Voskhod Agency’s commercial for Russian bank, Tochka, is confusing.
It almost makes its point, that Tochka Bank breaks the cold-hearted tradition of banking by showing love towards its clients and understanding entrepreneurs’ needs. Almost. It sets up the idea that bankers are callous. It doesn’t quite get to the conclusion that Tochka’s bankers are not.
On the other hand, the idea itself is wonderful. Banks are not viewed positively by people and the ad presents banks exactly as they are seen. One of selling’s tried-and-true strategies is to begin by getting your customer to agree with you. Almost every bank in the world is doing the opposite, trying to skirt around the truth that banks put business first by claiming the opposite. In many cases, that smacks of fake news.
On top of that, bringing Renaissance artworks to life in an ad is an attention-grab that is likely to be remembered.
And the spots’ production values are magnificent. The film was directed by Great Guns’ Ilya Naishuller and produced by Daddy’s Film Moscow.
Naishuller commented, “I immediately fell in love with the concept and was excited to try something new as a director. It was a lot of fun researching Renaissance art to come up with living, breathing versions. Casting was an interesting challenge as finding the types of faces to fit each the story took some time and careful consideration. Ultimately, I think we struck gold with our cast and managed to find the right balance between being interesting-looking people who also fit the era we were trying to recreate.”
To capture the otherworldly visuals, Naishuller shot on high-speed Phantom Flex 4K cameras. “We worked heavily with VR cameras to create previews and pre-shot most of the video, which allowed us to blast through the shoot with an accurate yet fun approach,” Naishuller added.
Credits:
Creative Agency: Voskhod Agency
Copywriters: Anton Rozhin & Darya Ovechkina
Art Director: Agnieszka Brzezina
Account manager: Irina Shubina
Creative Director: Andrey Gubaydullin
Head of strategy: Dmitry Donik
Production Company: Daddy’s Film Production, Moscow
Director: Ilya Naishuller (represented globally outside Russia by Great Guns)
Cinematography: Vladislav Opelyants
Executive Producer: Egor Solomatin
Head of Production: Dmitry Dimchevskiy
Unit Production Manager: Mikhail Goglov
Casting: Maroussia Sayapina & CastingMoscow
Production Designer: Dmitriy Onishchenko
Tochka Designer | Konstantin Baidak
Music: Angel written & performed by Massive Attack
Editing: Vlad Kaptur
Post-production: CGF
VFX Supervisor: Alexander Gorokhov
Art Director: Izabela Cichonska
VFX & DI producer: Ekaterina Averina
Head of CG Production: Alena Kucherova
Colour: Maxim Mironov (ColorLarek) & Alex Zolotarev (CGF)
Client: Tochka Bank
Head of Marketing, Tochka Bank co-founder: Yana Gannik
Head of Internet Marketing: Tatyana Kornaushchenko
Designer: Konstantin Baydak
PR manager: Aleksandra Prytkova
Head of Projects: Sofya Maslennikova
Head of Projects: Yana Istomina