Enzo’s Monday Motion #119: Automotive #3
Start your engines! It’s time for another round of automotive spots.
Stronger Than Time
You know you’ve created an icon if, after 40 years, the design still stands strong. Better yet: if the original is still up and running! Like nature it’s all about the strongest DNA that survives.
40 or 40 million years, who’s counting… creative agency Antoni has found a beautiful way to present the latest generation of the Mercedes G-Class. The live action — CG mix works out perfect.
The masterpiece of the commercial is the 44 tonne amber-like block with an original 1979 model G-Class suspended inside. This eye-catcher installation was smartly placed at the North American International Auto Show. The cinematic spot was directed by Ole Peters and the production was in hands of Sehsucht, Hamburg.
Everything starts with a spark
Postman Lars falls in love during his daily deliveries. Unfortunately his noisy car gets in the way of his true love. Will he ever get a chance to properly meet her?
The spark of love is a smartly found metaphor by The Loft Publicis Conseil. Renault clearly knows their model isn’t the toughest car in the neighbourhood, so why not embrace this amiable character. And what’s more loveable than a Pixar-movie! I can sense there was a struggle with ‘Pixar-ification’ of the Renault Kangoo. A battle that was sadly lost by the creatives. In the end WIZZ delivered a loveably short directed by Akama.
Powered by Wind
Same type of car, totally different execution. Where Renault uses the child look-and-feel of Pixar, Audi uses the child perspective for their latest electrical car. In this spot, we see a boy in the backseat observing the pure power of wind.
Wind on it’s self isn’t visible. It’s side effects are. The visuals are brilliantly concepted by AvL/SE and visualised with vfx by Nozon. The magical realism is so strong, the spot hardly needs any product shots. Cudo’s to the creative department and treatment by director Joe Vanhoutteghem of Czar.
Unskippable
Some commercials are made for movie theatres, others for tv. This one works particularly well online (as a pre roll)!
What this spot lacks animatic wise, it makes up in concept (also how convincing would a blockbuster spot be for a tiny and functional car as this). The optical tricks are inventive and bring a smile to your face. A true follow up to Geico’s unskippable ad. Concept by RPA, directed by Terri Timely and produced by Park Pictures.
Better is a never-ending quest
You can be the best at one point, but stagnation always means decline. That’s why Honda kept on raising the bar (and winning awards) for it’s Accord.
The stop-motioned low frame rate makes the characters believable. A smart call by the folks at Nexus. I also like the camerawork that is (often) pointed upwards (aim for the sky) and continuous pans up. All together a great concept by RGA and production directed by Smith & Foulkes.
Perfect Disguise
Volvo smartly thought outside the box: let’s create content people actually want to see, instead of interrupting them (with ads). The unkown band ‘The Goldman Brothers’ gets a massive impuls with their latest music video ‘Call my name’.
Volvo paid great attention to brands like Morton Salt who paved the way. After his pitch talk director Tal Zagreba received full creative freedom for the video. The car plays an important role and feels very naturally placed. I can imagine that half of the viewers don’t even realise their actually watching a four minute ad! An extra shout out to director of animation Robert Moreno for his flipbook animation work.
