01.09.2009 AVSO and Offspring create another winner for Ford and JWT
In the wake of successful campaigns that helped launch the 2009 Ford F-150 and transformed the Ford Fusion into a best seller, New York-based A Very Small Office (AVSO) and design and animation studio Offspring have once again joined forces with JWT/Team Detroit. This time for a series of intricate, high-energy :30s announcing the completely redesigned Ford Taurus. The latest addition of the Drive One campaign features voiceovers complementing the stylish All-New Ford Taurus poised against starkly beautiful landscapes.
Each effort features a dynamically animated "isolated part" representing a new piece of advanced Ford technology - the EcoBoost engine, blind spot monitoring side mirrors, and the voice-activated SYNC system. While driving through a surreal landscape, floating in space along a wide-open road, choreographed typography is introduced to highlight incredible new feature. The dimensional typography moves in and envelopes the featured part, followed shortly by the slowly materializing body of the sleek new Ford Taurus.
To build the typographic transformation around the "isolated part", continuous three-dimensional shells of the car's exterior and interior surfaces were created on which carefully laid out typographic compositions were animated to the voice-over. An additional layer of a glass car was used to add fluidity, refractions and an invisible presence of the car's undulating surfaces. To give the viewer a sense of the interior while building the typographic exterior shell, specially manufactured stripped down versions of the Ford Taurus, in which only the framework of the car was visible, were driven down the road and shot in-camera. In post, partial 3D reconstruction, compositing and typographic animation combine to give the viewer an inside look at the engine and luxurious interior of the car in photographic detail, while the typographic shell forms around it to create a dynamically layered and dimensional reveal.
This elegant car reveal then transitions into a dramatic, high-energy demonstration of the technology as the Ford Taurus drives through abstract, white dunescapes that contrast and highlight the beauty and elegance of the completely redesigned vehicle. These driving environments are populated with highly stylized black and white representations of various real life road scenarios, each of which demonstrates how Ford's innovation enhances the driving experience.
"The challenge here was to stay consistent with communicating the brand pillars of quality, green, safe and smart that define Drive One while creating something fresh that still fit into the campaign's overall aesthetic," noted AVSO Director Mikon van Gastel. "By isolating the new technologies in space and then merging them with the Ford Taurus as a whole, we were able to focus on the innovations of the latest models while still showing off the vehicle's impressive new design."
Mirrors promotes the Ford Taurus' "indicator-light-warning, radar-sensor linking, blind-spot-penetrating" BLIS side mirrors that warn drivers about potential blind spot dangers. In the :30, two highly stylized motorcycles swarm a Ford Taurus from behind. The BLIS technology warns the driver of the motorcycles presence, however, and gives him the information needed to speed away and avoid a collision.
Engine highlights the model's new twin-turbocharged, direct injection V6 EcoBoost power plant that has "the thirst of a V6, but the thrust of a V8." The spot features a Ford Taurus SHO clipping along, rolling up behind another vehicle, and leveraging the power of the all new engine to blast past its slow-moving cousin in one smooth, effortless motion.
Radios features a driver faced with the familiar inconvenience of unpredictable road construction. The Taurus Driver easily skirts the problem, however, when notified of the road closure via SYNC, a voice-activated integration of music, telephone, and GPS that upon command instantly calculates a new route for the traveler.
"This is our third outing collaborating with JWT/Team Detroit, so we've established a great working relationship and creative shorthand," stated AVSO Executive Producer Saffron Case.
The two of three spots debuted at the beginning of August on prime-time network and cable channels. The final Radios spot will reveal in September aligned with Taurus presence in football programming.
The Creds:
Client: Ford - Taurus
Spot Title: Engine (featured), Mirrors (featured), Radios
Air Date: August 2009
Agency: JWT/Team Detroit
Chief Creative Officer: Toby Barlow
Creative Directors: Dan Weber (CW), Todd Ruthven (AD)
AD: Curtis Melville
CW: Steve Silver
Director of Broadcast Production: Carole Gall
Producer: Bob Rashid
Senior Business Manager: Vicky Acosta
Managing Account Director: Sharon Wacker
Prod Company: AVSO
Director: Mikon van Gastel
DP: Neil Shapiro
Executive Producer: Saffron Case
Line Producer: Nina Hwang
Design & Post Production: Offspring
CD: Mikon van Gastel
CD: Jens Mebes
Executive Producer: Joanna Fillie
Supervising Producer: Suzanne Potashnick
Prod Coordinators: Lizzy Benbow, Jonathan Hassell
Designer/Animators: Wes Richardson / Craig Davis / Josh Van Praag / Brian Sensebe / Paul Villacis
3-D : Mark Rohrer, Atsuki Hirose, Public VFX
Tracking :Craig Davis / Public VFX
Roto / Clean Up : Public VFX
Flame : Public VFX
Flame: Lead Artist - James Allen / Julie Jang / Chris Nollert / Tim Bird / Max Harris
Editorial: Offspring
Editor: Nathan Caswell
Telecine: Nice Shoes
Colorist: Chris Ryan
Sound Design : Elias Arts
Sound Designer: Dean Hovey
Music: Elias Arts
Composer: Chris Kemp
Creative Director: David Gold
Executive Producer: Ann Haugen
