Animation Can Make Anything Interesting, Even This Overpriced Samsung Fridge
How do you promote a fridge that costs more than what most individuals earn annually around the world? With an animated short, of course.
The 30-second spot is passé for many advertisers, longer-form content is in: animated mini-shorts are being used to sell everything nowadays from bras to ice melters to operating systems.
The latest corporation to engage with audiences through long-form animation content is Samsung, who commissioned Moonbot Studios to produce a 3-minute piece, “Inside the Fridge,” for its new “game-changing” Family Hub refrigerator.
Like most mini-shorts of this kind — see also the above linked ads for Morton Salt and Android — its point is less about selling the product (because seriously, a wi-fi fridge that streams music?) than it is to manipulate viewers into associating a positive feeling toward a brand. Moonbot’s piece, conceived by the ad agency R/GA, does that successfully, making us feel sort of (but not too) bad for a bottle of chocolate syrup.
The formula works, too, which is why so many advertisers insist on longer animated ads nowadays: “Inside the Fridge” has been viewed nearly 3.4 million times in its first week, easily becoming the most-watched video ever on Samsung USA’s Youtube page.
The simple stylized CG is a smart creative choice that was done out of necessity as much as anything. Moonbot had to turn out the entire three-minute piece, from start to finish, in just seven weeks.
CREDITS
Client: Samsung Home Appliances
Spot: “Inside the Fridge”
Agency: R/GA
Executive Creative Director, Visual: Qian Qian
Creative Director, Writer: Emily Zaborniak
Senior Art Director: Hector Gruyer
Senior Copywriter: Ben Peppernell
Live Action: Independent Media
Director: Tucker Gates
Director of Photography: Janusz Kaminski
Animation: Moonbot Studios, Shreveport, La.
Directors: Limbert Fabian, Brandon Oldenburg
Computer Graphics Supervisor: Megan Deane
Animation Supervisor: John Durbin
L.A. Credits (Live Action/Film)
Editing: Cut and Run
Editor: Jay Nelson
Assistant Editor: Eli Beck-Gifford
N.Y. Credits
Cut Downs Editor: Georgia Dodson
Assistant Editor: Nicole Berg
Music: Beacon Street Studios
Composers: Danny Dunlap, Andrew Feltenstein, John Nau
Sound Design: Rommel Molina
Color, Visual Effects: The Mill
2-D Lead: Jeff Robbins
2-D: Ashleigh Abramovich
Colorist: Fergus MaCall
Final Mix House: Sonic Union
Sound Mixers: Mike Marinelli, Rob McIver
