Product Etcetera™

Concept, direction, and production of the Knockaround x Benny Gold “1937” collaboration film.

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, Benny Gold, a San Francisco based designer and brand, teamed up with our clients at Knockaround to create a limited edition set of sunglasses.

The product itself was a success, the great design of the packaging and sunglasses, along with excitement for the collaboration, led to all 400 editions being sold out in less than 40 minutes. But the collaboration was about more than the product. It was about two worlds, on the same coast, coming together.

The Knockaround brand and the Benny Gold brand had some overlap in their brand personas, but some characteristic that weren’t so obvious. We wanted to pull stories from both Adam “Ace” Moyer (Knockaround), and Benny Gold that would serve as an introduction to the brands, inspire both fan bases, and highlight the optimism and art backgrounds that both companies and founders shared. Since both brands had already done a handful of video interviews before, we wrote the interview so that the questions would yield unique, full-bodied answers that would stir their audiences.

When it came down to writing the interview questions that would address “1937” sunglasses, we took the approach of crafting the questions to emphasize the Golden Gate Bridge, rather than the specifics of the collaborative sunglasses. We knew the glasses would sell-out quickly, and focusing instead on the personal experience these two people shared with the Golden Gate / Bay Area would make for a better story, that would resonate more in the long-run.

Ultimately, the goal of the short-film was to produce content that would excite fans and taste-makers with the brands first, and the product release second. If done well, we figured the film would be shared by both fans and editorials which would lead to high levels of brand visibility without spending a dime for paid advertising.

The “1937” video turned out to be Knockaround’s highest viewed film within a week, and within a year of publication grossed about 18,000 views. To date, the film is still one of Knockaround’s and Benny Gold’s most viewed videos.