Alpen Gold- Optimism in Your Hands

Loco has a sweet tooth, so we savoured the chance to work with director Carl Prechezer and the team from Ogilvy Russia on their campaign for Alpen Gold. Loco provided online editing, VFX and colour grade on their commercial, ‘optimism in your hands’ for the Russian and European markets. Shot on the Alexa in the terminal and on the runway of a Ukrainian airport, Loco’s VFX team helped to transform the setting by designing and compositing replacement signage in Russian and English as well as creating a departures board to convincingly relocate the airport to Moscow. We even conjured up a blue sky to replace the dull, grey one filmed on the day. We also worked with the two Carls on the overall look of the ad to give it a fifties Technicolor feel with a bit of a contemporary twist. The commercial tells the story of two women, an optimist and a pessimist trying to catch their flight for the start of their holiday. When they see that all the passenger routes are cancelled, the optimist takes a bite of chocolate and inspiration strikes. Observing that the cargo planes are still operating, she sweet talks their way onto a flight. But, all is not what it seems… In one of the key exterior scenes, the girls see a decrepit, old airplane struggling to start. Loco’s CGI team added spinning propeller blades and smoke to the shot of the static cargo plane. Loco’s producers even commissioned Steve Goldsmith to design some spluttering sounds to help the old plane cough to life. Fortunately for the holiday makers, their plane turns out to be a private jet with a handsome pilot, so they are able to share some more chocolate and an optimistic smile. To highlight the pessimist and optimist connection to the characters and the brand, Loco’s VFX designers created lozenge icons to pop up at key points in the story. The brushed metallic pessimist symbol has a subtle glint while the bright, yellow optimist icon incorporates Alpen Gold’s multicoloured branding along its edges. Our animators added some fun, swirling movement to its colourful border. Our lozenge graphics delighted the agency so much that they decided to incorporate them into the print campaign and even into T-shirt designs.