Amazon Explores All the Big Feels That Come From Reading Books

This stuff just leaps off the page!

Droga5 London portrays reading as a pulse-pounding thrill ride in a global, multimedia push for Amazon that harkens back to the company’s Clinton-era origins as an online bookseller. Anchored by a big-budget, effects-driven film from Prettybird director Tom Noakes, the work also nods to the e-tailer’s lofty place in the contemporary cultural pantheon. 

In the :60, books become portals to new worlds, engines of adventure and delight capable of transforming landscapes and changing readers in amazing ways:

“There are so many distractions from reading that it’s easy to forget the joys of picking up an ‘old-fashioned’ book,” Droga5 creative director Matt Hubbard tells Muse. “But the truth is that books are timeless, and how we interpret them is completely unique.”

Chuck the metaverse! Crack a book!

“We were trying to encapsulate the feelings of the genres rather than a particular story,” Hubbard explains. “Each scene is meant to evoke a specific reaction from the viewer, hopefully the same they might feel when they’re reading that genre of book: the awe in sci-fi, the terror in horror, or the cathartic release of tragedy.”

Video edits from the full-length spot focus on specific emotions. Those clips will run online, backed by social and OOH support—the latter developed with 20 diverse illustrators—plus emojis and a sticker pack:

Hubbard describes the campaign as “an ode to readers. It’s a reminder for people who love books but have perhaps left the habit by the wayside. We’re hoping readers will see themselves in these scenarios.”

The work certainly goes big, focusing on excitement and flash, mostly eschewing the more meditative, introspective aspect of books. Yet this seems like an inevitable choice, and wise, given our always-on landscape of screens luring eyeballs with memes, games, Snaps, TikToks, Hollywood blockbusters and so on.

One minor quibble: Snazzy work about the magic of words surely merits a snappier themeline than “That Reading Feeling Awaits,” which sounds like something from a first draft.

The campaign’s timing may seem a tad curious, as Amazon recently closed its 70 brick-and-mortar bookstores across the U.S. and U.K. Most observers, however, viewed such IRL ventures as value-added at best. With its book business focused entirely online, the work makes sense for the long haul. It offers nostalgic appeal for users who discovered Amazon back in the day, while priming digital-first consumers for the company’s next chapter.

Previously, Droga5 and Amazon used varied cinematic textures and techniques to promote Alexa. A sweet, sensitive prom story about music and memory broke as the year began, following this epic take on the volcanic carnage at Pompeii, a trippy Game of Thrones-style fantasy battle, and one weird-ass night at the opera.

CREDITS

Client Credits
Josh Fein – Director of Global Marketing; Amazon Books
David Rosenberg – Head of Brand Marketing; Amazon Books
Radnyee Pradhan – Senior Brand Marketing Manager; Amazon Books
Ben Creasey – Sr. Brand and Campaign Manager; Amazon Books

Agency Credits
OLV
CCO: Shelley Smoler
Creative Director: Matt Hubbard
Creative: Chris Russell
Creative: Ahmed Ellabib
Head of Design: Chris Chapman
Agency Producer: Sophie Paton
Agency Producer: Caroline Angell
Agency Producer: Rob Steiner
Assistant Producer: Olly West
Strategy Director: Pete Heskett 
Comms Strategy Director: Clemency Beale-Collins
Strategist: Sara Barqawi
Head of Account Management: Jen Knox 
Senior Account Director: Tom Elias
Account Director: Laura Kidd
Account Manager: Heidi Brown 

SOCIAL & OOH 
Creative Director: Matt Hubbard
Creative Director: Chris Chapman
Senior Designer / Art Director: Hannah Stewart 
Senior Designer / Art Director: Matteo Alabiso 
Creative: Chris Russell
Creative: Ahmed Ellabib
Motion Designer: Michael O’Brien
Motion Designer: Rob Wicksteed  
Studio Director: Tim Larke 
Art Producer: Katerina Gharraph 
Senior Creative Artworker: Paul Callaby  
Artworker: Nik Coomber  
Strategy Director: Pete Heskett 
Comms Strategy Director: Clemency Beale-Collins
Strategist: Sara Barqawi
Head of Account Management: Jen Knox 
Senior Account Director: Tom Elias
Account Director: Laura Kidd
Account Manager: Heidi Brown 

