When it comes to original advertising concepts, I'm all for interactivity. Advertising has a bad rep for being rather passive and monotonous, so any time an agency wants to shake things up by injecting a little audience participation into their work, I'm on board! The latest interactive campaign to piqué my interest is a new interactive music video from BBH London for Skip laundry detergent (Persil in the UK), which manages to do the impossible; actually make an advertisement about laundry detergent seem interesting! The campaign is rooted in the idea that Skip shares a love of clothes with its users, a concept supported by the product’s credentials as a premium detergent that goes beyond cleaning by also removing bobbles, to keep clothes looking new and smooth for longer. I'm not going to pretend to understand the science behind it, but it certainly sounds impressive.
The latest interactive campaign to piqué my interest is a new interactive music video from BBH London for Skip laundry detergent
The video was shot by acclaimed music video director Luis Cerveró, who is perhaps best known for his work with Pharrell Williams. “Dance” is a unique video that paves the way for a new “Premium category of laundry detergent.” Cerveró's world-class production team included Mexican cinematographer Alexis Zabé (the eye behind the camera for Pharrell Williams’ “Happy”), hot young Spanish choreographer Tuixén Benet and fashion stylists Shirley Kurata and Giorgia Tramontano. Set to the soundtrack of Janelle Monáe’s “Tightrope,” the 2 minute film features a group of dancers performing a tightly choreographed routine. The dancers, who were brought in from London, Madrid, Johannesburg and Buenos Aires, went through rigorous training in pre-production, achieving such a level of precision and synchronicity that the differences between takes would be almost imperceptible.
Skip presents an “I Love What You’re Wearing” production
When viewing the film online it becomes a completely interactive experience, with viewers invited to instantly change their outfits by clicking. Expert tips for caring for each garment are integrated throughout. The film uses advanced technical production techniques, as the changing of the outfits was achieved without using any form of post production or visual trickery. Achieving this meant shooting the same routine nine times for each wardrobe change, with the dancing and the camera movement matching exactly from one outfit to the next. The success of the shoot hinged upon the use of a Titan Motion Control arm, which used motion capture data (the same technique used famously in Avatar, The Lord of the Rings and The Planet of the Apes, amongst others) to program the camera’s movements to replicate identically over and over again. Post production was carried out by Oscar-winning facility The Mill, and whilst the outfit changes were achieved with no computer trickery at all, the finale (where all the dancers appear on stage simultaneously) did require a helping hand. The body of each dancer had to be digitally cut out frame-by-frame and superimposed onto each other.
The video was shot by acclaimed music video director Luis Cerveró, who is perhaps best known for his work with Pharrell Williams
The campaign targets the rapidly growing, affluent audience, and follows research which revealed that 70% of that target audience regularly talk about, pursue and purchase clothes online. It will launch in Argentina before rolling out to other markets around the Globe. In Argentina, the film will run on TV and in cinemas, with global PR and seeding driving viewers to the online interactive element. The campaign will be supported with print and in-store assets in certain markets. Carl Broadhurst, Creative Director at BBH London, said: “Skip isn't like other detergents, so our ambition was to create something that didn't look like any detergent ad anyone had ever seen before.” Stuart Edmunds, Global Brand VP for Skip and Surf, added: “I am delighted that our first work on Skip with BBH has brought such a distinctive look to communication in laundry.” Distinctive indeed, and (if I might be so bold), not too shabby on the eyes (or the ears) to boot!
Making of the Skip Dance
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from Kidderminster in the UK.
