Final Frontier and KARMA Stage Animated Cat Romance for Vivo

Final Frontier joined forces with agency KARMA once again to tell an animated feline love story showcasing Vivo’s x90 device, with a focus on its low-light shooting prowess. The campaign, a full 3D character animation, represents an unusual and bold approach from a major Chinese phone brand.

Returning to the nocturnal wonderland of the first episode, the story centres on Grandpa Cat, a lifelong lover of amateur dramatics. Despite his passion for treading the boards, the hero always found himself playing a supporting role.  With his final turn before retirement threatening more of the same, Grandma Cat looks to the Vivo x90’s low-light shooting function to capture her husband’s performance in crisp glorious detail, giving him one last moment in the limelight. As the film’s slogan reads, “With love, we can make great things happen”.

KARMA devised the overall concept, world and script. Final Frontier, director Paulo Garcia, and Zombie studio designed the characters, developed the storytelling and produced the animation.

Garcia’s team, Zombie, is one of the world’s top tier commercial 3D character animation studios, winning dozens of the industry’s most significant prizes.

KARMA share their insights into the overall campaign:

On the cat world: Basically everyone loves cats, so we liked the idea of a cat planet. At the same time, we needed to highlight the product’s selling point, so we came up with the idea that the sun had disappeared and the planet is a nocturnal wonderland where many of the plants have evolved to have a magical glow.

On choosing animation: We felt that 3D character animation, along with especially cute cats, could really capture the hearts of the audience. Vivo's previous commercials were previously more inclined to the classic film TVC, and the client wanted to try something different. They were pretty much sold on the concept from the start.

On the challenges: The main creative challenge was to tell a story that was closely related to the key selling point of the product, all the while making sure that the flow felt fresh, and not too stiff. In terms of production, it was a tight schedule and there’s always potential challenges with global time differences between the client, agency, and animation team. Thankfully, it was a communicative and cooperative process, and everything went smoothly.

On the outcome: The first film was so well received that the client decided to continue with the sequel and so far that’s also been very popular. The end results exceeded everyone’s expectations and the audience absolutely loved them both! I think that’s down to great animation, a heart-warming story, and the super-cuteness of the cats.

Final Frontier executive producer Chris Colman adds, "To date it’s rare in China to find a client bold enough to go with full CG characters, especially with a brand new, self-created IP. So, big respect to Vivo for taking that courageous step, and to KARMA, for their creative vision, and for having such a good read on the market about what will resonate. We’ve been happy to partner with both to craft two wildly popular films so far. There’s a lot of potential with this story world. We’re excited to see what comes next."

The campaign launched exclusively in China and included a WeChat pop-up platform.

The film marks the second collaboration between Final Frontier, KARMA and Vivo, following the first episode in 2022, in which Grandpa desperately seeks a solution for his annual wedding anniversary photograph, before divine intervention sends him the new x80 device. The film was well received by viewers and award juries alike, picking up prizes at One Asia International Creative Awards, Long Xi Creative Award, DIGITALING Awards, and London International Awards (LIA).