Film is moving up the corporate agenda, so how do you do it right? Ewan King has some ideas

There’s no question that demand for film in corporate communication is increasing. Heads of corporate and internal comms at the world’s biggest businesses, including Shell and Rio Tinto, are making film and video content part of any significant communications programme.

Why? Because businesses are facing a faster pace of change than ever before. More change means more communication, and communicating a compelling message that aligns customers, staff and shareholders alike is a huge challenge.

Film and video content meets this challenge in a way few other mediums can, not least because it is the way in which modern, media-savvy business audiences now expect to be spoken to. Improved internet access, speed and data capacity, the integration of video in all forms of social media – andthe popularity of mobile video on smartphones and tablets – are all combining to make film and video ubiquitous in people’s personal and professional lives.

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I’m not sure at what stage Wes Anderson decided he would like to get sucked into advertising but he started with the amazing Stella Artois ‘Gadgets’ advert. If you’re familiar with his style (perhaps just watch ‘Hotel Chevalier’ and that will give you a good idea), then it’s obvious that he’s put his recognisable and distinctive stamp on this piece of work.

Anyway – back to the point of this whole post: the Sony Xperia.

This advert is brilliant. Taking the lead from Anderson’s ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’, he uses stop motion animation, sets and models to create this charming and inspiring little video. The voice over from the child taking us back to the origin of the idea – what really makes up a Sony Xperia? I must give this kid, Jake, some credit because I’m pretty sure he has an imagination far more active than mine was at that age! Either that or he was under the influence of some pretty heavy pixie sticks… (I am in no way inciting that Wes Anderson have kids hallucinogenics to get them to come up with these ideas…). The best thing about the voice over I think is that at points it is so serious and matter-of-fact, and at other times he gets caught up in what he’s saying. Listening to it now, over and over (I like to do my research) I wonder how long the full sound bite was to cut it down to that 1minute clip, and if any of it was scripted; let’s be honest, how many kids say ‘device’?

More than anything, I love this advert because they’ve turned an electronic device into something simple. The clean lines of the robot. The dark and light of the sets. The feeling that the phone can be something more than just a phone. Mobile’s have become such a normal if not mundane part of our everyday lives. People say, “Oh I feel naked without it!”, but you wouldn’t be naked; you’d just be uncontactable straight away. Remember those days where you’d get home from school then call your friends on the home phone? Or have to wait until 7pm for your Dad to connect the modem to the computer? When you arranged in the morning where you were going to meet that afternoon and couldn’t send a text to say you were running late, or had been hit by a rickshaw? Okay perhaps not the latter.

Simplicity is what the advert screams at me, despite advertising one of the most advanced technological devices that the majority of the Western world will hold in their pocket.

I know this advert is about imagination, and they’ve certainly captured that, but I think that Wes Anderson and McCann Worldwide have managed to taper that into something just a little bit more meaningful.

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“Car brand Kia has been using online video since mid-2009, with its first YouTube video – a ‘walk-around’ video for the Kia Sportage – clocking up 50,000 views in just two months. To date, the video has been seen over 224,600 times, but it isn’t just about big viewing figures. The popularity of the video coincided with Kia Motors (UK) enjoying its best sales year to date and increasing its market share to almost 2.8%.

“We were astounded by its popularity,” says Kia general manager of marketing communications Lawrence Hamilton. “It was in no way intended to be entertaining and we didn’t anticipate any more than three or four thousand views over the course of the year.”

This has led to the company re-examining its marketing approach, with online video now an integral part of its display strategy. It has commissioned production agency Content Is King to make more informational videos, which are generating similar viewer figures.

“This is clearly how people want their information these days,” says Hamilton. “We have more people watching videos than ordering brochures from us.”

To view some of the other great videos we’ve created for Kia on their YouTube channel, click here.

Until now. Late last night whilst watching CSI (my guilty pleasure), I saw the best Aldi advert to date: ‘Fish Fingers’. Finding this one was a bit of a challenge as they oddly have already released a fish fingers advert using a cat, but thanks to Twitter I found the little gem of a video.

Yes, I am that simple that I will laugh at an old fisherman saying “Well, there you go then: a fine pair of pollocks.” That is all that it takes. To be fair, this fellow ad blogger was won over by the ‘Low Fat Cereal’ advert which was weird (not unlike their ‘Washing Up Liquid’ advert – apologies for the quality). Seeing and loving this advert inspired me to take a look at their other pieces of work, and there are a lot of things I am loving about this campaign.

Firstly, I love that they are 20seconds. Short, sweet, and to the point it proves that you don’t need long meandering aspirational adverts for supermarket chains (Sainsbury’s) or to use all the staff from a regional accented store (Asda). Secondly, and perhaps oddly, I like the fact that they have titled each of their adverts. Simply ‘Tea’, ‘Mayonnaise’, and ‘Wine’ surely have helped viewers find these adverts on YouTube to catch a re-run!

