Leading up to the premiere of the highly-anticipated sequel, How to Train Your Dragon 2, DreamWorks Animation approached AvatarLabs with the goal of incorporating the fun, action and humor of the upcoming film into a robust rich media campaign, creating experiences that families would want to interact with and share.
With this direction, AvatarLabs designed and built a campaign around large, video-based takeovers on major entertainment sites including MovieTickets.com, Moviefone.com and the Pandora home page. Tapping both well-loved and new characters from the film, the use of video and motion was instrumental. By layering these elements, we were able to bring a dimensional 3D effect to this campaign for the 3D movie.
Each takeover was designed as a unique experience while maintaining a consistent, light-hearted and most importantly, fun look and feel that immersed viewers in the world of Dragons by inviting them watch the trailer, learn more about the new dragons and dragon riders, visit the official site, purchase tickets, click to play games and more.
- MovieTickets.com Homepage Takeover - Within a seamless custom takeover, an intro video featured dragons flying towards the viewer. Layered elements within the unit made this feel like a 3D experience. The trailer resolved into a takeover that made MovieTickets feel like a Dragons microsite. The playful call to action "Launch the Sheep" allowed fans to launch a sheep right into the main ad unit!
- Moviefone.com Homepage Takeover - Between the custom character skin and the rich media ad, the overall effect, again, was Moviefone as a How to Train Your Dragon 2 microsite. Once fans opened the rich media ad, promoted by the "Launch the Sheep" call to action, a sheep was launched into the middle of the ad, kicking off the experience in a playful way. Navigating between sections of the rich media ad launched video of different characters. Video the characters were placed in front of the navigation items, again making this feel like a 3D experience. Within the ad unit fans could explore all the new dragons and dragon riders, click to play games, watch video and click to buy tickets.
- Pandora Homepage Takeover - This unique takeover began with a sleeping dragon layered in front of Pandora's homepage content. When the dragon was nudged awake by a Viking, a sudden breath of fire ignited the page content. The dragon and Viking then shared a chuckle about the now-charred page.
Following the June 2014 premiere, How to Train Your Dragon 2 has become the highest-grossing animated film of 2014, earning $618M worldwide and surpassing the earnings of the first film in the trilogy.