IGNITION CREATIVE

DEATH NOTE

AVDigitalMotion/VFX

What happens when you pull a Death God with a knack for killing, out of the anime world and transport him into the real world? Well, Ignition found out when we partnered with Netflix to create the global social campaign for the release of Death Note. Knowing it was a highly anticipated feature film with a rabid fan base, we had to stay as true to the world as we could, while also catering the hearts and minds of die hard fans all over the world. Using video and imagery from a custom shoot with the Death God costume, we were able to create a series of assets that brought Ryuk and the world of Death Note, to the screens of fans all over the world.

In this global campaign, we worked side-by-side with Netflix to not only build the social campaign but also help to create the trailer and design the panel at San Diego Comic Con. But it didn’t stop there, we also partnered with their other properties to create a launch piece that racked up some serious views. This coupled with our strong reactive play helped to keep people talking and engaged. Over the course of the campaign, we saw a 53% growth in followers and had 17.6M Impressions, making this one of our most successful campaigns to date.

Ryuk Teaser Trailer

Welcome, Humans… This is where our story began, with this teaser trailer that we created using custom animations and shoot footage as well as some audio from the film. Our teaser trailer helped launch Death Note and gave the fans one of their first looks at Ryuk.

Snapchat Activation

To coincide with our Comic Con Hall H activation, we helped create a custom Ryuk Snapchat Lens that was only available for use by scanning our custom Snapchat Code. Once scanned, users were able to turn themselves into the infamous Death God with a taste for apples.

HYPE TRAILER

Creating Hype

Our social campaign for Death Note relied heavily on custom shoot footage as well as motion and animation to create our video heavy content. Knowing that fans around the world were most excited to see Ryuk, our content put him front and center. He made a couple appearances in Seattle, spent some time in Brooklyn and even made it to Singapore. But to really bring the mischievousness of Ryuk to life, we played with the individual platforms and used them in unique and unexpected ways.

Global Premier Content

To accompany the release of Death Note, we created this custom content piece. With a special ADR recording from Willem Dafoe, who played Ryuk, this piece let everyone know the film was ready to stream.

Establishing The World

When it came to the film content, we needed to make sure it fit the look and feel of our campaign. So, to accomplish this we created a custom look that helped blend the world of our campaign, with the world of the film.

Netflix Deaths

You know the rules, if your name is in the Death Note with a description of how you’ll die, there’s nothing you can do to stop it. In this activation, we helped Ryuk introduce himself to some of the other Netflix properties by having him take responsibility for some pretty famous deaths.

Running Reactive

Knowing that there were some strong opinions in the community about the film, we needed a way to react that was unexpected and playful. And since Ryuk loves apples and leaves them as his calling card, we took the opportunity to respond to the haters with custom apple GIF’s with their names carved into them. We also added some names to the Death Note and pulled some of the meaner tweets and comments and made a custom video of Ryuk reading them on his phone. Bet you didn’t know Death Gods have feelings too.