CLEVELAND — Unlocking your imagination with reading is the goal behind a new commercial conceptualized, produced, and directed by WKYC Studios’ Marketing Creative Manager Ryan Radefeld. It highlights a new partnership between WKYC Studios, the Cleveland Reads campaign, and the Immersive Disney Animation experience.
The project was filmed at WKYC Studios by Videographer Joseph Garman. Others on the production team included Roselyn Muñiz and Andrew Fornadel. Director of Advocacy and Community Initiatives Margaret Bernstein served as Executive Producer.
Cleveland Reads is a project that has been going on all year, launched by Cleveland Public Library and Mayor Justin Bibb's office, and many community supporters. WKYC has been a partner since day one. The campaign challenges Greater Cleveland residents to collectively read one million books and/or one million minutes.
This commercial highlights the power of reading and the imaginative journey that children take while reading Disney stories. To bring the creative narrative to life, the team employed a little “Disney magic” of their own that will leave you amazed. With the help of visual effects (VFX) and green screen technology, children fly over London as seen in “Peter Pan,” feel the magic of “Frozen,” and discover Mirabel’s true gift in “Encanto.”
Local children who starred in the project received free books, courtesy of WKYC Studios and the Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank. They also received free admission to the Immersive Disney Animation experience, currently on exhibit through Sept. 4 at Lighthouse Artspace, 850 E. 72nd St., Cleveland.
Immersive Disney has come aboard as one of the newest partners for the reading initiative, donating 200 free tickets to the exhibit to be used as Cleveland Reads prizes. The immersive exhibit uses 60 digital projectors, in a 500,000-cubic-square-foot gallery, to surround guests in the music, images and stories of Disney’s most iconic animated films.
The commercial’s goal: To capture the magic of Immersive Disney Animation and connect it to summer reading, by showing children enjoying reading and letting their imaginations soar.
For Radefeld, it’s his latest effort to craft memorable video projects showcasing WKYC’s community outreach work. In 2019, Radefeld received a Gold Promax and 3 Emmy awards for his “Bigger Than Basketball” commercial featuring LeBron James that highlighted the station’s partnership with the LeBron James Family Foundation.
So far during the Cleveland Reads campaign, close to 200,000 books have been read. And participants have read more than 3,000,000 minutes.
“[The campaign] will benefit the city in so many ways,” said Mayor Justin Bibb, during an interview on “We The People,” WKYC Studios’ community engagement show. “As we saw coming out of the pandemic, many of our children need to get caught up in their ability to read.”
To register for the Cleveland Reads challenge click here.