Tool director Jason Zada furthers his plunge into the live action and digital realm with the launch of a fully interactive Web site that makes Diamond Crystal salt fun, interesting and educational. The site, www.salt101.com, built in collaboration with Carmichael Lynch and sister PR firm Carmichael Lynch Spong, features television personality/author Alton Brown dispensing cooking tips with his trademark humor and expertise.



The site's main areas are a test kitchen and a laboratory, which provide the setting for a pair of interactive games that combine live-action footage of Brown with various digital components. The kitchen features "The Proper Pinch," a game in which the user can control Brown's hand to apply the correct sprinkling of salt to meat, and "Finishing Touches," in which participants can choose food items to add salt to, from ice cream to cookies, and Brown explains the effect that the addition will have to each item.

In the lab portion of the site, the "Power of the Pyramid" game allows users to try destroying a salt pyramid with different weapons. The "Stickability" game offers the chance to apply salt to different kinds of food to see how well it sticks. 



Zada was creatively involved from conception to final product. This being a nonlinear creative execution, Jason worked closely with the agency creatives to conceptualize the games and help write the scripts and story trees. He also designed the set and shot all of the live-action footage, orchestrated the Web integration of live action and digital, and led the Tool digital team that constructed the Web site.

"The agency got way more than they asked for when they chose Jason to lead this project," notes Tool digital EP Dustin Callif. "Not only is he one of the best integrated directors around and totally comfortable working with celebrity talent like Alton Brown, but he's doing some incredibly interesting things in the cross-platform space. He handled all the live action and creative directed all the post, Web design and Web development. The interactive games are fun and flawless. This is exactly the type of project that not only Jason but all of Tool's directors are looking to do much more of in the future."



"This was a one-of-a-kind project, and it was an incredible experience on multiple levels," says Zada. "First off, the agency was incredible to work with—very easy to collaborate with on the scripts, and they gave me a ton of room to run with the creative. Second, Alton is a really passionate and knowledgeable guy, and we had a lot of fun tweaking the scripts to add a touch of his peculiar humor without turning him into a character—he wanted to play himself. Finally, creating a site that was at once compelling and educational was an awesome challenge, and everyone around me, from the agency to Alton to the staff at Tool, really came together to make this a memorable experience."