GUT Buenos Aires Shows Gamer Rage Is Part of the Fun for Trivia Crack

Losing at a game can be infuriating, especially when you’re passionate about your skills or when competing against friends. But with etermax’s mobile game, Trivia Crack, you don’t just lose, you also learn.

Fans of the game themselves, the creative team at agency GUT Buenos Aires created a campaign around the relatable feelings of frustration that come with failing a round of trivia - and the urge to instantly load up another game and try to improve. 

Juxtaposing slow motion footage of enraged outbursts with gentle classical music and a verbose, optimistic voiceover, the comedic film emphasises Trivia Crack’s unique brand experience that ensures players acquire knowledge as they play - even if it makes them mad.

LBB’s Ben Conway caught up with the agency's CCOs - Ramiro Rodriguez Gamallo, Matías Lafalla and Joaquín Cubría - to discuss how this debut campaign for GUT and etermax’s partnership came about, and why contrast was the key to the film’s funny factor.

LBB> Is this your first work with etermax/Trivia Crack? What were some of your initial ideas when you received the brief?

GUT BA> This is our first project for etermax/Trivia Crack. It's a game we've known for a long time, and we all play it because it's very popular in Argentina. That's why I believe the insight of feeling anger when you lose - but at the same time [feeling] the desire to start a new game - was already growing inside us.

We kind of briefed ourselves. We were looking for an idea that users could identify with and that would also be fun. After all, it's a game. Maybe when you hear ‘educational game’, you don't quite imagine the thrill and emotions that the game can bring out in you. And with what we knew about Trivia Crack, we knew we could uphold that promise of entertainment.

LBB> It’s quite a brave idea to show how mad the product makes its users - did you have to convince the brand team to let you do that? Or is the frustration of trivia part of their brand identity?

GUT BA> No, frustration was not part of their identity. But when you have a smart client on the other side who is eager to do something different, everything becomes very easy. As I mentioned before, in the case of Trivia Crack, we were all players before working for the brand. Us and them. So the insight felt very real. The client saw the potential of the campaign very quickly. We didn't have to do anything to convince them, haha!

LBB> ‘You Don’t Lose, You Learn' is a great tagline - how did you settle on this as the right one?

GUT BA> It was the first line that came out. In fact, I don't remember if the line or the script came first. Many times I believe in that freshness. After it came out, we kept searching, we explored different avenues, but we always came back to it. There is a simplicity, a clarity and a very direct way of redefining defeat and giving value to the game, which was the winner from the start.

LBB> The voiceover on the spot is very funny and ironic - how was the process of writing that? Do you have some favourite lines or moments?

GUT BA> From my answers, it might seem like everything was super easy. But the truth is that in this case, the idea was so clear from the beginning that the team had fun working on the script. We built a mockup at the agency to test the script and present it to the client, and you could already tell it was good. We knew it worked by contrast. So we just had to find the most pompous and elegant words we could, to contrast with the angry reactions. The other fun part was gathering the data. Data that you know could easily make you lose a trivia game. You could say that we also learned while writing the script.

LBB> You got to shoot a lot of fun scenarios of public rage - what makes these so funny and relatable? 

GUT BA> Since it's a mobile game, we had the freedom to place the characters wherever we wanted, and that worked in our favour. Obviously, putting someone crying like a kid or screaming uncontrollably in front of others' eyes helped us amplify the humour even more. The limitations in locations were more budgetary than anything else… In Argentina, sometimes you have to be very creative in productions to stretch the budget. What we were clear about was that the situations had to be believable: a waiting room, a bus stop, etc.

LBB> Were you on set at all? If so, what was it like working with the director and Virgen Films team? Do you have any fun anecdotes or lessons learned from that experience

GUT BA> It was a lot of fun. Basically, it was about filming a lot of people going crazy in many frames. We started small and went bigger. The key was to have a lot of material for editing. This commercial was defined in the editing room. The hardest part was resetting the settings after each take, haha! Honestly, the work of the directors Luciano [Podcaminsky] and Hernán [Enriquez] was impeccable.

LBB> The classical music choice is a big part of the spot too - what went into that selection?

GUT BA> It's the same as I mentioned earlier about the script. The direction was very clear: contrast. So, from there, we made all the decisions. The classical music, the voice, the calmness, and the relish of the narrator. Everything. The deeper we went into building that sense of peace, the funnier the commercial became.

LBB> What was the hardest challenge you faced on this project, and how did you overcome it?

GUT BA> As creatives, we're used to our processes being chaotic and traumatic. In this case, to be honest, everything went surprisingly smoothly. It's a campaign where we really enjoyed both the process and the final result. We hope it's the first of many because we love the brand.