Stunning Sapporo Beer Ad, Website And Game Combine Live Action & Animation.

This has got to be one of the most beautiful ads I've ever seen. This award-winning two minute video -and its web counterpart- for Sapporo Beer combines live action with animation to tell the story of the brand and brewing history of the Japanese beer.



Created by Dentsu, Canada in 2010, the two minute spot was co-directed by Mark Zibert of Sons and Daughters and Gary Thomas of Crush. It took over a month to shoot this creative film on location in Guangzhou, China.



“We looked at a few techniques off the top,” says Zibert. “We first considering creating the entire spot with motion control and CG. Then experimenting with projecting 2D art/matt paintings onto geometry (developed by Crush Sean Cochrane) and finding it had a unique quality to make this campaign stand apart. So the spot is not entirely photo or CG or 2D illustration, but a combination of all three,” adds Zibert.

a few screen grabs of the spot so you can see some of the beautiful imagery:










The video has also been edited down for a series of 15-second TV commercials, as well as a 60-second spot.

“We wanted something distinctly Sapporo and wanted to go through the heritage and the brewing process and combine the Japanese flavour but take it beyond sushi and make it mainstream,” said Glen Hunt, creative catalyst, Dentsu Canada.

The campaign is the first full-scale national effort in Canada and the first of any sort for the Toronto-based agency since taking the account over in January 2009. Sleeman had not worked with a full-service agency since 2007, when Doug (now Doug & Serge) held agency of record status.

The campaign took one and a half years of planning, and six months to shoot. The agency developed five distinct campaign ideas before narrowing it down to three, which were presented to the client, said Hunt.

“Each one of them had a wonderful response [but] ‘Legendary’ was their favourite,” he said.

Parts of the ad were shot in China in front of a green screen, and then brought back to Toronto where each shot was placed in position on a “map painting” and given a “3D type effect so that it created depth,” said Hunt.

Dentsu also assisted Concrete in the design of a new 500 ml can that features Japanese script meaning “premium” and the historic Sapporo “north” star embossed on the front.

“We know our consumers not only demand a high quality product, but also a brand that conveys attributes that appeal to their individuality,” said Kenny Sadai, president and CEO of Sleeman Breweries, in a release. “We felt tapping into the brand’s Japanese heritage and bringing to life the essence of ‘Biru’ would further illustrate those qualities.”




THE INTERACTIVE WEBSITE



Sapporo launched a microsite with a contest that asked consumers to locate the hidden scrolls placed throughout the video for a chance at a trip to Japan. The trip has already been awarded but you can still play the game and explore the site to find the hidden 'scrolls'.



Working with Dentsu, Lollipop created the site to support the launch of the Legendary Biru campaign for Sapporo Beer.



The site itself is centered on a character – the Sage – that is the keeper of the legend of Sapporo. He leads visitors on a ‘treasure hunt’ through the site where the goal is to collect a number of hidden scrolls. Some are easy to find and tell a brief story about the beer, while others are well hidden and require diligence to unlock. Those who reach the end of the journey are given a message tailored to the number of scrolls they’ve discovered, while those who manage to collect all 15 scrolls are entered to win a trip to Japan.


Check it out at legendarybiru.com.

Lollipop designed and built the site, in addition to shooting the sage video. Sons & Daughters shot the live action, while Crush created the CG, mattes and final compositing. Sons & Daughters and Crush managed production, Lollipop was responsible for the interactive, and Grayson Matthews created the music featured in the spot. Credits: Title: "Legendary Biru" Agency: Dentsu Canada, Inc. City: Toronto Campaign: Legendary Biru Advertiser: Sapporo Breweries Ltd. Brand: Sapporo Type: Television Length: 120 seconds Market: Canada Creative Director: Mr. Glen Hunt Creative Director: Les Soos Art Director: Les Soos Art Director: Mr. David Glen Copywriter: Mr. Dhaval Bhatt Copywriter: Mr. Glen Hunt Director: Mr. Mark Zibert Director: Mr. Gary Thomas Production Company: Sons & Daughters Production Company: Crush Account Director: Mr. Tim Binkley Agency Producer: Ms. Sharon Kosokowsky Post Production: Crush Music Company / Composer: Grayson Matthews Information, text and images courtesy of Creativity-Online, Sapporo, Lollipop and Adland  

 Special thanks to Thom Cordner for bringing the spot to my attention.

