RPA's Zany Cast of Characters Connects for Civic
From Cesar the Luchador to Teeny the Monster, RPA's new integrated Honda Civic campaign uses quirky characters to make a point. Creative Director Jason Sperling explains why.
Agency Creative
RPA's Zany Cast of Characters Connects for Civic
From Cesar the Luchador to Teeny the Monster, RPA's new integrated
Honda Civic campaign uses quirky characters to make a point.
Creative Director Jason Sperling explains why.
By Anthony Vagnoni
Stop us if you've heard this one: A zombie, a female ninja sucking a lollipop, a furry little monster, a masked Mexican wrestler and a lanky, bearded woodsman walk into a car dealership. Okay, so this isn't the set up for a nightclub comic's bad joke, it's the premise behind an expansive new campaign for the redesigned Honda Civic from Santa Monica, CA agency RPA. The work is the first to come out of the Honda group at the agency since Jason Sperling joined as Sr. VP/Group Creative Director. Sperling is best known as the Creative Director at TBWA\Chiat\Day's Media Arts Lab on the long-running "I'm a Mac" TV campaign, dubbed by Adweek as the Campaign of the Decade.
The new Honda work is built around a quintet of characters, all instantly recognizable archetypes, and how they represent the ways that the new Civic can be customized to, as the tagline says, 'to each his own.' The characters include Cesar, the slightly vain champion wrestler; Jack, the bearded Urban Woodsman, at home in the city and the country; Aiko, the lithe Ninja, a bundle of energy; Teeny, the Monster, kicky and stylish but with a frugal bent; and Mitch, the Zombie, solid and practical. All of them are introduced in a spot titled "Apartment" that shows how their own idiosyncratic Civic models reflect their personalities.
Built around a robust online and social media presence, a gaming component, print, out of home, in-store posters and of course TV spots (directed by Smuggler's Guy Shelmerdine), the campaign represents Honda's biggest new model rollout ever. SourceEcreative recently spoke with Sperling about the campaign, the creation of the characters and the internet chatter that's developed around one of them.
So the focus here is that everyone gets their own choice when it comes to a Civic, right?
Yes. It's 'to each their own.' It came out of this culture of personalization we have now, which gives people the feeling of having more ownership of something. Honda was coming out with five different Civic models, and within those five there are millions of ways to customize it, everything from the choice of wallpaper inside the car, the trim – you can make it yours. And if you look at this audience, the Gen Y audience, that's what it's all about, it's about making things your own. We all have our own playlists, our own likes, and we wear them on our chests.
What was the process your team went through to come up with the different characterizations that represent these models?
For us, it was kind of an 'out there' idea for our client. This is one of their biggest new model launches ever. They really wanted to stand out from the crowd. And we'd been talking a lot about what makes Gen Y different, and how do we talk to these people in way that they'll respond. We knew we couldn't just do a standard car ad, it wouldn't make us stand out. We needed to stand for something. So we came up with the idea of these crazy characters. We were looking for iconic characters seen in pop culture. For example, the ninja character, she was inspired by the fascination with ninjas seen in films like "Scott Pilgrim Versus the World" or "Kill Bill." And the zombie came out of things like "The Walking Dead."
Anything undead is cool these days.
Right. And the luchador is a timeless icon. You really can't go wrong, they're always fun. And we put a twist on that-the luchador character, Cesar, doesn't star in a traditional TV spot; rather, he's the lead in this online game that's part of the campaign. The Woodsman, he's a reflection of this whole 'woodsy' trend of guys growing long beards.
Was there an effort by the agency to identify individual characters or types, then giving them specific attributes?
Yeah. It was important for us to have some kind of reason why we chose these characters, not just because they were cool, but to really show how they fell in line with the campaign strategy. So we did a detailed presentation to the client as to why we chose them. It was like, 'here's the target, and here are the characters,' and it was so well connected that it felt like we were solving the problem by the time we got to the creative.
Part of what we wanted to do with this campaign was avoid clichés but instead really draw out personalities. So the ninja, she goes against the archetype because she's young – doing things like eating licorice while driving and playing videos games. And with the zombie, we actually have a character in that spot who he pulls up to next to at a stoplight, and that guy's actually more dead than the zombie. It's all about tying in with the models, so the ninja has a sporty, bad-ass kind of car, and the zombie drives a sedan because he's pragmatic, and the woodsman is an outdoorsy nature type, while the monster is a young college kid and needs to save money, so she's got a highly fuel-efficient model.
There have been some interesting reactions online to that character.
(Laughing) Yeah, I'd like to tell you what we're doing in response to that, but we're just getting it approved.
But you have to engage your audience when they pick up on stuff like this, right?
We think it's great, I think the nature of this sort of arena - especially with advertising – is that it's not just a one-way communication. And when we do find some critics, I think it's important that you don't just take the punches and walk away but you're actually able to find a smart response, and we're working that out.
