A-Vision

The 1st of May hails the launch of Independence of the Seas – Royal Caribbean’s newest and the largest cruise liner. To help find the ‘Godmother’ to launch the ship, we created a cross platform ad for TV and web which has been recognised by the senior executives at ITV as "Ad of the month" encompassing the complete cross-media nature of the campaign.

The campaign, led by Sir Steve Redgrave searches for the ship’s Godmother, a woman who has served the community with distinction.
Developed with ITV's daytime editorial and production teams, the search included a two-week advertising campaign in daytime across the ITV Network to drive viewers online.
Visit http://searchforagodmother.co.uk/

Experiential marketing agency Pimento re-launched the Holiday Inn brand last month to an audience of over 2500 delegates at IHG’s (InterContinental Hotel Group’s) Pan European conference at Farnborough 5, the new purpose build exhibition and conference venue at Farnborough International Airport in Hampshire.

A-Vision were approached by Pimento to create a visual ‘centerpiece’ for the event a 12 minute cinematic journey entitled ‘Time Tunnel Experience’ which traces the history of the Holiday Inn brand from its inception in middle America in the 1950s through to present day.? The film skillfully juxtaposes the iconic global events of each decade with the changes and development of the Holiday Inn brand by using a different design style to reflect the advances and trends of each decade.

This complex piece will be projected onto a 2.8m high 48 x 9 screen using Hi-Definition technology and surround sound for a truly visual and aural experience. It was prepared for projection as a 5376 x 1080 film using After Effects and Cinema 4D as the primary designing and compositing system.

Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White became the new face of Knorr after his description of their stock cubes as "the best ingredient in the world" triggered a sales frenzy. We have been working with Knorr and Uniliver to film monthly web content for their website.

The 19 recipes all feature the Knorr stock cube range and are interwoven into Marco culinary skill. A-Vision worked with Craik Jones to develop not just a creative look and feel but also how that look and feel will interact with the medium and engage the viewer.

In recent years Marco has been known for his work on ITV’s ‘Hells Kitchen’ which uses high impact sizzling graphics to grab the viewer's attention Knorr wanted to develop an approach which allowed Marco’s refreshingly honest approach to shine.

Marco therefore created sumptuous and incredible flavors from his own imagination and a humble cube of stock. Creatively we let the flavour of the food exude with flowing camera moves often close up the action.

This concept of ‘uncut cooking’ allowed Marco to talk directly to the viewer on a one to one basis … perfect for the medium.

In transferring video to web we must realize that that video is a screen within a screen and we feel that screens should always have movement to keep the viewer's attention.

We are delighted to announce a Gold World Medal win at this year’s New York Festivals Innovative Advertising Awards. The Awards Gala held on 18th April 2008 in New York saw A-Vision scoop top prize in the ‘Best Place-Based Media’ category.

Sony followed their television advertising work for Sony Bravia with site specific advertising through CBS Outdoor using the escalator screens at Tottenham Court Road Underground station in London. The iconic balls bouncing balls move between the screens in slow progression followed by a torrent of balls, mirroring the original television campaign.

We believe that the key to outdoor digital lies in understanding how people consume the messages, where they are consuming them and what state of mind they may be in. Commuters on the tube don’t wanted to be sold to they want be stimulated, entertained or wowed. The Sony Bravia campaign achieves all of these.

A-Vision's relationship with Titan's digital screen arm - Transvision grows, as we produce the digital launch ad for the Blackberry Pearl and T-Mobile. The 20 second ad was completely animated in Aftereffects and is creatively based on the current national poster campaign.Transvision is a network of large, impactful screens displaying animated advertising. The high impact screens have been built in high traffic, high dwell time locations across the UK’s busiest termini concourses, capturing the attention of the multitude of people that pass through everyday.

A-Vision has just completed its second film for the new business airline Silverjet. Working creatively with MC Saatchi, A-Vision developed a graphical technique of moving silver graded squares which are interwoven - sequence to sequence.

Silverjet flies London New York and offers clients business class at less than £1,000. Silver Class is unlike any other flying experience in the world.  It’s designed to eradicate as many annoying and disruptive aspects of modern air travel as possible.

It is these confident messages that form the basis of the creative approach

Our famous Bravia balls made impact further a field than the London Underground it was even featured in Time magazine. It was therefore due credit that Campaign both recognised the industry by creating this award and the Bravia Balls DEP as a finalist.We brought Fallon’s blockbuster Sony BRAVIA TV Advertisement by developing a vast visual engaging campaign for the digital escalator panels at Tottenham Court Road Tube station.The 66 digital escalator panels (DEPs), featured a bespoke 15-second advert on the 60-second loop, running on both sides of the escalator.The computer animated balls were taken out of the San Francisco hills setting and work against a simple back background. This allowed the colour of each ball to jump out at you and emphasise Sony’ prominence of ‘Colour like no other’.

