Innocean and Engine produce new spots for KIA

Unique mixed discipline TVCs and full in-house end-to-end creative solution Kia’s current ad campaign is quite a departure from the car manufacturer’s usual style of ads.

Engine EP Adam Wells explained: “We pitched on the ad through Innocean and the whole basis of our treatment and the ad concept was about Kia’s deals making sense. The agency thought, what better way to illustrate how something makes sense than by highlighting things that clearly don’t make sense? And the fun started there.”

VIEW THE KIA CHEESE SPOT

VIEW THE KIA BEES SPOT

VIEW BEHIND THE SCENES FOOTAGE

Innocean were keen to work with Engine’s Creative Director, Simon Robson, after seeing some of his previous work, particularly his organic animation style and the amount he was able to achieve in camera.

Kia’s National Marketing Manager Steve Watt said, “Kia is a challenger brand and that gives us permission to do things a bit differently like in the Sportage commercial featuring Grand Master Melle Mel and Scorpio. Consequently we want to bring that same approach to retail advertising, there’s no reason why it has to be boring.”

Robson said, “We really went to town with the Kia ads looking into the crazy things people do that just don’t seem to make any sense at all like the man wearing a suit of bees and the annual cheese rolling festival in the UK. In Ocean wanted to explore the possibility of using stop frame animation for the TVCs, incorporate some existing car footage and integrate these into a claymation world, so we had our work cut out for us.”

Robson and the Engine team of illustrators, modellers, set designers and stop motion animators set about working to create a stop motion piece in Engine’s in-house studio using highly detailed storyboard animatics to fully conceive and structure the ad before shooting took place.

Robson continued, “We also extensively used our 3D department to create and develop some of the obvious detail, like the bees and some of the more subtle ones, like the underlayer of seed shapes for the suit. We created a cartoon-like stop motion world that incorporated rolling cheeses and slow motion and we had lots of fun playing with traditional English stereotypes like yokels and the country gent. We then very carefully created a transition from the surreal world to the real world where the cars could be displayed. This involved panning off the stop motion set to a full size real world set with theatre props. This was an incredibly involved process that included physical set building, character builds, 3D and Flame, all completed in-house at Engine.”

The car footage supplied by the agency also had its challenges with Engine’s Lead Flame Artist Lee Sandiford having to relight the shots in order that the cars looked their best ensuring the space added to the overall effect. The character of the English countryside was also composited into what became a very complex TVC.

Robson continued, “We really paid attention to detail. With the Bee Man spot we used the same set as the rolling cheeses and the same panning effect into the real world but added a bee ‘smoker’ whose smoke gun fails to work, to help with the transition. Let’s face it, bees often make people uncomfortable and the pathetic smoke gun just adds to the story. Airbags also pop out of the beehives. As I said, we had a lot of fun with these ads. This is a completely different take on car ads and I’m really proud of the 3D and VFX team. I’d also like to thank Pete McDonald the style frame artist on this job as he came up with the looks and illustrations in super quick time. One further mention must go to Norman Yen and Glen Hunwick the amazing stopframe directors who did such an excellent job too.”

Adam Wells concluded, “Stop frame animation is an arduous and precise craft that is rarely used in advertising. The fact that we had all the facilities and resources in-house meant that these ads could be made seamlessly with the flexibility to record and review footage on the go. This non-linear way of production enabled problems to be spotted and innovative opportunities to be created. Our end-to-end approach allowed us to complete 3×30 second and 4×15 second TVCs from brief to delivery in only 6 weeks. I’m delighted to say our amazing team effort led to a great result, a happy agency and a very happy client.”

The Kia Suit of Bees and Rolling Cheese ads are currently airing nationally.

Credits:

Stills from the Kia Suit of Bees and Rolling Cheese ads created by Engine