{"id":52957,"date":"2025-08-08T13:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/52957\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T13:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:17:11","slug":"words-animate-worlds-in-bring-a-book-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/52957\/","title":{"rendered":"Words Animate Worlds in \u2018Bring a Book to Life\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In \u2018Bring a Book to Life\u2019, the latest campaign from Droga5 London, part of Accenture Song, for Amazon Books, we\u2019re taken on a visual adventure that every reader engages in as they make their way through thrillers, romances, and historic adventures. It\u2019s an evolution of Droga 5\u2019s first campaign, \u2018That Reading Feeling Awaits\u2019<\/a>, which \u201chelped raise reading intent, and increased our effectiveness through the funnel,\u201d says Larry Seftel, group creative director. Building on that foundation was an aim for the agency and the brand, with the Droga5 team focused on \u201cwhat the reading feeling actually was, and what made reading so unique compared to other media we can consume,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is that invisible magic?,\u201d the team asked about the specificity of reading, and the internal discussions \u201chomed in on the idea of readers being the co-creators of these stories since books are nothing without their readers,\u201d Larry explains.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The idea is explored visually in a hero film directed by Revolver\u2019s Steve Rogers, where a reader finds themselves amid a book\u2019s action, be that on the battlefield or in a car chase as the act of reading literally creates and propels the narrative around them. Until, that is, they pause or are interrupted and the story stalls, ready to be reanimated when the book is opened once more. Accompanying the campaign are six OOH posters with unique designs, and a humorous set of radio ads featuring the voice of Jonathan Hyde.<\/p>\n

When looking for the right director for a film with such epic ambitions, the team wanted someone with exceptional attention to detail and Steve Rogers more than fit the bill. \u201cSteve is probably best known for his comedy work,\u201d Larry notes, \u201cbut the worlds he builds in his films are always rich, meticulous, and totally convincing. The performances he extracts from his actors are also always subtle and surprising. And he is very much a reader. The alchemy was perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018That Reading Feeling\u2019 had a sharp focus \u201con the richness of the worlds you create when imagination meets the words of a book\u201d and running that campaign for two years \u201cwas incredibly effective in reminding people of the uniqueness of reading over other forms of media, but to evolve this campaign we wanted to focus on the key motivator to read: that you are responsible for bringing the world to life around you, and that feeling itself being a far more thrilling entertainment experience,\u201d says Larry.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The insight \u2013 that books need readers \u2013 came from a somewhat surprising yet highly contemporary place. \u201cIt kind of came from the idea, very loosely, of brain rot<\/a>,\u201d Larry reports. \u201cPeople do a tonne of stuff which is passive. We just sit back and absorb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reading in this instance was the antithesis of brain rot activity. \u201cWith reading, we actively participate in creating the worlds we enjoy. The relationship between the written word and the reader is unique in the arts. That led to the question, when you\u2019re not reading, what are book characters doing? Nothing. They\u2019re just paused, asleep, waiting for you to bring them to life,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The team worked closely with Amazon to look at the most popular genres of books and \u201cthen made sure we had a balance in terms of filmmaking. Loud scenes, quiet scenes, action, love, intrigue, horror,\u201d says Larry, adding \u201cparticularly, we knew the first and last scene had to be explosive, so we went through a lot of war-type genres, settling on feudal Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representing different genres on screen with accuracy, style, and imagination was a priority for the team and Steve as \u201cwe were very conscious that we were trying to show the feeling of reading a book in a totally different medium,\u201d Larry says. Working closely with Steve, they looked for filmic techniques \u201cthat leant themselves to books over cinematic ones. Steve\u2019s idea was to build each scene with details, mimicking the feeling of reading, and not to rely on the more filmic wide shots to tell the story. Hence a painstaking focus on art department, scene detail and costume. And locking of the frame to let the scenes play out, as they do when you bring a book to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The OOH transformed literary genres\u2019 most visual elements into singularly eye-catching designs by focusing on one genre at a time. \u201cIt felt right to give each execution its own personality and expression,\u201d says Larry. Rather than go for a unified aesthetic across every design, the team wanted to highlight differences. They turned to six illustrators \u2013 Luis Mazon, Wei Wu, Sam Lyon, Chrome & Lightning, Jake Cormack, and Jordan Speer \u2013 each working with a different genre and different briefs, to create six unique posters. \u201cUsing illustration allowed us to capture the feeling of reading as well as imply the unique imaginative world created by each reader,\u201d Larry explains.<\/p>\n

The campaign was rounded off with a radio ad though the team \u201coriginally didn\u2019t think the idea would work on radio with it being so visual,\u201d says Larry. In fact, it wasn\u2019t even part of the original strategy. \u201cBut it was a really interesting challenge. Radio often works best as comedy, and there was something funny about a character just waiting for you as you go about your day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team cast Jonathan Hyde to be the VO artist. \u201c[He] is among the best actors in England, and his voice has a storyteller quality that\u2019s both serious and ironic,\u201d says Larry of the decision. The radio ads feature a samurai with a blood feud, a sexy vampire prince, and mouldy submarine crew. All wait patiently to come to life as soon as readers are done with their menial, everyday tasks.<\/p>\n

Larry says that the \u201cconstraint of showing the uniqueness of reading in the environments of other media\u201d was a real challenge for the team. \u201cHow can you show the fullness of imagination in traditional film, or design?\u201d he asks. Yet this core tension was \u201can ambition that shaped the entire campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Larry, a highlight of working on this campaign was seeing such a wide range of talent come together to translate the act of reading into other mediums, and make the core creative idea a well-crafted, inspirational reality. \u201cQuite often you work with one or two people to create the final pieces, but here you could really feel the different takes and skills from director, to VO artists to illustrators and animators, each putting a bit of themselves into the campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In \u2018Bring a Book to Life\u2019, the latest campaign from Droga5 London, part of Accenture Song, for Amazon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,44240,134,44239],"class_list":{"0":"post-52957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-droga5-london","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-words-animate-worlds-in-bring-a-book-to-life"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}