Hasta La Creative!

Agency SpecialGuest enlisted professional climber Alex Honnold to take on a route in Yosemite known as “Heaven,” in free solo fashion, meaning no rope or protective gear for an ad promoting Squarespace 7.

While Honnold is one of the world’s preeminent solo climbers, “Heaven” is no walk in the park, even for him. Before the ad was shot he’d only taken it on once without gear, and describes it as “the most severe route you’ll ever climb.” Since it also affords the best views in Yosemite, Honnold was happy to take on the challenge. A 30-second version of the spot debuted during the World Series last night, but we’ve included the full length version above.

The spot is part of a larger campaign promoting the launch of Squarespace 7 and Alex also helped inspire “Shift,” one of twelve new design templates in the latest version of Squarespace. As you may remember, he’s also not a stranger to advertising, having scaled the GS&P building this June for Stride Health. (more…)

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Ryse: Son of Rome “Path of Vengeance” from H.K. McCANN on Vimeo.

Twofifteenmccann’s new campaign for Xbox One exclusive “Ryse: Son of Rome” is cinematic in approach and scope.

At the heart of the campaign is the 60 second TV spot “Path of Vengeance” (featured above) which sees the game’s protagonist, Marius, “fight his way from the wilds of the Roman frontier in Brittania, across the Coliseum floor and into the Imperial Palace itself.” In one of the spot’s more interesting touches, the action is accompanied by whispers from Roman citizens spreading his legend. Twofifteen wanted to represent how in ancient Rome “deeds of epic heroism were quickly spread by word of mouth, and the story changed based on who was doing the telling,” which they mimicked with the differing accounts of Marius in the spot. It’s a nice, immersive little detail that’s telling of the overall approach to the campaign.

In addition to the TV spot, Twofifteenmccann, in conjunction with production company Smuggler, created a web series featured on Machinima. Entitled “The Fall,” the series features four, five-minute mini-epics detailing Marius’ backstory, history and motives. The agency claims that each installment is a “mini epic film unto itself.” While that may be overstating a point, this is a very large-scale approach to market the game, and “The Fall” is a solid accomplishment in its own right. It also succeeds quite well at making the game look badass, with what appears to be a pretty compelling story. You can check out the first installment of “The Fall” after the break, along with campaign credits.  continued…

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