Hasta La Creative!

San Francisco/Brooklyn-based production company Story Developing has teamed up with host, Machinima, to unveil a new film for gaming publisher, 2K, that’s essentially a 60-minute advertisement disguised as a documentary. In what should appeal to both hardcore and casual gamers, emerging artists and the like, the film follows the story of a handful of college students who are vying for internships at 2K, the Novato, CA-based brand that’s known for titles like the NBA 2K series and Borderlands. 

Anyhow, this ideal-for-lunchtime doc not only follows our 2K hopefuls, but also features a host of interviews with industry folks, 2K execs and the students themselves who offer their thoughts on the evolution of gaming and the impact it’s had among other tidbits. The folks at Story Developing claim this film just might be a prime example of “a brand blurring the lines between creativity and advertising.” Well, perhaps, but at the least it might just inspire some budding artists looking to make some inroads into the gaming world. By the way, kudos on kicking things off with a little old-school Super Mario action. The trailer’s above, but if you have the time, you can check out the full-length doc dubbed The Art of the Game after the jump.

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One/x has released a new stop-motion animation advertisement for Farm Sanctuary demonstrating the intelligence of pigs and telling people to go vegan.

All the characters in the spot were created with folded paper in an attempt to marry form and function, exemplifying the theme of “pigs going from being seen as one-dimensional beings—which makes it easier for people to justify their exploitation—to the emotionally and cognitively complex, multi-dimensional beings they truly are.” The spot shows a pig beating both a chimpanzee and young child at a video game while quoting university studies that found pigs excelled over chimps and three-year old children at video games involving a joystick. It concludes with the tagline (perhaps borrowed from great white shark Bruce’s fish eating mantra in Finding Nemo), “Pigs are friends, not food” before a “Go Vegan” message pops up.

While the spot cleverly demonstrates the intelligence of pigs, in a visually striking way, there’s not a lot to support the leap from “Pigs are smart” to “Go Vegan.” Plenty of other animals people eat really do seem to lack intelligence. As Werner Herzog said, “Look into the eyes of a chicken and you will see real stupidity. It is a kind of bottomless stupidity, a fiendish stupidity. They are the most horrifying, cannibalistic and nightmarish creatures in the world.” Still, if convincing people that pigs are intelligent creatures and not mindless bacon machines was the main intent, then One/x has done a good job here. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Heat and their production partner Hungry Man have released a new spot for Xbox One crown jewel exclusive and E3 critical darling Titanfall, which just had its North American release yesterday.

The new, 60 second spot (there’s also a 30 second version), entitled “Shadow,” imagines what it would be like to constantly be shadowed by a 25-foot Titan that obeys your every command. Following in the recent trend of inserting gamers into the real world, the spot attempts “to capture the ear-to-ear grinning invincibility you feel when you first climb into your very own Titan and start dominating the world.” “Shadow” follows a man with a shit-eating grin walking through a city trailed by his own personal Titan. Everything is just peachy until he runs into another Titan owner, at which time, as you might expect, shit goes down.

The spot manages to capture the overall “Life is Better with a Titan” theme of the campaign, while also demonstrating Titanfall‘s unique features, like verticality. What really makes the spot work, though, is the perfect transition to gameplay footage during the final 15 seconds. While there’s nothing revolutionary about Heat’s approach here, they find a balance between live action and gameplay footage that a lot of similarly minded ads miss. And they certainly succeed at making the game look like a lot of fun. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Educational video games typically offer up half-hearted gaming experiences that grow staler by the click. It’s like the developers weren’t sure how to balance the knowledge with the fun, so they just half-assed both parts. Rarely do we get to enjoy the two like in an Oregon Trail. Who knew caulking a river could be so much fun?

Based on the screenshots and trailer for the Royal Canadian Mint’s new digital children’s game, Cossette has teased enough creativity to at least get kids interested in checking it out. The release marks the 100th anniversary of first Canadian Arctic expedition (although according to the trailer, the timeline should start in November 1913). I haven’t played the game myself – I’m a bit outside the 6-11 year-old age range – but in terms of advertising, I was surprised by the amount of storytelling and suspense in the trailer. The graphic aren’t exactly going to challenge the Grand Theft Auto franchise, but this actually looks like a game rather than a textbook pretending to be a game. Credits after the jump.

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Editor’s note: My friend and colleague, Gale Venosdel, has convinced me to re-emerge here to help spread the word about his new online game, 13 Unbracketed. As someone who knows just how much a side-project can mean to an ad guy (and how much work goes into one), I could not resist his request.

March Madness is coming. Get ready with 13 Unbracketed, a new interactive game that offers a compelling alternative to the traditional brackets for the Men’s College Basketball Tournament.

To raise money and increase awareness for the new game, Lucky 13 Unbracketed has launched a a Kickstarter project. If you love round ball and gaming, give 13 Unbracketed a try. Supporters on Kickstarter can play for as little as $5.

“When March comes around, everyone is a basketball fan,” said Gale Venosdel, the game’s creator. “However, most people who play the traditional brackets usually have a busted bracket after the first round. Unfortunately, the brackets don’t deliver on the greatness of the tournament. But 13 Unbracketed does. It’s a strategic, yet simple game that allows you and your friends to stay engaged throughout the tournament. It’s unique scoring system and dynamic social platform make it the game that fans of the tournament deserve.”

Backers of the Kickstarter project can select from various levels of participation, with rewards ranging from the opportunity to join a Public League, or run their own Private League where they can invite friends and family to play along. Other rewards include 13 Unbracketed memorabilia like posters, t-shirts, and hats.

Lucky 13 Unbracketed LLC, is seeking to raise $6000 by March 12, 2014. If funds are raised, the backers will have early access to the closed beta launch which is accessible exclusively through Kickstarter.

