R/GA and E*Trade Can Magically Expand Your 2-Dimensional POV

By Patrick Coffee 

R/GA’s latest for E*Trade shows us how far we’ve come since the days of babies and Spacey.

The most recent broadcast campaign for the financial services company that we still don’t really understand promotes its Advanced Trading Platform with some variations on one very sleek visual trick.

Watch closely as two dimensions become three right before your eyes, M.C. Escher style.

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It’s all about personalization as one man becomes a system informed by his own preferences. The cyclical aspect of the shift was pretty cool.

The second spot “Power” enacts a more impressive transition, in our humble opinions.

That may not be quite as sexy or personable as the Spacey ads, but it does give laymen like ourselves a better idea of what the product does.

And here’s a behind-the-scenes video. Chemical Brothers made the music, but the real credit goes to Brand New School for a production that required a very impressive amount of manual labor.

This almost looked like CGI, didn’t it? The “how we did it” clip was the best part of the campaign, because otherwise we would have missed all the subtleties of the visual trickery.

CREDIT

Campaign Title: E*TRADE Perspective
Spot Title: Vison / Power
Length: :30/:15
Location: online/TV
Agency: R/GA
Client: E*TRADE

E*TRADE:
Lea Stendahl: SVP, Head of Marketing
Rich Muhlstock: SVP, Marketing Communications
Evan Katz: Senior Marketing Manager
Natalie Labuda: Marketing Specialist

AGENCY: R/GA, NY
Jay Zasa: SVP, ECD, Campaigns
Paul Dery: Group ECD
Marie Ronn: Creative Director
Erik Tell: Creative Director
Kat Friis – Executive Production Director, Content Studio
Chris Ott – Sr. Content Producer
Michael Stoopack: Managing Director
Ben Hall: Group Account Director
James Hogan: Account Supervisor
Jeff Skutnik: Executive Producer, Campaigns
Lucas Dennison: Producer, Campaigns
Tom Morton: SVP, Strategy
Libby Schaub: Associate Director, Strategy
Amy McEwan: Strategist
Stephen Bernstein: Director, Business Affairs
Nakiella Smith: Associate, Business Affairs

Brand New School
Director: Jonathan Notaro
Managing Partner: Devin Brook
VFX Supervisor/Lead Flame: Mark French, Bryant Reif
Flame Artists: Kirk Balden, Greg Cutler
Art Directors: Jeffrey Welk, Andres Rivera, Jordan Lyle
Technical Director: Dan Bradham
Pre-Vis Animators: Bryant Reif, Dan Bradham, Tom Alex Buch, Billy Maloney, Yaz Koyama, Dylan Nathan, Laury Santoso
Compositors: Jeff Billon, Eric Concepcion, Paulo Dias, Matthew Lane Smith, Christian Lowe, Danica Parry, Kristjian Zaklynsky
Modeler: Scott Denton
Designers: Andres Rivera, Jeffrey Welk, Tom Alex Buch, Jason Hogg, Karen Hong, Waka Ichinose, Kelly Jung, Peter Pace
Concept Artist: Carlos Ancalmo
Editor: Eric Wais
Assistant Editor: Tyler Byrnes
Head of Production: Julie Shevach
Producers: Greg Heffron, Johnna MacArthur
Cinematographer: Claudio Miranda
Colorist: Tim Masick @ Company 3

Music:
Original Score by Tom Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers

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