Breaking the Marketing Mold: Evan J Cholfin Of LUXHAMMER On 5 Innovative & Non Traditional Marketing Strategies That Can Engage Audiences Like Never Before
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Produce an interactive out-of-home campaign that continues the story on mobile. For Essentia Water, we were tasked with shooting out-of-home content at the same angle as video content so that when you used Snapchat to Snap an image of the campaign at a bus stop or on a billboard, the image would come to life on video and the story would continue. The campaign itself was called “The Overachievers” and followed people who overachieved in their own lives as we got to know them, including an NBA player, a rodeo champion, and an up-and-coming singer on Def Jam Records. The campaign helped Essentia Water become the fastest-growing water company in the world.
Traditional marketing methods are no longer sufficient in today’s dynamic and fast-evolving market. To truly engage and captivate audiences, businesses need to think outside the box and adopt innovative and non-traditional marketing strategies. What are these strategies, and how can they transform audience engagement? I had the pleasure of interviewing Evan J. Cholfin.
Evan J. Cholfin, CEO & Founder of LUXHAMMER, creates and produces unforgettable film, TV, and branded entertainment that helps brands make powerful and lasting connections with their audiences, reaching over a billion people.
Spending the last two decades developing, packaging, selling, and producing film & TV, Evan has worked on beloved projects including the Academy Award-nominated films The Irishman, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Sony), and Moneyball, as well as the Emmy-winning series The Night Of (HBO). An avid genre fan, some of his more recent projects include film and TV adaptations of SEGA video games where he partnered with top-tier filmmakers.
In the branded world, Evan produced “The Rise of SuperMouth” for oral health care company SuperMouth with a reach of over one billion unique visitors monthly across media, “Two Bellmen” for JW Marriott which garnered nearly 250 million impressions globally ($34M earned media value), and “Overachieving H2O” for Essentia Water which led to the brand becoming the fastest-growing water company worldwide.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! To start, could you share when and how you got started in marketing?
Certainly. I was in post production on a movie I directed and produced when I was hired by an internet company called Break Media. Their flagship Break.com was competitive with YouTube at the time but aimed at the 18–34-year-old male demographic. They had me produce this “new” “branded content” where the focus was creating entertainment for the audience first, that just happened to incorporate the brand’s message or philosophy organically in the content so it didn’t feel like an ad. I produced over 100 branded campaigns and pieces of content for them for brands including Sony, IKEA, Bud Light, Tostitos, and KFC.
What has been the biggest shift in the marketing industry and can you give us an example of how it impacted you?
There have been so many seismic shifts in the marketing industry throughout my career, but one of the major trends was the shift in dollars spent toward digital and “non-traditional” marketing such as branded entertainment. While I’ve produced my fair share of traditional commercials, this is the playground that I largely grew up in.
Can you explain why it’s essential for businesses to break away from traditional marketing and embrace new strategies?
Today, we live in a mindshare economy. If you cannot take up someone’s mindshare for long enough and tickle those parts of the brain that can both entertain people and move them at a deeper emotional level, you will simply be forgotten. Traditional marketing just can’t do this the way non-traditional marketing like branded entertainment can.
Could you share and briefly explain the first major change you made to break the trend of traditional marketing that was not so common?
One project I produced was called “Two Bellmen” for JW Marriott. The goal was to change brand perception from a “stodgier” place the target of Millennials’ parents might stay to a place Millennials might hang out. I had the opportunity to work with an incredible group of movement-based artists called Substance Over Hype led by Daniel Malakai Cabrera and Marriott Content Studios’ David Beebe to produce a Jackie-Chan-style action heist comedy that just so happened to take place at the JW Marriott LA Live. The brand’s philosophy of employees going to great lengths for their customers was organically part of the story, in this case hyperbole, as two bellhops were stopping an art heist from happening at the hotel. The project was launched as a film with a premiere and PR push, which wasn’t expected from a brand like JW Marriott at the time.
What specific results did you see after implementing this change?
The film gained nearly 250 million media impressions globally, and the hotel saw a 65% search lift, which also saw a 2% increase in brand sentiment. The film launched a three-movie franchise.
How do you ensure that these new marketing strategies resonate with your target audience?
Working with a team of artists that were part of and appealed to the demographic was key, as well as tapping into what the story was really about — the two bellmen were like brothers, and despite their bickering, they had to come together to win the day. This provided the emotional core that proved satisfying for our target audience.
Can you share an example of something you tried that didn’t deliver expected results or ended up ended up becoming a financial burden, and what you learned from that experience?
We worked with a film company to create a “scare video” that we thought would strongly appeal to our audience, but it didn’t resonate and fell flat when people didn’t respond or share. We learned that we needed to get to the scare quicker and be more surprising to be effective creatively, which is key to an effective campaign.
