To mark its anniversary, The Local Collective presents a (completely true) case study

The Local Collective is celebrating its fourth birthday with a new case study video presenting the agency’s (frankly unbelievable) accomplishments.

“The World’s Most Successful Case Study…Ever!” is a substitute for the sizzle reel that has become the standard promotional tool for agencies wishing to show off their creative credentials.

Instead, the two-and-a-half minute video uses a mix of news media, celebrity interviews, and stock footage to jokingly present The Local Collective as the agency behind the enormous popularity of going “local,” which has been espoused by everyone from LeBron James to Jeff Bezos and the Obamas.

The video features a host—simply named “Me”—who walks viewers through how the Toronto-based agency was instrumental in making “local” such a powerful and popular idea. Stuffed with ad lingo, it attributes the growth of local to the use of “subconscious environmentally neutral conversation starters” based on a “patented digital algorithm” while leveraging placement and day-part behaviours.

The results are, well, literally unbelievable: More than 122 trillion media impressions, translation into 10,000 languages, and more than 1.2 million celebrity mentions.

“It’s now everywhere, and you didn’t even know it was them,” says Me at the end of the spot. “Impressive? Very. And also very completely true. So if you’re looking for agency partner to help build your business, remember, if they did this for themselves, imagine what they could do for you.”

The Local Collective co-founder and chief creative officer Matt Litzinger called it a “nudge nudge wink wink” statement about the case study videos that have become such a crucial element of agency outreach and outwards show submissions.

His agency has created recap videos in the past, and probably will again, he said, but four years felt like enough of a milestone to do something different.

“Instead of showing the great work we’ve done, we thought maybe we should show more of the way we think as a company, which is generally to try and create things that are watchable and shareable,” he said.

“What we all do in this industry, and have a lot of fun doing, is not necessarily an easy job. It’s hard on client partners, it’s hard on agencies. Everybody does their best to have a great time doing a difficult task, and that’s why any victory should be celebrated by all of us.”

Presumably that means each of the agency’s 3 million employees.

 

Chris Powell