We used Salesforce’s new Brand Expression Guidelines as the starting point for our exploration. Within them, there’s an idea of bringing in geometric shapes that serve as windows, or portals, to Salesforce’s illustrated “National Parks” world. We posited: “What happens if we go through the geometric window?”
When Astro visits a National Park, it’s a cheerful, entrepreneurial land of success, as it should be. For Salesforce.org customers, National Parks look a lot more like a real national park, where you may be out hiking, and suddenly find yourself staring down a hungry grizzly bear. Our customers know they need to get past that bear to achieve their mission.
We thought about what our customer might look like in this world. A fighter. Empowered. Noble. And determined. Come hell or high water, she will not be stopped in achieving her mission. The stakes are too great to fail.
From this, we devised a dramatic adventure story that captured the gestalt of the pandemic. Our message: Salesforce helps nonprofits meet the digital imperative. We present the tools needed to achieve your mission, and for us all to find our way to a sustainable future.
CREATIVE APPROACH
RESULT
Focus group testing found that the character was memorable and stood apart from other tech companies.
And the No.1 most-frequently used word to describe it? “Awesome!”
SYNOPSIS
Everyone has a hot take on Astro. In Salesforce’s eyes, its menagerie of brand characters bring fun to the world of Software-as-a-Service, and no one can deny that they stand out in a crowd.
That said, they really didn’t work for Salesforce.org’s customers. Global research results revealed that many people found the characters to be too childish and not credible for a B2B technology company.
So in 2020, as part of the “Great Missions Demand Great Technology” brand campaign to deliver the all-new, all-digital Dreamforce, we prototyped out a brand adjacent alternative.
CREDITS
Gwenaëlle Gobé - Art Director, Character Design
Davin Ergun - Storyboard
Mithra Krishnan - Illustration
Yannan Kang - Illustration
Andrew Duncan - Composer, Sound Design
Lance Casey - Editor
Animation - Chris Anderson, Henrique Barone, Rachel Schmieg, Peter Herrman
Additional Production Support
Bonfire Labs
CLIENT
Salesforce
ROLE
Creative Director
Executive Producer
Writer