Breakfast is a next generation ad agency with a quirky disposition. This serves their clients well as they are gifted in developing off-center, captivating and curious campaigns. With the ability to use technology in unique and imaginative ways, Breakfast devises memorable online experiences. Whether it’s a talking bicycle embarking on a coast to coast journey, or a blimp controlled by an iPad, Breakfast's unique approach is worth checking out.
Precious, the Bicycle with a Brain, was fitted with devices that allowed the bike to report what was happening from its own point of view. Developed to support a LiveStrong awareness campaign, the site allowed users to check in on Precious' 4,000 mile journey in real time. Events along the way were reported by the very precocious Precious and his rider Janeen.
We sat down with Breakfast's creative director Andrew Zolty to learn more about Precious and other projects his team has in the works.
You describe yourself as ‘a digital experiences company that's taking interactive and making it bleed into reality’. Can you help us understand what Breakfast is all about and who you serve?
BREAKFAST’s goal is to help brands, cities, museums, companies and anyone else find ways that bespoke technology can be built specifically for them to solve a problem, or make something better. More often than not we find ourselves focused on finding ways to take tools that primarily exist online and make them
beneficial in a physical space. These kind of things can materialize as a better way to order a pancake or a system that helps doctors keep a better eye on their patients.
How do you interpret Richard Schatzberger describing you as the Mythbusters of Advertising?
Well, we blow stuff up a lot!
This label portrays an image of physical experimentation to solve strange problems. What people imagine when they hear this is probably not far from the truth, as when you walk into our office you see piles of weird electronics, tools, wires and lots of mangled devices sitting on our shelves. Our favorite part of this
job is the R&D, where we experiment to find an entirely new way to solve a problem, and it usually involves smoke and flashing lights at some point. We get a lot of odd looks from our neighbors.
Precious the Bicycle
Precious was a project designed to benefit LIVESTRONG. It demonstrated a very creative form of end-user engagement. What was your aim when developing Precious the bike with a brain?
With a project like Precious, we’re trying to open up small-fascinating moments that most people will never experience first-hand and deliver them via the web in a different and unique way. We wanted to deliver more than just a live video feed.
We enjoy the game of trying to take something that has to last several months and keeping people engaged over that time. I think that’s what has made Precious so successful - it’s ability to take people on an adventure through fun, bite-size little moments of a talking bike.
How did Breakfast get involved in the project?
Janeen is a brilliant copywriter that I’ve worked with for years, and was one of the first to know about the creation of BREAKFAST. She came to us asking if we wanted to get involved knowing that we were looking to find some great projects to help launch our company. The rest is history.
How long did it take to develop Precious? Did this start with a ‘sit down’ with Livestrong, or did you bring the idea to them?
Janeen gave Precious his name when she first purchased him, and she even began to give him a personality prior to us chatting. It was when we started talking about what we could do for the trip that we realized it’d be brilliant if we could let Precious truly think and feel for himself.
This project was done entirely pro bono, and was done as a fundraiser to support LIVESTRONG, rather than them sponsoring the site directly. Once it crossed their radar it was great to see them get behind it and help promote it further. Lance’s tweet about it was a massive highlight for us.
Precious and Janeen McCrae wrote about their adventures in real-time. What were the challenges you faced to get the on-board device working?
The on-board device was a pain. The main issues were making it robust enough to be able to take some falls, the varying climates and, most painful of all, battery life. Janeen and Precious would often not see a power outlet for days, so it was important we could keep running for several days on end without a recharge.
What we ended up doing was having it push updates every 5 minutes, but could be woken at any moment if anything note worthy occurred - a big hill, high speeds, etc.
“Sign for Arapaho Wildlife Refuge in CO. I am wild! I belong here. Release me, human! I wish to run free!”
----Precious
Can you tell us a little bit about how you bring those Precious thoughts to us?
