

Harry Cocciolo - Writer



Play ball.

The MLB players strike lasted 242 days. Fans were furious with both owners and players.

The strike ended on a Sunday. We presented a campaign idea to MLB management, a week later. Then we wrote as we travelled. We celebrated the parts of the game around the game, the food, the grass, the colorful characters, anything but the owners and players.

In the next week, we shot at Wrigley Field, Comiskey Park, Fenway Park, and the Ballpark at Arlington. We edited for two days, then 11 films aired.

Creative note: Former Red Sox and Expos pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee, had a wonderful knack for telling funny, off-color stories in :30 and :60 second lengths. Several of them were even suitable for the public.

Creative Director - Harry Cocciolo

How do you introduce a new online gift seller, from scratch?

1. Give it a name inspired by a historic tradition.
2. Give it a voice that speaks to the benefits of giving a great gift.
3. Give it a striking, memorable look.
4. Work with great photographer, designer and writer.

Harry Cocciolo - Creative Director



Coincidence?

adidas signed a long-term deal supplying shoes and apparel to the New York Yankees. We were asked to create a campaign celebrating the partnership.

We recommended a series of shorts featuring a group of genuine fans. The "YANKS guys" as they became known, were wildly popular. When the team moved into the playoffs, adidas chose sides, and ran the ads nationally.

After the campaign broke, the Yankees won the next three World Series Championships. It's possible that was a coincidence.

Harry Cocciolo - Creative Director



It’s better to show than tell.

CNET.com launched its brand with millions of dollars in media spending, all outdoor. Six months later, they fired their agency. They came to us with the simple request. “Please tell people what we do.”

The campaign aired in a crowded media season dominated by noisy dotcoms promising too much. This cut through.

After the work aired, I was on the phone with my mother who said, "Uh, we saw your CNET work. But, we didn't get it." I asked her what happened in the film she saw. She said, “A guy with CNET on his shirt took a guy with YOU on his shirt to another guy with THE RIGHT DIGITAL CAMERA on his shirt.” I asked what she thought that meant? She said, "CNET helps you find the right digital camera?"

Bingo.

Creative Director - Harry Cocciolo

Runners are athletes. Of course. But they’re different.

If you have a creative team that truly understand a subject, give them the assignment. We gave this one to a pair of runners. The campaign speaks to the unique mentality of serious runners.

Response to the work was beyond expectations. The line was adopted by online running groups, who showed their affection by sending in hundreds of their own ideas for ads, and driving up sales of adidas running shoes.