shots Awards 2015: Digital Campaign of the Year

Honda: The Other Side

What was the creative spark for the concept of The Other Side?

Scott Dungate [creative director, Wieden+Kennedy London] We had a number of thoughts relating to the iconic ‘R’ and the ‘race button’ that resides within the Type R. Some involved pressing the button fast in a racing challenge, or to go up multiple gears of a story. But it was when we simplified it to two levels, ‘normal’ (Civic) and ‘Race mode’ (Type R), that things started to feel most true of the product. Once we had a crude prototype that showed what the experience could feel like, we knew we had something with potential.

Honda has a tradition of great advertising. Can it be daunting to have to continually come up with brilliant new ideas?

Yes. But we try not to think about that.

Can you tell when you’ve had a great idea and all the pieces are falling into place?

I think when you have an idea that contains an element of risk you potentially have something that could be great. Risk is something agencies and clients instinctively try to avoid or play down, but really we should be looking at our work and making sure we have some risk baked in. It should be a key and necessary ingredient. If you don’t, then you’re probably playing it too safe and not pushing hard enough. With The Other Side, nobody really knew if the storytelling would hold together until we saw the first edits, in the prototype, on set. That was the risk we, and the client, took.

W+K has worked with Honda for some time – how important is the trust that you’ve built up when it comes to working on a new project?

Trust is important, especially when you are, hopefully, taking risks with your client. It helps when you’ve had past successes as it strengthens the faith on both sides.

What did director Daniel Wolfe, Somesuch, Stinkdigital and other production partners bring to the project?

Story was key to this project. Daniel Wolfe did an amazing job giving a strong narrative to this interactive piece, so it was more than just a technique. His ability to cast and get authentic performances from his actors was essential in making both sides believable. Daniel’s vision was also instrumental in giving The Other Side a really gritty, cool and timeless look.

Somesuch was brilliant at working out the many logistical and production issues of this project. We were shooting essentially two three-minute films, back to back, that had to have Hollywood production values. That meant 35mm, stunts, and a stack of post. The Mill helped immensely on that front, modelling all Type R car shots based on a dummy car, as a working Type R was unavailable at the time of shooting.

Sound and music is often overlooked in film, but with The Other Side we spent a long time getting that right. As with the visuals, the sound had to have a relationship across both narratives. The note of the Type R car, and how that worked with a film score and the soundscape, took some time to get right. Factory and Wake The Town worked closely together to get a mix that conveyed the right emotion in both narratives, but still felt considered when you toggled between sides.

Stinkdigital was ever reliable taking our crude prototype and making it work across a multitude of European markets, ensuring the experience would remain seamless no matter what your bandwidth. Which it did from all reports. No easy task.

One of the judges said The Other Side was “the best interactive [work] because it’s simple and powerful and it has great storytelling”. How difficult is it to keep the interactive/digital elements of a campaign adding to, rather than distracting from, the story?

We had all worked on complicated interactive projects before, so from experience we knew it’s best to keep things simple and resist the temptation to add layers. With the crude prototype working so seamlessly, we knew not to mess with its idiot-proof functionality, and the raw, visceral feeling it gave the user when you pressed ‘R’. Rather than meddling with the interactive too much, we spent our time working out what story we wanted to tell.

What was the hardest part of putting the campaign together?

Writing a dual narrative story is challenging. Each storyline needed to be engaging but also simple enough to follow, as the viewer toggled between each side. We also had to come up with ‘mirrored scenes’ that didn’t feel forced. Mirrored scenes needed to be believable with each narrative. Four creatives – Paul Knott, Tim Vance, Graeme Douglas and myself, plus the director, Daniel Wolfe, rewrote and rewrote and rewrote the script right up until the final shoot boards. Then, when we took it to Trim to edit, we moved things around and cut sequences completely. So the narrative was something that was evolving throughout.

Apart from The Other Side, which Honda ads rank among your favourites and why?

I’m still more in awe of the spots before my time. Cog for its sheer ambition and patience to get right. Impossible Dream for its energy and emotion. Grrr because that song still gets stuck in your head, even after all these years.

How does it feel to win the shots Awards Digital Campaign Of The Year?

Great. We’re all really flattered.