RPA recently launched a new spot for Honda, promoting the 2016 Honda Civic in “The Dreamer.”
The 60-second spot opens on a designer drawing and day-dreaming at his desk. As Empire of the Sun‘s “Walking on a Dream” beings to play, a doorway opens out of the back of his head and a 2016 Honda Civic drives out, receiving the final pieces completing the vehicle from a pair of robotic arms before advancing down a path constantly being constructed just ahead of the vehicle. Full of colorful, vaguely trippy imagery, it’s one of the more visually-intriguing spots RPA has created for Honda, in some ways vaguely reminiscent of W+K London’s surreal “Feeling” spot, also promoting the Civic, from last May. The ad ties things together with the tagline, “Direct From Our Imagination.” A print ad exploring the same theme supports the broadcast effort.
“The spot is a fantastical, surreal representation of the Honda ideation process,” RPA executive creative director Jason Sperling told Adweek. “We wanted to showcase the Civic’s beautiful design and performance, but do it through the prism of the brand. The spot is a great marriage of the way Honda thinks and the byproduct of their thinking.”
The creation of the spot was a laborious, five-month process. “For months, all we had to go on was reference material and wireframes,” Sperling said. “As you might expect, the postproduction process was incredibly intensive on this project. Our amazing partner Roof had to create a world from scratch, all in CGI.”
Credits:
Client: American Honda Motor Co.
Agency: RPA
EVP, CCO: Joe Baratelli
SVP, ECD: Jason Sperling
Creative Director/Art: Rahul Panchal
ACD/Art: Marcella Coad
ACD/Copy: Paul Fung
SVP, Chief Production Officer: Gary Paticoff
VP, Executive Producer: Isadora Chesler
Sr. Producer: Eva Ellis
Producer: Ryan Radley
VP, Director of Business Affairs: Maria Del Homme
EVP, Management Account Director: Brett Bender
VP, Group Account Director: Adam Blankenship
Management Supervisor: Rose McRitchie
Account Supervisor: Patty Mira
Account Supervisor: Eliza Wan
Account Executive: Donny Menjivar
Account Executive: Chloe Seitz
Sr. VP, Group Strategic Planning Director: Christian Cocker
Associate Director, Strategic Planning: Nargis Pirani
Associate Strategic Planning Director: Rich Bina
Sr. Strategic Planner: Elissa Murch
Production Company: Roof Studio
Directors: Guto Terni, Sam Mason and Vinicius Costa
Executive Producer: Crystal Campbell
Producer: Ryan Mack
Director of Photography: Bill Pope
Technical Lead Director: Aaron Baker
Design: Fred Palacio, Eric Pautz, Guto Terni, Vinicius Costa and Sam Mason
Color Correction: Seth Ricart, RCO
Additional Color Correction: Tim Masik, CO3
Music:
Track: “Walking on a Dream”
Artist: Empire of the Sun
Music Supervision: Squeak E. Clean Productions, Inc.
Sound Design: Squeak E. Clean Productions, Inc.
Mix: Lime Studios
Engineer: Dave Wagg
Producer: Susie Boyajan
—Print
Agency: RPA
EVP, CCO: Joe Baratelli
SVP, ECD: Jason Sperling
ACD: Marcella Coad
ACD: Paul Fung
Photographer: Jen Campbell
Digital Artist: ROOF Studios
Art Buyer: Kay Gautraud
Production Manager: Renato Quilalang