Amarillo is beauty where so many would have told you it couldn’t exist. It’s Emily Wallace spinning on that piece of plywood at the fairground. It’s a 19 year old kid with dreams of being a bull rider, it’s a young family and single momma. It’s the cook at your favorite restaurant. It’s the heroes working in the hospitals and in public service. It’s those that haul cattle and refine oil. It’s a cellist and those that get up and go to work every single day. Amarillo is home. And the folks here are damn proud of it.
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Role: Project Strategy (lead) + Copywriter (support) + Art Director (support)
Project Type: Storytelling
Medium: Longform Video, OTT, Broadcast
“Amarillo by Morning.” That’s probably the most recognizable line about this big-little city on the plains of West Texas. Frankly, to many people across the country, that’s all they know about the place. Amarillo is just a stop on the way to “someplace better.”
But if you live here. If you’ve taken the time to see what this city has to offer, experience the community and opportunity and fruits of its toil, then you know that Amarillo is so much more than a stat on a news cast or a line in a song by Mr. Strait. There’s what others think of Amarillo and then there’s what we know about home. That was the genesis for the creative on this project.
This asset was meant to Inspire Amarillo. Not some dot on the map, not just this place with some cows and some oil and crops and a couple hundred thousand people; but rather the lynchpin of the American Midwest. “I Am Amarillo” was born out of the desire to showcase the grit, tenacity, and character of our home on the High Plains.
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we’re humble folk. We’re taught not to brag. Just do your work, do it well, and to move right along. And there it was. Amarillo needed to set the record straight. Amarillo has had enough outside people try to tell our story. It’s time Amarillo spoke for itself. Amarillo needed to speak for itself, and speak directly to the audience. So we created a project where Amarillo did just that.
We partnered with local poet Seth Wieck to craft the words. The direction was pretty straightforward. “It needs to kick like a mule. It needs to be gritty and poetic. This copy needs to come from a place of great pride and self-recognition. As if Amarillo is finally voicing what it knows about itself.
We made a point to wink at even some of the more common things we face as Amarilloans like the wind or the dust. All of it is intentional so as to give the viewer a true sense of who/what Amarillo is. As you watch the piece, you’ll notice a lot of wide-angles, quick moves, fast paced edits. All of it tells a story. Amarillo is showcasing some of the best parts of itself. This isn’t a love letter, it’s a “bull in a ballet.”