Creative Led Marketing Group (CLMG) has unveiled a 3D animation, AI-infused marketing campaign for Australian cosmetic brand Sundae.
Misha Vaxman, co-founder of CLMG, says he can't believe how much uptake there's been in the 3D animation sector in the last three months.
"We gambled on it a couple of years ago, investing heavily in the equipment and the software. It's now given us the opportunity to take on the demand of what everyone is seeing and really loving," he says.
The campaign, centred around the launch of Sundae's new 'Body Whip' inspired range, features AI-generated large-scale versions of the product featured in iconic locations along Sydney’s coastline including the Bondi Icebergs and Bondi Beach.
Vaxman has a background in outdoor advertising, particularly guerilla marketing. As time has gone on, he notes, councils have gotten stricter and guerrilla marketing was getting harder and harder to pull off.
"It was becoming dangerous to the point where brands didn't want to be associated with it. CGI (computer-generated imagery) actually allows us to do digital guerrilla marketing. So we can maintain that effect without the worry of the council," says Vaxman.
Alongside this, there's a level of measurability, says Vaxman, as it allows the team to see how many people have engaged with it and then be able to compare it.
"It's something that will only continue to grow because there are no limits to it," he says.
The campaign, designed specifically for social distribution through Instagram and TikTok, represents a new frontier in terms of marketing stratagem and a new level of marketing sophistication with the integration of AI.
The primary campaign video, which took 120 hours to create, garnered more than 90,000 views across both Instagram and TikTok in 72 hours.
On the inspiration behind the campaign, Vaxman said he and the team at CLMG set out to make the work look as realistic as possible.
"Working with Sundae, they also had people giving out ice-creams on Bondi Beach to give the look a whole takeover and activation. We created files weeks earlier to send out to some influencers, and they were then made to look like they were actually seeing it in real life themselves," he says.
With a lot of the CGI content out there, it comes to a point where people either know it's so out there that it can't be real, or there are others who are just not sure, believes Vaxman.
"Our aim was to craft it in a way that looked so real and believable that the majority of people believed it really was until it was revealed that it wasn't," he says.
The team at CLMG consists of creative directors, 3D animators and CGI animators.
The campaign was executed by first ensuring both the agency and client were aligned on what shots they needed to take, what platforms it would go on and what's going to look best from which angles, says Vaxman.
He says the increasing appetite for 3D animation is so impactful because it creates that X - factor, which all brands are looking for in the current climate.
"Everyone is scrolling on their phones. Something that catches your eye and is a little different... that's what the 3D and the CGI gives you," says Vaxman.
This digital guerrilla marketing spectacle ran throughout November with the main activation launching on November 16, 2023.
To provide a behind-the-scenes look at the innovation creation process, a video has been released across both CLMG and Sundae’s platforms.
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