Great. Now, let’s dive into the heart of our interview. Could you list “5 Innovative & Non Traditional Marketing Strategies That Can Engage Audiences Like Never Before”?
Sure, happy to. Here’s a link to a video where I talk about them: https://youtu.be/ohVVtaKIWgY
And for your readers…
1. Create a branded entertainment universe. For oral healthcare brand SuperMouth, we created and produced a film that told an emotional story about a family coming together through the power of smiles that also happened to be a superhero adventure in the vein of Guardians of the Galaxy meets The Incredibles with dental superheroes. We also created a comic book prequel, a music video for a song commissioned for the movie called “Smile”, and held a live interactive event for the kids at the film premiere where they got to help the heroes defeat the supervillain Cavitar and his Sugar Bugs. We even teamed up with a few influencers who created videos with us. We pushed all this out through PR and reached just under one billion unique visitors monthly across media.
2. Produce an interactive out-of-home campaign that continues the story on mobile. For Essentia Water, we were tasked with shooting out-of-home content at the same angle as video content so that when you used Snapchat to Snap an image of the campaign at a bus stop or on a billboard, the image would come to life on video and the story would continue. The campaign itself was called “The Overachievers” and followed people who overachieved in their own lives as we got to know them, including an NBA player, a rodeo champion, and an up-and-coming singer on Def Jam Records. The campaign helped Essentia Water become the fastest-growing water company in the world.
3. Create the world’s largest artwork as a social campaign. For Japan Airlines, our goal was to raise awareness among travelers outside Japan. As creative director, I came across GPS artist Yassan, who at the time had traveled by foot, train, bus, however he could, across the three major islands of Japan, uploaded his GPS to Google Maps, and spelled out the words “Marry Me” to his girlfriend at the time! Fortunately she said yes! Cut to a few years later, when we were able to give him the opportunity to break the world record he set 14 times over, this time traveling to 19 cities across six continents, meeting people around the world to press the button on his phone and activate the GPS on the next leg of his journey. In 41 days, he returned home, where he uploaded the data to Google Earth and showed his family what he created, spelling out the word “PEACE” on Earth. People could follow his journey on social media and in a video card that Yassan, Japan Airlines, and travelers shared during the holiday season.
4. Show a film before a film. A way to reach a major movie-going population in India was to create a 60-second film about a young man who traveled across the country in search of the spot on the mountain in the photo his late father left him to fulfill his father’s dream, which was shown in theatres throughout the country prior to the movies our audiences were attending on behalf of outdoor clothing company Woodland. This moving piece reached an estimated 150 million people.
5. Celebrate International Women’s Day with a toy line. We worked with Mattel to produce brand videos #MoreRoleModels and “Inspiring Women” that showcased Mattel’s new line of Barbie role models including Katherine Johnson, Amelia Earhart, and Frida Kahlo, while sending the message to young girls everywhere that they can be anything. Along with other content for the brand we produced, Barbie saw a 12% sales jump that quarter and 24% year over year worldwide.
What challenges might companies face when transitioning away from traditional marketing strategies, and how can they overcome them?
The real challenges are working with the right team with a track record of coming up with great creative and can also execute to pull off truly unique branded entertainment that will stand out from the crowd and resonate at a deeper level, as well as know how to properly promote it, and to give it the right investment to succeed on all cylinders. The right partner knows how to create and plan without breaking the bank.
How do you measure the success and ROI of these new marketing strategies?
Measuring the success and ROI is similar to measuring more traditional strategies, but it depends on the particular KPI.
Looking forward, how do you see the role of innovative marketing evolving in the next 5–10 years?
As audiences continue to be more traditional advertisement-adverse, finding ways to entertain yet still get a message or philosophy across as a brand without feeling like an ad will become more essential. Storytelling is not going away, no matter what the service is to deliver it.
What advice would you give to business leaders who are hesitant to move away from traditional marketing methods?
Discuss with the right non-traditional marketers that fit your brand and have had real results, so that you can set aside an investment to try out these methods. You don’t have to bet the farm, but with the right team, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you 68X to 272X your spend in ROI, as in the case of our partners.
Can you share any upcoming initiatives or plans you have for further innovating your marketing strategies?
We are currently applying our innovative creative thinking to several social media strategies for some of our clients to increase sales and position them as leaders in their field.
How can our readers follow your work and learn more about your approaches to modern marketing?
Feel free to visit us at https://luxhammer.com and drop us a line there, or follow us on Instagram at https://instagram.com/luxhammerllc
This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
Breaking the Marketing Mold: Evan J Cholfin Of LUXHAMMER On 5 Innovative & Non Traditional Marketin was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.