Going viral with a video titled “How a Virus Changes the World” for a pandemic-themed film called Contagion is a promotional proposition fraught with irony. However, Foundation Content, Chicago and Los Angeles, was up to the task, making the ironic relevant from a marketing perspective, helping director Steven Soderbergh’s feature catch on with a debut weekend of $23.1 million, topping the boxoffice derby and exhibiting enough staying power to only fall to second the following week, behind Lion King 3D.
Foundation collaborated with Denizen Company, Take Part (Participant Films’ social action web division), and Warner Bros. on the viral promo, which marked the first project under the leadership of R. Kyle Shoup, who was recently promoted to creative director at Foundation’s Chicago office. Shoup’s graphic design experience spans the spectrum from print, identity, and environmental wayfinding to motion graphics and visual effects.
“How a Virus Changes the World? is an animation/graphics piece that mixes scientific fact with a tongue-in-cheek touch, the latter reflected in such references as a real-world pandemic eclipsing even the rampant Bieber Fever in size and scope, and the inevitable drawback of a contagious outbreak spawning a pop music fundraiser (“Pand-Aid”) with mediocre to fair singers.
Shoup described the piece as “a perfect opportunity for our team to showcase our talents while collaborating fully with the client. They approached us with an already compelling script and the freedom to realize this narrative with our own artistic lens. You know a project is exceptional when everyone wants to keep pushing it further and further well beyond the client’s expectations. We found ourselves laughing out loud during the process…especially the audio sessions. Who needs better motivation than that?”
The promo, which also has serious scientific overtones, drives traffic to www.takepart.com/contagion, a site that offers varied experiences as well as insights into how pandemics have changed the world, and how quickly a virus can spread.
For Foundation, Shoup served as creative director, an animator and a designer on “How a Virus Changes the World.” Others in the Foundation ensemble included animator/designer Jennifer Moody, animators Jesse Willis, Jamin Clutcher and Jimmy Fisher, producer Stacy Paris, graphics producer Lusia Boryczko and sound designer Ryan Pribyl.
The agency on the job was Denizen Company, a social media marketing and content shop, with the Denizen collective handling creative direction, art direction and copywriting. Agency producer was Trista Van Tine.
Contagion :: How a Virus Changes the World from TakePart on Vimeo.
