The trailer aims to drum up attention for the Rams brand ahead of the draft, but according to Lexi Vonderlieth, L.A. Rams VP of brand strategy, it also helps to underscore a unique aspect of the sports team. “Any marketer gets excited when you find things that are different about your brand, and the draft for us, is a really big part of that,” she said. “It’s really tied to true insight of who we are as a team and what makes us different, the way Les Snead and Sean McVay approach the draft. Les Snead does his trades innovatively and differently, there’s been so much conversation about that, good and bad, but it is what makes us different and we stuck to it and proved the success of it. We wanted to take that as an idea and market it.”
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The film was created in-house by the L.A. Rams' marketing department alongside Ventureland, the entertainment offshoot of commercial production company Prettybird, the independent creative studio founded by Kerstin Emhoff and Ali Brown, partners of top commercial production firm Prettybird, and award-winning producer John Battsek (“Searching for Sugar Man,” “One Day in September”). The film was directed by Prettybird co-founder Paul Hunter, with cinematography by three-time Oscar winner Bob Richardson (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”). The Rams’ marketing team worked with Ventureland Executive Creative Director Mike Rosen and Executive Producer Natasha Wellesley to develop the script.
The film was shot over multiple days in Los Angeles, including the scene of the Rams’ Big Game win at SoFi Stadium as well as the new Rocket Mortgage Drafthouse in the Hollywood Hills, a posh Hollywood home that has been converted into Snead and McVay’s draft headquarters from April 28-30.
The idea spins out of the first draft house last year, which had been located in Malibu. “Draft House was a physical activation that we brought to life based on the fact that we just do things differently,” she said. This year’s location works in lockstep with the trailer. “This becomes another piece of, how do you make a film that feels Hollywood?”