When Smith Brothers Agency landed the national launch of Red Bull’s new flavors, they turned to Animal, Inc for help. With a small team and a tight deadline, the Animal team, led by director Samm Hodges, designed a :30 and a :15 to announce Red Bull’s three new flavors: cranberry, lime and blueberry.
The only creative mandate was to tell the story using only the new cans. The idea of flight, in some ways, is a straightforward choice for Red Bull, since it of course, “gives you wings.” How best to characterize that flight as something compelling on a tight turnaround was a little less straightforward. “We immediately came to the conclusion that we didn’t want to have the cans form any man-made object like planes or jet turbines,” Hodges said. “Instead, we took cues from nature, especially the flocking of birds and fractal patterns to communicate flight in a more abstract way. It took a little custom coding and a lot of trial and error, but we ended up with something everyone involved was really proud of.”
The CG team, headed up by lead CG artist Lenny Wilson, had about four weeks to make more than 40,000 cans take flight. Media placement includes massive YouTube and Spotify preroll buys, ESPN and MTV website takeovers, NBA playoff banners, and massive outdoor LCD screens at Penn Station and Victory Park.
Red Bull: Flight from Animal on Vimeo.
