By Holly Stuart Hughes

Boost Mobile has long pitched its cell phone services to young people, promoting its brand at concerts and sponsoring professional snowboarders, skateboarders and other action sports athletes. But the company wants to broaden its brand to reach a larger demographic. As in-house art director Russell Rommelfanger notes, “We have good offers now that are of use for any age group.”
    Rommelfanger wanted to create a library of images that captured the aspirations of a broader group of consumers.  Though Boost Mobile works with ad agency 180 LA, Rommelfanger’s team works on “brochures, collateral, in house displays, the web," he says, and wanted an archive of images that could be used in a variety of ways.  
He wanted the images to capture believable scenarios a consumer would aspire to take part in.  “The words we used over and over again were ‘authentic’ and ‘natural,’ " Rommelfanger recalls. And that isn't easy to find, he says.  “In our segment, the cell phone market, what a lot of people are calling ‘lifestyle’ imagery isn’t really lifestyle. It’s stuff shot in the studio that seems fake. A lot of what people were calling lifestyle was so manicured and so perfact.”
Creatives at180 LA and Rommelfanger's team were simultaneously looking for the right photographer who could deliver slice of life images. Rommelfanger went through blogs, web sites, and his own favorite bookmarks.  “I wasn’t looking for a photographer who was looking for that one perfect shot, I was looking for someone who could roll with the punches.” When the in-house team and 180LA each presented their three recommended photographers, Kevin Zacher, a commercial and editorial shooter known for his action sports images, was on the top of both lists. Rommelfanger says he liked that “so many of his shots were captured moments.”
Once they had selected the photographer, the next step was the casting believable models. When they found that a model and his son were being considered, for example, they decided to cast them both, Rommelfanger says, “because we wanted to see real interaction between father and son.” Everyday people were also sprinkled into the shoot: When some skateboarders were cast, they were encouraged to bring their friends along.
The shoots took place over four days on five locations in and around Los Angeles, including a park, a house, a skatepark in Venice and a bowling alley. Zacher was instructed to be a fly on the wall, and follow the models not only on location but even while driving.  A prop stylist brought bikes and other sports gear so the models could simply play.  “We set up shots, but we also let things play out,” Rommelfanger explains . “I’d say some of the best shots were when the models didn’t know they were being shot."
    The images have been used in in-store displays, brochures, and on web banners.