Since the DEPs are electronically linked, images were animated from one screen to another. It allowed us to re-create the spectacle of 250,000 balls bouncing down a series of screens, grabbing commuters’ attention as they bounced down the ‘escalator’. This fitted the personality of the medium and its engagement with the consumer perfectly.

We are working with our partner company Arishi to creating a global web presence for EDC. It is our belief that increasingly the web will be consumed in a similar way to television and we therefore need to build both sophisticated design and clever technological build.

The site will involve series of video pieces that will be animated in Flash. The central creative is a stunning piece of artwork that engages the visitor with a simple but highly engaging design that emphasises both the magnitude of EDC globally but also the easy of use.

The cycling of colours and images both portrays EDC as allowing new ways of seeing and hearing and at the same time to allow people to see the immensity of what is on offer.

We recently produced a complex antinational ad for the Lanzarote Tourist board to work on the Transvision screens.With presence at 15 of the 17 Network Rail major stations, Transvision is one of the largest screen networks and certainly the largest in terms of physical size.Editorial updates from Sky News engage the interest of the busy commuter and add relevance to the advertising.
Work to outdoor digital is all about engaging the consumer with the screen. Not about simply re-running an existing TV ad to a new screen type where audiences’ consumption patterns are vastly different. We have to understand the screen ‘personality’ to maximize the effectiveness this groundbreaking creative.

Viacom needed to develop three commercials that showed the personalities to each of the new screen technologies they are about to unveil to London Underground. Our creative became apparent to us because the new screens have to capture the 'eyes' of the London commuter, so the 'eyes' had it. It was also felt important that developing a style that was both colorful and at times humorous could work well on the Tube. It is our belief that on a Tube journey commuters do not want to be 'told or sold' to but instead want to entertained, informed and engaged. The creative played with the fact that very often eye contact is not made on the Tube but with these screens and clever creative ideas it is very had not to look at them.

'Creative ideas and executional know-how makes outdoor digital exciting' Andrew Smith, Creative Director of A-Vision I was intrigued to read the article in this week's Marketing Week. Although it celebrated the fact that posters are becoming plasma screens in their thousands it failed to understand that this is a medium that works very differently to what has gone before. The clear point here is that ‘… this is advertising Jim but not as we know it!’ Today consumers have new powers. They can switch TV channels, flick through the internet and can and do Sky+ through adverts. It is our belief that in a society that bombards consumers with constant images people don’t want to be bombarded with more out of the home. The key to outdoor digital lies in understanding how people consume the messages, where they are consuming them and what state of mind they may be in. People on a busy train don’t want to be sold to, they want be stimulated, entertained or wowed. Good creatives to Outdoor Digital will reflect this. We are working closely with Viacom to create the content for both the escalator panels (pdp’s) and cross track projection (xtp). Creatively it is immensely exciting not least because as a format it does not carry sound. Any creative therefore has to grab peoples attention purely visually. Equally as a member of the Outdoor Advertising Association we hold a shared belief that the creative has to truly engage the consumer. If we know that we are only likely to hold a consumers attention for a few seconds then our creatives need to respond to that imaginatively on the platform, give a wow factor on the escalator panels or entertain in the ticket halls. Good creatives to Outdoor Digital pull as much influence from world of art and music promos and the internet as they should from traditional television advertising. Ideas that fully exploit these areas have almost limitless creative possibilities. This medium is at its most exciting time. However, like anything pioneering, it is a combination of engaging creative ideas and strong executional know-how that engages attention in Outdoor Digital.

A-Vision's Outdoor Digital work has taken the world by storm. The TIME Magazine feature looks at many are calling as the Screen Age and how clients and consumers are engaging. A-Vision's work has been featured at the heart of the zeitgeist that is wowing the world.

The new campaign for the Sony Bravia Balls campaign to Outdoor Digital began on Monday 8^th May This time round we are advertising the new 40” V Series Bravia HD Ready Television.This brings the blockbuster Sony BRAVIA ad with a visually stunning campaign on the digital escalator panels at Tottenham Court Road Tube station. The 66 digital escalator panels (D-EPs), which launched as a global first last May, will feature a bespoke 30 second advert on the 60 second loop, running on both sides of the escalator. Since the D-EPs are electronically linked, images can be transferred from one screen to another. This has enabled Viacom Outdoor and Tonic to re-create the spectacle of 250,000 balls being fired down the San Francisco hills, allowing commuters to follow the progress of individual balls as they bounce down the panels.