Capturing Toy Soldiers With Mini Blue Helmets All Over The World.

The engaging interactive Miniscule Blue Helmets on a Massive Quest was spearheaded by designer Pierre Derks, a project which has also spawned a new book.



Starting in the Hague in Holland, the task engaged people all over the world to shoot photos of 50,000 little plastic toy soldiers wearing hand-painted blue helmets, hats or berets from over 60 global locations. The blue helmets and berets are a nod to the colored helmets worn by the UN Peacekeepers.






The mass manifestation of the Miniscule Blue Helmets in public space implies that the potential of getting confronted with a heavily armed blue helmeted soldier is within reach of a global audience. Although it is obvious that the encounter is rather different from running into a real-life UN Blue Helmet [shown below], it might just trigger the same questions and feelings about their presence and deployment.




The photos, shot by varying individuals, are then uploaded to a global Google map with a geo tag so you can access where the image was shot and by whom.



The Mini Blue Soldiers Google map can be viewed as either terrain or satellite:


Click upon the icon of the little blue helmets on the google map and you'll get the location, the name of the photographer and the opportunity to view the photograph.



There's no end to the places these little soldiers have been captured. From inside a little apartment in Amsterdam:

to on the ledge of the Grand Canyon:


Eyewitnesses of the quest have submitted hundreds of photos like the ones shown below:








The Book:


Miniscule Blue Helmets on a Massive Quest, the Book by Pierre Derks

“Tiny in size, huge in scope”

The book ‘Miniscule Blue Helmets on a Massive Quest’ by Pierre Derks shows the worldwide intervention of 50,000 plastic toy soldiers with blue hand-painted helmet, beret or hat by means of 500 selected photo's of the mini Blue Helmets on locations in more than 60 countries. An international spectrum of specialists shares in the book their reflections on the project and their expertise on topics that are related.

The book contains text contributions (written in English) by: Susan Manuel, Roger Stahl, Jonathan Vickery, Patrick M. Regan, Jos Morren, Linda Polman, Matt Groff, Christ Klep en Damon Stanek.

The open nature of the project has led to a fascinating variety of outcomes that contributed to the layered meaning. An example is the adoption of the project by Dutch Blue Helmet veterans who took part in the UN mission in Lebanon (70's / 80's). Jos Morren (Association of dutch military war and service victims): “Frank bought 2,000 of those little green men and painted the helmets blue himself, constantly carrying them with him and leaving them in tactical spots. (...) Eric took it more slow, but became inseparable from his one Miniscule Blue Helmet. Very handy, because if you lose touch with the world because of a psychological blockade, you just put your little buddy on the table. Very effective in such a situation. Out of the blue, those boys were suddenly given a healthy, creative form of self medication, through the art of Derks.”

Order the book here

The publication is made possible with the support of Fonds BKVB (The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture). The project expanded in collaboration with LhGWR and the TodaysArt Festival.

Send E-mails In Your Own Handwriting With Pilot's Online Personal Fontmaker.

Pilot pens has brought the personal touch to impersonal e-mail communication by creating an online site that allows you to personalize a font based on your own handwriting and then use that font to compose and send an e-mail.



You simply go to their website where you register and then print out a blank template. Write your own letters in the spaces in the template and upload it to the site via a scanner, digital camera or webcam. Once the site processes your individual letters of the alphabet, you can finesse each letter by either erasing parts of it or adding to the letter.

Print out the template:

Use a pen [preferably a Pilot pen. After all, this is the way they are marketing their product] to write the characters in your own hand:

Complete the template:


Capture the template by using a web scanner, a digital camera or a webcam and upload it to their site where they will process it. The computer then digitizes your font:

And you can finesse each character if you wish:


Save and then name the font, and voila! You're now ready to send an e-mail [from their site, of course] to anyone with an e-mail address in your own personalized handwritten font.



A video of the process:


Do it here.

Looking for your own font from your handwriting for more than e-mails? Check out fontifier.com, where for $10 you can create your own and download it immediately.