Creative Direction & Product Launches

When something new is being introduced and the story for it does not exist yet: a product launch, a category the audience has never seen, a rebrand that needs a centrepiece, a repositioning that has to change what people already believe.

Also when the product is genuinely hard to explain — new technology, a complex service, something that only makes sense once you have felt it. That is the case where more assets do not help and a decision about the idea does.

Most launches fail quietly. Not because the work was badly made, but because nothing at the centre held it together — three agencies, four formats, one week, and no single idea strong enough to make them feel like one event.

The second common failure is explanation. Teams close to a product describe how it works; audiences need to know why it matters, and usually decide within seconds.

• The central concept — the one idea the launch rests on, tested against the audience it has to move
• Narrative and structure: what is shown, in what order, and what is deliberately left out
• The visual world — look development, art direction, motion language, 3D and image-making
• Direction through production: working with directors, production companies, animators, editors and composers so the idea survives contact with schedules
• Coherence across every format the launch lands in, from the hero film down to the smallest cutdown

I work independently and bring in what the concept demands: a director and production company for film, animators and 3D artists for built worlds, illustrators, editors, sound. On projects run with an agency or an in-house team already in place, I take the creative-direction seat rather than duplicating it — the point is one person accountable for the idea, not another layer of review.

Hiring production means the idea is already fixed and needs building. Hiring creative direction means the idea is the thing being bought — including the decision to reject the obvious version of it.

If a brief arrives with the storyboard attached, production is cheaper and the right call. If it arrives with a problem, direction is what turns it into something worth producing.

Independent engagements typically begin at ₪30,000. Launches involving film, 3D or a full production team are scoped separately with the team the work requires. Read how to brief a creative director before writing — it is the fastest way to a useful first conversation.