We get this question a lot. Janeen was responsible for creating the tone-of-voice of Precious, as well as dumping a lot of specific and non-specific verb-age into the backend system that is Precious’s brain. The brain analyzes all of the data as it comes in and determines what words to pull from.
This is actually an extremely complicated thing when you figure that we’re getting massive amounts of data every couple of minutes. The brain has to sort through it all, find what’s interesting, make sure it’s an appropriate time to talk, make sure it’s saying things that make sense, and then look ahead to see what else could be worthwhile in the coming hours. It also has to assess over time how it’s been feeling through the past week or month to know if it should act happy, mad, sad, or bored. This took many days and a lot of white-board scribbling to finally land on how to make this thing work.
73 days and 4,410 miles later - Precious and Janeen McCrae completed their amazing cross country journey.
I imagine the avid bicyclist is looking for a Precious of their own? Any interest in developing this for the normal Joe Cyclist?
Tons, and it’s a tough decision to make. In general, it’s a lot easier to make one of something than it is to focus on mass production. We generally look to make one-off bespoke devices, and only consider making more if there is a truly good reason. As of now, we’re much happier to move onto the next great invention
rather than loosing months on producing something from the past. That could change down the line, we’ll have to wait and see.
You define yourselves ‘as inventors who are trying to take all the amazingness of what can be done online and bring it into some sort of device or experience in the real world’. What was the transition like from your traditional corporate jobs into this world of amazingness? And where do we sign up?
We were able to make the transition through a massive amount of work. We didn’t have a lot of previous experience in developing for the physical world. We had great ideas, but weren’t educated on the development process itself. Over the last 2 years the team that now makes up BREAKFAST has spent every waking moment studying, researching and developing the skills to be able to concept and develop
in this space with consistent success. The transition is almost impossible unless you’re able to dedicate yourself to learning the skills it takes to actually build this stuff. If you have to bank entirely on outside vendors, you’ll never be able to concept ideas that truly leverage what’s possible.
I love the idea behind devising toys to flush out ideas and bring something that may be a bit off center into the lime light. What is one of your favorite Breakfast ‘toys’, and why?
It’s a bit sad that we don’t update that section enough. We actually have several toys sitting on our desks right now that we just haven’t had time to take a quick video of and upload.
I think our favorite toy of the moment is our new
“office-music democratizer”. It’s a device equipped with love and hate buttons that sits on the wall of our office. If anyone in the office is hating or loving the song that’s playing on the jukebox, they just hit the appropriate button which updates our last.fm or pandora
accounts. It’s an easy way for an office to sort out a music system that works for all. Keep an eye out for the video in a week or two.
A Toy From Breakfast
You hint at those ‘toys’ that were left as sketches, maybe not quite ready for prime time. Do you have a favorite little survivor?
We have a great little survivor that involves changing the way you answer your front door. Stay tuned on this guy as well.....
So this may be a little much to ask but can you give us a glimpse of what’s in the works?
Conan O'Brien and His Blimp
We’ve just launched
a little toy for Conan O’brien’s new show It was a rapid fire project where we were asked if we could knock something out from concept to launch in about two weeks. It’s a simple site that allows you to follow an actual real-live blimp that Conan will send aimlessly wandering across the country for the next few weeks. Also, this blimp is the first ever auto-updating location available on Foursquare, so when you see the blimp roaming around, you’ll be able to check-in to it. This project was a great test of the speed at which we could concept and develop a system that would reliably work at an altitude of 1500 ft for a month.
It’s inspirational to read about your process – think, draw, prototype, break. There seems plenty of room to explore, fail, and explore some more. Are there any plans to offer internships that may allow students to learn your process and work within your environment?
We’re constantly on the look out for people, but they need to be versed in a variety of things. Every project we do is so drastically different, so we need people that can wear many hats. People that can code, design, solder and concept. Not an easy find. We’re very much on the look out for good recruits. If anyone out
there has these kind of skills, we await your email! jobs@breakfastny.com
