At the end of 2012, with the season’s greetings approaching, the construction equipment rental company Salti was looking for an innovative idea to leave its mark with an original greeting card. Arnaud Debersée got in touch with 3TOON to request a proposal that could fulfil that mission.
He looks back on this operation, which consisted in producing a personalizable 3D e-card (see the dedicated page) in which construction machines are treated in the manner of the cars in Pixar’s Cars. The objective: to surprise and amuse an audience made up of their clients, their suppliers and their employees alike.
A few weeks after the greetings campaign, Arnaud Debersée kindly granted us an interview in which he details his vision of the project and the results of this viral marketing operation — which would get a sequel for the 2014 greetings…
Transcript of the interview with Arnaud Debersée
“ Every year, we try to have a greeting card that is out of the ordinary. We wanted to move on from the paper greeting card, which was starting to look a bit “has-been”, and we really wanted a greeting card that fitted the client perfectly. And that “personalisation” angle we had found at 3TOON was a really interesting concept! ”
When did you contact the 3TOON studio?
Arnaud Debersée: I discovered 3TOON in 2008… through a greeting card I had received from OneDirect. It was a Flash-format card, entirely personalizable. The card landed on the client’s desk with their name, first name, address, and the sales rep’s little message addressed to me. I found that “personalisation” angle really interesting. For two years running we had gone with that cartoon-plus-personalisation approach, but we wanted to change the style a little. That is where 3TOON came in and offered us 3D — computer-generated imagery. The idea was to model our machines and animate them, with a mouth, with eyes, a bit Pixar-style. We really liked the concept, and we went for it!
What challenge or problem were you facing before contacting 3TOON?
A D: From the start, we had one particular constraint: this card had to be sent to our clients and our suppliers, but also to our employees. What we always expect from this card is that it astonishes — above all — and that it gets people talking. One of the main criteria was also meeting the deadline, since we had a hard stop at the end of December that absolutely had to be respected — season’s greetings, of course, wait for no one!
Why did you choose 3TOON?
We chose 3TOON because we had seen their portfolio, and it was well stocked… with quite a few references, and cartoons we really liked. There was a slightly offbeat touch we liked about this provider, which we did not find elsewhere.
What results were you hoping for?
From this card, frankly, we expected a success! As we raise the bar a little higher every year, that year we absolutely had to go one notch above; beyond the electronic greeting card itself, we had to find a new concept — and that is where computer-generated imagery added that extra layer, which our clients really loved.
What results did you get in the end?
At the start, we had a few concerns about the 3D, since 3TOON did not yet have much experience in that field — they were more of a 2D studio — and going for computer-generated imagery was something new, for us and for them alike… Well, we were not disappointed, because the result went well beyond our hopes! We had very good feedback from our clients, and from our employees and suppliers too. Clients were blown away by the animation of the machines and the realistic look of the rendering. And of course by the personalisation, which went as far as the county, the street and the company name where Suzette was to be found. Because Suzette, as it happens, was at the client’s…
What lessons do you draw from this experience?
What is amusing about this greeting card is that we created 4 characters and, at the end of the e-card, there is a cliffhanger where the client drives off with the aerial platform, and we don’t quite know what happens next… So we could very well imagine, next year, why not, a sequel…
Watch the SALTI e-cards below
And indeed, as Arnaud Debersée hinted at the end of his testimonial, a sequel did follow a year later, for the 2014 greetings, which you can watch below…
E-card 2013
Paul, Jules and Lucie worry about the disappearance of their colleague Suzette…
E-card 2014
Click the picture to project yourself into this spectacular e-card…
Salti’s website:
