Toronto studio Ubisoft teamed up with Soap Creative to develop an integrated mobile companion to Splinter Cell Blacklist.
The game, released August 20th across PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC platforms, is the latest in the popular Splinter Cell series, and marks the return of Tom Clancy’s Sam Fisher character. Soap Creative helped Ubisoft extend the game’s Strategic Mission Interface, while also adding three AAA mobile games that let players continue their Splinter Cell Blacklist experience while on the go. Ubisoft and Soap Creative hope that the mobile games will not only appeal to hardcore fans of the franchise by allowing them to earn currency transferable to Splinter Cell Blacklist, but also attract new gamers with an experience that can function independent of the console game.
“Companion experiences are creating new players and a broader universe for them to enjoy, even among the most established franchises,” says Matt Griswold, managing partner at Soap. Splinter Cell certainly qualifies as an established franchise, with a pretty large audience already willing to shell out for the latest in the series. The question is whether adding mobile games will help them convert new fans.
This is a stunning ad on its own, but it’s also a companion film for Chipotle’s new Scarecrow Game, an edutainment offering that highlight’s the brand’s quest to source and serve wholesome, sustainable food.
The Scarecrow is an arcade-style mobile game from Moonbot Studios that puts players in control of a scarecrow that is fighting to bring wholesome food to the city of Plenty.
According to Venture Beat, The Scarecrow must work to overcome the Crow Foods company, which specializes in processed food-like products.
Chipotle chief marketing officer Mark Crumpacker says, the project is “a way to help people better understand the difference between processed food and the real thing.”
The Scarecrow short film includes an original cover of “Pure Imagination” by Fiona Apple. The song first appeared in Gene Wilder’s iconic 1971 masterpiece Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Although you have to wonder how necessary advertising the next Madden game really is, considering how football/gaming bros pretty much spend all summer salivating in anticipation of the pigskin franchise’s next release, Heat has put together a pretty brolarious spot for EA Sports’ 25th anniversary of the franchise.
In the second spot of the “Born to Madden” campaign (following the Arian Foster/Marshawn Lynch opus), directed by Wayne McClammy, it is revealed that the real inspiration for the NFL careers of Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson was a summer camp pact made in their youth to one day beat each other in Madden, as each other. The spot highlights some of the hardcore training Kaepernick and Wilson underwent, all so they could make the NFL, rise to star status, and play Madden NFL 25 against each other. So far Kaepernick and Wilson’s Madden sessions have led to only minor injuries, including a mild concussion suffered by Wilson from a stray thrown controller.
Barry Sanders has always been good at the vanishing act. He did it most famously in 1999 by retiring from the NFL at age 30, when he was just 1,457 yards short of the league rushing record. He does it again, comically, in this new Pepsi MAX ad from TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles and director Matt Dilmore. In the ad, Sanders, getting a shave at a barber shop, is about to reveal the real reason he retired—but suddenly he goes up in a puff of smoke, and reappears in the living room of some gamer who has "unlocked" him while playing Madden NFL 25, thanks to a code on a Pepsi MAX cap.
Sanders' involvement with Madden NFL 25 goes beyond the new ad. Though he's been retired for almost 15 years, the 45-year-old was recently voted by fans to be the cover athlete of the game's latest edition. "Being on the cover of Madden introduces you to so many new fans that never saw you play," he said recently. "It's been a thrill for me, and I just never saw it coming."
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Pepsi MAX Spot: "Disappearing Sanders"
Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles President: Carisa Bianchi Chief Creative Officer: John Norman Creative Director, Copywriter: Zach Hilder Creative Director, Art Director: William Esparza Senior Copywriters: Anne Sanguinetti, Kathleen Swanson Art Directors: Kristina Krkljus, Jenn Tranbarger Group Account Director: Grace Kao Management Supervisor: James Aardahl Account Executives: Erik Wade, Rohit Bal Planning Director: Neil Barrie Planner: Drew Phillips Executive Producer, Producer: Anh-Thu Le Associate Producer: Stephanie Dziczek Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson Senior Business Affairs Manager: Laura Drabkin Talent Payment Manager: Maryam Ohebsion Broadcast Traffic Coordinator: Eugene Gandia
Production Company: Epoch Films Director: Matt Dilmore Executive Producer: Melissa Culligan Head of Production: Megan Murphee Line Producer: Geoff Clough
Editing: Cut + Run Editor: Graham Turner Assistant Editor: Russell August Anderson Executive Producer: Michelle Eskin Senior Producer: Christie Price
Visual Effects: Framestore Flame Artist: Trent Shumway Executive Producer: Kati Haberstock Producer: Mary Nockles
EA Sports goes back to the future with this dumb-in-a-funny-way spot by ad agency Heat for Madden 25. In the '80s, we're told, two guys playing an early version of the football video game decided to spawn offspring whom they'd be able to use in the game somewhat. Thus were born current Houston Texans running back Arian Foster and Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. (The fathers, "Darian Foster" and "Marshawn Lynch Sr.," are played, of course, by Foster and Lynch themselves.) It's a somewhat convoluted concept that comes across as well done, right on target for sports and video game obsessives, and a nice way to celebrate the Madden franchise's 25th anniversary—even if the kids' gym workouts are over the top in a way that feels a little like Old Spice's Terry Crews was their personal trainer. Credits after the jump.
CREDITS Client: EA Sports' Madden 25
Agency: Heat Creative Directors: Warren Cockrel, Anna Rowland Senior Art Director: Mark Potoka Senior Copywriter: Ben Salsky Content Producer: Vera Kacurova Account Director: Eddie Garabedian Senior Strategist: Daniel Teng
Production Company: Hungry Man Director: Wayne McClammy Executive Producer: Dan Duffy Line Producer: Rachel Curl
Post Company: Arcade Edit Editor: Christjan Jordan Executive Producer: Damian Stevens
Visual Effects Company: The Mill Visual Effects Supervisor: John Leonti
Music Company: Beacon Street Studios Composer: Andrew Feltenstein
In this Call of Duty: Ghosts trailer, Jake and Amir from CollegeHumor give us a preview of the action-packed prestige edition of the game. It includes a paracord strap, a Steelbook, and an HD Tactical Camera. “Naturally, we’re going to do what you do when you have a badass tactical camera strapped to your head,” the boys say. I realize I’m definitely not a video gamer when I have no idea what the next step will be. Parkour? Surveillance?
“We’re going to breach some stuff!!” Jake and Amir proceed to burst through doors, elevator doors, garden gates, and bathroom stalls, entering unexpected scenarios as they go. The best part is when they’re the uninvited guests at a little princess’s tea party. “Hi guys!” she squeaks, and we see them taking a moment to sip out of miniature purple plastic cups. The whole thing is a fun idea, far better than watching a fictional character slaughter everything in his path while the new Eminem single “Survival” plays. If only we all had disposable screen doors and wacky neighbors worthy of tactical camera footage. As it is, mothers should prepare for the onslaught of their teenage boys trying to karate chop the front door.
Instead of comparing fuel band scores or enjoying an office taco Tuesday, Venice, CA-based agency Ted Perez + Associates banded together to create something that would push their boundaries as storytellers and technologists. Their idea was an arcade game, made from scratch. Their designers created the characters, their copywriters (presumably) wrote the words, and their programmers built the code. Altogether, they made Gnarnia, a Wii-enabled arcade game that tells the story of an idyllic camp invaded by pesky woodland creatures. Players have to shoot the animals to stay safe and win points.
The idea is fun, and I appreciate the mashup of a title. But in reviewing this project, I wonder a few things: first, could Ted Perez and his associates have used those 26 days it took to bring this project to life for something a bit more…productive? Maybe I’m a total grinch, but because this isn’t particularly funny or nuanced, it seems like a waste of time. And second (in an admittedly off-topic issue), the tiny text on their website makes me feel like I’m about to turn 40. If an ad agency is about storytelling and technology, they should manage to put their website’s font in black, size 12. And get someone with a non-monotonous voice to narrate future promotional videos.
In April, we covered the first piece of ambiguous viral ad content for The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, a 2K Games and 2K Marin video game. We’re back to report another promo, titled “Orbit & The Asteroid,” and produced by Team One. This 90-second spot isn’t any less ambiguous than the first ad, most of it about a 1960s era creepy clown television show and the young boy who watches it. According to the creators, there are a number of easter eggs that contain clues for the future of the video game series. The game won’t be released until August 20, which means there are four weeks left for more curious marketing spots, creepy clowns and all. Credits after the jump.
To the untrained eye, it would appear that the spot’s success was owed to its subtle nods to some of PlayStation’s biggest titles paired with the sort of over-the-top visual effects that gamers subsist upon. However, any true gamer knows that the ad’s success is owed predominantly to the elaborate costuming employed, causing PlayStation to make a second ad in order to offer the costumes as prizes of some sort. Yes, it’s an ad for an ad, or “Adception” if you will.
Anyway, gamers can bid of the costumes from the spot using trophy points or something that they earn by being good at video games. Then everyone will play dress-up and have a great time. Learn more at bidforgreatness.com and view credits after the jump.
Ubisoft is still a few months away from the release of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the sixth installment in its blockbuster video game franchise, but some recent teamwork with Sid Lee Paris will offer fans and future some customers some strangely artistic publicity. “Defy History,” an interactive art project that will be displayed in Le Musée de la Marine, will let users transpose facial webcam pictures onto a selection of characters that are part of a large historical painting. Before the painting is finished, people will be able to vote on the best faces, with the winners being included in the final product.
It’s hard to say why Ubisoft wanted to jump into this creative work, since the painting project is only tangentially related to Assassin’s Creed IV. Sometimes, companies and agencies overthink, especially for a game about an assassin pirate. If interested, you can find out more details about the picture posting here.
I miss the good ole days of Ezio. Credits after the jump.
The stats suggest you've probably watched this already, but here it is again—the official gameplay video for Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V, coming Sept. 17. Gaming spots often blow up quickly online, but the engagement with this one since its release on Tuesday is staggering—7 million views already, and more than 230,000 shares, according to Unruly Media. It's an interesting spot, too, with a woman's voice narrating as we get a comprehensive look at the fully revamped game, which includes three lead characters, a more fully realized Southern California landscape, and a dual-environment structure that lets you toggle between heists and open-world exploration. The trailer is the perfect mix of informative and exciting. And the game quite simply looks badass.
In a cute take on motion controlled games, Stride Gum invites you to enter the world of Gumulon, where you’re represented by a “rebellious miner” named Ace. Ace, a strange green helmet-wearing thing, can only control the “intergalactic action” and ultimately vanquish the prehistoric cave beast if you concentrate on chewing while staring at your iPhone. When your jaw finally collapses after the strain of coercing Ace around the mine, the monster will eat Ace/you after seasoning you and taking a photo for posterity.
Watching the gameplay video makes this activity look like the dweebiest way to spend your day. I hope I never see someone sweating as they chew emphatically on the subway. This game should be played at home, if at all. Thankfully, Gumulon also comes in a touch version, should your mandibles tire of mining.
I will, however, give Stride’s effort points for novelty and its do-good nature. If we collectively achieve better breath through gamification, I can’t complain.
