VRV | Different All Together

Did you know it’s really complicated to advertise a new streaming service? Well, it is.

The work we did for VRV may be one of my favorite creative problem solves… ever.
Please bear with me while I take a moment to explain why.

VRV's the ultimate streaming spot for all things niche and nerdy. Anime, horror, sci-fi, comedy, gaming, K-dramas – you name it, it's there. It’s why we coined the tagline: DIFFERENT ALL TOGETHER.

But what makes VRV amazing makes creating ads for it really, really hard. 

Why? The content that lures people in can't mingle in ads. 
No fun crossovers or shared universes. 
Creating new characters risks being mistaken for a new show or even a game. 
Clip montages? Not huge igniters of brand love. 

But, like with anything in life, the best way to handle impossibly hard rules is to create fun ways to bend them as much as humanly possible.

So we had a think… the rules say different IP can’t interact. But they don’t say anything about IP appearing in the same scene.

Remember that childhood game where your sibling would get annoyingly close to you while taunting, “I’M NOT TOUCHING YOU!”
That’s pretty much the idea.

First, to make sure there was zero confusion about VRV being a streaming platform, we made our story’s heroes disembodied eyeballs. Of course.

And we sent these adorable little eyeballs on an adventure to “See Something Different” in the VRV universe, where all their favorite content lives together–totally legally.

They entered a world where we showed that VRV has tons of beloved anime by recreating a miniature Shibuya Crossing, complete with dazzling billboards airing different shows and movies.

”Wait a second. We’re showing different IP, all at once? Didn’t you just say that’s super illegal?” Yes we are and no it’s not.

See, we realized if we put different IP and content in clearly defined areas–say, like a billboard–it’s totally fine. Ergo, all of VRV’s sweet anime content splashed across tiny digital OOH ads that are completely and clearly separate from one another. But of course, VRV has to appeal to more than just anime fans.

So, to show VRV is also the place for all the best in horror, we filled an eyeball-sized haunted mansion with portraits playing horror flicks. Spooky.

Obviously, that means we’d beam VRV’s vast collection of sci-fi onto hi-tech screens in a futuristic–albeit it very small–space station.

We even sent our eyeballs careening into an enchanted realm where niche gaming shows flicker in magical torch fire.

…So what happened?

The client loved it. We loved it. We partnered with Gentleman Scholar to bring it to life. We were in the middle of production. Then VRV got bought by Warner and their marketing budget was slashed so hard that the powers that be decided it was better to totally halt the whole thing.

So now I share my pain (and this eye candy) with you.