Gentleman Scholar teamed up with Seattle-based agency WongDoody for the media launch of the post-heavy brightspot, Target’s new mobile phone.
The full-service studio handled every facet of production and post on a pair of magical 15-second spots, fluidly merging live-action footage of each commercial's lead actor - one male, one female - with a pencil-drawn animated world that unfolds into a colorful cityscape. The campaign knits together seamlessly, with an identical sequence at the end of each clip showing the two characters uniting in a town square.
"We wanted to create a simple world that revealed itself as something more grandiose, while highlighting the benefits of brightspot's service," explains Gentleman Scholar Director and CD William Campbell.
The GS team engaged in a meticulous planning process to create the spot's final look. To ensure that the campaign would adhere to the 15-second time limit, production and post teams blocked every moment of the campaign with painstaking detail - from camera moves to scene actions to timing - and generated thorough previz animations before filming a single shot. The result is a narrative that fluidly merges live-action with gorgeous visuals, and typography that smartly positions the key features of the new service.
"We learned long ago that, to make a successful campaign, you have to let go of the idea that you're sacrificing your art if you're simultaneously working to create really effective marketing," notes Campbell. "Instead, we look for how we can create art out of messaging. Rather than just showing some mundane scene of a girl walking down a street, we worked with the creatives to build this invigorating world."
The spots will air in the Super Bowl pre and post game shows on February 2, as well as during the January 26 Grammy Awards and during other high-profile televised events.