While most gamers were focused this week on learning what the new Sony PlayStation 4 will look like and how much it will cost ($399), ad geeks were treated to their own big reveal: the console's new marketing campaign. "Greatness Awaits" will be the launch tagline for the PS4, and the campaign rolled out this week with a suitably epic 90-second anthem spot from BBH New York. The agency won the PlayStation account earlier this year, succeeding longtime creative lead Deutsch/LA, whose ads featuring fictional PlayStation vp Kevin Butler were roundly beloved until ending awkwardly with a lawsuit against the star talent. The new guard's inaugural work for the PS4 features actor Taylor Handley (from CBS's recently canceled series Vegas) delivering a long-take soliloquy on embracing your greatness. Speckled with cameos by game characters and self-destructing set designs, the ad ends with the actor diving into the fray to break some pirate legs and clothesline a few clowns. If those are both part of the same game, I'd be willing to pre-order a PS4 today. Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Sony PlayStation 4
Agency: BBH New York Chief Creative Officer: John Patroulis Executive Creative Director: Ari Weiss Creative Director: Nate Able Copywriter: Rick Herrera Head of Integrated Production: Justin Booth-Clibborn Senior Producer: Jennifer Moore Bell Production Assistant: AJ Gutierrez Head of Account Management: Armando Turco Account Director: Melissa Hill Account Manager: Georgie Gooley Account Coordinator: Marshal Kerns
Production Company: MJZ Director: Rupert Sanders Director of Photography: Greig Fraser President: David Zander Executive Producer: Kate Leahy Producer: Laurie Boccaccio Production Supervisor: Adriana Cebada Mora Production Designer: Dominic Watkins Costume Designer: Mayes Rubeo
Local Production Company: Kinema Films de Mexico Local Production Co. Producer: Jose Ludlow
Editorial: Work Post NY Executive Producer: Erica Thompson Editor: Neil Smith Assistant Editor: Healy Snow
VFX & Finishing: The Mill NY Exec Producer: Jo Arghiris Senior VFX Producer: Charlotte Arnold VFX Supervisor: Iwan Zwarts VFX Supervisor: Rob Petrie Assistant Producer: Juan Handal Colour Producer: Heath Raymond Colourist: Fergus McCall 2D Lead Compositor: Iwan Zwarts 2D Compositing Artists: Kyle Cody, Dan DiFelice, Additional: Danny Morris, John Mangia, Ilia Mokhtareizadeh, Greg Spencer, Dan Giraldo 2D Conforms and Cut-downs: Jade Kim 3D Lead Artists: Rob Petrie and Joji Tsuruga 3D Lead Lighter: Olivier Mitonneau 3D Animators: Jeff Lopez, Alex Allain, Tyler Hurd 3D Artists: Olivier Varteressian, Per Bergsten, Ivan Luque Cueller, Billy Dangyoon Jang, Boris Ustaev, Hassan Taimur, Ruben Vandebroek, Tim Kim 3D MASSIVE: Wyattt Savarese, Ed Hicks, Hassan Tuimir 3D FX: Nick Couret, Ian Baxter, Phil Mayer, Cedrick Grousse Matte Painting: Can Y. Sanalan Title Design: Mario Stipinovich, Tetsuro Mise, Eugene Kolb
Additional: LIDAR services provided by Scanable: Travis Reinke Rotoscoping provided by: Trace VFX Sound Designer: Brian Emrich at Trinitite Music: Woodwork Music Music Producer: Andrew Oswarek Composer: Phil Kay Mix: Sound Lounge Mixer: Tom Jucarone
LeBron James may have a South Beach mansion full of trophies, but until yesterday, he had yet to accomplish one basketball-related goal: gracing the cover of a video game. NBA 2K14 won’t hit stores until the fall, but last night, viewers of the NBA Finals on ABC got to watch the introductory ad – created by Zambezi – where James announces his plan to join past coverboys like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. For 2K Sports, having the best basketball player in the world endorsing your basketball product is not too shabby, either.
Lost in all of this is the noble presence of Steve Kerr, once the foil to MJ in the NBA, and now, the foil to Marv Albert in NBA broadcasting. Kerr plays the role of “2K Investigator” in the commercial’s somewhat-lame hook. But when a six-foot white guy who couldn’t dunk gets into a basketball video game commercial, everyone wins.
Visiting the video arcade at my neighborhood mall in the '80s was both exhilarating and a bit scary. On the one hand, I feared that bigger kids would try to take all my change. (And I mean a physical shakedown, so quarters would spill from my pockets onto the pizza-smeared floor.) The adrenaline rush came from the games themselves. Asteroids, Space Invaders, Radar Scope … I loved them all. As I played, I rarely paid attention to my score. I just grooved on the sights and sounds, thrilled to each synthesized pop! bleep! and ping!, riding waves of pixelated excitement for hours on end. I wanted to meld with those machines and live in that world. Magic machines everywhere! That's what I wanted the future to be like. That was a scary thought, too, but no less wonderful for that.
