About My 4Square Alibi by Sonya Cifuentes-Hiss
Hello, we are Famous Interactive. We’re a full-service digital agency based in Culver City, California. Nice to meet you.
Disclaimer:
We hope by now you’ve realized that My 4Square Alibi is a joke. We do not recommend that you use it to commit crimes. Nor do we recommend that you use your check-ins as evidence in a court of law, to cheat on your spouse or to neglect your children.
We do recommend that you use My 4Square Alibi to have a good laugh with friends and maybe get into a little harmless online mischief. Again, strong-armed robbery, prescription drug abuse and clandestine exotic pet theft are not playful mischief. Please remember this.
Why alibis?
We hear stories about uncensored social media posts and status updates leading to job firings, school suspensions, breakups and even home robberies, so we thought it’d be fun to turn the tables and combat this “overshare” phenomenon (in this case location-based check-ins) by using social media for free cover-up service.
Social media is supposed to make life easier, not harder, right?
So how did this all come about?
About 6 months ago, we started working on a transmedia storytelling campaign for Hungry-Man dinners. In short, the campaign chronicled the stories of three historical figures – Leonardo da Vinci, Genghis Khan, and Davy Crockett – on their epic quests to find Hungry-Man headquarters. We brought these “Hungry Heroes” to life via social media, and in the age of geo-location, Foursquare was the natural platform for keeping fans and friends up to date on their cross-country journeys. However, sending fictional characters all over the country presented some logistical challenges…
Enter Brandon Fisch, social development rockstar. As a .NET developer, Brandon first had to develop a code library that would allow the .NET platform to play nice with Foursquare’s API. Once that was taken care of, he published the library to the Open Source development community (Brandon’s cool like that) so other .NET developers could pick up where he left off. Then, he swiftly created the tool set we needed for the campaign, including a remote check-in tool.
On the content-side, we brought on local comics to embody the Hungry Heroes and entertain their thousands of fans and followers with status updates, web videos, tweets, Foursquare check-ins, you name it. When you put us all in a room together – funny guys, coding guys, artistic guys, video guys, social media guys -you end up with the the perfect group of people for the question, “We have these cool Foursquare tools: any ideas?”
We asked, and what you see today is the answer. We hope you enjoy My4SquareAlibi.com as much we enjoyed making it.
Credits:
Special thanks to The Famous Group, our sister company and production powerhouse, for taking a bizarre idea, extensive cast list, and limited budget and turning it into a truly laugh-worthy web series.
Video Testimonials
Executive Creative Director: Greg Harvey
Producer: Alana Blasingame
Cinematographer: Connor O’Brien
Director and Animator: Zak Iddings
Editor: Peter Leininger
Script: Dan Bialek, Mike Holmes, Andrew Menendez
Production Coordinators: Aziza Aba Butain, Scott Rothstein
Production Assistants: Annie Chen, Carrie Gross
Sound Design: Steven Mudd
Make-up: Mahoganie LaFranks
Talent:
Bil Dwyer – Ted Sanderson, Founder & CEO
Brady Novak – Architect Pooper, Kobe Fan Dad
Barry Rothbart – Harry Potter Lifeguard, Trombone Frat Guy
Shannon Hatch – Best Friend Cheater
Heather Thompson – Craiglist Dater
Frank Conniff – Cat Burglar, Secret Family Man
Jan Davidson – Frugal Meat Mom
Andrew DeWitt – Walmart Addict, Call Of Duty Stoner
Raj Desai – Erkel Fan Fic Lawyer
Mike Burns – Bowling Alley Scumbag
Dan Bialek – Sex Robot Husband
Andrew Menendez – Eyes Wide Shut Day Trader
Mike Holmes – Creepy Guitar Guy
Lizzy Cooperman – Worst Soccer Mom Ever
Greg Harvey – Jewish Street Racer
My4SquareAlibi.com
Producer: Craig Duffy
Art Director: Maggie Morris
Copywriters: Dan Bialek , Andrew Menendez
Developer: Brandon Fisch
Social Media Strategist: Sonya Cifuentes-Hiss
PR: Ben Blair
