New York-based Conceptual Design, Animation and VFX studio SUSPECT added to its impressive string of work with a spot reintroducing Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash. Led by Co-Founder/Creative Director Tim Crean and Creative Director Hoon Chong, the SUSPECT team created a dynamic animated world to bring the popular soda back as the de facto party drink for this holiday season.

“This Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash spot was an incredible challenge and opportunity for us,” noted Crean. “Renewing interest in a seasonal product is always tricky because consumers haven’t thought about it in awhile. Luckily we were able to collaborate with the expert team at TracyLocke to come up with something creative and memorable.”

The spot begins with a muted party atmosphere animated by a shifting gray silhouette of partygoers calmly mingling behind a carton of eggnog. The muted backdrop and subdued crowd create an ideal contrast to the excitable cranberries that appear in a vivid red armada to push aside and displace the status quo party drink.

A stunning graphical transformation ensues as the eggnog carton falls to the ground and the party morphs into a cranberry-colored world of pumped-up dancers gyrating beneath a shiny disco ball and rising carbonate bubbles. Bottles of Sierra Mist occupy the epicenter of the regenerated party, delivering a clear message: move over eggnog, there’s a new party drink this season.

“Any time you’re working with a brand as widely known as Sierra Mist, you have to get every detail perfect, and our team was able to create an incredible visual universe to perfectly capture the mood of this holiday drink,” noted Chong. “Most impressive, however, is how our studio put a laser focus on this project to turn it around under such a tight deadline.”

SUSPECT created this animated sequence out of nothing more than a print ad, which the agency asked them to transform into a story. The studio has been aggressively recruiting new talent in order to establish themselves as a go-to studio for innovative graphical projects, and they saw the Sierra Mist spot as a terrific challenge to test out their newly assembled team.

“We saw this spot as an opportunity to create a real showcase for what SUSPECT can do,” said Executive Producer Rob Appelblatt. “We’ve spent the last several months adding some incredible new talent to our team, and this recent effort further solidifies that we’re evolving into a truly dynamic company capable of delivering every component of a project.”

The Creds:
Client: PepsiCo.
Spot Title: Sierra Mist Cranberry New Tradition
Airdate: November 2008

Agency: TracyLocke
Creative Director: Sanford Stein
Associate Creative Director(s): Tara White, Frank Izzo
Director of Broadcast Production: Monica Victor
Senior Broadcast Producer: Jean Kelly
Associate Broadcast Producer: Kiri Carch
Group Account Director: Stephen Miller
Account Supervisor: James Ryan
Assistant Account Executive: Sandy Ramos

Design/Production/Post: SUSPECT
Director: SUSPECT
Creative Director(s): Hoon Chong, Tim Crean
VFX Supervisor: Keith McCabe
Executive Producer: Robert Appelblatt
Producer: Stefanie Bassett
3D/2D Animator/Compositor: Jean Marco Ruesta
Lead 3D Animator: Steve Burger
3D Character Animator: Carlos Sandoval
3D Animator: Andrew Cohen
3D Lighting: David Bernkopf
Animator: Frank Lee
Talent: Candice Jean-Jacques, Isaac Teel

Audio House: Audio Engine
Enginee: Tom Goldblatt
Enginee Assistant: David Wolfe

About SUSPECT:
NY-based Conceptual Design, Animation and Visual Effects studio, SUSPECT was co-founded in 2003 by CD/VFX Artist Tim Crean and Executive Producer Rob Appelblatt, and is a collective of designers, animators, 3D and VFX artists. SUSPECT has recently worked on major campaigns for PUMA, Fathead, Eucerin, Reebok, FedEx, MTV, L’Oreal, AT&T, Motorola, Miller Lite, Samsung, Visa, Sierra Mist and Christina Aguilera Fragrances. The studio has collaborated with leading agencies, including BBDO, Wieden+Kennedy, Y&R, McCann-Erickson, mcgarrybowen and SelectNY.sensibilities across a variety of mediums including: print, broadcast, TV, commercials, short films, music videos and interactive content.