A New-Generation Bunny for Duracell
Brief
The Duracell Bunny is an iconic character in the advertising industry. Since 2012, The Mill/Mikros MPC has been the guardian of its visual identity, ensuring consistency and integrity across all media worldwide. In 2020, Duracell and Wunderman Thompson turned to The Mill/Mikros MPC to direct its new 'Optimum' range battery with a new 'Bunny TV Address' commercial – its first in full CG with a new-generation mascot.
Approach
Building upon eight years of collaboration with Duracell and multiple campaigns delivering the brand’s mascot in more than 40 countries, our team was involved from the earliest stages of ‘Bunny TV Address’. The Mill/MPC team provided a full range of services from pre-production, direction, and production – up to final delivery of the main 30-second film and nine shorter versions.
Impact
The launch is the subject of a massive campaign across TV, digital and point of sale. For the new film, we built on this extensive work to bring a higher level of acting ability to Bunny – developing more subtle expressions and making Bunny look less theatrical. Cheekier than before, with more energy than ever, Bunny becomes a great communicator in ‘Bunny TV Address’ to household appliances and their owners.
Client
Duracell
Agency
The Mill/Mikros MPC
Director
Shaun Severi, The Mill/Mikros MPC
“A full CG movie requires a lot of interactions between the director, CG artists and the production teams. As the project was mostly completed under quarantine, we adapted our way of working with regular video conferences. Being part of the Mikros MPC team aided my direction, as I knew all the processes; how to get the best results from the artists; what was creatively possible or not; what shots were needed or useful or not. And of course, I was available for the teams and the clients anytime. In the end, I believe we were 10 times more effective.”
As the character evolved to its current 3.0 version, our teams refined its features, movements and emotions. Technical and artistic limitations were overcome by developing a highly detailed rig, and our lead animator Augustin Paliard built a complete library of assets based on previous films and the latest evolutions of the character. This library brings together all poses, facial expressions and mouth shapes (including distinct phonemes or units of sound for different languages) and ensures standardization of the brand’s creative intentions, with no less than 50 expressions approved by Duracell and available for Bunny.
In addition to Bunny, we created the sets in full CG – with four different environments required for this campaign: a shop, a living room, a garage and a city. Our teams researched and built all assets, adapted to each environment, and introduced them to the client at the previz stage, giving them approval on every aspect.