How This Iconic Polish Brand Submerged Us in Four Vibrant AI Worlds
Polish FMCG brand Tymbark has been part of Poles’ lives ever since it first introduced the ‘fortune caps’ and became related to the iconic song ‘Everything tells me that someone has fallen in love with me’. Recorded in the ‘60s by the band Skaldowie, the track became an instant classic in Poland, and Tymbark kept creating a new cover of it each year, adopting it as the brand’s permanent sound.
Tymbark is a perfect example of a brand that you can’t avoid. Checking what the inside of the juice cap says has become a natural reflex to Poles before they try the refreshing drink, and some of these have even become collectibles.
This year, the brand collaborated with DDB Warsaw and four leading Polish artists to reiterate the song and build four unique AI worlds around it. Artists Monika Brodka, Igo Walaszek, Król, and Miuosh each got submerged in their four matching alternative realities, complementing the lyrics of the song as well as the aesthetics they’re best known for. Tymbark and DDB were aiming to collaborate with the voices of the next generation and keep the brand’s identity fresh, while still reminding audiences of their roots.
The video has now surpassed 17 million views on YouTube, and is still climbing in the Polish charts, combining a known and loved everyday brand and four fresh takes on an ever-green song for Poles.
LBB's Zoe Antonov spoke to DDB Warsaw's team to find out more about the first-for-the-country approach and what the four AI worlds created in the campaign meant.
LBB> What was the brief for this project and what was the ideation process behind it?
DDB Warsaw> The brief was to make a new cover of the song, ‘Everything tells me that someone has fallen in love with me’ (‘Wszystko mi mówi, że mnie ktoś pokochał’ in Polish) and make it engaging for the younger generations.
Releasing covers of the song is Tymbark’s brand tradition, so we wanted this year’s version to truly stand out and be as fresh as possible. We invited four of the most interesting representatives of the young generation of Polish artists - Monika Brodka, Igo Walaszek, Król, and Miuosh. Each of them has a different style and each is from a different world artisticall, allowing them all to interpret the song in their own, unique way. That’s why we wanted to create separate visual worlds for them as well. We asked ourselves: ‘How can we make those worlds even more personalised and what can make our spot truly up-to-date?’. That’s when we turned to AI. If the artists reinterpret the song musically, let’s use AI to create the visual interpretation.
LBB> The Tymbark brand song is at the core of the campaign - can you tell me a little bit more about it and who it is created by, as well as its meaning to the brand.
DDB Warsaw> The song was originally recorded in 1968 by the band Skaldowie, and was a huge hit in the ‘60s and ‘70s. It has also been very popular in Poland since.
Most Poles know the song, and Polish customers in general associate the song with the brand, because it has been used in Tymbark communication for years. It’s one of the distinctive brand assets. The song is about love, and how the whole world seems a better place when you are loved. The brand’s tagline is ‘Love life’, so it fits perfectly. Recently, Tymbark has been creating a new version of the song each year in cooperation with the most interesting Polish musicians.
LBB> What was Tymbark's creative involvement in the project like and have you worked with them before?
DDB Warsaw> This is our first cooperation with the brand, but DDB Warsaw has implemented projects together before. It was important to connect the music video to the brand in a fresh and creative way. The client liked the AI idea and we started to work. The Tymbark team was involved in the whole process, naturally, but when you work with AI, you can never be 100% sure of the result. It’s impossible to control each step, because if you like something, you need to take it as it is or leave it, because there's almost a 0% chance it will generate a similar result. This was a very peculiar process, in which the client, the agency, the director and production studio needed to fully trust each other.
LBB> Why was it important to involve AI in this repositioning of the brand?
DDB Warsaw> AI in this campaign is our tool to bring the classic from the ‘60s to 2023. And the message here is: times change, and the measures of artistic expression change, but some things are timeless. Like the importance of love and what we feel when we are loved.
LBB> Tell me about the video itself - the creation of the worlds within it and their meaning, as well as their relation to the musicians.
DDB Warsaw> Four different words were created, like four elements and four approaches to love. Igo’s world is green and yellow, representing young love. Król’s world is blue, and symbolises the force of water and how our emotions - as with everything else - flow. The song lyrics ‘Water and fire tell me someone has loved me’, is also a reference to that. Brodka is an alternative musician, so her world is a little darker, but also represents warmth – the one from lyrics and the fire of passion. And Miuosh is a rapper, so his world is set in the city, at night. Orange and colourful elements represent summer love.
LBB> How did you combine animation and real life and overall what was the production process like?
DDB Warsaw> We filmed the scenes and then put them through AI algorithms, so they could re-interpret them. But, the original concept came from creative people and was based on people (artists).
The pre-production period proved to be particularly exciting and labour-intensive. We met with the artists to conduct a lot of AI tests. We learned about the opportunities we would have on the set, which would later translate into the final effect in post-production. This fascinating experience opened unlimited possibilities and inspiration for us. I love new challenges that push us to go beyond the usual ways, expand our horizons, and learn new skills.
The whole post-production process, conducted in cooperation with our trusted partner, took over two months. We used AI and NeRF technology, which are both time consuming.
LBB> What was the biggest challenge in the creation of the campaign, and what was the most fun part?
DDB Warsaw> The whole campaign was a great adventure - no one in the Polish industry has done something like this before. And certainly not as branded content! Shooting those scenes and then watching the post production effects was extremely fun. But that was also the biggest challenge - we were learning the process during the production, so there were not many best practices we could follow.
LBB> Tymbark is an incredibly famous brand for Poland and part of everybody's childhood - was there a lot of pressure when working with them and applying this new lens on the brand?
DDB Warsaw> Tymbark is indeed a huge brand in Poland – and a loved one as well. Working for such a client always generates pressure. Especially when you want to go off the regular path. But here, our and client’s goals were the same: to do something spectacular and groundbreaking, that no one else has done before on our market.
LBB> Tell me about the cap motif in the video, its relation to the brand and importance for the Polish community.
DDB Warsaw> The video clip features the cap motif several times. The Tymbark cap is a Polish cultural phenomenon. Checking the cap after opening a drink in search of a funny or inspiring quote or question is to Poles what reading a fortune cookie is to other nations.
Texts from under the cap entertain, keep spirits up, sometimes turn out to be a good omen, and are used to express feelings. Fans of the brand have entire collections of them. In this campaign, however, the cap is much more than that - it became a kind of portal to the present day, taking users scanning it to the web application where a video clip and exclusive video content await.
LBB> How have audiences reacted so far?
DDB Warsaw> When you make a cover of such a classic, you have to be aware that not everybody will like it - especially if you want to do it so differently. And we did not one, but four separate versions, combined in one branded video.
Regardless, we got a lot of positive feedback, especially in terms of the stunning visual effects. Many viewers appreciated the fact that one song can be interpreted in so many ways. And that was our goal. As of now, the music video has 17 million views on YouTube. The same interest is aroused by the making of, which shows the process of implementation and cooperation with AI.
LBB> Any final thoughts?
DDB Warsaw> This year’s campaign proved that – quoting the awarded Adidas campaign from a few years ago – ‘the original is never finished’. We are very curious for the future interpretations of the song. 2023 is the year of AI – so using AI in this year’s video was a great choice, but what will the future videos look like? And what would future campaigns be about? We’d love to take on that challenge.
