Objective:

Final Fantasy XI is a console and computer massive multiplayer online game developed and published by Square Enix. A major critical and commercial success, the game remains arguably the most popular title in an ongoing series, and Stickee was asked to promote it online!

Creative Solution:

The strap line for the campaign was Get into the Game™; we decided to take this literally. We always talk about getting addicted to computer games; of course we do, in a virtual world, we are able to do things we can't in real life! So, we asked a group of actors and/or fans to imagine they are really inside the world of Final Fantasy. A situation from Final Fantasy was described to them, for example we asked them to imagine they can cast fire balls from their hands. Individually, they were filmed acting out the scene. Casting tapes are hilarious. People look uncomfortable, silly and generally embarrass themselves in an effort to secure the role. These cringe-worthy moments are priceless and the ˜raw' look of the footage combined with the unpolished and unrehearsed actor performances had the potential to produce side-splitting results! We wanted to cast for typical stereotype characters and put them in these surreal game situations i.e. stereotypes doing something completely non-stereotypical and unexpected. For example, an attractive blonde girl is actually a stealthy FFXI ninja, a middle age mum is a black mage or a gruff 30 year-old cockney guy is actually a warrior samurai.

Production Solution:

We rounded up 75 eager actors from a casting agency in London. We tried to personify the variety of people who play computer games to challenge the gamer stereotype. We chose a young boy aged 10-16, Busty blonde girl aged 20-25, Shaven headed, gruff, guy 25-35, Japanese guy aged 20-30 and a Middle-aged woman 45-50. Square Enix were anxious to show the audience the different types of monsters and enemies that inhabit the game e.g. Tunnel worms, huge hornets, demons, giant sheep and rampaging rams. So we asked the cast to imagine the bizarre world of Final Fantasy and act out scenarios such as; attacking using dual swords and a combination of crazy pseudo-ninja stances and plunging into battle against the a twenty foot skeletal demon. The results, as anticipated, were absolutely hilarious! We decided that as the casting tapes were so successful as raw footage, we repurposed them to create Flash video banners and viral videos just as they were with footage from the computer game cut in to match the actors. We just ended them with game credits and Square Enix logos to finish. This proved to be a successful technique, as the purpose of the advertising was not entirely explained. It created a sense of curiosity to encourage the audience to click through.