LOVEHEARTS - SHARE THE LOVE
'what if... Money was replaced by lovehearts?'
INTRODUCTION
The world is turned on its head when Swizzels-Matlow's famous sweets fill the tills and pockets of the people in place of money. The world becomes a visibly brighter, and more colourful place. Everyday situations become occasions for 'sharing the love'; with hilarious and unexpected consequences as people follow the messages written on the sweets.
RATIONALE
Lovehearts and social media are BOTH ALL ABOUT SHARING
Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are sharing platforms, and our 16-24 y/old audience live on them. Lovehearts offers a world where giving is also key, but this message is not yet reaching out to 16-24 year olds.
Lovehearts must communicate a message relevant to the world of younger consumers, while building off their strengths of a warm image, with a nostalgic tint.
This is the how we can produce an effective campaign, using references that are quirky and humorous, but very up to the minute in order to create a contemporary-nostalgia of the kind we can see in the cinema of Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, and the music videos of Web Du Canada. All references that are overwhelmingly popular amongst our target group.
This is a creative route that is 'family' oriented, but genuine; like the real world but more magical, along the lines of a Roald Dahl story but with a contemporary flavour.
STORY OUTLINE
A WORLD TURNED ON ITS HEAD
Set amidst a financial collapse, comical images of a banking disaster play out. Distraught, a financial worker [early 20s] jumps from a window.
Meanwhile, inside a National bank, a machine is printing cash and a quirky man with a moustache operates the machinery. This printer is more like Willy Wonka then Clive from Accounts. As the machine pulls away from its new press there is a glimmer on the face of the man as if from gold, his face is transformed with a smile. Now we see the new coinage: Lovehearts.
Out in the world we see the effects of the Lovehearts as they magically transform relationships between people. In each scene the message on the Lovehearts magically effects the situation making foes into friends and sharing Lovehearts across relationships.
Our Banker, still on the descent, now approaches a big pile of Lovehearts. A heart shaped parachute opens behind him, and he gently and happily lands in a puff of Lovehearts.
MOBILE 'STINGS'
Because the first 2'-3' seconds are key, I have designed the boldest most spectacular visuals to capture the audience across our three target platforms:
SNAPCHAT
Snapchat's characteristic swipes are well suited to our falling man. Here the viewer scrolls up to follow his descent. At the final page we can click through to watch the rest of the video.
Instagram is full of creative artworks, and bold typography, this creative route can fit comfortably into that environment.
The graphics 'What if...?' accompanies the copy in order to draw the audience in.
FACEBOOK VIDEO
Facebook video cries out for the cinematic opener, with a bold title. Because of the need to draw the audience to click it is phrased as a question, with copy above and underneath ('What if...? There was no money?') in order to further entice the viewer to the narrative.
SCENE LIST
BE HAPPY
As stocks plummet a business man jumps from the window of his financial office.
COINAGE
A man at a printing press stamping money.
The new money is, in fact, love hearts.
HUG ME
A shopkeeper taking money from a customer buying food. The amount the customer has is not enough.
The money is transformed to Lovehearts saying 'HUG ME' that leads to the customer and shop-keeper engaging in a embrace.
YOU'RE GORGEOUS
A young man reads his bank balance at an ATM with a few people queueing impatiently behind. The bank balance reads a numerical 'zero'.
The colour transforms and the digital screen becomes a 3d rendering of a loveheart, the loveheart reads - 'YOLO'. The machine spews Lovehearts from its mouth.
The queue begin to pick up all of the Lovehearts from the floor. The original man, a young adult, puts his hand on one loveheart which meets with the hand of a young woman. The two stand up, he gives the loveheart to her; it reads 'YOU'RE GORGEOUS'.
KISS ME
A bank robber pulls a banana wrapped in a sock on a bank teller; the teller, shocked, fills the bag for the bank robber with money and coins.
When the colour changes to the bright palette the bank robber looks inside the bag, angry at first, he pulls the banana-gun up towards the teller. The teller responds by taking a loveheart from the till. And holding it up. It reads: 'KISS ME' the teller pulls the robber in for a smooch.
BE HAPPY
The parachute opens behind our descending businessman, he lands in a puff of Lovehearts. The parachute reads- 'BE HAPPY', and he smiles.
STYLE
FROM DARKNESS TO COLOUR THE LOVEHEARTS TRANSFORM OUR IMAGE
The style of colour will change between two images of the same scene, one which is grey and sad, and the second which is brighter and happier after the Lovehearts have transformed the world.
See Lily Allen's LDN music video for a sense of how this can be done.
The cultural world that this advert will relate to visually are the films of Wes Anderson, Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and some of the large ouvre of promo directors Canada. These visual referents, while very contemporary, often hark back to an aesthetic that is a friendlier, happer time; a time that Lovehearts fits comfortably in to.
These references are also crucial in that they are wildly popular amongst 16-24 y/olds, and are effective examples of a playful, quirky style that I suggest for Lovehearts.
This quirky, alternate world is where we can unlock the 16-24 target audience, while keeping the door open for 30+ core consumers.
MUSIC
This track by WIlliam Onyeabor is illustrative of the mood I wish to evoke in music.
However, in order to achieve the dynamism that we will need for the narrative which shifts back and forth, I intend to employ a composer to make the track bespoke for the needs of the narrative.
Who Am I?
I am a director and writer living in London.
Most recently, and relevently, I have been writing advertising for UBS, and Aviva aimed at 'Millenials' which overlaps with the target audience here.
Amongst my other relevant work (see below) I advise you to look at the playful, nostalgic music video Lunar, as well as the Lexus cut downs I directed for social media.
These videos were succesful in driving views and producing sales, and all are relevant to my strategy here.
RELEVANT WORK
Youtube narrative
I propose a colour palette and graphical integration not disimilar to my music video to Lunar by David Guetta:
The blending of nostalgic referents into a contemporary environment; incorporating 3danimation is not dissimilar to the style I want to deliver for Lovehearts. This video exploded in the imagination of young adults and gained 200,000 views in its first few weeks online.
FACEBOOK VIDEO
This following video which I co-directed captured audiences by putting nostalgic referents into the present. Using motion graphics to overlay beautiful images from the French Riviera. It captured the Hollywood Glamour of the Golden Age of Cinema and sprinkled it onto Lexus.
Lexus, Live the Life RXTake the ride to a life less ordinary.
Posted by Facebook on Friday, May 12th, 2016
521,000 viewers engaged with this video on Facebook.
My instagram promo for Lexus used motion graphics to stand, out:
Furthermore the colour palette matches that of the organic content produced by our target audience. In the case of Lovehearts we will be echoing the content of 16-24 year olds, both the scenes of urban life, and those of the more colourful counterpoints.