You remember the Merchant. He’s the guy with a vaguely European accent and a nice long trollish beard who is more than a little vague about the wares he’s hawking.
Dude says he sells “life and death,” but it’s really just video games, music and movies. Primarily video games.
Venables Bell & Partners introduced this character a couple of years ago to mark the 10th anniversary of the PlayStation Store, and now he’s back to remind you about all the cool stuff you can buy there with a simple working credit card number.
This effort goes epic, depicting the store as both an open air, pseudo-GoT-style market and a line of pop-up experiential activations(?), hence the title “Bazaar.”
Lotsa stuff going on in that one.
As the press release asks us, “Will your readers be able to spot all of the Easter eggs and references that we have planted?”
Well, will you?
The behind the scenes blog post tells us that the set “took many weeks to prepare for a four-day shoot” that included more than 150 extras (hope they were union).
But seriously, check out this hot pink anarchy tank.
CREDITS
AGENCY: Venables Bell & Partners
CLIENT NAME: PlayStation
BRAND: PlayStation Store
SPOT NAME: Bazaar
Eric Lempel, SVP, Global Marketing, PlayStation
Mary Yee, VP of Marketing, PlayStation
Byron Chew, Group Manager, Store Marketing & FPG Digital Retail
Taryn Hadfield, Brand Manager
Eric Chu, Brand Manager
Maria Jose Centeno, Marketing Specialist
AGENCY: Venables Bell & Partners
CHAIRMAIN: Paul Venables
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Will McGinness
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Tyler Hampton
ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Ryan Hoercher
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR: Tim Green
DIRECTOR OF INTEGRATED PRODUCTION: Craig Allen
SENIOR AGENCY PRODUCER: Amy Gatzert
BUSINESS AFFAIRS MANAGER: Yelena Kompaneyets
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS AFFAIRS: Quynh-An Phan
BRAND STRATEGY DIRECTOR: Brian Longtin
BRAND DIRECTOR: Elaine Chu
BRAND MANAGER: Anna Norris
PRODUCTION COMPANY: MJZ
DIRECTOR: Rupert Sanders
PRESIDENT: David Zander
SENIOR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Kate Leahy
PRODUCER: Laurie Boccaccio
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Tom Townend
1ST AD: Gregory Dobbin
PRODUCTION SERVICE COMPANY: Unit+Sofa
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Fady Salame
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Martin Sobotka
PRODUCER: Tomas Smrcek
EDITORIAL: Work Editorial
EDITOR: Neil Smith
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Marlo Baird
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Erik Vogt-Nilsen
PRODUCER: Brian Scharwath
POST EFFECTS: MPC
MPC LA (VFX: 2D & CG)
Managing Director: Robert Owens
Creative Director: Michael Gregory
Executive Producers: Elexis Stearn, Colin Clarry
Head of 2D & 2D Supervisor: Jim Spratling
CG Supervisor: Tim Kafka
Senior VFX Producer: Bomyee Hwang
Production Coordinators: Ciarin Birks, Stefani Na
On-set VFX Supervisors: Jim Spratling, Julian Fitzpatrick
Senior Nuke Compositors: David Ince, Gustavo Bellon, Toya Drechsler, Kyle Belko, Josh Guillaume
Concept / Digital Matte Painters: Thom Price, Chris Howe
Senior CG Lighters: Tim Kafka, Julian Fitzpatrick
CG Lighters: Annie Zhao, Dennys Herman
Senior CG Pre-Viz & Layout Artist: Alex Moon
Senior CG Animators: Ty Coyle, Samir Patel
CG Animator: Andrew Price
Senior CG FX Artists: Stefano Giorgetti, Andy Sheng
CG Rigging Supervisor: Lyndsey Horton
CG Rigger: Meghan Sesnie
CG Generalists: Joel Durham, Rodrigo Carrasco, Lim Bunu, Michael Reed
(Color Correction)
Executive Producer, Color: Meghan Lang
Senior Colorist: Mark Gethin
Senior Color Producer: Rebecca Boorsma
MPC London (CG Groom)
CG Groom: Pedrom Dadgostar
Senior VFX Producer: Clare Norrish
MPC BGLR (Roto, Cleanup, CG Prep, Matchmove)
BGLR Line producer: Neela Kumuda Parankusham
FX: Prashanth Paramasivam
Animation: Shiny Rajan
Assets: Mohammed Asif K, Jayadeep Chandran, Ria Banerjee, Shreyas Joshi, Craig savior padua
Comp: Anand Sagar, Rajnikanth R, Ravindra Gowda, Vipin Tripathi, Balakrishnan R, Geetesh Tari
DMP: Radhakrishnan Rethinasamy, Bakiyaraj P, Mohan Rao, Srinivas Achary
Lighter: Sumit Kumar
Matchmove: Karthick Kumar, Nithin TK, Ajith PA
Prep:Jaswan Vishni Prasath, Kajal Pandya, Rajesh S, Joshi John, Trishul Phani Mishra
Rigger: Debalina Dasgupta
Roto: Muthu Vishnu
AUDIO POST COMPANY: Lime
SOUND DESIGN: Mark Meyuhas / Peter Lapinski
MIXER: Mark Meyuhas
AUDIO ASSISTANT: Peter Lapinski
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Susie Boyajan
MUSIC COMPANY: Walker
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Sara Matarazzo, Stephanie Pigott
MUSIC COORDINATOR: Danielle Soury
STUDIO ENGINEER: Graeme Gibson