Fast forward to Google's latest Chrome Experiments—two games designed to show off the advanced capabilities of the company's browser. They took me back to those arcades of my youth in ways both good and bad. This is partly because the games, "Roll It" and "Racer," are self-consciously retro. (The latter's soundtrack is by Giorgio Moroder, still taking his passion and making it happen after all this time!) Despite the nods to yesteryear, both games are cutting edge and let users play across multiple screens—phones, tablets and computers. "Racer" lets you drive a car across as many as five mobile devices. Watch it speed from the phone you're holding to the tablet in your buddy's hand! With "Roll It," you control the trajectory of a virtual skeeball on a desktop or laptop screen by moving a smartphone handset this way and that.
"Racer" and "Roll It" are both fun and absorbing—impressive slices of techno-magic that fulfill the promise of those crude arcade screens from the mall. They're like yesterday's dreams come true, brimming with possibilities for our digital tomorrows when synced systems running Chrome will conquer space and time. Still, I can't help feeling ambivalent, even dispirited about the proposition. For one thing, the joviality feels forced and works a tad too hard to sell happiness on a microchip. "Grab your phone, some friends and get ready to roll," says the "Roll It" promo clip. "No apps. No downloads. All you need is Chrome."
Booyah, Google's got the fun! It's daffy doodles, rad robots, animated animal rock groups and games all day long. Just follow the bouncing Chrome ball across screens of every shape and size … because the company now demands our attention on multiple platforms, as if retargeting humanity one screen at a time wasn't enough fun.
Ah well, there's no point in bemoaning "Big Bad Google," because I can't imagine a world without its products and services. Sure, Google's scary—but it gives us wonderful stuff, and its output has become an indispensable part of our daily existence. Maybe that's my problem. We've melded with the machines more thoroughly than I'd ever imagined, and now there's no escape. Our cursor-driven workplace tasks are essentially problem-solving games, complete with somewhat more sophisticated pops! bleeps! and pings! There aren't any shakedowns per se—just data-driven commerce. We can all groove to that, right?
I got the future I dreamed of all those years ago. So, why can't I shake the feeling that I'm the one being played?
Meet Deadpool, a Marvel supervillain-turned-superhero who comic book fanatics regard as “awesome” and non-comic fans refer to as “who?” Deadpool came into existence during the early 90s, a time when a collector-driven mentality molded the industry into what some regard as the “Style Era.” With sales at an all-time high, comic books publishers made an effort to churn out as many different characters as they could, focusing more on pizazz (elaborate costumes, big muscles, and huge breasts) than actual storytelling. Many now regard the early 90s as a low-point for the industry, a time when publishers bankrupted themselves both morally and financially to put whatever they could on the shelves in the flashiest packaging possible only to have demand nosedive.
However, a few characters from this era didn’t get swift deaths when the industry adopted a back-to-basics approach to storytelling in the early 2000s. Among them is Spider-man’s black-suited monstrous nemesis Venom, who has a ridiculous backstory but looks too cool to dislike. Another is Deadpool, originally an X-Men villain whose Peter Parker-esque sarcastic, quippy persona endeared him to fans who enjoy honest-to-God humor in their superheroes’ repertoire.
In fact, the above trailer from Ignited alums and Activision for Deadpool: The Game actually hits the character’s personality right on the nose, even if his whole backstory of looking for a job at Marvel HQ makes abso-fucking-lutely no sense in context. Why would Deadpool look for a job at Marvel? It isn’t explained at all during this trailer’s 2-minute runtime, nor is it hinted at during the character’s public appearance at Comic Con. Either way there’s a Deadpool video game coming out in June, so fans are probably almost as stoked as they were when Ryan Reynolds played the character in 2009′s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Have fun, you guys!
