With close to 300 spots under its collective belt, as well as countless awards and an ever-growing roster of American and European clients, Traktor has made quite a mark on the advertising industry. Now the group of five directors and two executive produc ers is tackling another medium: music video.
The 10-year-old Swedish collective consists of executive producers Richard Ulfvengren and Ole Sanders, and directors Pontus Lowenhielm, Mats Lindberg, Sam Larsson, Ulf Johannson and Patrik von Krusenstjerna. Additionally, Jim Bouvet serves as head of production for the team. Traktor just completed work on the Fat Boy Slim music video "Yo Mama." Described by Sanders as "a sticky, blockbuster chase-dance epic," the quirky, humor ous video should look familiar to Traktor aficionados. "We wanted to take some of the things that we’ve done in the past and over-inflate them," explains Sanders, who serves as Traktor’s spokesperson for this article. "We wanted to do things that we’ve just hinted at before in terms of casting and chaos."
Casting and chaos has proved a winning combination for Traktor, particularly since 1999, when the group — which is represented in the U.S., France and the U.K. by bicoastal/international Partizan — shifted its center of operations from Sweden to Santa Monica. (The collective is repped for clips by Partizan’s recently launched music video division.) Helming such inventive American projects as MTV’s "Jukka Brothers" campaign via Fallon New York, and "Badger" and "Jeans Donor" for Levi’s, through TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, Traktor quickly gained notoriety in the states and worldwide.
These days, the group’s unusually large w orkload is divided evenly between the U.S. and European markets. And, back in its homeland, more and more Traktor imitators have sprung up. "Because we’ve paved so much ground in terms of getting people around to the idea of a collective, there are Scandinavian production companies who want to ride on the coattails of that," Sanders explains. "They say, ‘Oh, we’ve got a collective, too. Everyone in Scandinavia sits together and eats porridge.’ But they aren’t real collectives. I could blow the whistle on some of them tomorrow if I wanted to, but that would be unfair because I’ve got to move back to Scandinavia when I get old, and I don’t want them waiting for me at the airport with a big box of moose droppings."
LUCKY SEVEN
The Traktor team has come a long way since its beginning, when seven film school buddies who graduated from Bergs School of Art, Stockholm, in ’91, formed what was intended to be a production company. "It was never meant to be a collective [of directors]," recalls Sanders. "There just wasn’t that much work for us, and as it came in, we’d jump all over it like rabid dogs. There were so few projects that at least two people could wor k on each one together, to try to learn how you set up a shot and put one picture next to another. So that became our modus operandi. We did things together and, at the time, it didn’t really matter who did what. [Swedish agencies] would go to Traktor.
"When we decided to try out England and America, we had this body of work in Sweden," Sanders continues. "But when we went through it, trying to make individual reels, we’d realize, ‘Oh, Ulf and Pontus did that Diesel spot together. And here’s this other spot that Pontus and Patrik did.’ We couldn’t figure out how to do it. If we made a reel for each of the permutations, there would be a ridiculous number of reels. Underlying that was the fact that each approach was so similar. So we decided to replicate the same feeling we’d had in Sweden — coming to a group of people you know. You come to Traktor. It’s no secret who’s done what, but we recommend that you just send us the boards, and the person that likes it the most will do the best job."
While agencies were skeptical at first, they eventually came around. "In the end, the work spoke for itself," Sanders states. "I guess it spoke louder as the years passed."
It spoke particularly loudly to this year’s Cannes jury, which awarded the "Jukka Brothers" campaign a Gold Lion. While it wasn’t the first time Traktor had scored honors at the festival — in ’97 the team was behind the Grand Prix-winning campaign for Diesel — the win further solidified the reputation of the group.
Sanders attributes much of Traktor’s success to the fact that the directors "go deep every time." In other words, they take every proje ct seriously and give it the maximum amount of effort. For the "Jukka Brothers" spots — which focus on a group of Finnish, MTV-obsessed brothers who constantly have to discipline their youngest sibling, Little Mike, for being uncool — Traktor did its casting in Finland and the shooting in Sweden. "It was up to us to find the best people and the best locations — not to shoot it in Canada, or somewhere like that, but to go for the real thing. We found all of our actors in Finland, except for Little Mike Jukka, who was our tried and tested favorite."
Authenticity was also key for the quirky "Badger," which depicts a hapless man chased down by a menacing badger who is attracted to the squeaky sound of his corduroy jeans. "What was difficult to visualize was exactly how a real badger was going to work," Sanders says. "We didn’t want it to be a cutesy character. We wanted him to have presence, not to be a cartoon."
Since badgers are not known for their trainability, Traktor had to rely on clever camera work. "You lay out the food, and the badger runs from point A to point B," he explains. "That’s all it does. You know it’s going to end up where the food is, and you have to des ign the shot accordingly." The location also helped set the mood, he points out: "It was just a matter of trying to find that ludicrous, sweet little vale in the forest."
The collective also worked hard on "Jeans Donor" — a three-part spot that was slated to run during this year’s Super Bowl. But, Sanders admits, they were a bit disappointed by the outcome. In their original form, the spots — two :15s and a :60 — tell the story of a man who becomes unconsc ious after falling off a particularly rough mechanical horse. In the longer, central spot, the man’s jeans are removed and airlifted to a grateful, and pants-less, boy. The final segment shows the man regaining consciousness, wondering what happened to his jeans. During the Super Bowl, however, the only segment that aired was a :30. "Let’s put it this way," Sanders says: "We certainly missed the impact and the build up of the sixty-second version, particularly in the Super Bowl environment. I think it wou ld’ve stood out. It obviously wouldn’t be up there among the wide-angle Budweiser spots that go down well in USA Today. But I think the kids would’ve loved it."
With projects on deck for clients Reebok, Malibu Rum, Coors and Texaco, Traktor’s presence should continue to grow. As for the collective concept, it’s worked out just fine, Sanders says: "We share the money, and we share the glory. At Cannes you can brag on the beaches about a spot, regardless of who did it, because it’s credited to Traktor."
