Enzo’s Monday Motion #127: Smartphones

Face recognition is becoming as standard as sending a text message. If you want to stand out in the tough competition of smartphones you need a impeccable appearance. In usage ánd in your promotion material.

Red Alert — Part I

Xiaomi is becoming a serious player, even outside of the Chinese borders. With a little help of Philippe Starck on the (outer) hardware side and studio Yambo Studio for the commercials.

The spot feels really high end. The artistical touch makes it feel like a fashion item, which pushes the appearance towards the champions League of smartphones. The heavy grading made me think of a tv show titel sequence which I discussed in a previous edition.
Where ‘American Gods’ enters the dark path, directors Jeff Briant and Somei manage to keep it light. Great work by the whole team at Yambo Studio.

Red Alert — Part II

Same model, but a total different commercial. Where the first spot focussed on high end, this one is all in on colours.

The production work comes again from Studio Yambo. I like how they play around with the basic shape of the phone. The whole edit feels fresh. In colour, but even more in the pace which flows like a leaf in the wind.

Apples and Oranges — Part I

When Apple broke open the smartphone market, it didn’t properly closed the door. Google entered the market three years later and was in the beginning nowhere near Apple. Nowadays people are used to the new and want more. That’s exactly what the Pixel 2 offers.

Google is becoming the new Apple and is doing it in a very recognisable way: fast edit with an interactive voice that interacts with a variety of people (including celebs). To say it’s a copy and paste by Droga5 goes a bit far. IN this case it’s all about the question — answer dialogue and who else would you turn to if you have a quick question? The stunning looking production was in hands of Reset and the direction by Ian Pons Jewell.

Apples and Oranges — Part II

Where the first shot at Apple was fairly subtile (bashing on the quickly reached quota of the iCloud) the next set of commercials is plain out all in. In a seriesof portraits Google convinces 9 hardcore Apple lovers to switch forever in only one week.

Like stealing candy from a baby. The style of the whole production is deliberately cheap to make it even more painful for the people at Cupertino. The audio feels like a skype call, which makes it more realistic. Even though the visuals are simple and sketchy they still manage to maintain their cool. Well done!

Watch the complete set over here.

Help me help you

We go back to China for one more time. This time for the OnePlus. Their marketing department knows their shit. From the first moment they managed to create a buzz around the brand with an invitation only ordering system. Their motto is to listen to what the user wants: deliver the best hardware for a sharp price. For the introduction of the last model they continued this line by crowdsourcing the commercial’s story.

I do love a good one taker. Especially when it all makes sense. In this case their never settle slogan. I’m curious what the next version will be…

Portrait style

Finally a video which is made for the target device it self: in a portrait aspect ratio Vivo China (again…!) presented their model Y71 in style.

This phone is clearly for the cheaper segment, but it does feel very pleasant. If it performs like the promotional video, you have good quality for your money.