Capturing Creativity with Sandisk Memory Man

In the months following its public separation, Sandisk has been firing on all cylinders. Pairing ground-breaking technology with a sleek new image, the company made waves across the industry. To capitalize on this momentum, Sandisk envisioned a marketing campaign that captured how its storage technology fuels the irrepressible human need to create.

In partnership with CALLEN and 1stAveMachine, Sandisk revealed Memory Man to the world to support its line of Creator Series drives. Like the SANDISK^® Creator Phone SSD stored in his chest, Memory Man was purpose-built to go where creators go, documenting their process and celebrating their labors every step of the way.

Make things that matter

"Make things that matter” is a sort of mantra for CALLEN, the Austin-based creative agency behind the Memory Man campaign. It’s not enough to create something flashy or stylish; it needs to resonate deeply with audiences.

“We weren’t as interested in having the creators hold up the drive and say, ‘I use it.’ We wanted Sandisk’s brand to take an active role with creators in the same way its products do,” said Craig Allen, Founder and CCO at CALLEN. Allen and his team began imagining what that might look like, how to represent this relationship between art and tool. Memory Man came into focus soon after.

A robot, blending humanity and technology, was the right choice for the campaign's core. But the creators at CALLEN didn’t want to replicate the robots found on factory floors, with svelte chrome and mechanical menace.

“We believe that technology helps humans, that it shouldn’t threaten us, so we spent a lot of time thinking about how to represent technology as helpful and lovable,” said Allen. Helpful, lovable; not words typically associated with robotics, but they helped CALLEN subvert expectations around robotics and how humans relate to them.

“We landed on this boxier, clunkier shape language because we didn’t want him to be sleek or intimidating,” Allen said.

Curiosity played a key role in the design, too. It wasn’t enough for Memory Man to observe the process of art making; he needed to be in awe of it. Rounds and rounds of revisions tried to embed that wide-eyed wonder into Memory Man. Channeling multiple popular characters that embody that optimism, CALLEN landed on a tiny expression that made a huge difference.

 “We originally had him without a mouth, but it didn’t feel quite right. The instant we added the little rectangular mouth, it really opened him up. He was suddenly in awe of everything he saw. He became incredibly emotive with that one little change,” Allen said.

The idea and design were set: a toaster box head with a rectangular mouth housing two cameras that let Memory Man take in the world. But bringing him to life and capturing him on camera presented a new set of challenges and opportunities.

Form, function, feeling

Jumping from the page to a fully realized 3D prop added a new set of considerations for 1stAveMachine, the production company behind the Memory Man video campaign. His weight and size presented early challenges.

“Memory Man is made from a number of parts: dolly rigs, tripod pieces, and custom 3D printed bits. He’s essentially plastic and carbon polymer. That means he’s tough, but it also means he’s incredibly top-heavy,” said Tim Bierbaum, the Director 1stAveMachine tapped for the project. On top of that, the robot needed to function as a camera, capable of capturing and storing an endless stream of data.

What could have been hurdles for Bierbaum and his team became sources of ingenuity. Instead of getting bogged down by weight and technology, the crew leaned into Memory Man’s presence as much as they could.

“His physical limitations were a constraint in some ways, so we asked ourselves: ‘How inventive can we be? Can that limitation become something expressive?’” said Bierbaum. The expression, it turned out, came from the people around Memory Man—he had a sort of magnetism on set and in the streets of New York City.

“Memory Man physically being there brought out such genuine reactions in everyone, and that made every shot feel playful, so full of life,” Bierbaum said. It was risky trusting so much of the shoot to unpredictable, unscripted moments, but embracing bold risks was at the heart of the project.

Connecting with creation

As part of the campaign, CALLEN highlighted three creators—Devin Super Tramp (Graham), Simone Giertz, and Gong Bao—who would take full advantage of Memory Man’s capabilities.

“We knew instantly that we needed vibrant creators, the kinds of people we look at and say, ‘Wow, how’d they do that?’” said Allen. That’s how Memory Man ended up riding the roof of a taxi with Graham, suspended in midair on set with Giertz, and diving into crash pads with Bao.

While he was the centerpiece of their videos, Memory Man observed their creative processes. His main purpose was to document their work, but he became more of an active participant as the creators warmed up to him. He joined Giertz and her team for lunch, for example, and Devin Super Tramp pumped him up for hero shots.

“On the taxicab, we discovered he couldn’t look up very far, so we had to work with him like any other actor. We posed him, we examined the shot, we adjusted him. In trying to figure it out, he struck this Superman pose, which gave the shot more life. He acted as talent, for all intents and purposes,” Bierbaum said.

Despite any limitations, Memory Man’s very presence invited them to imagine, to play. Crew members couldn’t help but engage with him, personify him. His presence was disarming and energizing, the perfect combination for play and creation.

Centering Sandisk storage

With the Memory Man campaign, Sandisk wanted to step into the creative spotlight and frame data storage as a primary consideration of the creative process, not just an afterthought: effortless engineering wedded with beautiful designs. Not a bit player, but a starring role.

“Creators are the modern embodiment of the power of human creativity, driven by their pursuit of developing content that captivates their audiences,” said Janet Allgaier, Senior Vice President of Consumer Product at Sandisk.

“With Memory Man, we’re celebrating creators by showing how much energy and creativity are put into developing their content and showcasing how Sandisk’s real-world storage solutions enable their efforts in a way that both inspires and empowers creators everywhere,” she said.

Memory Man inspired three incredible creators and made more personal connections during his time at gamescom in Berlin, but that’s only the beginning. In the coming months,  he’ll appear at Twitchcon and the Amazon Creator Summit. New environs and new faces present myriad unknowns, but Sandisk and CALLEN are optimistic.

“We wanted to tell a love story about humans and technology through Sandisk’s lens: we provide the space to capture what you create, and we hold on to what matters for you,” said Allen.

“We don’t know how any of this will go, and we like that. We’ll learn along the way and adapt to the unpredictable. That’s the most beautiful thing about humanity to me … the unpredictability,” said Allen.

In his own small way, Memory Man represents how technology leavens the unpredictable nature of creativity and play. It simplifies and streamlines, and puts the focus on the work, on the art. In an era when humanity’s relationship with technology is more complex than ever, Memory Man reminds us that it’s ultimately a fulfilling one.

“If humans are driving it, technology doesn’t have to be scary. In concert, it feels like magic,” said Allen.