Ian Brown Photography: Social Media Marketing and Advertising

The American Dream is many things. For some, it’s a reality. For some, it’s hope. And for some, it’s an obscure myth, a convoluted promise based on principles from a distant past, dividing the nation between prosperity and struggle. But despite the canyon that separates the nation between money and ideals, the idea of the American Dream is shared across the country, and many spend their whole lives on the journey across the chasm from dreams to reality.

Thereupon, an unforgiving curiosity lead photographer Ian Brown on a passion project across America that spanned nearly 12 years, in pursuit of unearthing the myth and collective idea of the American Dream. Traveling to all 50 states and covering 80,000 miles, Ian visited with hundreds of Americans to ask them, “What is your American Dream?”

To document the journey, he captured their portraits and collected handwritten stories from everyone he met. During the course of his travels, he had gathered more than just a few notes and pictures. Rather, he uncovered that the American Dream that exists now is vivid, yet different for everyone. The handwritten stories reveal that the Dream still permeates the very foundation of what it means to be an American, and serves as an invisible connection across the country between people regardless of their age, gender, race, religion, and culture. But the real stories of pain, struggle, joy, and peace are written on the faces of the people in the portraits.

Since video catches attention and engages audiences in several ways, we created a short teaser trailer video using Ian’s portraits and some footage from his travels to give viewers a peek into some of the pages of the book.

At the journey’s end, Ian knew that these stories needed to be shared, and so he compiled everything into a keepsake book and called it, "American Dreams, A collection of portraits and stories," which was finally published in the summer of 2020. The book contains an intimate collection of photographs, letters, and conversations, opening the window and giving an inside look at the lives of real American people, and what their American Dreams are.

What's more, in the midst of the pandemic and political unrest happening in the U.S. during the summer of 2020, all of Ian's promotional efforts were put on hold, which limited how he was able to share the stories and pictures he had collected. Having worked with Ian in the past for many of our client’s firm photography, we wanted to help him promote his book and share his remarkable work with the world.

Our goal was to help Ian increase awareness of his book to drive sales. We produced a short teaser trailer video using Ian’s portraits and some footage from his travels to give viewers a peek into some of the pages of the book. We wanted to strike an emotional chord with Americans, and create a piece that resonated with them on a deeper level. Through the combination of the portraits, the messaging, and the music, viewers can experience that invisible bond with the people in the portraits, and with all other Americans, as they continue to reach for the Dream together.

At a time in history when many are treading water and searching for purpose, American Dreams is a book for those yearning for something to connect them to the greater whole. Because Ian is a good friend of ours, and because we wanted to help him share his wonderful work, we took this on as one of our pro-bono projects for the year. We produced the teaser trailer video for Ian in-house, including writing the script, editing the video and motion graphics, and producing the sound. Likewise, we created several shorter video compilations from the main production for Ian to post periodically throughout his social channels, helping him to keep the momentum going of his book promotion for months down the road.