Thirdly, is the strap-lines for the campaign. There are two: “Like Brands, Only Cheaper”, and “Like Aldi, Like the Price”. This new initiative has been brought in to highlight how high in quality their own-brand produce is in comparison to recognised brands (Heinz, Kellogg’s, Fairy, etc). Their aim essentially is to encourage current customers to buy own-brand over the more expensive options that are in-store, which may sound strange but brand loyalty is a big thing nowadays. It can be difficult to convince life-long buyers of Heinz tomato ketchup that Aldi tommy K is in fact the one for them. (There are some interesting debates on this point in the comment feed on this article.)

Apparently the campaign is working, as share prices and sales have risen, so it looks like the clever cloggs at McCann Manchester know what they’re doing!

Kudos, I have been won over. (Unlike this woman, who just likes gin.)

A year of Mustafa making women everywhere swoon, peaked in July with their interactive “Responses” campaign where tweeters, bloggers and the like could pose their questions and get as close to real-time responses as possible from the man himself. A total of 184 video responses were posted, including ones to Ellen Degeneres, and even a marriage proposal.

Back to the present, and Crews is back on our screens (or on YouTube, for UK readers) with more outrageous adverts, directed by the same duo of the Flex ad: Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim from the “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Good Job“. But this time, they’re taking it to the next level, with co-branded advertising with other P&G products.

Procter and Gamble have launched their “Smell is Power” campaign featuring 5 adverts, where Old Spice is too powerful to stay within the boundaries of its own commercial, this time invading those for P&G products Bounce and Charmin. Craig Allen, creative director at Weiden + Kennedy approcahed 10 P&G brands he thought might be interested in working alongside Old Spice. He said “We went with open arms to these brands and said we want these to be 100 percent your ads until Terry breaks in.” (via NY Times) Which is exactly what they’ve done to great effect.

The Bounce commercial in particular is brilliant. Everything about the advert screams ‘Bounce’, a woman with her laundry, product placement, and… BOOM Terry Crews entering on a jet ski through the side of the house shouting about Old Spice. Not only does it continue the theme that “Smell is Power” with Old Spice, but I think also gives Bounce a certain amount of kudos for agreeing to go in on the co-branded advert.

Procter and Gamble have said that they’ve returned to Terry Crews as the face for their Odour Blocking products as they feel he resonates with the younger audience they are targeting, and is the “epitome of power”. They’re certainly not wrong there – this is a man so ripped it’s almost intimidating (have you seen those pectorals?!).

I’m particularly impressed that a company as family-orientated as P&G have taken such an advertising risk, and airing something as ‘breakthrough’ (excuse the pun) as this is sure to raise questions in the advertising world: is co-branding the way forward for advertising? Will other parent brands start bringing their products together on screen? (As Kraft have begun doing with the products themselves.) Where will Old Spice go next? Joe Berkowitz speculates that perhaps eventually we’ll be watching ads, inside ads, inside ads a-la “Inception”…?

One thing’s for sure, for a body wash and body spray brand, they seem to be doing pretty well at marketing to women (Mustafa = so dreamy) and men (something that perhaps Lynx need to take a lesson from…).

(P.S. If you haven’t seen Terry Tate in the Snickers Superbowl advert from 2003, you must watch it here.)

The excellent work we’ve been doing with Kia for their YouTube channel has been featured on modern marketing and media website, The Drum.

From car launches and iBrochure film to the Geneva Car Show, we’re proud to be working with such a great client, and such great cars!

You can read the full article on the website, or by clicking on the image.

 

The kids stared in awe at the thin, blue ghost

‘What are those blue lines that keep running across the screen?’ my wife asked whilst we were watching JJ Abrams latest blockbuster, Super 8. I was enjoying Abrams’ evocation of Steven Spielberg’s early suburban sci-fi ventures (and had no desire to hit the pause button), so gave the short answer:

‘That’s lens flare’.

Thankfully this satisfied her, and I didn’t have to  expand further on the type of lens flare (anamorphic; a result of using widescreen lenses) or what causes them (I’d have burbled something about direct sources of bright light refracting through the lens, and anamorphic lenses not being circular, so they stretch the light out and…. then I’d have looked it up properly on wikipedia whilst she edged towards the door, sighing and shaking her head. Again.)

As you can see in the shot from Super 8 above, lens flare can be pretty obtrusive. Abrams took a lot of flak for his ‘ridiculous’ and distracting flare-addiction in his previous film, the Star Trek reboot. But he’s hardly alone in overusing this trope, in an age when every advert on TV seems intent on distracting you from what you should be focusing on. So why do film makers persist with it, when it’s easily avoidable in the modern age?

Watch a home movie or documentary from those times however, and lens flares abound; as the camera operators either didn’t have the equipment, time or desire to keep them out of shot.

So this quite beautiful effect that can be achieved by pointing a film camera  with a glass lens at a strong source of light, became tied to notions of ‘authenticity’ and ‘integrity’. And when those values became key to the countercultural uprising in the 60s, the look and feel of cinema was revolutionised in accordance.

