From Burger King’s trio of hot selling video games (via Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami) to Coca-Cola’s lauded “Video Game” spot, which aired during this year’s Super Bowl (directed by Smith & Foulkes of Nexus Productions, London, for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland), to the California Milk Processor Board’s Get The Glass online game (from Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco), to the tour de force “Believe” commercial promoting the release of Halo 3 for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 (a SHOOT “Top Spot,” 10/12, directed by Rupert Sanders of MJZ for McCann San Francisco and T.A.G.), clearly gaming continues to gain momentum in the advertising/marketing sector.
While these and related developments have been chronicled in SHOOT from agency, production and client perspectives, a TV spot that debuted this month for the Toyota Tacoma truck out of Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Torrance, Calif., has become the latest ad catalyst to get gamers buzzing and arguably sets a new creative precedent in the process.
Titled “Truck Summoner,” the commercial takes us into the throes of the World of Warcraft game as if we are playing it. We hear players talking in terms of choosing their weapons, with one opting for explosive arrows. But a savvy player who thinks outside the box wants “four wheels of fury,” bringing a Toyota Tacoma into his arsenal. As the Tacoma traverses the World of Warcraft terrain, it is immediately put to the test as a dragon swallows the vehicle whole, signaling what at first appears to be a quick demise for the truck.
But instead, it’s the dragon who’s slain as the Tacoma emerges from the huge beast with the creature’s heart beating in its truck bed. The player wielding the mighty Tacoma is then heard boasting, “Did you see me lay down the law? I am the lawgiver.”
“Essentially what we set out to do and what we created was a game capture in the context of 27 seconds in a spot,” said Saatchi associate creative director/art director Dino Spadavecchia, who teamed with agency creative director Steve Chavez and copywriter Greg Farley to direct “Truck Summoner.”
“The goal was to get gamers to think, ‘Oh my god, is that part of the game?’ instead of knowing right away that they’re watching a spot that doesn’t quite resemble the game but is trying to tap into the game.
It’s the authenticity of the game capture that I think sets it apart from other game-themed ads. Through the camera moves, through the appearance of the Tacoma–which isn’t as pristine looking as it would be in a traditional broadcast commercial–from the character points of view, the truck feels like it’s in the game.”
And indeed the spot spawned an element that has since been adopted in the game–the dragon’s beating heart. Whenever anything is killed in a video game, the assailant generally is supposed to gain or win something–a possession of the victim, money, gold, or some sort of prize that he or she can perhaps use later in the game (ie., a life force).
Working with Blizzard Entertainment, the company that developed World of Warcraft, and Santa Monica-based visual effects/digital studio Hydraulx, Saatchi created and mapped out a dragon heart–which first appears pumping in the truck at the spot’s conclusion and is now in the World of Warcraft game itself, which is played by an estimated 9 million-plus gamers worldwide.
Spadavecchia put a generic version of the spot–sans the Toyota tag and branding–online one recent Friday. Over the weekend, it had generated just shy of 1.2 million hits. At press time there were 1.8 million hits overall with the additional traffic generated by separate consumer postings of the commercial. And gamers had come up with their own unique postings, including one who posted a clip of himself playing the game, offering a reverse POV as compared to that of the spot.
Machinima (a fusing of the words “machine” and “cinema”) renditions, almost music video-like, deploying digital filmmaking tools were also popping up as gamers create their own worlds based on their interpretations and game playing experiences.
“Toyota has been thrilled with the results,” related Damian Stevens, director of integrated production/multimedia at Saatchi LA. He credited the client with taking a leap of faith, particularly in allowing the Tacoma to appear less than its picture perfect best in order to look as if it belongs within the World of Warcraft environment.
Challenges Members of the Saatchi team ran down three prime technical challenges in getting “Truck Summoner” made. For one, said Spadavecchia, “The spot was essentially one take, all digital. Every time we had to make a tweak, the whole thing had to be re-rendered to accommodate the change.” Necessitating frequent tweaking was the comedic timing of the characters–there’s no actor to give direction to; instead, the digital characters need to have their performances refined in re-rendering if the humor is off. It was a delicate balancing act, observed Spadavecchia.
Jennifer Pearse, Saatchi LA senior producer, related that a second key challenge was trying to stay as authentic and true to the game as possible. “We found ourselves constantly checking our facts, to make sure that a weapon was true to the game and could be summoned and that the Tacoma was summoned in the right manner.”
Stevens noted that the animation re-rendering and quest for authenticity had Saatchi in the middle of a logistically complex dialogue. One one hand there had to be constant back and forth with Blizzard, showing people there cuts and getting their comments as to if the spot played authentically. Then those comments and Saatchi’s observations went to Hydraulx so that rendering and re-rendering could be properly executed. Spadavecchia estimated that it took 30 takes just to get the dragon sequence right.
The third major challenge, he continued, was getting the client and everyone involved to understand how the players’ dialogue in the spot was going to fit in. The script couldn’t be entirely written until the animation was completed.
But the bottom line is making sure the story gets across, while incorporating dynamics of pop culture and vehicle toughness. “With each Toyota Tacoma spot we’re trying to reach pop culture in a different way–this time with the element of gaming,” noted Spadavecchia, the constant throughout the campaign being the “unbreakable” image of the truck. “We’re constantly reinventing ‘unbreakable’; this time around it was the dragon that couldn’t tame the truck.”
