Well, well. If you thought you’d seen the best Christmas film (probably, ever) watch this one. It’s an epic gangster-flick inspired campaign film called No Going Back, for World of Tanks (which is rather popular already, with over 100 million players).
British football legend and movie star, Vinnie Jones, is Santa’s enforcer, dealing with those who have been naughty rather than nice. In the film, Jones hands over his resignation to Santa, declaring that he’s leaving his post to seek a new opportunity – becoming a commander in World of Tanks… but not before Jones and his motley crew ‘deal with’ one last naughty list.
The film was made by creative agency, Cubo, and production house, Halal, and incredibly, the entire campaign was conceived, written, tested and approved in a creative sprint that took just five days – with creatives, director, stand-in actors, production and client brainstorming and collaborating throughout.
Halal’s Andzej Gavriss directed the film. And gosh, what a film – sumptuous cinematography, a decadent country house location, and a stellar cast of actors, coupled with high-end production design and wardrobe, resulting in a Guy Ritchie meets Luc Besson aesthetic.
The ambitious film is an antidote to unoriginal and saccharine Christmas campaigns. And fittingly, the unconventional film was made in an unconventional way. Incredibly, the idea, characters, script, storyboard, director’s treatment, animatic and scenes shot right then and there – plus multiple rounds of consumer testing – were not only achieved in a single week, but the result was a meticulously crafted film flourished with humour and on par with a classic Hollywood gangster movie. The multilayered film leans unapologetically into tension and drama on the one hand – but offers belly laughs on the other. Its Hollywood-worthy script was written by Cubo creative director, Henry Scott, together with copywriter and playwright, Ryan Delehanty, with input from the entire team, including the cast – who were encouraged to improvise additional jokes and lines.
The film is targeted at current and potential World of Tanks’ players on PC, mobile and console. amounting to a 200 million+ global niche of gamers.
Director, Andzej Gavriss, a rising star from Latvia based in Berlin, who shot to fame in 2022 after directing We Will Become Bette’, with Halal, an LGBTQIA+ PSA championing gay rights in Russia, which won two Cannes Lions. No Going Back was filmed during an intense four-day shoot, with a huge crew, complex production design – plus 55 tons of temperamental vintage tank. All these moving (or not moving) parts were carefully orchestrated by Halal’s head of production, Job Sanders.
“It’s always a privilege to work with gaming studios. For them, entertainment isn’t a means to an end, it pays the bills. From the start, we didn’t want to make your average festive campaign – we wanted to bring some big characters to the screen and give gamers something they hadn’t seen before,” stated Henry Scott, creative director at Cubo.
“This film breaks many of the conventions of global advertising. For the audience, this is absolutely rewarding viewing but for the team commissioning the work, it is incredibly risky. Projects of this size can spend years in development. A three-platform franchise. Multiple markets. Wildly different audiences. To come out after just one week with everybody aligned and confident about producing something totally different from the norm is remarkable. The beauty of our way of working is not that it takes away time – but that it gives us the focus to make a great idea great – without diluting it,” added Pilar Rashad, strategy director at Cubo.
Cubo chief creative officer, Andre Matarazzo, commented, “It’s great to see such a visceral demonstration of what a sprint can do. We’ve done over a hundred so far, that have had impacts in all sorts of ways. Each time, we fine tune the process to deliver the maximum results from the shortest periods of time. When you sprint you don’t do tissue sessions, you don’t need account managers, multiple creative routes or even an office. A multicultural team, full focus, deep collaboration and constant consumer testing. Those are the drivers of fresh thinking today.”
HALAL owner, Gijs Determeijer, added “Setting aside the challenge of combining Christmas with tanks, we were super excited about working with our first games client – and Wargaming didn’t disappoint. It was refreshing to team up with a creative agency like CUBO right from the start, combining their strategic expertise and our production skills – and truly crafting the film together from storyboard to post. The result is something we are all really proud of – a true cinematic piece of entertainment for the fans of the game! We are super stoked about all the reactions in the comments section.”
Christopher Chung, World of Tanks franchise director at Wargaming, stated, “For the first time in history, all products under the World of Tanks franchise worked together from the inception to develop a unified campaign for Holiday Ops, our biggest annual event. It was an inspiring yet demanding challenge, and we are thrilled to have found such talented and extraordinary partners as CUBO and HALAL. Thanks to their efforts, we delivered a unique and entertaining campaign that delighted our players to join us in the celebration. An amazing experience all around.”
Credits:
Agency: CUBO
Chief Creative Officer: Andre Matarazzo
Creative Director: Henry Scott
Senior copywriter: Ryan Delehanty
Strategy Director: Pilar Rashad
Partner CSO: Flavia Buchmann
Designer: Chris Ansah
Production Company: HALAL
Director: Andzej Gavriss
Executive Producer: Job Sanders
Company Owner: Gijs Determeijer
Producer: Tiwirayi Magwenzi
Designer: Yinchel Fyon Tang
DOP: Ben Fordesman
Edit: David Whittaker, Ella Oliver
VFX: Glassworks
Post producer: James McCubbin
Sound: Paddy Owen
Service Production: Forever
Client: Wargaming
Global Head of Content: Irene Brodko
Global Head of Strategy: Hiro Kozaka Cavalcanti
Business Development: Natallia Asipovich, Victoria Vitushko
Publishing Director, Modern Armor: Alena Terekhova
Creative director: Serge Foris
Head of Creative Media: Alex Morozov
Product manager, World of Tanks PC: Anastasiya Prybylskaya,
Marketing manager: Vitaliy Kolomiyets
VIdeo producer: Vedat Bonfil