Funds will help with programming and other costs associated with the launch. The company plans to offer a free version of 13 Unbracketed on Facebook for the 2015 tournament.

Follow 13 Unbracketed on Facebook and Twitter.

The post This March, Use Interactive Game 13 Unbracketed To Boost The Madness appeared first on AdPulp.

In a textbook display of how advertising is much different in the U.K., Tag Europe and Tesco — the world’s second largest retailer — used the music of The Great Kat in their ad for Call of Duty: Ghosts to add a sense of drama and urgency to the spot. In America, you don’t use the music of classically-trained virtuosos to sell video games, you use Eminem. Also unlike the U.S. campaign, Tag Europe’s ad prominently features a female gamer.

The 20 second spot scores The Great Kat‘s rendition of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” to its footage of players enjoying the game, actual gameplay, and (for some reason) popcorn making. Fast paced violin and guitar shredding is “synched perfectly in time with Call of Duty: Ghosts’ fast action bombs, explosions, and death defying feats,” and popcorn. The ad began airing in the U.K. this past November, to promote Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ launch. “The Great Kat’s music is brilliant on the spot,” said Adam Lieber, Music Supervisor at shtik.tv. Now would somebody please pass the popcorn?

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This past October we covered 72andSunny’s exhaustive campaign for Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts. Now, 72andSunny is back with a new campaign promoting Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ new downloadable content pack, Onslaught.

72andSunny’s long spot for Onslaught, entitled “CODnapped,” imagines a task force, led by a CODnapper played by Stephen Graham of Boardwalk Empire, sent out to kidnap men from such terrible duties as work, child rearing, and spending time with their significant other, so that they can be brought to a room with comfy chairs and snacks to play Call of Duty. The elaborately imagined scheme runs for over three minutes, before the rest of the spot is devoted to Onslaught gameplay. It’s kind of a clever (although ridiculous and entirely sexist) concept that highlights gamers’ desire to spend time with the new content free of any real-life distractions. And although the spot is quite dragged out, at a 4:51 run length, fans of the franchise have responded. The video was uploaded to YouTube yesterday, and has already racked up almost 400,000 views. By the time of Onslaught‘s January 28th release, it could top the one million mark. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Gerry Graf’s Barton F. Graf 9000 NY has worked with production company Psyop, fresh off their game-developing debut with the Susan Sarandon-narrated Nightmare: Malaria, to develop this charming spot for the Supercell-developed strategy game Clash of Clans.

The one-minute anthem ad places the viewer in the middle of the action, on the same level as the melee taking place. To bring the game to life in the spot, Psyop “embraced the bright, stylized and saturated look of the game,” explained Psyop Director Fletcher Moules. “We wanted to fully conceptualize what the world would look like if we were running alongside the horde of barbarians, what would it feel like to be covered in their saliva.”

The impressively animated ad really does a good job transporting the viewer into the world of Clash of the Clans, thankfully without any saliva. One noteworthy moment occurs when two giants chuckle as they are hit with cannonballs. It was one of Psyop’s favorite segments to animate, as well. “It added the heart and the warmth that was only achieved when we removed ourselves a little from the ruckus to enjoy it from their perspective,” said Moules.

It would appear that Supercell’s audience is enthusiastic about Clash of Clans as well. The video was released on December 23rd, and garnered 14 million views in its first week. Credits after the jump. continued…

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In recent years, we've seen guys propose marriage through infographics, banner ads and crowdsourcing. But Oregon 3-D artist Robert Fink outscores them all with this impressive multi-level video game he created to ask his girlfriend, Angel White, to tie the knot.

Fink worked with two techie friends over five months to create Knight Man: A Quest for Love, which involves a knight's efforts to rescue a princess. White, also an avid gamer, had tested games for Fink before, so she wasn't too suspicious when he invited her to swing by his studio and give Knight Man a try. At the end of the quest, this message appeared: "Princess, I have searched far and wide and braved many dangers searching for my one and only. I believe with all my heart that I have found you … Angel White, would you do me the honor of sharing your life with me?" (I guess hiding a ring in a tub of hot wings during a Call of Duty marathon wouldn't have been as magical.)

White accepted, and with any luck, they'll live happily ever after.

Via Laughing Squid.

Five months ago, Boston-based agency Allen & Gerritsen acquired Philadelphia-based Neiman, expanding their staff to approximately 200. This gave both agencies the challenge of getting to know each other.

The folks 0ver at Allen & Gerritsen decided that simple names on emails amd faces in profile pics weren’t enough. What better way, they decided, than a friendly, cross-office game of Tic-Tac-Toe. But instead of simple Xs and Os, they decided to use nine “radio frequency identification (RFID) readers, a Wi-Fi enabled Arduino Yun, and Instagram” to put a new spin on the game. They dubbed their creation Pic Tap Toe. Here’s their explanation of the rules:

• Each office takes turns by placing a special game piece on sections of a custom game board consisting of RFID readers and an Arduino.
• Instead of Xs and Os, photos from employees’ Instagram streams appear on one of the 9 corresponding screens in each office.
• Screens update in real time in both locations, becoming a digital connection point and a way to glimpse into our coworkers’ lives through the photos they’ve taken.

It’s a fun take on getting to know new co-workers, and an innovative use of technology. Beyond the immediate benefits to their newly expanded organization, Allen & Gerritsen see the game as a great example of the “huge opportunities in RFID and the ability to customize a message and communicate it wirelessly to an individual at point of sale.” Allen & Gerritsen sees RFID as a groundbreaking tool with limitless potential, and Pic Tap Toe will give their employees valuable experience with RFID while also letting employees from their different offices get to know each other. Check out the video above for a more detailed look at Pic Tap Toe and RFID and let us know what you think in the comments section.

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