Hik+
Date
2017
Category
Creative Direction, Emerging TechnologiesPROJECT: DIAGEO, MEXICO
ROLE: Art Commission
Diageo wanted to boost brand awareness for its whisky brand, Johnnie Walker, in Mexico ahead of its Christmas marketing push. Instead of focusing on traditional advertising, Diageo partnered with Virtue, Vice’s creative agency, and gave Satore complete creative freedom to develop an immersive project on a grand scale.
Tasked with celebrating Mexican culture and history and bringing Johnnie Walker’s ‘Keep Walking’ tagline to life, Satore developed Hik+ – a visual poem blending digital art, innovative projection technology, and real-time social media interaction. Satore employed numerous cutting-edge technologies – such as Cinema 4D, Coding, Notch, Maya, Houdini and After Effects – to bring the project to life.
Hik+ was first presented live at the beginning of Visual Art Week, projected onto Mexico City’s most enormous‘ canvas’ measuring 100×40 metres – the Torre Reforma skyscraper. The installation ran for the event’s full five days and could be seen across the city.
Mexico City was at the time recovering from one of the worst earthquakes in its history, and HIK+ was equally a love letter to the city and all of the people that live there. Accompanied by two poems, the digital/animation piece centred around a character stuck in a maze. The film follows his journey through the obstacle-filled labyrinth, where he never gives up despite being presented with challenge after challenge.
The project ran concurrently with Diageo’s winter campaign for Johnnie Walker, significantly bolstered by the social interaction. The integration of live social media updates from the project created a virtuous cycle that increased clicks, shares and impressions. In total, 120,000 people engaged with Diageo’s winter campaign generating 63 million brand impacts.