Iowa State Fair — "Fever" Music Video

Client: Iowa State Fair · Agency: Hatch · Featuring: Bradford Johnson

Filmed in DES MOINES, IA

Overview

Luminary has made Iowa State Fair commercials with Des Moines agency Hatch for several years. For this one, everyone wanted to shake it up. Hatch's idea: what if the fair had its own song? Jacob brought in Des Moines songwriter and hometown favorite Bradford Johnson to write an original track around that year's theme, Fair Fever. The result is a commercial that plays like a real music video.

The Challenge

How do you make a music video in thirty seconds? A music video normally has three to five minutes to build its story. In thirty seconds, viewers needed to understand that this was an original song, that Bradford and his band were performing it, and still see the iconic things that make the fair the fair.

The Idea

Let the song come from the fair itself. Before a single lyric was written, we took Bradford and the band to the fair and filmed them living it: the food vendors, the rides, the giant yellow slide, with fairgoers treating them like rock stars. Bradford wrote the song from that experience, so the track and the footage share the same DNA.

The Craft

Bradford wrote a full song; the spot uses a verse and a chorus. As the edit took shape, we found it needed a performance anchor, so we set the band up in a local dive bar and filmed several takes of them playing the track. That bar gave the piece an organic, unmistakably Iowa feel and grounded it in Bradford as a real working musician. Cut against the color and chaos of the fair, the warm performance footage is what sells it as a music video rather than a jingle. Jacob directed, shot, and edited the spot, and mixed the track to work for the thirty-second cut.

Working with the team

Hatch has been a close Luminary partner for many years, and this project grew from that trust: an agency willing to try something new, a client game to go with it, and a local artist who gave the fair a song of its own.

Out of years of fair commercials, this is the one people remember. Ask anyone involved — Hatch, the Iowa State Fair, the band — and they'll call it "the music video," usually with a smile.
Directed, shot, and edited by Jacob Moyer, who also mixed the soundtrack for broadcast. Original song written and produced by Bradford Johnson, performed with his band. Brought to life with our trusted team of craftspeople — art direction, wardrobe, hair and makeup, food styling, lighting, and grip — who help us build every project alongside our clients.

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