We have an urgent brief!

What answer would you give to a client, whose games you have been playing for many years, to the question: "We have an urgent brief. Would you like to participate?"

Especially, considering, that the game is "The League of Legends" and the client is "The League of Legends European Championship (LEC)".

Of course, we would love to!

So, what did we have to do?

We had to come up with an idea and make a video for LEC and their strategic partner, automotive brand KIA.

This video had to be the sequel to the series of promotional videos already produced by LEC.

Our Goals

WE HAD TO TELL THE STORY OF KIA'S PHILOSOPHY "MOVEMENT THAT INSPIRES"

SHOW THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MOTION (KIA) AND ESPORT (LEC)

AND MAKE THE VIDEO NATIVE, AS IT SHOULD NOT APPEAR DISTINCTLY PROMOTIONAL

Shake Shake

The input data that we initially received reminded us of the diverse makings of a cocktail.

We had to mix them up so the cocktail would become truly tasty and original.

At first, there were questions

How could we unite two brands?

How could we connect movement (KIA) with esport (LEC)?

How could we integrate the KIA brand into the ad so that it wouldn't look too intrusive?

How could we show inspiration from the perspective of LEC and not through the casters' creativity, as it had been done in the previous videos?

How could we consider the customer's indication to make the ad serious enough without loosing a light style of LEC communication?

The main challenge

We worked mainly with KIA's message “Movement that inspires”.

We needed the visual language to show such concepts as “movement” and “inspiration.”

The ad had to be more like a branded content blog, made by LEC casters with a light story that wouldn't seem staged.
That was the style of previous LEC commercials, and we wanted to maintain that style.

LET’S PLAY

Idea

We came to the client with an idea about the brand's manifest. But telling it head-on wouldn't be the best idea.
But if we present it as a hidden manifest, this strategy can actually work.
Our idea was to get a LEC caster to describe the main principles of the brand – not directly to a viewer, but through his narrative addressed to a newbie. The newbie knows little about LEC, the casters' work or the heat of thousands of viewers' emotions when they watch gaming shows.
In the end the newbie is so inspired by the story that he is ready to immerse himself into LEC life full of its bright events.

Meanwhile, his words about inspiration and strong emotions intertwine with the visual presentation of the moving car.

This is how KIA and it's main idea "Movement that inspires" appear in the concept.

Let's go!

Now that the idea has been approved, we are working! In four weeks from the final ok to the release we managed to:

make a full-format PPM book

create the storyboard

find the actor for the main role

cast our film director for a cameo role

choose a filming location in Berlin and get a filming permit from Berlin authorities

hold an additional casting of an actor directly on an international bus on the way to Riga

change the lead actor

fly the new actor from Riga to Berlin

have an encounter with the police right after the first shot

solve the issue with the police and start filming right away

create a few traffic jams when the filming platform had to turn at an intersection

learn to use four languages simultaneously to communicate with the film crew

create an editing studio in a hotel room

drink 216 liters of coffee together with the whole team

never raise our voice... well almost never

Movement that inspires

KIA's slogan became the motto of the whole team. We had to move from one step to another at a fast pace, and it really inspired us.

Judging by the comments under the video, our ad had fitted perfectly into LEC style.

Moreover, the most attentive viewers interpreted it as a reference to the appearance of a new caster. Guess who was mistaken for this mysterious person? Our film director!