This summer, Honda is celebrating an unprecedented year of product launches with Ignition, an out-of-this-world brand campaign. During 2015 every model within Honda’s automobile line-up is new or refreshed, including the new HR-V and the hotly anticipated Civic Type R. This year has also seen the HondaJet make its first commercial flight and Honda’s return to Formula 1.
No other company has the heritage of engineering across as many categories as Honda: automobiles, motorcycles, robotics, power equipment, aviation and racing. The mission of Ignition’s launch film is to dramatise Honda’s daring ambition, capturing the brand’s philosophy with the inspiring campaign line: “Dare to do the things others only dream of.”
Inspired by Honda’s daring spirit, the film pays homage to one of the boldest expressions of human curiosity and engineering endeavours; space flight.
Space travel-inspired iconography and cinematic details aim to capture viewers’ imaginations, from atmospheric photography to the same climatic classical music that was etched into the Voyager 1 probe’s golden record and sent to the outer fringes of the solar system.
Opening on Honda’s humanoid robot, ASIMO, the camera reveals a line-up of Honda products arranged on an impressive runway. The sky and sun are reflected in the road surface and the water below. Viewed from above, the formation mimics the familiar shape of a space shuttle or rocket.
Honda’s heritage is woven throughout the film. For example, the new NSX’s driver is captured, with a picture of an original 1991 NSX held in his hand. Eagle eyed viewers will also spot a very special cameo from McLaren-Honda driver, Jenson Button and the voice of the late, great Ayrton Senna.
The campaign will be a unified, through-the-line Pan-European launch, as per the recent award-winning ‘The Other Side’ campaign. Trailers will tease the film on social media channels and the Honda website one week before launch. The full-length film will premiere across Europe on 14th August.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DN0IRoMf4k
Ignition was shot on location on the Podilsko-Voskresenskyi bridge in Ukraine by Aoife McArdle through Somesuch. Local production was supplied by Radioaktive. The film’s epic cinematic look was enhanced through SFX and post production by The Mill, and sound design was crafted by Factory. The film’s score was designed by science fiction film composer Walter Mair through SIREN, and features segments from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and Mozart’s Queen of the Night Aria; 2 tracks that feature on the Golden Record that Voyager took into outer space in 1977.
Scott Dungate, Creative Director Wieden + Kennedy:
‘Honda is a company that was founded on a challenging spirit. Racing was where it started, and it’s great to see this spirit return so strong in 2015, with such an impressive and diverse fleet. We wanted to create a film that dramatised Honda’s daring ambition across the range. Representing the fleet as a rocket at lift off, felt like it captured the anticipation, the daring and the human endeavour perfectly, in both an iconic and emotive way.’
Aoife McArdle at Somesuch:
‘We wanted to inject that spirit of daring and human endeavour into as many aspects of the film as possible – in the energy of the action, the portrayal of the fleet, and in the casting. Inventive camera techniques allowed us to represent movement and the sensation of being in a rocket within any grounded Honda vehicle. Taking inspiration from classic science fiction, this film was an exciting opportunity to be playful with visual perspective, gravity and atmosphere.’
