Creative Agency: Fallon and Tonic
The strapline on Sony’s pan-European campaign for its new range of LCD TVs proclaims "Colour like no other," and Fallon London has delivered against the line in more ways than one.
After months of planning and negotiation with city authorities and the police department, Fallon London went to San Francisco with director Nicolai Fugslig and unleashed a quarter of a million brightly coloured rubber bouncy balls down the famous hilly streets of the city to create a TV spot that truly is like no other.
The result is an amazing cascade of colour and movement that flow throughout the city, the balls bouncing off anything and everything they come across including road signs, cars, houses and trees. Twelve streets were closed off across the three-day shoot. Ten giant cannons, each able to hold 5,000 balls, were built to fire the balls high into the sky to maximise bouncing. Huge cranes were also employed to empty tens of thousands of balls in skips from a great height. Incredibly, no computer graphics were required to create the effect-- everything was shot in camera. It was all done for real.
Tonic, Sony's online agency, amplified the momentum by creating online marketing activity, which included five key elements namely: a Blog Fodder site and blog seeding campaign, a two-stage video banner campaign with streaming videos and rich media MPUs, a new online Bravia product module on Sony's One Destination Website (ODW), Bravia themed animations and games throughout the Sony site and an internal communications campaign.
The new online module on the Sony website takes elements from the print and TV advertising created by Fallon London and brings them alive online. To achieve this, Tonic adapted the highly stylised images used in the advertising by conceptual photographer Jamie Dobson. Tonic also created a series of colour animations that bring the Bravia TVs to life, and communicate how they offer a groundbreaking range and intensity of colour.
The site is linked-to by more than 13,000 other sites worldwide.
Tracking browsers' audience profiles show us that the campaign started with a strong skew towards Digital Influencers and over time has broadened its audience to a Mainstream. So from a media planning perspective, a minimal spend has given more than three million consumers exposure to an advert online.
-- Fallon
I watched the Bravia clip first before reading the background on it-- it is best to experience creative through virgin eyes. If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading and check it out. Absolutely incredible, this is the kind of creative that raises the hair on the back of your neck! The colors, cinematography, and the soundtrack create a playful and enveloping experience that captures your emotions. I found myself watching the clip three times in a row and then sending it to my friends before writing this review. This is downright one of the best campaigns I have seen. It reminds me of the European commercial for the Honda Accord that circulated a few years back, only better.
There is a great amount of content in the minisite built around this campaign. It houses info on the story, behind-the-scenes footage, an interview with José González, an MP3 clip of the music from the soundtrack, and tons of pictures and downloads including a screen saver, wallpapers, and a PSP video. These are great ingredients to compliment such a phenomenal piece. It almost pains me to point out areas for improvement given how great it is as it currently stands. That being said, with a few tweaks the site could be improved. A simple improvement would be a refer-a-friend feature, this site definitely has pass-along-value. With the captive audience that this site will have, subscription-based content could also provide real value. I would gladly give my info for a full version of the song, perhaps even sign up to receive a marketing kit for Bravia, including a DVD version of the commercial to watch on my Sony widescreen at home.
Based on what I have seen I have high expectations around the magnitude of success that this campaign will provide Sony-- both in Europe and in the States. Nice work Fallon and Sony, I look forward to seeing more like it.
-- Sean Connelly, VP, sales and marketing, Refinery
The creative team at Fallon London presents Advertising-as-Art, capturing the imagination of the audience by enacting the kind of larger-than-life stunt so enthralling and beautiful to watch, you expect it to be computer animated. In one scene a child is watching the tidal wave of bouncy balls jostling towards him, and like the commercial-watcher, the child can't look away from the hypnotic onslaught. In that moment you're both thinking the same thing, "ooooh…look at all the pretty colors…"
After the commercial ends you remember why clients need to do internet advertising. We let companies interact with people. The Sony Bravia site compliments the commercial in a very video-reliant way, answering the inherent question (how?), and further engaging the user with additional content such as a "Making of" featurette and "Behind the Scenes" clips. The live performance of José González, the extra-large video screen and the host of downloadable wallpapers, pictures, videos, screensavers and mobile phone backgrounds all add to the feeling that you've just been exposed to something bigger than an advertisement. Apple did this once, Nike's done it, too…
Bravo Bravia team, and extra kudos to the poor production assistant who had to insert all those quarters, and collect all those bouncy balls from the toy dispensers behind the checkout lines at his or her local supermarket.
By the way, if you enjoyed this commercial, you'll probably enjoy these homages by Tango and EA.
-- Bradley Werner, director of marketing, The Fifth Network