New Online Animated Spot For Tap Rival Makes A Scatological Splash
Playing mobile games in the bathroom at the office is probably not a good idea for a lot of reasons, including the chance of an exploding toilet due to resounding defeat at the hands of your opponent. Such is the scenario depicted in a new animated online spot by Calabash for Signal Zero, the San Francisco-based company focused on helping gamers make money playing games, and its new Tap Rival mobile gaming platform.
According to Signal Zero CEO Tobias Batton, Tap Rival is essentially a mobile gaming portal where users can play an array of mobile games, compete with others online and earn points that can redeemed for gift cards and cash. The new animated spot, entitled “Defend Your Throne,” which will be seen on Facebook, YouTube and other gaming hubs, highlights one of Tap Rivals’ key components: the ability for players to compete head-to-head.
“Our audience watches animated shows like ‘Rick & Morty,’ ‘Gravity Falls,’ and ‘Family Guy’ and Calabash has a real gift for capturing that late 80s-early 90s animation style,” Batton says. “But beyond their animation skills, we can see that the ads help convert sales very well. Our marketing is working and Calabash is a big part of that. The ads are funny, they gets people’s attention and have made a difference in our bottom line.”
Marking the second time Calabash has collaborated with Signal Zero, “Defend Your Throne” brings the term “potty humor” to literal heights. The spot opens with close-ups of two females engaged in a heated mobile game battle. Amid gaseous bodily sounds and a whir of bleeps and pings from their mobile phones, their online clash grows in intensity.
Suddenly, the POV pulls back revealing that both women are actually sitting next to each other in adjacent bathroom stalls. The spot crescendos with the losing player screaming as her toilet explodes in a mass of ick, while the winner’s stall literally rains dollars as a heavenly light shines down.
Stylistically, says Calabash Creative Director Wayne Brejcha, they went for a look that emphasized simple figures with cartoony shapes and bold outlines, which, given the fast-pace of the spot, helped give viewers an immediate sense of their personalities, while providing a visual platform for the super outrageous.
“Because there is just the one location, and the camera does not move much, we went with a series of quick cuts from one character to the other and the intensity increases building to the explosive ending,” Brejcha says. “For us the challenge involved capturing the character’s expressions in a strictly 2D world. We also focused a lot on the pacing so you get the reveal that these two women are not just next to each other but also in the bathroom. There was a lot of fine-tuning with nuances of eye squints and the speed of their thumbs tapping like crazy on their phones. For the explosion we had to get the color and texture just right, we were going for over-the-top but wanted to stay in a stylistic range.”
Calabash Executive Producer Sean Henry adds, “One of the reasons the spot works was thanks to the thoughtful and efficient direction from Tobias and Signal Zero Co-Founder/Designer Nathan Christie. “They had the character design to within 90 percent of final for us. We kept laughing at how far they wanted to push the finale. Usually with ads we have to dial everything back, but with this one we dialed forward to the redline.”
About Calabash Animation
Led by Creative Director Wayne Brejcha and Executive Producer Sean Henry, Calabash Animation is the Chicago, IL-based animation production studio known for its award-winning animation for the advertising and entertainment industries. Calabash Animation is perhaps best known for their creative character animation and development of some of America’s most beloved brand icons. In addition to it advertising working, the company has also produced several acclaimed short films, including ‘’Stubble Trouble,’’ which was nominated for an Academy Award® in 2002.
2024 AICP Awards Tour Concludes with Stops in Dallas and Chicago
The 2024 AICP Awards Tour concludes with stops in Dallas and Chicago this month as it wraps up its tour of cities across the U.S. The National Tour brought presentations, panels and screenings to marketers, advertising agencies, production and post production companies. The AICP Awards will be in Dallas on Thursday, November 14th, at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, followed by the Chicago event, set for Thursday, November 21st at The Old Post Office. Tickets are available now for both events at www.aicp.com. In Dallas, the program kicks off at 6:45 pm with a happy hour, followed by the screening and panel discussion at 7:30. The evening ends with a networking reception from 8:30 to 11:30. The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is located at 2201 N. Field Street in Dallas. Appearing in Dallas will be Abe Garcia, Chief Creative Officer, Dieste; Julia Melle, Director of Brand and Content, Southwest Airlines; and Isaac Pagán Muñoz, VP, Executive Creative Director of PepsiCo Foods. The panel will review selected winners from the suite of the AICP Awards programs, offering insights into what made them rise to the top of their respective categories and share their viewpoints on key trends in the industry. The Chicago stop starts at 6:00pm with a happy hour, followed by the presentation and screening at 7:00pm. A reception caps the event, starting at 8:00pm and concluding at 11:30pm. The Old Post Office is located at 433 W Van Buren Street in Chicago. The panel there will feature 2024 AICP Awards Curators and Winners from the marketer, agency, production and post production sectors who’ll highlight this year’s winners. The conversation will include a discussion about the winning work, including insights... Read More