Where we’re going, we don’t need lines…
T his was, hands down, the most fun I’ve had on any project! It’s a blessing to land a client who wants to use their video to stand out from their competition, grab people’s attention and be fun to watch. With most projects, there’s some limitations put on creativity. Sometimes it’s because of branding or subject matter and sometimes it’s the fear of committing to a style that isn’t the norm, but for the vast majority of our projects, we have to put a leash on our imagination. Not so with Ubamarket.
I usually pitch something that I think to be a tiny bit crazier than a client will say yes to. So, with this project, I put forward little blobby cartoon characters, figuring that they might say no but then agree to a cartoon style for human shoppers. The immediate answer from Will Broome (Ubamarket CEO) was ”I love this!!! Realistic people in explainer vids has been done to death so, personally, I much prefer this approach.“. So far, so good.
Although I was wary to push too far, I pitched a few gimmicks during the storyboarding process. One was an Iron Man style HUD sequence, a Thor-esque raising of the phone with lightning strikes and a bunch of Back to the Future parodies. Again, the client showed no fear and quite firmly approved each pitch.
My 7 year old son helped with the Back to the Future inspired scenes. I’d started off with the idea of the trolley speeding through time and he added in the ending with the trolley flying at the screen. At first we thought it could be a standalone social video using the style and characters but the client liked it so much that they asked for it to be in the video.
”BLOODY HELL! That’s INCREDIBLE!!!!! Totally LOVE IT LEE!!
Will BroomeCEO - Ubamarket
The stress and uncertainty of COVID-19 means that a lot of us are in need of some relief. Sometimes that relief comes through family, hobbies or food (baking mostly!) though, some of us are too busy working from home to stop and relax (or stuck on Zoom!). A big selling point with Ubamarket is that they give you the best bits of online shopping along with the best bits of shopping in-store, or as the video puts it ‘a best of both experience’. Oddly enough, that’s what I ended up getting out of this project, ‘a best of both experience’. I got to carry on working for a client but it felt like a personal project. These two things are generally very separate, but when you’re granted complete freedom from a fun client, it’s really hard to call it ‘work‘.
This project was exactly what I needed.
What is Ubamarket?
Ubamarket provides retailers with their own white label ‘scan and go’ in-store app. A high-tech, low-cost solution that’s simple to implement and revolutionises the shopping experience.
Ubamarket was created by Will Broome following a particularly frustrating trip to the supermarket, way back in 2012.
He refused to accept that the retail world couldn’t be dramatically improved and set about developing a new in-store experience, crucially from the customers’ perspective. Ubamarket uses unique and inventive technology to produce a quicker, easier and more personalised shopping experience, whilst simultaneously helping stores to attract more customers, reduce overheads and increase basket sizes.
Since his epiphany in Aisle Nine, Will has gathered together a team of the finest system architects, designers, developers, POS specialists and retailers to create an app that’s as simple for stores to implement as it is for customers to use. Welcome to the Retail Revolution.
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