“It’s too confining to describe what we do as advertising anymore,” related Ben Walker, creative director at Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), London.
A prime example substantiating this is a multi-faceted branded entertainment project, Nokia’s online drama Supernova, which Walker and his creative director colleague Matt Gooden headed up for W+K.
The concept behind the campaign for the Nokia line of Supernova multimedia cellphones resonates with the young adult target audience–namely that people’s lives are on their cellphones. “Early on in the mobile market, it wouldn’t have been all that troubling if you lost your phone. But now, someone could pick up that phone and in effect see your diary, piece together your world. It’s a really interesting storytelling dynamic,” said Walker.
Nokia campaign components include TV spots that drive traffic to the website www.somebodyelsesphone.com where via an episodic online drama the stories of three fictitious characters’ lives unfold. We are privy to the lives of Anna, Luca and Jade via access to their cellphones, which contain film, photos, voicemails and text messages. Each character has a Facebook page where visitors can make friends, interact and follow each story as it progresses.
At press time the campaign was just at the midway point of a six-week run so Walker wasn’t yet at liberty to discuss certain details. Suffice it to say that the audience will be able to determine how each character should proceed. Furthermore fans of the online drama will have the chance to win tickets and meet the characters at a series finale party slated for Paris.
Big Balls Production entailed filming across three continents with W+K bringing the directorial team Big Balls, consisting of Gavin Rowe and Luke Taylor, on board for the project. Big Balls has an online content pedigree, having developed the noted series Kate Modern.
When approached by W+K, Big Balls in turn sought out a solid production roost for the campaign, gravitating to mainstay house Academy Films, London. (Academy has since formed Academy Content, a division specializing in work that goes beyond traditional commercialmaking. The new venture is headed by agency and production house vet Jams Cunningham–see separate story in this issue.)
Big Balls, Academy, W+K and website firm B-Reel in Stockholm spent some eight months developing and producing the online series.
Initially W+K, Big Balls and Academy sought out screenwriters for Supernova, putting together a list of candidates and finally culling that down to three accomplished writers–Chen Chen from China, Penelope Skinner from the U.K. and Stacey Harman from the U.S. Each penned a full-length script for one of the characters. Script supervisor was Kate Hardie.
“From a personal point of view,” said W+K’s Gooden, “I’ve loved working with drama script writers developing longer format storylines–and from Wieden’s [point of view], it’s been a chance to really dig into our digital capabilities. Everyone involved has been outstanding. Great fun, can’t wait to do next year’s follow-up.”
Walker noted, “We’re telling linear stories through four different mediums–film, photos, text messages and voicemails–and people can connect with these stories in a nonlinear fashion, in whatever way they feel comfortable. They can get email updates to keep in touch in a general way or they can delve much more deeply into each character if they care to. We’re talking six weeks of content for each character–which translates into eighteen weeks worth of content to keep visitors engaged.”
Team effort Among the other key W+K contributors were creatives Fabian Berglund and Ida Gronblom, planner Andrew Stirk, account handlers Penny Brough and Jessica Finning, TV producer Danielle Stewart and digital producer Clements Brandt.
The talent on the overall campaign spanned 500 artists, 38 shoot days, two months in postproduction (Moving Picture Company, London, with Joe Guest of Final Cut editing TV and Edward Line and Joce Hockings cutting online content), nearly 100 crew people and four cinematographers (Mattias Montero and Stuart Bentley in London, Nikhil Paniz in Los Angeles and Xio Dee in China). Providing production support stateside and in China, respectively, were companies DNA and ASAP.
Beyond the website and online drama, production encompassed such elements as 14 TV commercials, 52 viral teasers, 32 press and poster ads.
Walker noted that the four different angles (film, text, voicemail and photos) whereby viewers can connect with the online drama characters led to varying takes.
He observed that a viewer might not like a character on film but may somehow relate to how he or she communicates via text, for example. This makes for a creatively stimulating experience for consumers.
“This is very much in line,” said Walker, “with what we’ve been doing at Wieden for ages–trying to push the boundaries. And doing it for a client like Nokia, what’s brilliant for Matt and I is we have to do it at double the speed. Nokia is at the forefront of technology and communications and we have to constantly stay ahead of the curve with the content we create for them.
“We’ve felt for a long time that media that interrupts is becoming less and less relevant and powerful,” continued Walker, noting that the agency often opts “to make our communications web-based and to not go with traditional media only.
“For Matt and I, it means we’re being constantly challenged. Sometimes that can be scary. But it is always interesting and exciting.”
