It’s the beginning of 2008 and Microsoft, a forward thinking company, sets its new recruitment video ad in the year 3045, where a researcher takes viewers on a mind quest to explore technology the company is developing that new employees will work on, including a mind house that has a mind bed where you can take a nap. “It’s still in beta,” the researcher says. Graphic images of the house with the bed inside it spin around in a whirlwind that suggests films from yesteryear, at the start of the computer age.
“We created a viral video that takes inspiration from the space cult recruiting videos from the ’80s,” said Brad Abrahams, creative director at Digital Kitchen/Seattle, which produced MindQuest, the viral film that was created by Wexley School for Girls/Seattle. “The goal was to create an awkward dated aesthetic of bad design.” A chrome man, a giant hourglass, a soaring eagle and dancing cubes, spheres and cones are among the elements of bad design that “harken back to the first days of computer graphics,” Abrahams said. “It’s the year 3045 and they’re using 3D graphics from 1988.”
How can a badly designed futuristic film be a successful video ad? “We’re targeting the core tech kids who are super smart, they’re already living in the future and it’s a great idea to contact them there and have fun with it,” said Ian Cohen, who owns Wexley School for Girls and was the creative director and writer on the job. “We’re not trying to be high tech. It’s a low-tech approach that conveys a fun message and shows a lighter side of Microsoft they haven’t seen.”
The video, which runs one minute thirty-two seconds, combines live action with animation. A Sony HDR-FX1 camera was used to shoot the researcher. “HD cameras integrate well with the graphic imagery that make up most of the film,” Abrahams said. “It’s a better source for film that is augmented for graphics.” The researcher stands in front of and is then incorporated into a whirlwind of animated 3D images, which were created with Softimage XSI. The animation was composited and post processed in After Effects.
The video stars Arnold Kay as the researcher, a public works inspector from Lynwood, WA who had never acted before. An inexperienced actor’s words lack conviction, which is perfect for the film, because the computer work he’s talking about doesn’t really exist. “It’s not to be taken seriously at all,” Cohen said.
The soundtrack, which features computer sounding bleeps behind the voice of the researcher, was composed by Danny Wolfers, a Dutch electro musician.
The film began playing in the lounge area of www.hey-genius.com on Jan 6. It’s a website Microsoft launched at the beginning of the school year that Cohen calls Microsoft’s first entertainment-oriented recruiting site. The site features games, tech challenges and a variety of videos, including Tech Talks that feature Microsoft executives. MindQuest also plays at YouTube and has been virally seeded at sites including Collegehumor.com and tech blogs, Cohen said.
The website is the backbone of a campaign that includes guerilla marketing efforts such as sandwich boards at college campuses and what Cohen calls “jobcuzis,” in which an actor holds mock interviews in a hot tub on college campuses. The only other advertising besides MindQuest is ads in college newspapers that pinpoint individual students Microsoft wants to recruit.
It’s a very targeted campaign that Cohen believes has been successful so far. “We get lots of email and you see the blog stream about it,” he said. “We want to see kids forwarding it on Facebook and we’re watching the reactions to the movie when we put it out there.”
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