ARK + Aschehoug | Kongen av Os – Personalised commercial video
ARK + Aschehoug | Kongen av Os - Personlig reklamevideo
Produsert: Winter 2023/24
Oppgave:
Jo Nesbø is a truly unique storyteller with over 55 million books sold worldwide, and when he was to launch his new book, "Kongen av Os", ARK, in collaboration with publisher Aschehoug, wanted to do something new. The novel is the sequel to the hugely popular book "Kongeriket", published in 2020 and which has sold over 200,000 copies in all formats in Norway. The solution was a personalised video created in collaboration with technology company SEEN.
Løsning:
Sølvrev was quick to pitch the idea of inviting readers into the book's universe through a personalised video, which we believed would be a powerful tool for piquing viewers' curiosity. In the Kongeriket books, readers also encounter a main character with an intense, almost confiding tone of voice, which makes viewers feel they are on the inside of how the protagonist Roy thinks – almost rationalising his deeply erratic actions.
This was also something the team wanted to carry through into the voiceover for the commercial, maintaining an intense, almost threatening tone that plays on the main character knowing you as a reader. When you can also add name personalisations through the SEEN technology, you get a very engaging and personal result that amplifies this effect.
In terms of the visual expression, the team wanted to pick out certain main characters, key locations and events from the book to tease some of the themes and central conflicts readers encounter, without giving away the plot. Here we took inspiration from the typical intro sequences in crime series – the kind that take on extra meaning the further into the series you get, and where you realise the clues were there all along. We paired this with general cutaway shots of things that build tension, such as a petrol station where someone lights a cigarette, a police report and a blood sample. These clips are key to helping build the underlying feeling that something could go wrong at any moment. All of this was wrapped in the book's geographical universe – a kind of scandi-noir desolate landscape filled with fog, far from the beaten track. A place where anything can happen.
The production was set in Rjukan, where we created sweeping functionalist offices, Roy's own petrol station, and wrecked cars hoisted up from steep, winding roads. In many ways it felt a bit like making a trailer for the book, which was incredibly fun from a filmmaker's perspective.Kongeriket bøkene møter man også en hovedkarakter som har en intens og nesten betroende tone-of-voice, noe som gjør at seerne føler de kommer på innsiden av hvordan hovedpersonen Roy tenker, og nesten ender opp med å rasjonalisere de veldig sprø handlingene hans.
Dette var også noe teamet ønsket å spille videre på i voiceoveren til reklamen, ved å holde en intens, nesten truende tone, som spiller på at hovedpersonen kjenner deg som leser. Når man i tillegg kan legge inn personaliseringer på navn gjennom SEEN teknologien får man et veldig engasjerende og personlig resultat som forsterker denne effekten.