Suddenly, lens flares were all over cinema like a glowing, circular rash. They helped give key films of the era such as 1969′s Easy Rider a spontaneous, sun-kissed edge that chimed with the times. The great pioneer of American independent cinema John Cassavettes used flares brilliantly in the opening scene of 1976′s The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (one of few films whose title should really come with a spoiler alert). Not only do they enhance the  vérité of the world we’re thrust into, but they also make Ben Gazarra’s character look incredibly cool. Filmmakers of the 80s were clearly taking note.

But perhaps the most important way that lens flare was deliberately integrated into the grammar of cinema was through sci-fi. Master of composition Stanley Kubrick used flares throughout 1968′s 2001: A Space Odyssey to bring to life its pioneering special effects work and make us believe that he’d really put a film camera into orbit, onto the moon, and beyond the stars. Take the flares away and his astonishing vision would look significantly more drab and sterile. He planted the flaws to deceive us.

And so, in the past 40 years, lens flares have become a key tool in convincing moviegoers of the reality that has been constructed before their eyes. Even early computer animated films such as Shrek and Toy Story added flare to scenes – and they don’t even involve cameras or lenses. But then, there’s software galore available that will artificially add lens flare to your scene, and extremely effective it can be too. We’re certainly not shy of using it here at Content is King.

In a digitally-dominated world, where work never degrades and flaws can be erased at the click of a mouse, lens flares may perhaps be the final survivors from the analogue age, thanks to to their intrinsic beauty.

Just dont overdo it, eh JJ?

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but Oscars are all about honouring talent; nominated and voted for by their industry peers. In my mind, this makes an Oscar even more special, it symbolises that you have recognition, respect and admiration from the people you work with.

Therefore, nominating a dog is not only disrespectful to the other professionals, but also just down right stupid! The dog (Uggie, I believe he is called) does not and never will UNDERSTAND the Oscars. He will not comprehend that he has been nominated for an award and nor has he been dreaming of this recognition all his life. There will never have been a point in his life where he decided to become an actor. Being in this film was not a conscious choice for Uggie.

More importantly, the dog WAS NOT ACTING! Uggie was trained to do whatever he had to for the part, probably encouraged along the way by doggie treats. Uggie did not spend hours learning his lines and getting into character, pondering ‘shall I play him as an angry dog, an enthusiastic dog or a shy dog?’

It comes down to this, dogs are not humans and nor do they have the same level of comprehension that a human does! They should not be treated as humans and so it stands to reason they should not be considered for human recognition.

If anyone should be rewarded for Uggie’s performance, it should be his trainer Omar von Muller who made the decision for Uggie to work in the film industry. Von Muller will have worked with the Director of The Artist to get the shots they needed to make the film work. Now, that takes skill.

So, if I was part of the Oscars nominating committee, and really set on recognising Uggie, I would say vote for von Muller as a fair vote that everyone will appreciate.

Who can forget Gareth Southgate being mocked (!) by fellow penalty-missers Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle in the Pizza Hut classic from 1996?

Bravo fellahs! So natural. Look it’s easy to smirk. I really do applaud Pizza Hut’s bold willingness to tap into the sporting zeitgeist but I just wonder how many takes it took to get that film in the can. The ad did make me smile but I can’t imagine that Chris’s name remained long in the minds of the casting directors filling the lead roles in the King’s Speech somehow.

Still it’s not the grimmest example of the genre. There are so many contenders but my particular best-worst ad starred a former great of the game, Luis Figo, promoting Just for Men hair products. Now where do we start with this one? It’s obviously intended to be a cost-effective world ad and who knows how it came across in Thailand but over here the dubbing suite must have been booked for 5.30pm on a Friday when all the good voice guys had already left. It’s not the slickest dubbing work. The plot line is a little fanciful and about as implausible as Figo needing to use the product in the first place. Has any man had a healthier looking head of hair? (See later). But for sheer awkwardness I’m strangely fascinated by the set up of the end-frames where after successfully volleying the ball back through a televisual time-gate 6th dimensional portal kind of thing and scoring a glorious goal (I know, I know), Luis is breathily informed by some stunning beauty dressed in a football kit (or she might be a referee) that ‘he’s still got it’. Ah pass me the Just for Men sachet please. Enjoy:

Now all this is a bit of a preamble to what I think is one of the best ads around at the moment. It features the one and only Vinnie Jones – surely the best (only?) actor-was-footballer (sorry Eric…..) – in the film made for the British Heart Foundation promoting hands-only CPR. Everything about it is spot on; the casting, characterisation, setting, the clothes, the script which is dry and witty, the music and the message. It’s just done so economically and there isn’t one wasted word or shot. If there’s a better ad on the tv at present I haven’t seen it. What a piece of film.

I would have ended this posting right there except that the title implies something else and there is. There was a footballer who really ought to have become an actor; and his name was David …Ginola that is – suave, good -looking and tres Gallique. Well I think the plan was haring along until David featured in this ad for L’Oreal shampoo….

It’s a good and well-produced ad. But I think David’s credibility as a serious player took a beating after this. Jennifer Aniston would want hair like that. Pippa Middleton would want hair like that! But on an Aston Villa winger… not sure that was the right statement at that time David.

Anyway he’s as grey as slate these days so maybe David should have a word with Luis. On me ‘ead son with that sachet.

Paul