Bruce's Furniture Radio  This series of over 40 commercials, (click here for sample scripts) aired since 1994, was specifically designed by Zero Gravity to set Bruce's apart from the competition and to help them gain top of mind awareness.  The spots produced remarkable results for Bruce's.  Shortly after we began the series, a number of new people began to come in the store. Some of them, being pleasantly surprised, asked the sales associates why they never advertised before.  In fact they had been advertising, the only thing that had changed was the creative. 


Bruce's Web Site  The site Zero Gravity produced for Bruce's Furniture (www.brucesfurniture.com) takes the characters created for Bruce's radio and brings them to life (well, cartoon-life), building on the brand equity already established. Annie and Brenda guide the visitor through the site, offering financing programs, special pricing on features and clearance as well as giving directions to the store, all intended to drive traffic to the store. The site invites the visitor to join the Bruce's Bounty Club, a preferred shopper program that Zero Gravity is developing with Bruce's to build customer loyalty. The site will be supported by a radio campaign. We are currently planning to integrate Annie and Brenda's cartoon images in other aspects of Bruce's marketing. To explore the site, click here. (Click here for the corresponding radio scripts.)

Gazebo Room Outdoor  We took the client's rough idea for outdoor and directed the creation of a two-part billboard tease campaign (including original photography) to introduce two new products that extend the brand equity of this rapidly-growing Mechanicsburg-based packaged foods producer.


 Giant Foods/ Hersheypark television  This 35mm film commercial, directed by Hooper and produced at JPL Productions, stretched the envelope for special effects in a relatively moderate budget commercial. (click for storyboard) The concept (contributed by Michael Pavone of Pavone: a thinkbank and Michael Endy of JPL Productions) was to "turn the grocery store into an amusement park ride." The storyboard required some very complicated effects -- involving shooting foreground plates over a green screen of a girl in a shopping cart and placing that image over a background plate of a blurring grocery store aisle.  Another shot we designed involved hanging our "Mom" over a green screen floor to give the effect of her hanging on for dear life to the handlebar of a rapidly moving grocery cart.  The client warned us that she is never satisfied with the first cut of their commercials.  Until this one: for the first time in her tenure, she had no changes. The commercial was so successful that Giant ran it for a second season.

DCA brochure, Web site, trade booth  The Dialysis Corporation of America, headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, came to us needing some help with a brochure. We assessed their needs, studied the competition, got a feel for the company and developed a look for them. The brochure was designed to have a consistent message, while having flexibility for updating without reprinting. The material proved so successful, that DCA hired us to carry the look over into both a web site and a trade show booth.

 

Heritage Parks Print and Video  This production, done for DCNR, was designed to market the concept of Pennsylvania's Heritage Parks to a variety of publics.  It included an illustrated map, a brochure, and supporting postcards and posters as well as a video presentation.  In addition to producing the video, we hired an illustrator to make the map, providing creative direction and strategy as well as project management.


Middletown Lumber Television  In the 1980's, Hooper wrote, produced and directed a series of television commercials for Middletown Lumber.  The commercials put Middletown Lumber "on the map," with a sizeable sales increase the first year and significant increases in subsequent years.

 

Brenner Motors advertising  Zero Gravity produced radio and television advertising for Brenner.  In the process, we persuaded them to brand their used car sales.  We created a name: "Smart Mart," and created supporting radio and signage to begin the branding.  We worked with Brenner on the specifics of their offer (30 day money back guarantee, etc.) from a marketing viewpoint.  One of their people reported that Smart Mart was "the best thing that ever happened to Brenner."

Keystone Health Plan Central television  Working with Keystone's Marketing Communications people, we wrote and produced a television commercial whose cast included three children under 4 and a Golden Retriever. The spot, shot on 16mm film for Keystone, won the national Vision award. (click for storyboard)

 

Wal-Mart live show  The product managers at Hershey Foods Corporation wanted to make a big splash with their new Sweet Escapes line of confectionery to their biggest customer -- Wal-Mart.  The catch: neither Hershey Foods or the name of their then secret product could be mentioned. Instead of fighting the secrecy, we decided to take advantage of it: we produced a multi-media spy spoof involving video segments interacting with live actors. We flew to Birmingham, Alabama to staged our "James Blond" show for hundreds of enthusiastic Wal-Mart managers.  After the second show, Wal-Mart's President came backstage and thanked us for the best presentation of their annual meeting. It won the Creativity-26 national award.

The Bon-Ton advertising  As the director of Broadcast Advertising for The Bon-Ton, Josh Hooper wrote produced and directed all of their radio and television (16mm film) and collaborated with the Senior VP of Marketing and Sales Promotion to strategize effective advertising across all the media.

 

Just Cabinets Advertising  Zero Gravity developed a strategy and produced a campaign promoting Just Cabinets unfinished furniture business around the theme "I Did It." It included television, outdoor, and radio.

 

Pennsylvania Department of Health television spots  Josh Hooper directed this series of Public Service spots touting the need to immunize by the age of two. Three sets of commercials were shot on 35mm film with three sets of moms and three sets of infants. The day was spent swapping casts in an effort to catch whichever infant was in the best mood.

Other multimedia projects While at JPL, Josh Hooper was involved on a number of CD-ROM projects including a CD-ROM project for Tyco Electronics's Marketing Department, promoting their MTRJ connector to customers and prospective customers. 

 

Los Angeles  Josh Hooper was a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute's Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies.  He was an Observing Director on thirtysomething, Murphy Brown, and a movie of the week, My Brothers's Wife.  On another movie of the week, A Killer among Us, he served as Assistant Producer.  He was the Associate Producer of an independent feature, Peabody Nevada (which unfortunately never got released.)  He wrote and produced movie promos for Columbia Pictures and others.  He also appeared in the movie of the week Lucy and Desi: Before the Laughter and did improv for two Los Angeles improv companies.

 

PM Magazine  In the 1980's Hooper appeared on WGAL-TV as the host of the nationally syndicated PM Magazine. He also served as Field Producer/Writer for the show with eight of his stories selected for national distribution.

 

 

(return to top)

(return to Zero Gravity home page)

(Updated 9/2003)

 

CONTACT
Wanna talk? To see the work in person,
or to plan your next marketing project,
call 717-975-8705 or e-mail.


(Return to top)

 

  

 

 

All rights reserved.
All material is the intellectual property of the advertisers with the exception of
Bruce's Furniture, Brenner Automotive and Middletown Lumber
which are (c) 1985-2007 Zero Gravity Marketing & Advertising.
Unauthorized usage is a violation of federal and international copyright law.
For usage licensing, e-mail Zero Gravity.