Execution is everything: how to deliver a campaign hero film
By Creative Team
Your next campaign is riding on the main sizzle video. Here’s what it takes to ensure success
Logitech wanted to transform the functionality of their Signature Line mouse and keyboard set into powerful emotional benefits that would resonate with knowledge workers.
They also needed an agency to realize their new creative concept - specifically designed to escape the trap of samey work-from-home tech campaigns.
1. Turn the creative vision into a powerful story
Research told us that the target demographic strongly relates to multitasking scenes. Product benefits appealed most when linked to the daily juggling act that characterizes hybrid working life.
But which multitasking scenario would be most relatable?
Feedback revealed that successfully meeting the demands of pets and kids produced positive responses and boosted the emotional relevance of the product.
Thus our story centers on a work-from-home mom busily switching her attention from the professional to the personal and back again.
She has a 10-year-old soccer playing daughter who has to be at practice by 5pm. With the emails piling up, mom activates her Signature Line’s productivity features to ace all her commitments.
2. Create standout
Logitech’s Make Work-Life Magic campaign concept casts consumers as productivity magicians.
The fantastical flourishes used in the hero film shows how amazingly well this vision works to set the brand apart from their competitors.
But the magical elements had to be handled with care.
Storyboard feedback made clear that excessive use threatened believability.
What’s life without a little magic?
We made the magic work by carefully pacing and building it up throughout the video. From enchanted particle effects bringing a sweep of the mouse to life in the opening seconds:
To mom getting a kiss on the cheek from dancing emojis…
To the awesome outfit change - from work clothes to soccer kit - in the finale, as mom makes her deadline and joyfully heads off with her daughter to soccer practice.
Mom hurtles towards her 5pm deadline and begins the transition from work to play.
The costume transformation embodies the campaign tagline: “Make work-life magic.”
Discover how the effect was achieved below.
3. Blending VFX and practical special effects
The costume change - where mom’s professional outfit magically flies away as she works at top speed, replaced by her soccer uniform underneath - pays tribute to parents everywhere who make family life work by managing the impossible.
The effect was achieved by a jumpsuit, split down the back, that was pulled off with wires to reveal the soccer kit beneath.
The wires were then painted out of the footage in post.
The sheer physicality of the scene meant it was better and cheaper to create this piece of movie magic with practical effects rather than VFX.
Other enchanted effects - such as the flying emails - were accomplished with graphics, while yet more visual wizardry depended upon a blend of practical and computer-generated.
The key to making it all work, and making efficient use of the budget, was meticulous planning in pre-production along with an experienced production and directorial team, reinforced by a duo of on-set VFX supervisors.
4. Be ready for anything
Sometimes you don’t know which product features are going to make the final cut.
The best solution was to film two scenarios: one for a feature we hoped we could show, and the second for a feature we were sure we could show..
The extra time needed for the additional work was relatively minor because it had been planned in and could piggyback on all the expertise we’d already built up on the brand, product, and campaign concept.
It was totally worth it, too, because in the end the client had both options to choose from and could decide which offered the strongest USP.
5. Planning, planning, and an enormous side of collaboration
A hero film is a big investment and critical to get right given its importance to the campaign.
In our experience, perfect execution depends on extensive planning and as much collaboration as possible.
Storyboarding a great idea is one thing, but delivering that creativity within budget is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
We had in-depth conversations with Logitech on everything from directorial choice to casting to set design and color palette.
The vast majority of the project time was spent in pre-production: optimizing every variable so that by the time we got to the shoot nothing had been left to chance.
Please check out the final video (it’s only 45 seconds) and see if you agree with us that all the planning time paid off.
If you would like to discover more about our integrated approach and work together on a project, get in touch.