'I make films with a WOW factor and creatives that truly understand the target audience. But where I flourish is in understanding how to tailor the message to the medium, this is where good ideas become truly great’ ANDREW SMITH, Director has worked on some of the biggest and best campaigns for the likes of Sony, Rolls Royce, KLM, Guinness World Records and Gillette. His understanding of the industry and approach to work brings savings to the overall budget whilst making the project look wonderful - and bring the desired results. Andy began his career in media at the age of 17 hosting a youth show for the BBC whilst promoting bands and DJs all over the country. He then went on to promote music events and some of the biggest bands in the country before embarking on a Communication Studies degree before he turned twenty. After college Andrew complemented his first steps into production with journalism, writing Arts and Music reviews for various papers including Time Out. He also developed a plethora TV programme ideas with Michael Appleton the producer of ‘Live Aid’. In his later twenties he successful turned his eye from production to direction and is the proud creator of ground breaking and award winning work. Most notably his work has encompassed brand commercials, title sequences and product launches. He has also championed a range of new technologies / approaches and worked in diverse languages for world wide markets.

In the future, we trust! One the largest contracts I have had the pleasure of winning came to me one Saturday lunchtime. A major consumer electronics company called me - client I had a good relationship with - to tell me they wanted to give a new product an exciting launch film. ‘We want it to look big … James Bond big!’ ‘How much will that cost …?’ he asked. ‘Well you have got to be looking at an initial budget of at least £ 250k’ I said. ‘…Well OK … but it best be good!’ So there I was feeling immensely overwhelmed, not because of the size of contract or the distinct lack of creative - at this stage at least, but by the incredible trust that person had placed in me. It does not happen like that any more. Well not quite. The budgets are still very much there but today we pitch and re-pitch, change the changes, budget and re-budget … then e-mail it over and cc it to all. In essence, all we are doing is separating out the building blocks of a client / supplier relationship. The essence of trust. Trust in business today is something that is consistently thrown into question – can I trust this agency to deliver? and equally, can an agency trust a client to know what they want? A notion of trust may well be in turmoil because change is greater now than at any time. The public and private sector alike are responding to an increasingly sophisticated market. A market where the consumer has, at least perceived, new powers. They can switch TV channels, Sky+ through adverts, choose Celebrity Big Brother over stuffy information about educational issues whilst consuming more information than ever before. So in this every changing, power shifting, communication overloaded world what does a client want from an agency. Surely, the first thing a client needs to feel certain of is that the agency they choose will deliver MORE than effective communication. They need to know that the communication will take them to a NEW LEVEL but also that their working life will be EASIER not more difficult. In essence, they need to trust that the agency can deliver because in today’s market people do not take big risks. A client will automatically be pulled towards an agency that exudes a confidence and knowledge of what they are talking about. However, today that knowledge needs to have and understanding of both the medium and how people consume the message within that medium. Ask yourself, why have clients thrown millions at a thirty-second commercial but only thousands at a 30-minute corporate information piece? Well maybe it is because advertising agencies know their medium with an acute thoroughness backed up by quantifiable research on effectiveness of communication. In a corporate sphere, there is usually little true knowledge of the audience, the context in which they will view the message, the medium it is being viewed on, what the audience will have been doing immediately before consuming the message etc, etc. There is therefore a much harder challenge to make this communication effective. Knowing the medium, and crafting the message that fits perfectly to it is the key to trust and a successful client / agency partnership. The agencies and production companies that acutely understand the increasing variety of differing communication mediums out there will be the ones who can embrace change and corner the new burgeoning market. A market where the way we view communication is changing and always will. A market where the lines between above and below the line advertising constantly evolve. The future is to be embraced with a range of new platforms to view high-end digital media – the web, DVD, mobile phones, cinema, video billboards and conventional television. All of these mediums have distinct pros and cons of communication. However, the presence of trust creates economic results more powerful than successful competitive strategies. Yet the presence of true, legitimate trust in business relationships is relatively rare but it is this position we should all strive for. The consumer electronics company video project spiraled in the end to over £ 500k. It took the form of an above the line campaign in a number of European countries and a then a much more involved informational DVD which on one disk carried over 30 languages and worked in over 45 countries. A budget on the one hand large but a little over £11k per country. The results showed the campaign was big and beautiful. It persuaded consumers to buy the product in vast numbers, so ask the people who purchased the product over and above any of its competitors if the marketing was good!

A-Vision have been asked to speak and give their views on a number of digital, outdoor advertising and digital issues. We will be speaking at events across the summer - watch this space for details.