Ad of the Day: A 3-Second Fall Is 60 Seconds of Fun for the Moto E

It seems inevitable that ad agencies will someday run out of innovative ways to launch new smartphones. But today is not that day.

Droga5 created a charmingly whimsical 60-second spot for this month's reveal of Motorola's Moto E, an entry-level smartphone that's light on cutting-edge features but attractively sticker priced at $130. Since the Moto E isn't going to win over gadget gurus looking for power and superlative specs, the agency took the marketing in a different direction, courting the casual crowd who just want a phone that looks nice, survives everyday abuse and won't eat up its battery in six hours.

The agency, with help from 1stAveMachine director Tomi Dieguez, created a giant vertical tunnel that serves as the spot's setting while the phone drifts down through it in a slow-motion free fall. Each section of the contraption is colorful and dynamic, capturing a different aspect of the phone's features, like the scratch-resistent screen illustrated by jangling cables festooned with keys.

All told, the phone's descent through a wide range of informative backgrounds took only 2.7 seconds of real time, which definitely helps you appreciate the level of craftsmanship and detail the agency had to put into its creation.

To make each stage move at a decent speed, the actual set design had to be insanely fast, which you can see for yourself in the behind-the-scenes clip below.

The resulting spot is fun, unique and well-crafted, and if viewers are left feeling the same way about the phone, Motorola will definitely have achieved its goal.

CREDITS

Client: Motorola

Agency: Droga5

Executive Creative Director: Neil Heymann

Art Director: Andrew Wilcox

Copywriter: Mike Felix

Executive Producer: Matt Nowack

Production: 1stAveMachine

Director: Tomi Dieguez

Editor: Bill Saunders

Color Grade: Seth Ricart

Audio Postproduction: Heard City

Music Composition: Q Department