Check out our Brand New Commercial Vignettes featuring Ada Health!
Introducing Ada Health
Ada Health was created to bring powerful and accurate symptoms assessments to the masses. Since 2016, their App and intelligent AI technology has helped millions all across the world access the healthcare guidance they need. In 2022, they came to Grey Sky Films to create a series of commercials to create brand awareness to help improve severe COVID-19 health outcomes in the US thanks to their new Ada Eligibility Questionnaire, which not only can indicate if users meet risk criteria for progression to severe COVID-19 – including those with pre-existing conditions like asthma, diabetes or COPD – but also help assess their eligibility for severe COVID-19 treatment. Thereafter, if eligible, Ada can also help users quickly and seamlessly connect to doctors via telehealth to learn about their treatment options.Creative Conceptualization of the Commercial Vignettes
This innovation needed to make a splash, and they wanted to create something lighthearted and memorable. During our creative research and development, we discovered that Ada was a real woman. Ada Lovelace was an early pioneer of computer programming and led some of the earliest explorations of the potential for computers back in the 1800s. Her legacy is what inspires the team at Ada Health to use the power of AI to improve health outcomes – they named their company after her! We found that to be truly inspiring and immediately had the idea of bringing Ada to life. For this series of commercial vignettes, we wanted to hyper focus on the target audience – folks at high-risk for developing severe COVID-19. With guidance from Ada Health, we wrote commercial vignettes that featured four different individuals – someone with diabetes, someone with COPD, a senior, and a caregiver responsible for her elderly parent’s health. In each of these scenarios, the individuals exhibit signs of a cold, flu, or possibly, COVID-19. They don’t know that they are at high risk for developing severe COVID, so “Ada” enters the scene like a loving mother, offering her warmth, compassion, guidance and support. She is Ada Health personified. Then she hands each person a phone with the new Ada Eligibility Questionnaire, encouraging them to take it e. Each user then learns about their risk criteria and is able to assess eligibility for treatment and thereafter if eligible connect with a doctor via telehealth to learn about treatment options and get the help needed, fast. After a few rounds of creative pitching, the idea was approved and we jumped into pre-production!Pre-Production
Talent
With 4 different commercial vignettes to set up, this was a big production, and perhaps one of the most important pieces was finding the right talent. We needed to cast talent to be each of the high-risk individuals, and of course, we needed to find our Ada. We also needed to be mindful in terms of diversity in age, gender and ethnicity when it came to casting our high-risk individuals, because COVID-19 can affect everyone differently. Ada Health did a lot of research and discovered that certain ethnicities are more affected by certain pre-existing conditions, so we did extensive casting to find actors that fit the bill.
Wardrobe
While our high-risk individuals would be in comfortable, casual clothing, we really wanted to make Ada pop. Taking guidance from an illustration of Ada Lovelace on the Ada Health website, we incorporated a flower crown, and delicate, feminine textures to her clothing. It was our intention that she would be a beacon of hope, light and love in each of the spots. We also wanted to gently incorporate brand colors into the wardrobe design, so our stylist was mindful to pull through various tones and textures that matched. We aimed for more muted, or less saturated versions of their color palette, knowing that our set designer would also be bringing the brand colors into their designs.
Set Design
Because our intention was to film in only one location and be able to create four different “looks” out of the location, we chose Butter Tree Studios. They are flexible, spacious and have a plethora of shooting locations within one studio location.
We scouted the location to decide where we would film each commercial vignette, knowing we would be bringing in new furniture and textiles to bring each scene to life. We found the existing living room set would be perfect for the Diabetic Vignette after bringing in new furniture pieces and textiles to create a cozy bachelor-esque living room for.
The existing upstairs kitchen set would work for our Senior Vignette once we brought in some more character with a new table and background props.
We decided to build a second living room set for our Caregiver Vignette as that scene had the most characters and it needed room to breathe. We built two new walls along the white cyc and added in windows and french doors to give the space a feeling of a shared environment like an assisted living facility or large older home.
And finally, our favorite scene was for our COPD Vignette. We brought the outdoors, indoors, by building a floating deck, lining it with temporary fencing, trees and a large outdoor backdrop. We also brought in patio furniture and a grill to add some more authenticity to the setting.
Production
We filmed over the course of 4 days with 1 build day, so 5 production days total. Each film day was focused on a different high-risk commercial vignette. There were some challenges with a production schedule this tight. We needed to make sure every set was finished being built and propped out in time.
In order to make our schedule, we did include a build day on the Saturday before we began principal filming due to scheduling. But a single day wasn’t enough to build four separate sets, so we focused our build day on the first two set-ups we intended to film that week. And since we were not recording any sound, we continued to build the other 2 sets as we began filming that Monday and Tuesday.
Additionally, because we did not have a break down day at the end of our production, we planned for longer shoot days so that once each commercial vignette was filmed in its entirety, we had time at the end of each day to break down the sets. The pressure was on to ensure we got everything we needed for each commercial vignette in a single day because once the sets were dismantled, there was no going back!
Lastly, another challenge was Ada’s hair, make-up and wardrobe. She was the only character who carried over from one vignette to the next, so her look needed to be consistent across every production day so that she looked identical in each spot.
