Charles Schwab - Raising Your Game - (2012) :30 (US)

Ready, set, trade - that's how easy it is to plunge into the financial markets with new tools from Charles Schwab. High-end creative collective QuietMan recently teamed up with Euro RSCG on a multi-spot campaign showing traders attacking the markets with Schwab's battery of analytical and informational resources. QuietMan CD Anthony Ferrara and EP Carey Gattyan led a team that delivered title and graphics work on the effort.

The QuietMan team completed a total of four :60 spots for two Charles Schwab campaigns. The three spot Active Trader campaign profiles traders at home as they use the Active Trader online toolset, while an additional spot for OptionsXpress follows brokers in a bustling office setting. Each video highlights Charles Schwab's top-of-the-line data analysis tools and expert remote team, enabling users to execute a dazzling array of financial trades in domestic and international markets.

"The floating environmental graphics are a product of the main character's mind, organizing themselves in ways that reflect the nature of his thoughts," stated Ferrara. "The quantity of floating graphics was something we had to always be mindful of, as we didn't want the products to come off as overly complex or unapproachable. Our approach cleanly lays out the information so that viewers can appreciate how customizable these products are and how well they simplify large quantities of data."

The campaign follows a previous effort by Schwab, and they asked QuietMan to hew to a set of graphical guidelines that would be consistent with the earlier spots. The studio worked closely with the ADs at EuroRSCG - an agency they have teamed up with many times in the past - to evolve the look without compromising the continuity of the campaign. The studio reached deep into their toolbox on the effort, recreating all in-screen content on Illustrator and Photoshop, tracking scenes in PFTrack, animating screens in After Effects, creating 3D elements in XSI, and knocking out the final composite in Flame.

Client: Charles Schwab
Spot Titles: Raising Your Game, Global, Trading Zone, OptionsXPress
Air Date: July 2012

Agency: Euro RSCG
Chairman, Euro RSCG NY/Chief Creative Officer, Global Brands: Lee Garfinkel
Executive Creative Director: Steve Kashtan
Creative Director: Alex Loomis
Associate Creative Director(s): Billy D'Ambrosio, Ron Rosen
Director of Integrated Production: Joe Guyt
Senior Producer: Arlene Steinwald
Producer: Erin Jackson
Director of Production, Business Affairs: Cathy Pitegoff

Editorial: The Cutting Room
Editor: Chuck Willis

Spots: Raising Your Game, Global, Trading Zone
Production Company: Gartner
Director: James Gartner
Executive Producer(s): Don Block, Rich Carter, Elaine Behnken

Environmental GFX & Demos: Quietman
Partner/Executive Producer: Carey Gattyan
Creative Director/Lead Flame Artist: Johnnie Semerad
Creative Director/Lead Designer: Anthony Ferrara
Producer: Jess Pierik

Spot: OptionsXPress
Production Company: Third Street Mining Company
Director: Neil Tardio
Executive Producer: John LaChapelle

Visual Effects: QuietMan
Partner / Executive Producer: Carey Gattyan
Creative Director / Lead Flame Artist: Johnnie Semerad
Creative Director / Lead Designer: Anthony Ferrara
Producer: Jess Pierik