Northshore Magazine

ne Business You dig out a narrative as you go along, and that's really satisfying, creatively. It might not seem like that exciting of a prospect, but normally, we're able to find these beautiful details in the mundane and bring them to life." The GifT of The season ...with the Best Women's Hair Salon B 978.465.3010 58 Merrimac Street, Newburyport interlockssalon.com facebook.com/interlocks S ON 13 ST B E of or e 20 The video would just be a few images, a handful of words, and some carefully chosen stock music. It would only be a couple of minutes long, and by necessity, it would have to leave out far more than it included. But with Davis and Dorris working their magic, it would likely pack a sort of mysterious emotional punch. That's Grain Digital's specialty: creating branded video content—usually for the Web—that feels more like storytelling than product shilling. For example, a 60-second spot for Exeter, New Hampshire-based Northeast Lantern Ltd. doesn't show the lanterns themselves at all, but instead features close-ups of workers soldering parts and punching metal. The company's founder narrates the process, his voice full of pride. "We just put up the camera and had him start talking. The goal for us is to just get [people] talking and to find [the] story as we go along," Davis says. "I think it hit [the founder]. He's had his head down for the last 20 or 30 years working, and it hit him what he's actually accomplished." A spot highlighting Zenith's sponsorship of the Best Buddies Challenge—a fundraiser for an organization that works with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities—does include its share of slick shots of the company's watches. But the primary focus is on Tom Brady tossing a football with program participants who go on to hoist a mammoth trophy and make an appearance at a swanky banquet with the Patriots star. The slow-motion action and soaring strings feel more Chariots of Fire than TV ad, as though Davis and Dorris set out to make a wordless mini-movie about hope and joy and the human spirit, and oh, by the way, isn't that a handsome timepiece? With their focus on storytelling (and on the Web), Davis and Dorris find themselves at the center of two big trends in advertising. The advertising website eMarketer projects digital video ad spending in the United States will more than double from $4.1 billion this year to $9.1 billion in 2017. Also, studies have shown that video ads sought out by Web users are more effective than the ads viewers are forced to sit nor t h s h the Best of Boston 2013 BeSt WoMeN'S Hair SaloN, NortH the Best of the north shore 2013 BeSt WoMeN'S Hair SaloN KJ NBDec13 Grain.indd 98 98 10/25/13 3:09 PM

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