Creature of Habit

Did you ever give any thought to the fact you never switched banks in your entire life? You are not alone, as the ‘Creature of Habit’ can be an example for all of us. ASN Bank changes up the financial world with their new campaign and demonstrates in a playful way how money can actually make you happy.

A true guiding idea and concept that builds very strongly on all brand parameters of ASN Bank. It is highly recognisable, consistent and own-able for ASN Bank because of its disruptive way of visual story-telling. This forest is big, and there are many more stories to tell which ASN Bank has committed to doing.

This film was launched few days before the ADCN deadline, so the final outcome is not yet measurable. But in 5 days, the film has been watched over 6 000 times on our own Vimeo account, has been viewed 32 000 times on our Facebook, has over 300 likes, 30 shares and 20 comments. So far, the national and international reactions are very positive.

From the start it was important for us to create a world for this story that felt real, honest and tactile. This would fit the brand and the message. This is why we created a real miniature forest and characters that are made of fabric and tactile materials, we combined different CG animation techniques to bring the characters to life. The character designs where kept simple and archetypal, the Badger is made out of pinstriped suit fabric like a true banker, the Creature of Habit is stuck in his ways and jumps through the film in his favourite knitted sweater. During the production we brought everything together, from CG animation, miniature backgrounds, painted backgrounds to visual effects and the result is a perfect combination of different animation and film techniques all tailored to tell the brand story of ASN Bank.

“We were looking for a new fresh breeze in an advertising category that is normally cluttered with interchangeable brand manifesto’s and client central theatre plays”, explains Diederick Hillenius, Creative Director at Selmore. “We are very grateful for the trust the client had in us for going with such an unorthodox approach. Because ASN Bank is very focused on sustainability, it was very important for us to translate that passion into the film.”

The financial world is all too often represented in a cliché image, so enough reason for ASN Bank to change it up to a more contemporary one. The story of the Creature of Habit is honest and the voice over takes you back to those dreamy bed time stories.

“From the beginning on I was sold on the narrative idea of animals living in the forest”. “For us it was an obvious choice to not create the forest in 3D, but to make it a reference to the real life ‘Forest of Ideals’ planted by the ASN Bank customers. So we built a miniature forest we could use to film.”

Vincent Lammers

Head of Design & Animation and Director at Ambassadors

A combination of light, dark and colour

Koert van de Ploeg, Colourist at Ambassadors describes it as ‘an ordinary looking forest where nothing is what it seems to be’. “Together with Vincent Lammers I worked on keeping a certain realism within a fictive world. By thickening the canopy within the forest we emphasise the darkness surrounding the Money Badger, but at the same time adding light streaks and spots to sympathise with the Creature of Habit.

Together with the whole team we came to a unique balance between light, dark and colour while retaining a realistic concept.”

The tangibility of the characters is emphasised by their realistic fabric furs, which accentuates their primary characteristics. “The Creature of Habit wears a woollen sweater, where the Money Badger wear a tie and is made of a striped flannel suit fabric” explains Lammers.

The melody of the Celeste

This contradiction is also very audible in the music which makes a combination between a playful and a serious tone. “The music needed a severe sound that has a lively translation on screen”, explain Sebastiaan Roestenburg, Founding Partner and Composer at Ambassadors. “So I started looking for sounds that triggers the imagination like the melody of the Celeste piano. It instantly takes you to a whimsical world.”

The music has to cover the whole campaign, not only this film, which is a more tricky aspect explains Roestenburg. “The challenge was composing music that could also work on all the future films and more importantly become a characteristic

ASN sound. A balance needed to be found between the lighthearted animation and the severity of the bank.”

The Ambassadors Sound en Animation teams closely worked together from the first outline. “I had no idea what the forest would look like, so I let the music completely speak to my imagination. Later on in the process we refined the music to the images and recorded it with several musicians”, clarifies Roestenburg.

That the film is created with an extensive eye for detail, is also very apparent in the animation. Don’t let the ladybug pass you by!

Jury Feedback

‘In every aspect the work was uncompromised. The most outstanding was the quality of the animation. The combination of set and texture design was excellent. The set created a human quality. Looking at the details is inspiring.’