Going Back to the Future with USA TODAY
Great Scott! 30 years in the making lead to one monumental marketing opportunity for USA TODAY. The iconic media brand played a pivotal role in the 1989 movie Back to the Future II in which Doc Brown time travels into the future and learns from the newspaper that Marty McFly's future son will be jailed on October 22, 2015. When—spoiler alert—they go back and change the course of future events, the fictional October 22 cover is shown again with an alternate outcome.
"This movie had some great product placement, so we knew this was a great chance to have some fun with branded content," said Matt Urbanos, VP of Brand and Creative Strategy at Gannett, adding, "This was a moment that was 30 years in the making, and there was no way we were going to let it pass by. We also felt this was the perfect opportunity to show brands how we can effectively partner with them across all our platforms."
In August 2015, as the USA TODAY Brand Marketing team was playfully designing a replica of the physical printed newspaper prop seen in the film (above), I volunteered to faithfully recreate the "futuristic" film version of the USA TODAY masthead logo and extend this promotion to our digital platforms.
For the newspaper prop replica, it was crucial to capture the USA TODAY brand exactly as seen in the movie. Keen-eyed fans would certainly notice if we did not get it right. After some extensive research and combing through font libraries, it was clear the futuristic logo was a custom hand-drawn typeface, specifically designed for the movie prop. This meant that I had to digitally recreate the logo from scratch, as well as the entire font alphabet. Fortunately, the blocky sans-serif type was fairly simplistic.
Compare the predicted Back to the Future II movie logo version for USA TODAY (above) with the actual brand, as it appeared in 1985 and the redesigned version from 2015.
For USA TODAY's desktop and mobile websites, I took some artistic liberties and created variations on the movie logo for each of the main news sections. These needed to be designed more horizontal to better fit the allocated space on the website header. These would appear on our digital platforms for only two days during the "Back to the Future" day promotion on October 21 and 22, 2015. Sure, these are a bit silly and over the top, but they retain the spirit and aesthetic true to the classic film.
In addition to the prominent product placement of the USA TODAY newspaper, a subtle companion movie prop was also created for the film — a hovering "news-gathering droid". Although quadcopter technology was rapidly becoming mainstream by the 2010s, USA TODAY had not yet employed unmanned drones for journalistic purposes as of 2015.
My colleague, Kevin Goff and I were determined to make this movie prediction a reality and immediately pitched the idea to the USA TODAY Marketing team. We only had a couple months to design and build the drone to be ready in time for the WereGoingBack.com fan celebration event at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.
Although inspired, the USA TODAY reporter drone seen in the movie (above) was simply not practical to be recreated. We needed to design something that was technically feasible, but was also sleek, unique and allow for prominent display of the USA TODAY brand while in flight. The concept sketch below is the version that ultimately informed the direction for the final product, built by RC mad scientist Peter Sripol of Flite Test.
As a fan of the movies, this was such an amazing opportunity and pop culture project to be a part of. Special shout out to Matt Urbanos, who spearheaded this effort, as well as many others from Gannett and USA TODAY, including Dana Mitchell, Natalie McDonald, Rebecca Renner, Jodi Gersh, Robert Klause, and of course my partner in crime, Kevin Goff.
In addition, this effort could not have been realized if it were not for our talented partners at Flite Test, including Austin Furey, Peter Sripol, Josh Bixler and Dave Knop. Lastly, thanks to Joe Walser for inviting and accommodating USA TODAY at the "We're Going Back" fan celebration events at Universal Studios, Los Angeles and Fillmore, California.
In addition, this effort could not have been realized if it were not for our talented partners at Flite Test, including Austin Furey, Peter Sripol, Josh Bixler and Dave Knop. Lastly, thanks to Joe Walser for inviting and accommodating USA TODAY at the "We're Going Back" fan celebration events at Universal Studios, Los Angeles and Fillmore, California.
