How do you decide your parking spot?
The brief
With the purchase of a new car, you gain new worries. If you parked too close to the dreaded shopping-cart corral. If you forgot where you set down the key fob. And if something will go wrong as soon as the car’s manufacturer's warranty expires.
We personified this worry with Whitney, the worry puppet. To ease her worries, enter our new characters Ding, Fob, and Rev, Progressive’s Vehicle Protection puppet crew.
For this OLV campaign, Ninety6 led every step of the way, from the puppet design to the final edit.
The Engine's Time
If your car is going to break down, it’s going to be right after the car’s manufacturer's warranty expires, right? We wanted to show this worry in the first spot for this campaign. Whitney is convinced she can stop the car from reaching the ominous 36,000 miles. But when after it does the check engine light immediately goes off, so does Whitney. But no worries: Progressive Vehicle Protection has got her covered. Ding, Fob, and Rev come to the rescue to calm Whitney down and help with her car troubles.
An Inconvenient Dent
New cars are a magnet for shopping carts, so we try to park far away from their corrals. We highlight this common worry in this spot. We also show a little more of our puppets' personalities as Ding, Fob, and Rev help Whitney ease her worries and learn about Progressive Vehicle Protection.
Designing a puppet
Sketches
So, how do you go about making puppets? Well, we asked ourselves that when the idea was greenlit. We started with sketching a variety of options. When we decided on the puppet designs, we then provided detailed renders to the puppet construction experts.
Construction
Over seven weeks, we worked with the puppet creators. They had to not only match our vision but also create mechanisms for the movements we wanted, like Whitney hyperventilating. The puppet creators started with a clay sculpture to get the proportions correct. Then they went through multiple fabrics and outfits so we could get the perfect color and texture. When all the decisions were made, the actual building of the puppets went swiftly. From the foam construction created, the fur sewn on, the facial features made, and the outfits put together, the experts worked magic. Our puppets were born and ready for the (digital) big screen!
