April Fools for Vuly Trampoline
In partnership with Vuly Play, our creative team had a lot of fun pulling together this video for the fictional Vuly Volt.
The brief
Vuly Play wanted to have fun with their audience by making a real ad for a fake product for April Fools Day. The brand already had a track record with a previous prank video for “Vuly Air” and wanted to replicate this for 2024. The key was to make the video believable enough for some audience members to be tricked, while being entertaining even after the truth was revealed.
Vuly also needed assets to build out a product web page including images of proto-type equipment, product stills and a teaser trailer give the idea credibility.
Our approach
Pre-Production
Our first step was to brainstorm ideas to present to Vuly. We presented three ideas and the idea of the Voly Volt - an attachment for your trampoline that converts the energy of bouncing children into real electricity to power household appliances - won out. With some clever science speak and the comparison between electromagnetic coils and trampoline springs - the conceit felt real enough to work as an April Fools Day prank.
Once the concept was decided we had three key creative tasks ahead of us:
1) Design and build the Vuly Volt - we needed to balance the budget with building a realistic and sleek-looking piece of equipment - it couldn’t look home made!
2) Script - Write a short script that believably sells the concept, but with some humour thrown in to give it longevity without giving the game away
3) Casting - in this case, we had our Vuly Volt spokesperson, someone who had to be able to come across as a convincing person of science, and be able to deliver the dry, subtle humour without giving the game away. We also had some smaller roles (literally) for our bouncing children.
As is always the case, we met with the team at Vuly at each step providing them with multiple opportunities to work with us on tweaking the script, and provide feedback on the look of the Vuly Volt design as well as having a say in casting.
Once scripts, casting and design were all completed, we prepared for the shoot - there were a lot of shots to get through in just one day of shooting.
Production
We opted to film on location in our Brunswick studio. The LED walls on site allowed us to create a high-end, technical look juxtaposing the fun of jumping on a trampoline with the seriousness associated with tech start-up videos.
We were able to quickly change scenes to capture highly stylised shots of the Vuly Volt, talking heads with our scientist and slow motion shots of our kids generating energy on the trampoline fuelled by red cordial.
A still of our Vuly Volt made of plywood, black paint and some clever lighting.
Post Production
There was a tight turnaround and a very concrete deadline from shooting to launch so we worked efficiently by creating the animated sequences in the video before production even began.
When it came to post-production we were able to insert these pre-approved animated sequences into our live-action scenes and pull together a first draft very quickly.
As well as a longer hero video we also put together a teaser and cut down versions to go out on social media and Vuly’s website in the lead-up to April 1st.
We also provided several stills, 3D renders and behind-the-scenes footage to Vuly for use in the campaign.
Our services
With a tight budget, tight turnaround and high-concept idea we utilised two of our secret weapons:
Access to a highly talented script writer Andy Matthews, who had already worked with the Vuly brand (and who plays a great scientist)
Our state-of-the-art video studio and LED wall, which allowed us to quickly change our set backdrops to allow shooting in just one day
Key video production services include:
Concepts and scripting
Casting
Art direction including set build and design
Studio hire
Video production
Stills photography
Behind-the-scenes footage
Animation and motion graphics
Post-production and finishing
Social media videos
What was the outcome? Did it go well?
Yes!
The final product included
1 x 2.5 minute April fools video
Photo stills
Diagrams for website
Social media clips
The main video currently has 42 thousand views on YouTube and the client was thrilled with the outcome.
"Andy, Emma & the entire team were super friendly and accommodating with all our requests. We reached out to the team regarding an April Fool's video for Vuly and they helped us in every step from ideation to filming to post-production. The video produced was exceptional and we are certain we'll be working with Humdinger again in the near future." Akash Dharmarajan, Marketing Coordinator, Vuly Play