From Vision to Victory: Inside the Creative Fusion Behind Callaway’s Latest Campaign
In the ever-evolving landscape of advertising, where cutting through the clutter is more challenging than ever, Stadium’s latest collaboration with global design and VFX studio, Subset Studio, and editorial partner Nomad presents a masterclass in innovative ad creation.
From the critical importance of early collaboration, to the challenge of working within a tight budget and timeline, this project exemplifies how clear communication between production and post-production teams can make or break a project.
The new Callaway golf campaign, Apex Irons, beautifully marries high-end CG with live action, resulting in a visually striking and memorable ad. Delving into the creative minds behind this groundbreaking campaign, LBB talks to Eric Maldin, co-owner and director of Stadium, and Caleb Ollivant, CG supervisor and art director at Subset Studios. Their conversation reveals the meticulous planning and visionary approach that guided this project from inception to final cut.
For those in the advertising and production world, this Behind the Work look offers a compelling narrative of creativity, collaboration, and execution that pushes boundaries and sets a new standard for commercial excellence.
LBB> Eric and Caleb, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. First things first - what was your initial vision heading into this project, and how does it align with the finished ad?
Eric> I initially pitched to our agency partners the idea of seamlessly integrating CG work similar to Apple product reveals with live action golf. They were intrigued to see how that could be executed so Subset took the APEX Iron’s CADs and mocked some style frames. That got us in the door, and the final spot felt exactly aligned with what we pitched from the treatment phase.
LBB> Why did you guys decide to collaborate as early as the pitching stage?
Eric> The creative task was really all about elevating the CG work, so it felt like a natural collaboration given our relationship with Subset. Nomad’s editorial team is also someone we have partnered with on previous projects so being able to present the three partners as a single team working closely together to execute the creative was what helped us win the business.
LBB> And what's the secret to the best possible working relationship between production and post?
Caleb> Communication and setting up expectations against a tight schedule and a fairly limited budget for the amount of work that was needed.
LBB> Eric, you mentioned that you wanted to take inspiration from the Dune films in terms of this ad's visual style. Why was that?
Eric> I love the monochromatic battle scene in Dune 2 with Feyd Rathua, while the scenes were quite complex from a VFX stance I felt it was incredibly impactful for there to be no color. As a result, I pushed to keep the film black and white and fairly simplistic with the production design, letting the product really be the hero as opposed to the person swinging the club.
LBB> Caleb, can you tell us how you emphasise authenticity when it comes to your post production work?
Caleb> As an emerging company, we're in the exciting phase of shaping the identity of Subset. We are committed to making our work stand out with every project we undertake. This opportunity to create a hyper-realistic world plays directly into our team's unique strengths.
LBB> To what extent do you agree with the following statement: "It's never been harder for an ad to cut through the noise and be noticed than it is today"?
Eric> I totally agree with this sentiment, not to say our spot doesn’t fall into the noise…but I tried to strip back what we needed to be successful and executed it at a high level. This is very different from the majority of the golf commercials we see nowadays that take a hard emphasis on the larger than life professionals which sometimes loses sight of the brand messaging. Given this was a launch for a new iron, I felt that it was important to focus on the product more than identifiable people like pro golfers.
LBB>What was the most challenging aspect of this project, and how did you overcome it?
Eric> The budget was challenging, and the timeline was very fast to get this onto television in time for the launch. This meant doing as much previz and Subset doing as much work ahead of the shoot helped us make the tight turnaround. Our storyboards and previz were present throughout the day of live action production which helped us focus on what we NEEDED to capture and allowed us to hit the ground running once we got into post.
LBB> Finally, is there anything that you'd do differently if you had your time again?
Eric> Honestly for this project, I think what we managed to accomplish with the time and resources we had, there is not much I would change. Having amazing creative partners like Subset and Nomad made the entire process super enjoyable even if it was a challenge to get it delivered in less than 3 weeks.
