Skype had just gotten a new CMO, and her first task was to put storytelling at the center of our marketing. That was new for us. We were also going through a pretty major brand redesign, moving away from the old clouds and rainbows. We wanted things to be more authentic. Our users were telling their stories over Skype every day; why couldn't our marketing reflect that?

It was probably better that we only had six weeks or so to scramble to pull together the first story about Denis. It almost didn't happen. There were concerns about shooting in Uganda, Denis' past as a child soldier, and the security of his family back home. We had a dozen exceptional candidates whose stories we could've told. In the end, Denis came out on top simply because everyone else using Skype was an option. A tool to get things done. Denis could never go home. Skype was a lifeline back to his family.

I should add here that an integral part of this campaign was photographer John Clang's creative use of a Skype video call to capture portraits. Bringing together both the physical and (projected) digital spaces. We'd spotted his use of Skype in his work previously, and when this campaign started to come together, we reached out,

The second story had kangaroos. Need I say more? The story and shoot followed Lindsay in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and her "second family" in Perth, Australia.

The third "Stay together" installment followed Julia in Los Angeles. She uses Skype to call her slightly older cousin back in Brazil. Things are a bit uneven lately because Julia still likes to run around and be goofy, but her cousin is starting to notice and like boys (there goes the neighborhood!) Again, Denis was a powerful story. Lindsay had kangaroos! We wanted something light, silly; it was a new voice for us - to follow around a ten-year-old (try to anyway).

For the final piece, we opened it up to our users. We asked them to submit their stories, and I think we got close to a thousand entries. It took weeks to get through them all. Users could vote on submitted entries, and pretty early on, one of them became a favorite. Sarah lives in Indiana, and her BFF Paige lives in New Zealand. I was fortunate enough to be on the New Zealand side of the shoot (ok, probably because I didn't think about the 13-hour flight to get there).