Social influence is one of those touchy topics that can set me, or any number of other argumentative people, off. Why? Because high school and the need to be popular, like Trix, is for kids.
Or is that a faulty assumption? Do we ever really outrun the need to be popular? Think about it. Who doesn’t want to be liked? Who doesn’t want to be recognized for their gifts?
As you may know by now, Klout is a company that ranks one’s influence in social channels, and ties perks from its partners to one’s score, thereby providing the much needed game layer. For instance, I have a pretty good score right now, which means I can claim a newly introduced, and pretty awesome, perk.
Users with a Klout Score of 55 or higher, can gain access to the Admirals Club in one of 40 airports worldwide by going to www.aa.com/klout. You do not have to be an American Airlines passenger to be eligible for this Perk.
In my opinion, this American Airlines perk is a big step up in the value of Klout’s perks program, and thus in Klout itself. While I continue to think it is a poor practice to place too much emphasis on social influence, I feel like it’s easier to take the whole thing seriously when there are real world payoffs like this.
Footnote: I used to say a lot of good my social capital is doing me, since Safeway won’t take social capital at the checkout stand. Perhaps, the tide is turning and we can begin to bank (even in small ways) on the work we do in social channels. Thoughts?
There are now even more "Dumb Ways to Die"—and smart ways to live—as McCann Australia has made a video game out of its beloved, superviral train-safety ad from last year. "Starring all the characters from the viral hit Dumb Ways to Die for Metro Trains Melbourne, the game allows players to flick piranhas away from a character's private parts and defend another from a snake attack among other ways to avoid being dumb," the agency says. "Players can also pledge to 'not do dumb stuff around trains' at the click of a button." The game, developed by McCann in collaboration with local developer Barrel Of Donkeys, has been the No. 1 free app in Australia for a week, and is charting in 79 other countries. John Mescall, executive creative director of McCann Australia, said: "With the main Dumb Ways to Die video now close to 46 million views, we wanted to give young people another platform on which to enjoy the characters and, more importantly, to continue to remind them that being dumb around trains can and should be avoided."
There's a bunch of genetic meddling going on in the new video game Resident Evil Revelations. It may stand to reason, then, that marketer Capcom would stage a wholly unnatural promotion for its release. The company has created "the world's only blood-filled swimming pool"—good gawd, let's hope it's the only one—and tossed in some realistic-looking entrails and body parts. Then what, you ask? For two days later this month, it will invite people to take a dip in the London pool and search for swag! While bobbing for licensed merchandise in viscous liquid might not be everyone's idea of a good time, Capcom has reason to believe that fans of its horror-adventure franchise will be up to the task. For the last installment, Resident Evil 6, the game developer opened a fake butchery selling human body parts in London's famous Smithfields meat market. For the upcoming stunt, 200 people will have the chance to slog through intestines, brains and torsos under the watchful eyes of zombie lifeguards in a 55,000-gallon pool. (That's the equivalent of 11,327 blood-drained people, for those keeping track.) Goggles and towels will be available for loan, but no word on barf bags.
There are knights in armor, Aztec warriors, ninjas, samurai and special ops commandos outside. There goes the neighborhood! This trailer by 72andSunny (and director Mark Romanek from Anonymous Content) for Activision's upcoming Call of Duty: Ghosts features assorted masked warriors, most sporting ornate headgear or fearsome face paint. "There are those who wear masks to hide. And those who wear masks to show us what they stand for," the voiceover says. "There are those who wear masks to protect themselves. And there are those who wear masks to protect us all." That's about it. We don't really learn anything about the nature of Ghosts itself. I'm guessing it's one of those games where you bat a blob of light across the screen, but I could be wrong. We'll know for sure when Ghosts debuts at an Xbox event on May 21, with the actual release set for November. Some may yearn for gameplay footage, but I'm enjoying Activision's teaser approach, which initially masks the details. The riotous "Replacer" spots for Black Ops 2: Uprising, by the same agency, generate excitement while giving little way, and I'd wager the ominous tone and impressive visuals of the Ghosts promo will get the faithful stoked for battle. Well played!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.