30 Rock: A One-Time Special
For the first time ever, NBCUniversal was canceling its upfront. And our team had three hours to come up with a concept to replace it. And pull in billions of ad revenue in the process.
Team
CD: Roye Segal, CW: Zach Stoner, CW: Nick Hart
30 Rock Returns
Every year, NBCUniversal puts on a multi-million dollar extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the vibe in the summer of 2020.
So, we pitched a crazy idea – advertise the entirety of NBCUniversal’s offering in a one-time, full-length reunion episode of the always-meta show, 30 Rock.
And for some reason, the cast was down for it.
Reality TV
We had to coordinate every story beat and integrated promotional break. To do so without killing everyone, every Creative Director was randomly assigned a vertical to fully own.
I got Reality TV. With the help of the trusty Zach Stoner, we watched an enormous amount of TV (including nearly 15 seasons worth of Keeping Up with the Kardashians) and created this wildly uncharacteristic spot.
We had to run the script by every level of NBCU leadership, including the now CEO of X. I believe this was just so they could make fun of my efforts to read this VO.
The Results
We created a full-length episode streamable on Peacock. Received a higher IMDb rating than Masters of Disguise.
“THE NATURAL PROGRESSION FOR THE STORY 30 ROCK TOLD, WHICH ALLOWS THE SPECIAL TO SOMEHOW REACH AN EVEN HIGHER LEVEL OF META INCEPTION THAN IT ALREADY HAD”
A.V. Club
“THE SHOW MADE FOR AN ENJOYABLE REMINDER OF JUST HOW GREAT “30 ROCK” WAS WHEN IT WAS FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS.”
Indie Wire
Results:
1x Cannes Lion (1x bronze – first in agency history)
1x Clio (silver)
1x WGA nomination for Tina Fey (would she have thanked me in her victory speech? Guess we’ll never know)
Generated $7.5 Billion in Ad Sales revenue (I didn’t work on commission, unfortunately)
Additional Recognition:
New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, Slate, Indiewire, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, National Review, Entertainment Weekly, Forbes, USA Today, Vulture, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, GameSpot, Collider