Today’s Site of the Day is Nestle’s Kitkat Ultimate Break, featuring an online French competition for ultimate prizes, a collection of user-generated short films, all promoted with an award-winning online film directed by Akama Studios. Prizes associated with the site include a journey into space, and trips in a fighter jet.
The Ultimate Break Film
The 2:50 film follows Remy, a 25-year-old caught up in the aggravation of his professional life, and a cast of colorful characters: the obsequious boss, Mr. Pock; the Hyenas, a pair of snake-like twins; Bogosse, the co-worker with high ambitions; and the inevitable sexy secretary. Overwhelmed and distraught by the plummeting figures on his computer, Remy takes a much-needed KitKat break. He is irresistibly drawn to the window, where he discovers, flabbergasted, that the building is rising upward into space. The elevator opens, and it’s empty. Intrigued, Remy steps in. The viewer is prompted to continue “The Quest for the Ultimate Break” by visiting the Web site.
The spot was inspired by characters from Pixar films, and developed by Akama Studios (Alexandre Ada and Cedric Jeanne), the team responsible for the Wilkinson Fight For Kisses spot.
After fleshing out characters with JWT Paris, Akama told the story using richly-detailed static shots rather than moving ones, which would have been harder to pull off given the eight weeks available. “Each moving frame required more than four hours work,” says Ada. “So we had to compromise to keep the level of detail high and ensure the film worked in a relatable way.”
Click on the image below to play the video.
User Generated Videos
Viewers were invited to upload their scripts, story ideas and video clips to represent their concept of the ultimate break. Animators from Wanda Productions used the best story lines as the basis for short animated films, available to view behind the glowing doors on the Ultimate Break site.
The Prizes
The section to the left of the site provided French residents an opportunity to win a range of prizes, including a voyage into space, using codes from selected Nestle products. The grand prize includes 5 days, 4 nights in Oklahoma City, including transportation, transfers, accommodation, meals and training program for two persons, followed by a the ultimate Space Odyssey on suborbital space shuttle flights in 2010.
Credits
Nestle staff working on the project were Pierre Detry, Jérome François, Cedric Lacroix, Murielle Koch and Frederique Delahaye.
The Ultimate Break campaign was developed at JWT Paris, by creative directors Ghislain de Villoutreys, Olivier Courtemanche, creative director/art director Xavier Beauregard, copywriter Hadi Hassan, assistant art director Yan-Gaël Cobigo, advertiser’s supervisors Pierre Detry, Jérôme François, Cédric Lacroix, Murielle Koch, Frédérique Delahaye, account executives Frédéric Winkler, Stéphane Billard et Yasmina Abdelilah-Bauer, agency producer Elisabeth Boitte.
Animation was developed by Akama Studio via Wanda, Paris. Music was by Xavier Berthelot.
The Remy spot won a Gold at Epica 2008 and a Silver for animation at the London International Awards.