Hasta La Creative!

Multi-disciplinary agency Mistress worked with Ubisoft to create a cinematic trailer for the upcoming release of Assasin’s Creed Unity, the latest in Ubisoft’s long-running franchise which is set for a November 11th release.

Mistress teamed up with production company Mothership Media and VFX studio Digital Domain to bring the trailer to life. The spot opens on in-game action, which text informs the viewer takes place in 1789, during the French Revolution. Then the action cuts to a group of friends sitting in a row, each with controller and headset in place, demonstrating the game’s new cooperative multiplayer feature. From here action switches between the friends and their in-game counterparts in the all too common “thrust into the action” trope. Still, Mistress and company pull it off better than most, pacing the transitions well and giving a good glimpse of the action gamers can expect while presenting a persuasive representation of being thrown into the world of the game. The ad ends with a new tagline for the franchise, “Make History,” which seems like a great fit.

“We loved working with Mistress because they had a distinct vision of what the spot should be, they stuck to it and Ubisoft trusted that instinct,” Director Neil Huxley said. “Using everything from the performances of the gamers which were edgy and fun to every weapon at our disposal from our VFX pipeline, helped us arrive at a very stylized cinematic spot we’re all very proud of.” (more…)

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Playstation teamed up with MOFILM for the latest installment in the ongoing “Greatness Awaits” campaign promoting the PS4, which debuted during Sunday Night Football’s San Francisco 49ers vs. Denver Broncos’ game.

While last year’s installment from BBH New York at least felt like it tweaked the formula a little bit, the latest iteration of “Greatness Awaits” struggles to differentiate itself from its past. The 60-second “Friendly Competition” opens with two buddies throwing it down on the basketball court. “What do you got?” asks one friend. “I’ve got Kevin Durant,” the other replies, and morphs into the gaming version of the NBA star. From here, the friends find themselves thrown into a series of games in a now very familiar formula, set to Daft Punk’s “Contact,” ending with Destiny and the “Greatness Awaits” tagline. Maybe it’s just that it’s been used so much, both in and out of this particular campaign, but the approach now feels somewhat stale and “Friendly Competition” does little to expand upon or revitalize it. (more…)

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DDB-owned agency Ant Farm teamed up with rapper Childish Gambino for a new Far Cry 4 gameplay trailer set to the Gambino track “Crawl.”

In a lead-in to the gameplay footage, Gambino discusses his choice of “Crawl” for the trailer while hanging out with friends playing the game. The Ubisoft logo then appears onscreen, and a variety of in-game action plays out to the track for the remainder of the ad. It does a good job of mixing a variation of game footage — from what appear to be cut scenes to actual gameplay — to keep things from getting monotonous, and the footage does seem carefully tailored and edited to fit the song.

“Our goal for this trailer was to emphasize the perfect pairing of the song and game, and give fans a memorable musical and visual experience that is authentic to both artistic groups” said Ant Farm  VP/Creative Director Scott Cookson. “The chance to merge cutting-edge gameplay footage with a unique musical talent was an exciting and welcomed opportunity to produce a unique and stylized film that is both memorable and compelling to the brand.”
(more…)

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Instead of making a live action trailer for Insomniac Games’ Sunset Drive for Xbox, twofifteenmccann created a fictional behind-the-scenes take on an attempt to film a trailer for “The Un-Filmable Game.”

The “Rules are Meant to be Exploded” marketing campaign for the title began all the way back in June, including a giant, interactive balloon of character Fizzie at E3. Fizzie is around for this effort, repeating a profanity-laced line at the end of the spot (visitors are asked to enter their date of birth before viewing). The ad promotes the game as too intense for a live action trailer (which has become something of the default for big game releases) as it parodies an attempt to make one for the game in which everything goes wrong, off-screen. It’s kind of a clever approach, and even finds a unique way to incorporate gameplay footage, but, unfortunately, it’s just too long for its own good, with the full-length online version clocking in at almost four and a half minutes. A 2:30 version will air tomorrow on Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken, and the integrated campaign will continue through the game’s October 28th release and beyond. (more…)

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W+K Amsterdam launches a new campaign for FIFA 15 today, entitled “Feel The Game.”

In a 2:15 broadcast spot, W+K Amsterdam immerses fans into the on-pitch action as they experience what players in the game do. When it begins to rain, players are suddenly drenched in their apartments, when heavily tackled, they feel the hurt. It’s not exactly a new approach in gaming advertising, but it’s pulled off well. The agency also got Lionel Messi to join in on the action, both on the field and wielding a controller. The campaign airs globally beginning today, across broadcast and digital channels, with the full-length spot also broadcasting in the U.S. during the Manchester United match this Sunday.

