HEAD BLOG

In addition to campaigns, both advertising and social, Head First is asked to flex a whole set of artistic muscles to produce some rather nifty imagery.

Namco Bandai’s Ace Combat series is getting great reviews and, actually, it’s no surprise. When briefed on what was going to make it special, we were even more determined than usual not to be the weak link when it came to promotion.

I think we do some rather good work here at Head First. We really do.

When it comes to ideas we like to think being different is a pretty good starting point. A few months back, a new client asked us to come up with ideas for a game based on Ping Pong in order to promote… well, let’s just say it’s something pretty cool.

We huddled and thought and huddled some more (hey, it was back in the depths of winter) and came up with a good few ideas. The client thought and thought and thought some more (their winter wasn’t that cold) and chose… not Swing Pong.

It was fair enough. They wanted something to meet a slightly different task (and we’re in the process of fulfilling THAT brief too so hang in there).

Something, however, wouldn’t allow us to let go of Swing Pong.

Maybe it was the name or maybe it was just the idea of basing a sports game on audio reactions that kept us interested but we plugged away and, thanks to some hard work and a team of honest beta-testers, created Swing Pong.

We think it’s a bit of fun.

The Guardian think so too. Which is nice.

We could have created a regular ping pong game of course. The App Store has quite a few of those. Poke your finger at the screen and score points. But we wanted to show that anything can be turned on its head and presented in a different way in order to stand out from the crowd. Add an ad spend to that and you have yourself a clear proposition which has really, measurable value.

Take a look and see what you think.

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Whilst I mostly blog about the approaches we take here at Head First, how we go about creating campaigns or designing product communication, every now and again I like to share some of the work we do. It gives our competitors a glimpse at brilliance and prospective clients an understanding of the sheer range we have on tap here.

The long road to release for Dead Rising 2, your everyday game about the wholesale slaughter of thousands of rotting zombies, has been paved with almost every kind of skill. From advertising and pack design to exhibition work and 3D animation, we’ve really run the marathon on this. Over the next month or so I will be showing some of that work and today I’ll start with the Dead Rising 2 dynamic theme.

Dynamic Themes are one of the cooler, most underused features of the PlayStation 3. I could spin you a half hour presentation about how they could benefit non-games companies (far more, in truth, than they can benefit games companies) but suffice to say that they are cool.

In essence they are animated desktops, adding life to the main menu screen of the console and used, like any good wallpaper, to personalise it.

For Dead Rising 2 we were asked to create a theme in keeping with the Vegas stylings found in the game. The slot machine design we originated made  a pretty good impression with its spinning wheels and weapons of mad destruction. Technically that meant dealing with Sony as well as making sure the code and 3D designs meshed perfectly.

It’s just the start of where we want to go with Dynamic Themes but it’s an exciting start which pushes advertising and brand messaging into a whole new cake.

The beautiful thing about working with video games is the sheer range of subjects you get to cover. One minute you are working on a sci-fi game and the next you are producing visuals for a cookery app. “Normal” agencies don’t get to flit around the product gamut as we do. It means that even though some companies see as as “specialist” others see the experience that we bring.

So when MBN Events came knocking we were pleased to put on our Sport Billy hat and begin producing the kind of exciting visuals that have helped sell games for UEFA, WWE, Race Pro and many other titles that in a normal world would take all the energies of top agencies.

Head First approach work in the same way, regardless of client size. We take a look at the consumer market in which such products rest and create imagery and ideas that measure up to the standard of quality expected whilst also standing out in terms of recognisable identity. Again, coming from the video game industry where every (for example) war game can look the same we have found that being distinctive can make all the difference.

For MBN we have begun producing high quality visuals to continue their already high quality approach for both print and video.

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Working with the new breed of developer publisher has been an exciting challenge. In a world of digital downloads how are you going to make your product stand out? Do you confine your promotions solely to the online world or do you learn from companies such as Google and utilise the power of old media and the attention it still attracts?

At Head First we ask all of these questions and help shape the creative campaign to suit the product and the client. With The Mysteries of Little Riddle we have been lucky enough to bring our skills to this issue and create a series of images that are sales focussed.

And luckily there is still great fun to be had in creating real world objects.

A few nights ago I was reading a book to my son. This isn’t, in itself, unusual enough to write about but, after writing about how much I think the iPad will change the book buying market it did make me think more than usual about the process I was going through in reading the book.

Earlier that day I’d been discussing e-books with an author as we outlined plans to help him promote his first book. Creating eye-catching advertisements is a large part of what we do here at Head First and our experience in games has given us a pretty (I’ll resist saying unique) appropriate perspective in promoting certain types of products. As books increasingly vy for attention against games (which is intensifying in the face of the e-book) we all felt that our knowledge could be put to good use.

The upshot (after many preambles like that) is our discussion. We both agreed that e-books are here to stay but that print was where the real joy was.

As the wide format book opened in my hands that night I found myself enjoying its shape, weight and texture just as much as the marvellous writing. This, I thought, was what books were all about: the pleasure of the format and the joy of reading it outloud to someone too young to walk away. Every author desires a captive audience, every father no less so.

This, I felt, could never be lost. The amazing shapes (and sometimes sounds) built into the idea of a book are infinite. Wide books, tall books, flap books and pop-up books – all of these are part of teaching a child not so much to read but to feel; to engage in their tactile world. As enchanting as the words on the page are, as charming as the illustrations are, a book is so much more. How could an e-book ever threaten this?

They won’t. They will offer something different. As they mature, writers and artists will explore the format in the same way they have explored new printing process. New ideas will be born from the potential of e-books but the role of print will not disappear.

There are many migivings about the rise of digital books. Adjacent business models in games, music and even films offer glimpses of what could be around the corner and clues as to how to deal with the changes. Totalitarian regimes and corporate anti-trust cases should serve to remind us of the power and dangers of allowing a single entity to control a communication gateway and new threats will no doubt arise that must be dealt with from the perspective of what is beneficial to society rather than propitious for commerce.

We must never forget that a book isn’t solely the material from which it is made. The paper, the card, the vinyl or the silicon offers writers and artists a format to work in and explore but the ideas they invest in that format are altogether bigger.

Recently, I’ve been sat back reading. Just putting my feet up on the table, a cup of coffee steaming beside me and all the time in the world to consider things like why water is wet and how many elephants David McKee could draw in two minutes.

Important stuff.

So it’s whilst all this change the world philosophicationising is going on that my eye fell across agency ads.

Agency ads – the job an agency hates. How do you sell yourself? There are so many great things about us, we tend to think, why stick to just the one? Why use the approach we take with clients? We could miss out on the element of our business that chimes with what they want.

We’d like to please everyone, on the off-chance that something will stick.

The result seems to be a mixed bag and I was a little surprised at how many agencies went big on boasting about the clients they work with.

Is this a persuasive argument to use an agency? It’s true that some clients do believe that because you have worked with client A then you’ll be perfect for their needs also.

Makes sense to a certain extent.

It shows experience and a level of service that will no doubt rub off into their product.

Seems appropriate, right?. The strategy is akin to hauling your portfolio around and hoping the client sees something that rings true with what they are looking for.

But thinking about it deeper it struck me as an odd strategy. Like someone who brags about their sexual conquests.

Which is risky, because what happens if someone walks past and says: “oh yes, I’ve slept with that person as well”. And then someone else coughs and says “umm… actually…”.

And so on.

Because really, for the most part. Well…

We all have.

It doesn’t make it any less special, but it does make your point of difference a little less different.

Whereas Head First… well we introduced them to our mums.