The new Honda Jazz launches across Europe from 1st February 2011. To support this Wieden + Kennedy has created a pan-European campaign that also launches on 1st February in the UK and will then roll out across 29 markets in total throughout the month.

The new Honda Jazz launches across Europe from 1^st February 2011. To support this we have created a pan-European campaign that also launches on 1^st February in the UK and will then roll out across 29 markets in total throughout the month.

As is often the case with our Honda work, the spark for the idea came from something that was said by one of the people behind the vehicle.

Those words inspired this positioning thought:

Which in turn led us to the creation of the 60” animated TV spot that supports the Jazz launch. ‘This Unpredictable Life’ glorifies the epic challenge of trying to engineer a car that predicts everything life will throw at you. It’s a reflection of the wonderful and unpredictable journey of life’s twists, turns, ups and downs – as we follow a character floating through life in an animated world.  We see his journey from birth through to growing up and starting a family of his own, collecting experiences and possessions along the way: demonstrating the Jazz’s ability to handle all that life has to throw at the modern family.

The spot was directed by Smith and Foulkes at Nexus, the same team with whom we worked on the Honda Grrr commercial that was named 'best commercial of the decade' by Adweek. They say:

‘The team at Wieden + Kennedy asked us to visually interpret their beautifully poetic script, a fantastic opportunity of endless possibilities that doesn’t come along very often.  How can you encapsulate the unpredictable randomness of growing up, falling in love and starting a family in 60 seconds?  Our simple plan centred the story on a hero who would encounter all manner of epic silliness as he navigates his way through the different stages of his life.’ 

The film is supported by a print campaign:

We have also created, in conjunction with Gravity Mobile, a ground-breaking digital app that introduces the ability to ‘play’ with a television commercial using a mobile phone.The app is available to download free from the iTunes store now.

The app allows viewers of the film to ‘catch’ the  animated characters as the commercial appears on screen. It's the first time this sound-synching technology has ever been used in a commercial.  Here's a wee film showing how the app works:

Celebrations at Wieden + Kennedy on the news that we had won the pitch for mobile network Three. They came in to tell us that we'd won and of course there was no champagne in the agency – Karyn had to nip out to Tesco so we could toast our success with something other than Coke Zero.

Despite the fact that on the night before the pitch we flooded the presentation room with toxic fumes, we still managed to come through in the end without poisoning any clients. And despite the fact that in the pitch Chesters said to the (female) client 'I want to do it. And I want to do it with you.' And Helen used the phrase 'two quarters' in conversation with Three's head of procurement. And the possibly excessive use of monkey imagery in almost every concept we presented at the tissue meeting. The client kindly indulged this simian extravagance with the words, 'I love the monkey world.' (NB – no monkeys likely to appear in final campaign.)

Three is the UK's biggest 3G network and has more than 6.2 million customers in this country. It's the UK market-leader for mobile broadband, having come first in the two most recent YouGov surveys of Mobile Broadband customers.

W+K London will now take the lead in developing brand communications and delivering creative work for Three in the UK, conceiving and overseeing the implementation of integrated campaigns and delivery of TV, radio, press, outdoor and digital advertising work as Three continues its push for growth in the UK market.

A splendid start to the year!