“Fast-paced, raw, and explosive, modern football is a spectacle beyond belief. And FIFA 15 puts you right in the  middle of it. We wanted our film to do the same thing, to put you right in the thick of the
action, said David Smith, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam’s creative director. “With the help of Mark Zibert, and the awesome studio at EA SPORTS, we believe we have created a football film that can live up to the best sport action sequences ever filmed.” (more…)

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72andSunny has just released a live action trailer for Activision’s new game Destiny, from the creators of the popular Halo franchise, which will be released on September 9th.

72andSunny and Activision went big for the trailer, teaming up with Academy Award winning VFX studio Digital Domain, Academy Award nominated FX studio Legacy Effects, and director Joseph Kosinski, who created most of the worlds for the ad in-camera, shooting at locations in Mexico, Arizona and Utah. The spot follows the adventures of Fireteam as they attempt to reclaim locations in our solar system from alien invaders. Levitating AI character Ghost is voiced by Peter Dinklage (who also voices the character in the game) and the spot mixes humor, action and Led Zeppelin’s iconic “Immigrant Song” to hype up the game and give a sense of its feel without any game footage. (more…)

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Erwin Penland has a fun new campaign remixing classic Atari games promoting Denny’s “Greatest Hits Remixed” menu.

The agency worked with Atari on remixed mobile versions of the games Asteroids, Centipede, and Breakout. All three were reimagined to feature breakfast items, and reborn as Hashteroids, Centipup and Take-Out. The games come complete with bizarre, breakfast-related storylines, such as this one for Centipup, as related by Joystiq: “Once upon a time, a young boy named Danny came across a bottle of syrup and with just a slight squeeze the bottle’s sticky contents had the power to turn anyone or anything into a fried egg.”

The campaign aims to capitalize on the nostalgia of Gen-Xers, an oft-overlooked demographic as advertisers focus more and more energy on appealing to Millenials. It also marks the first partnership for Atari since filing for bankruptcy early last year. “We are excited to be partnering with Denny’s on this partnership,” said Atari CEO Fred Chesnais in Marketing Land. “Transforming our classic and beloved games into a retro, remixed promotion will be a natural way to expose our brand to a new generation and resonate with our long-time fans in a fun and unique way.”

You can check out a trailer for the games, which are available for iOS and Android devices, above.

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Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand is capitalizing on the World Cup action by joining forces with its new client, Asian online gaming brand Garena, to hype the free EA Sports multiplayer game, FIFA Online 3. Following days of teasing last week in the form of media hijacking of Southeast Asian soccer news sites, where actual football stars mentioned in news articles were replaced with that of Thai game players, Saatchi Thailand and Garena have officially launched the campaign, “I Am the One,” via the :60 spot above.

Dubbed “Messi’s Arrival,” the clip debuted the day before the Argentinean superstar and his countrymen defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina and imagines what he experienced upon landing in Brazil through the eyes of someone who perhaps resembles your ideal gamer. Of course, Messi himself never actually appears in the spot (he’s in a million other commercials as you may have noticed, though), but it basically keeps in the line with the “I Am the One” campaign theme. Along with the spot, Saatchi Thailand is also developing content for its native audience based on results from its Live Creativity real-time social and content hub, which will follow World Cup news and social chatter as the event progresses. The agency’s ECD, Nuntawat Chaipornkaew, explains, “When Brazil scored an own goal, our content team produced an ‘interview’ with a Thai player talking about how he just wanted to score the first goal. When Spanish star Alonso lost tooth, so did our stars and even the audience. When Suerez hurt his knee, so did we.”

With the film and social components covered, the parties involved will also be launching the full website for FIFA Online 3 come tomorrow. There, an interactive version of the film will be available and allow viewers to insert their own faces into it to “be the one” and also join the world’s largest football team photo. One can only imagine how that will turn out. Credits after the jump.

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The 2011 trailer for the original Dead Island is one of the most notorious video game ads ever made. It won a gold Lion in Cannes that year, yet it was booed at the screening in the Palais and is certainly tough to stomach—though incredibly artful as well, as the reverse footage gave it an otherworldly and strangely moving sense of dread. (Adweek named it one of the year’s 10 best ads.)

This week at E3, the trailer for the much-anticipated Dead Island 2 was unleashed. It’s still plenty gory, though less haunting and more goofy-scary. The game’s setting is actually no longer an island but all of California, and the trailer takes place on a sunny boardwalk by the Pacific Ocean, as a jogger heads out for a run that quickly becomes infested with zombies.

This one won’t win any awards, but it’s a more than adequate reintroduction to the franchise. Now you just have to wait until 2015 for the actual game to come out.

Warning: Spot is graphic and may be disturbing to some viewers.

Google’s YouTube is said to be in talks to buy the start-up Twitch for around $1 billion, in another sign that video games are becoming serious entertainment for spectators.