USO Case Study

Video/stills

• USO - Nerves of Steel

• USO Aftermath

• USO Portraits-Invisible Wounds of War

Client

Williams Whittle Associates, Alexandria, Va USO, Washington,DC

Services

Agency Broadcast Producer role; complete location live action production services; Postproduction supervision

Challenge/requirements

In 2003, the USO was an organization trapped in it’s own glorious past; identified chiefly as the vehicle for Bob Hope’s famous shows for the troops that started in WWII. Few if any, of the general public had any clue what the USO represented in the modern world, and most assumed that it was a government agency, not an NFP that relied on donations for its ability to provide services to military service men and women, worldwide.

Solution

In order to revive a beloved, but moribund organization with an identity problem, Williams Whittle Creative Director, Rich Park, proposed a strategy that would cast the USO as an essential service component to today’s military personnel all over the world. The focus was on what the USO was doing today and how they were doing it, assiduously avoiding any mention of the entertainment aspect of the organization. The PSAs were set in the real world with real people doing real activities within the scope of USO services. Williams Whittle also employed an aggressive, unique, proprietary media placement strategy that got these spots played on stations in every market in the country, dramatically increasing awareness and exposure for the USO.

Creative concept

The PSA’s we shot always featured real soldiers and sailors, as well as actual USO employees and volunteers and they were shot on military bases throughout the country. There was always an element of real emotion that the viewer could feel in every spot. We shot, for the most part, two spots a year from 2003 through 2012. The PSAs in the first few years concentrated on getting the public to know the real USO of today. Eventually, the agency identified specific themes to address, and the last couple of years, we produced powerful spots on wounded warriors and the invisible wounds of war (PTSD).

Live action shoot

The first production we did for the USO, Statues, took place at the Anacosta Naval Base in Washington, DC, as well as at iconic memorial sites throughout the Washington/Virginia area. We captured footage at the Iwo Jima Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and at several other famous statues in the area. The result was a fascinating, intimate scan of each statue, culminating with live portraits of current military personnel from every branch of service and ending with the emotional payoff, “until every one comes home.”

We shot in USO centers in airports, like BMI, and filmed service members arriving from overseas and departing for deployments. We shot on military bases from Virginia to San Diego, collecting stories and special moments along the way. In every case, we used local crews and vendors, with only John Anderson and Rich Park, and occasionally a Director of Photography, traveling to each location.

Many of the later productions were done in El Paso, Texas and on the grounds of Fort Bliss, the gigantic Army base there. The Fort was the primary training facility for soldiers who would be deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq, due to the similarity in climate and geology. The cooperation we got from both the Army and the local USO facilities was unbelievable. We were able to shoot spots that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for a fraction of that because of the support we were given with regards to facilities, locations, personnel, vehicles and access.

Perhaps our most unforgettable shoot took place in San Diego, where we were shooting footage that would eventually be part of several videos. We shot on every base in the city, as well as at Camp Pendleton, where we had the privilege of driving up there in the dark so that we could film marines working out at 5am. The next day, we were picked up on a Camp Pendleton beach by LSTs and brought onto the mini carrier, SS Pelalu, which was on a tiger cruise enroute from the middle east to San Diego.

We spent the night on the ship, ate in the mess hall, slept in bunks and got up pre-dawn for the arrival into San Diego harbor. Fireboats shooting plumes of water marked our arrival and every sailor was standing at the ship’s rails in their dress whites. Thousands of people were gathered on the Navy Pier to greet their loved ones who had been away for months or more. We were let off first, so that we could film the lucky sailors who got to disembark before anyone else. The outpouring of emotion-love, relief, happiness-was unbelievable, and that scene has stayed with me forever.

Timeline

We shot, for the most part, two spots a year from 2003 through 2012, as well as some specialty videos for Fox Memorial Day, featuring Medal of Honor winner, Jack Jacobs, and a video promoting the Liberty Belles, the entertainment troop for the USO.

Results

During the nine-year run when we were shooting those two spots a year, the USO routinely racked up the most broadcast air time value of any organization. The spots were of a higher quality than most PSAs of the time, and always carried an emotional impact. For this reason, as well as the timely nature of the “support our troops” message, the spots were consistently aired in prime time on highly rated programs, especially sports telecasts. Donations to the USO dramatically increased during this time as their image and reputation was completely changed.