Production Company Credits

PRETTYBIRD
Director: Tom Noakes
EP: Juliette Larthe 
HOP: Fiona Bamford-Phillips
EP: Ted Thornton
Producer: Cindy Burnay
New Business: Shiara Miranda 
Treatment creative direction: Tom Manaton 
Stop Mo / Puppetry Production: Benji Landman 
Stop Mo / Puppetry Production Assistant: Lottie Lindsay-Beavan
Live action Production Assistant: Becca Stovold
VIRTUAL FILMS
MD / EP : Scott Horan
Senior Producer: Joan Garcia
Producer : Dani Ojeda
PM: Dani Gonzalez
PC: Olga Airas
PA: Paula Comella 
Prod. Designer: Maria Puig

VIRTUAL FILMS
MD / EP : Scott Horan
Senior Producer: Joan Garcia
Producer : Dani Ojeda
PM: Dani Gonzalez
PC: Olga Airas
PA: Paula Comella 
Prod. Designer: Maria Puig

BLACK KITE STUDIOS 
Colour: Thomas Mangham
VFX Producer: Hannah Ruddleston
VFX Supervisor 2D: Guillaume Weiss
VFX Supervisor 3D: Fin Crowther
2D VFX team: Jonny Freeman, James Adamson, George Brunt, Andrew Curtis, Jack Stone, Venu Prasath
3D VFX team: Andrew Bartholomew, Pawel Luszczak, Marcel Ruegenberg, James Hansell, Tsvetelin Krastev
VFX On-Set Supervisor: Tito Fernandes & Jonny Freeman

POST SOUND & MUSIC: STRING & TINS 
Sound Design + Mix: Joe Wilkinson, Culum Simpson, Lawerence Kendrick
Music Composition: Ioana Selaru @ String & Tins
Audio Producer: Olivia Endersby

FUTURE POWER STATION
Animation Director: Yibi Hu
Lead Animator: Daryl Graham
Animation Producer: Janet Smith
Character Design: Adam Relf
2D Animation/Clean Up/FX:
Krystian Piotr Garstkowiak
Alejandra Anguita
Daisy Evans
Husain Untoro
Hannah Privett
Designer: Qian Tian
PreVis: Kevin O’Shea

JIMMY GRIMES PUPPETRY
Pupeteer: Jimmy Grimes
Puppeteer: Andy Bruskill
1st Assistant Director: Laura Carrion Del Pozo
Runner: Flo Hoge
Director of Photography: Chris Clarke
Focus Puller: Steve Burgess
Gaffer: Bernie Prentice
Electrician: Gary Saunders
SFX/ Prop Standby: Nick Roberts
Art Department Assistant: Harrison Clark
VFX Supervisor: Jonny Freeman

ISABEL GARRETT / STOPMO
Animation Director: Isabel Garrett
DOP: Daniel Morgan
Gaffer: Evance Breteuil
Spark: Brendan Freedman
Character Design: Nelly Michenaud
Puppets: Sculpt Double
Set Build: Oliver Arnell Argles
Art Dept: Anita Bruvere
Art Dept: Rachael Olga Lloyd
Art Dept: Daisy Collingridge
Art Dept: Lisa Ott
Animator: David McShane
Animator: Anita Bruvere
Rigger: Robin Jackson 

STUDIO AKA
Director: Marcus Armitage 
Producer: Nikki Kefford-White
Production Assistant: Lara Salam, Meera Nasheed
Editor: Nic Gill
Animation: Marcus Armitage & Darcy Woodbridge
Artworking: Marcus Armitage

SOCIAL & OOH CREDITS

PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographer / Director: Spencer Murphy 
Agent: Making Pictures
Producer: Coco Wolf
Local Producer @ Virtual: Dani Ojeda
Executive Producer @ Virtual: Joan Garcia

SOCIAL & OOH ARTISTS
Anton Hjertstedt 
Sam Lyon
Fantasista Utamaro
Joseph Mehuish
Alex Valentina
Thomas Burden
YONK
Mat Voyce
Patrick Savile
Nick Kempton
Jordan Harrison 
Eva Munnich
Romain Braccini
Jae Yeon Kim
Loulou João
Studio Private
Dan Woodger
Electric Theatre Collective

SOCIAL & OOH POST PRODUCTION

STUDIO PRIVATE 
Creative Post-Production: Studio Private
CGI / VFX Producer: Jeremy Djaffer
Lead 2D Animator: Gabriel Thomas Ayache 
CGI Artists: Adrian Roger, Joanna Juszczak, Gabriel Thomas Ayache 

STRING & TINS
Sound Design : Jim Stewart
Producer: Olivia Endersby

NYC 3D SPECIAL BUILD 
Creative Director: Geoff Parsons
Animators: Ivan Brou, Rebecca Tzouliou, Simon Graham, Alice Roseberry-Haynes, Ollie Dook, Simon Kristall
Executive Producer: Ben Honour 
Producer: Sydney Levy