Producer | Director |Editor
"Johnny Carson: The Immersive Experience" is a multi-million dollar multimedia attraction at the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York. The cutting edge exhibit features a 360° immersive video experience, hosted by a hologram of Jimmy Fallon. The campaign to promote both it and a live event entitled "Carson Tonight" that kicked off the exhibits opening weekend, brought together the estate of the undisputed King of Late Night and the Nation's Official Cultural Institution for Comedy in a first of it's kind partnership. The campaign would cover promotion of the event and exhibit, and double as a funding tool.
Creatively, the pieces had to be on-brand with Johnny's Tonight Show, and were centered in large part around one of the most iconic set pieces in television history: The Tonight Show curtain. Liberal use of archival Tonight Show footage was critical to the creative, while maintaining it's quality in modern resolutions provided a challenge. Effectively incorporating archival elements into modern sensibilities was key from a design perspective.
The center-piece of the campaign was a video that not only showcased the features of the exhibit, but put into context the importance of Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show. This video would be front and center on a slew of digital and social buys, and would air regionally in and around Lake Eerie markets including Buffalo, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh.
As a non-profit, The Comedy Center depends greatly on gifts and grants to operate it's award winning center in Western New York. This video helped secrue millions in funding from public and private entities to continue the Center's mission in telling the essential story of comedy.
A digital ad was created for social buys around the holiday season, which spiked attendance in an otherwise slow tourism time for the region.
A live event entitled "Carson Tonight" would reunite many original tonight show guests for a special one-night-only event promoting the opening of the exhibit. Co-hosted by original Tonight Show Producer & President of Carson Entertainment Jeff Sotzing as well as famed Actor & Comedian Pat Hazel, this event would draw a sold-out crowd to the Reg Lenna Theatre in Jamestown, NY.
