Kawasaki Motors Europe ZH2
'Supercharge'
Role:
Strategic direction
Creative direction
Campaign production
Design
Art Direction
Champion:
Kawasaki Motors Europe
Collateral:
Creative concept (online + offline)
Action photography
Action video concept
Brochure
Adverts
POS
Online banners
Launch event material
CHALLENGE:
Thanks to its supercharger technology, Kawasaki’s flagship ZH2 is insanely powerful. Almost unbelievably so. We needed to express exactly what this dream bike is like to ride in real life – and our campaign needed to be as explosive as the bike itself.
For the uninitiated: a supercharger is a device that attaches to an engine. By sucking in air at a constant rate, it stuffs the engine with oxygen, giving it huge amounts of power. No surprise, then, that the audacious Kawasaki was first to create a naked street bike featuring a supercharger.
Combining a supercharger with Z series technology makes the ZH2 the stuff of science fiction: a dream bike for daring riders, a bike that sums up the Kawasaki story. So, in launching it, we needed a supercharged campaign that would communicate the sheer power of this extreme machine.
Our promotional video, created with the help of Pool Productions in Munich, celebrated the technology itself. As a backdrop for the bike, we used CGI to create a huge wind tunnel, conveying the rush of air – and adrenaline. Then, we sucked viewers into the engine, giving them a glimpse of what makes this bike so extraordinary. The CGI sequence ended with the bike exploding into life against an enormous wall of fire – a dramatic and eye-catching ‘reveal’ that looked stunning on social media.
We also art directed the campaign’s pin-sharp photography, which came courtesy of motorcycle specialist Alessio Barbanti. The shots captured the bike’s power, handling, and mind-blowing speed through motion-blurred backgrounds, aggressive lean angles and cinematic solar effects. Colour grading emphasised the brilliant Kawasaki-green accents – and this vividness not only looked striking on supersized dealership billboards, but meant that this cool, technologically-led campaign still pulsed with life and emotion.
The photoshoot took place in Almeria, Spain, with James Hiller: a supremely experienced and world-class rider who we knew would set sparks flying, literally, on the racetrack. We saved the burnout photography for the end of the shoot, since we know it’s no fun trying to clean melted rubber off the bike in between shots…