Most of the chatter has been exactly what Teeny is, right? To me, she looks like a big Tribble from "Star Trek," with more personality. But everyone seems to have their own interpretation of just who or what she is.
Who knew there'd be so many theories of what species of monster she is? You never know what will be the thing that grabs people's attention. I thought the Woodsman would be the most charming and embraced character, I didn't think Teeny would be grabbing the headlines.
How did you approach the visual representation of the characters? Did the agency create sketches?
On Teeny, we enlisted the Jim Henson Studios, and they went through several rounds of some odd looking creatures. We knew we had to separate ourselves from what was out there, and we wanted to differentiate ourselves from what's been done for other car ads. We had to create our own identity for this character. We were looking for something that was kind of like a girl. We liked what the Henson studios came up with, something that was this big hairy monster but also feminine, like an innocent and adorable girl. They created this animatronic costume, and it was really kind of weird to have a monster on set, especially since there was a woman inside of it.
With the Woodsman and the Ninja, it was more about costume. We didn't want the Woodsman to be the Brawny man. It was about capturing the right persona. We wanted all of the characters to be relatable, and he was the hardest. You want him to feel slightly 'lumberjacky,' but not over the top.
Why Guy Shelmerdine?
Guy has one of those reels that's a mix of very solid comedy and a couple spots that are really over the top comedy. He also had a few action-oriented spots on there that showed a broader range. I love the work he did for MINI, and in looking at our pool of directors, we had to make a choice. We had some guys that were really good at action stuff, who could make the ninja spot look amazing. But we realized we wanted to build out from the comedic aspect, and remember, this is all about the characters and their relationships to the car. If we didn't identify with the characters, the campaign wouldn't have the charm it does. So we thought Guy was the right person for that.
How did the TV come together and how does it integrate with the web content?
We developed a launch spot that encapsulates every character. So whoever shot that would be building the mood for the whole campaign. For the game, we have a two minute film about Cesar that was directed by Timothy Kendall that turned out great. He's someone I've worked with before, we did a comedy campaign years ago for Red Tail Ale. Tim is one of those amazingly multi-talented individuals, he does his own editing, his own sound.
The game launches June 1; it's called the Super Civic Quest. The premise is Cesar has just lost his Civic, and the video introduces him. We see this guy in a gym bench pressing, and as the camera widens you see that Cesar is bench pressing the guy who's bench pressing, he's that strong. He's a world champion, a man of the people and a real ladies' man, very suave. All through the spot you see the media attention he gets. Everything you see about him is posted on YouTube, blogged about or IM'd, he's in the middle of this media tornado. And one morning he wakes up and has a big match scheduled and goes outside to get in his Civic and it's gone. So the basis of the game is that you have to help him find his Civic, which is somewhere out there on the web. It's a purely digital scavenger hunt that rewards people as they go along. Timothy shot the intro video for this as well as seven original video clips for the game itself.
Was this done after the launch TV campaign was shot or before?
Actually, at the same time. While Guy was shooting the spots Tim was shooting all the content that appears in the game.
Sounds like you had a lot happening, from traditional TV to the integrated content. How hard was it to keep everything going?
It was pretty crazy, especially for me, coming from the Apple world, where we were pretty focused. Back then it was like, big TV, big print and you're done. Here, there are so many moving parts. In a fractured media world like we are today, particularly in the automotive category, you've got to have your hand in everything.
Campaign Credits:
Agency: RPA
Executive VP, CCO: David Smith
Executive VP, Executive Creative Director: Joe Baratelli
Senior VP, Group Creative Director: Jason Sperling
VP, Creative Director: Nathan Crow
VP, Creative Director: Adam Lowrey
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Jamin Duncan
Senior Copywriter: Sarah May Bates
Sr. VP, Executive Producer, Content: Gary Paticoff
Senior Producer: Brian Donnelly
Assistant Producer: Faye Armstrong
Production Company: Smuggler
Director: Guy Shelmerdine
Executive Producer(s): Brian Carmody, Patrick Milling Smith, Lisa Rich, Laura Thoel
Line Producer: Jay Shapiro
DP(s): Paul Cameron, Kris Kachikis
Production Designer: Brock Houghton
Costume Designer: Casey Storm
Monster Costume: Legacy Effects
Editor: Rick Russell
VFX: MPC
Colorist: Mark Gethin
VFX Producer: Eric McCaslin
VFX: Kim Stevensen
Music Supervisor: Good Ear Music
Editorial: Final Cut
Editor: Rick Russell
Executive Producer: Saima Awan
Producer: Suzy Ramirez
Assistant Editor: Cudjo Collins
Audio Mix/Sound Design: Beacon Street Studios
Sound Designer/Audio Mix: Paul Hurtubise
Producer: Caitlin Rocklen
Assistant: Dewey Thomas
Published 26 May, 2011
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