Super Bowl Special: Traktor Tracks Game Success

If you tuned in to Super Bowl LI last night, you would have spotted two pieces of work from Scandinavian directing collective, Traktor.

The directors’ spots for GoDaddy and Tide offered two completely different approaches to Big Game advertising, with GoDaddy’s spot channeling comedy through its representation of popular internet memes and Tide’s playing a stunt that unravelled in real time to Super Bowl viewers.

shots caught up with the directors to find out how they’ve found their epic first year since joining Rattling Stick’s roster; how they approached working on two such internationally-acclaimed ads; and what’s next in-store for Traktor.

Getting involved with the Super Bowl:

How did you get involved with creating the two Super Bowl spots and at what stage were you brought in for each project?

The scripts came to us in the normal fashion. We stood outside the respective agencies with a sandwich board and wristbands for our Cannes party... What Cannes party?

Given the scale of the event, how much creative freedom were you given for each project or was there a strict brief to adhere to (and if so, what was it)?

As the former creative director Janis Joplin used to croon: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”. Freedom is for students. We wouldn’t know what to do with it.

Tide had some logistical challenges but, like in poetry and curling, the limits help bring out the endorphins and solutions.

GoDaddy was a process of navigating the multitude of ways to portray “the Internet”, but we remained in daily ping pong contact with the creatives over the holidays and had good excuses to leave the Turkey table. We enjoy the collaboration. It is the principle upon which we teeter, totters!

What appealed about each script?

Tide: A humdinger of a script with a cheeky protagonist making an intimate house call in his intimates. Watched by 100 million viewers.

GoDaddy: A twisted yet straightforward investigation into an elusive yet familiar fella. We love him.

And in both cases the opportunity to be back on the Super Bowl. As immigrants, we don’t take stuff like this for granted.

GoDaddy:

What did you look for in your main protagonist?

Agility. Kind eyes. Scalability. Good gluts.

How hard is it to represent the Internet as a character in just 30secs?! It’s an epic script for such a short time!

The Internet becomes “The Internet” by a process of accumulation and comprehension. The more time, the more clarity. Each viewer will “get” varying degrees of what is up to (made up of). The 30 will hopefully at the very least whet the appetite to get to know “The Internet” further in a variety of executions/durations. The puzzlement is part of the puzzle. The main purpose of the 30 is to introduce him. We think you’ll get along!

How long did the shoot take and where was it shot? Did all the logistics go according to plan?

The Internet lives in Canoga Park so we shot it there. Luckily there’s a Canoga Park in most major metropolitan areas. It rained when it wasn’t supposed to, but because The Internet’s house and surroundings are a 360-degree connected and shape-shifting playpen we dealt with it accordingly. Through hardship comes splendor... And Pandas.

Tide:

How much of a challenge did you expect maintaining the surprise would be?

Everybody was pretty much NDA’d up to the neck, and we shot at night… in the pouring rain…so there were precious few FMCG spies around.

Did you have a back-up plan if it didn’t go accordingly?

No.

What was it like working on a real-time campaign and how did you ensure that things ran smoothly?

We had invaluable support and guidance from the kind pros at Fox and NFL as to how things “should look” or, rather, not look in order not to tip the gag. And keeping our fingers crossed they weren’t joking when they sent us the design specs of the Fox Studio desk.

How did the social media elements of the campaign affect the way the film was shot?

The shoot was not really affected. Saatchi & Saatchi were all over that stuff and kept it alive on Lines 2 and 3.

Looking Forward & Back:

You’ve done three Super Bowl spots before; what additional challenges/rewards do Super Bowl spots offer?

In a world that is increasingly fragmented and gazing towards navel, we are big fans of spectacles and water-cooler coolness. Especially if there is a party involved.

Being on the Super Bowl is a great shorthand bench-mark for being where the action is. Literally. We’re going to watch it at [coffee & wine bar] Zinque. Get in!

And what have you learnt from your experience working on the Super Bowl? Do you find it hard to approach each SB project with new eyes?

Our eyes are always new. That’s partly a problem until it becomes a solution.

What work are you most proud of from your first full year at Rattling Stick?

We are happy that we have been able to strike a balance between big and small projects on both sides of the Atlantic with a distribution that is literally 50/50. And 50+50 = 110! It is certainly a Rattling Stick, and we are privileged to be part of the palaver!

How much do you enjoy shooting comedy?

Life should be comedic even if isn’t laugh out loud. When people interact the takeaway should ideally be a smile or a giggle. Even Manchester by the Sea (trailer, below) has end to end in laughs. To us at least…

What does 2017 hold for Traktor?

First up we are off to Cape Town and the San Fernando Valley, respectively, for two upcoming UK jobs, and as always will host badly played beach volleyball every Sunday on Venice Beach. Shorts of Shame!