Mercedes eVito Van Campaign

Humdinger partnered with Mercedes agency Team X to create a funny and informative video designed to highlight the Mercedes eVito features for new purchasers.

We were approached by Team X because of our extensive experience in comedy and tasked with the job of injecting humour into the script and offering end to end production for the project.

Agency: https://www.team-x.com.au/

Client: Mercedes Australia NZ

The Challenge

The challenge with this project was taking dense technical information about the vehicle and making it accessible for the target audience.

Finding the right balance of humour, the right person to deliver that humour would be key.

Plus there was the added complexity of making the car look good on camera - shooting shiny vehicles in an all white studio requires a level of precision.

The Approach

Mercedes’ agency TeamX approached us with the idea of shooting the video in the style of “You Can’t Ask That”. We were then handed a long document including Q and As which, if shot as it, would have been closer to feature film length.

We went to work revising the script and cutting it down to a more manageable length and using visual humour to sell the vehicle’s features.

The Talent

For this project we engaged Ben Lomas as our presenter. We had a long standing relationship with Ben who had been a member of our comedian only co working space for a number of years. Ben was an experienced presenter and actor and talent stand up comedian and just what the client was looking for.

Shooting the Vehicle

While Ben was the human star of the campaign, the eVito was the central figure in the production. The decision was made to shoot the van on a white cyc backdrop so we made our home at Hitmaker Studios.

Filming shiny vehicles is a specific skill, especially within a small budget, so we worked with our gaffa in rigging a soft box for provide the bulk of the lighting.

A second shooting location at the Mercedes Showroom allowed us to shoot the scenes where the electric vehicle was being charged.

Production Design

The set design for this shoot was a simple, clean white backdrop wtih each scene enhanced with a minimalist set.

Our Production Designer’s biggest task was creating a custom bobblehead in Ben Lomas’ image.

Post Production

Post production was done in collaboration with TeamX providing graphics.

If comedy is 33% script and 33% performance, the other 33% is surely in post production. Editing for comedy is a specific skillset that we at Humdinger excel at and we had a lot of fun punching up the jokes in the post production of this project.

The Outcome

• 1 x hero video
• 10 x promotional stills
• Multiple 9:16 and 1:1 social media cut downs

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