Check-out our fresh new ad campaign consisting of five different print ads, each one featuring the talent of an emerging artist.   We worked with our agency Ammirati (who also did the awesome stop-motion Tatsunoko VS. Capcom TV spot) to create these.  The artists (in order of appearance: 123Klan, Dalek, Futura, Cody Hudson and Grotesk!  Scroll down for all five!

This idea started about a year ago, but really didn't come into fruition until early this year. Some back story....Ono-san, the SSFIV producer, has always said that SFIV is like "art". This is evident in the rebirth of the SF franchise with the heavy emphasis on various artistic styles seen in the original SFIV push. Each promo video featured a different art style (such as "sumi-e" ink, watercolor, "sand", etc.) and this was translated into the game as well, where every focus attack was complemented with a dose of beautifully rendered ink splatters.

With Super SFIV, the emphasis on art continued, as the new "sketch" style brought a new look to SFIV. As the marketing campaign evolved and our research illustrated, we found that consumers needed to know what was "new" about "Super SFIV" and also that the lower price of $39.99 was a purchase driver. With this, Ammirati came up with a creative concept that could communicate these new features, while still carry the fun characteristics of the SF brand.  While they could've just bullet-listed the features against some game art or crafted a witty description, they came up with something much better.  Something that was original and fresh to SF and gaming.

The original concept started as a "notebook doodle" (see below) which immediately caught our attention.  After some discussion, it evolved into the artist series you see here.  Reviewing the current top artists, we narrowed the list down to the five you see here.  Each brought their own signature style to the world of SF, and delivered the creative messages crafted by Ammirati in a refreshing style.

The artists we signed on include: Cody Hudson, 123Klan, Grotesk, Dalek and Futura.   Which one is your favorite??

You'll find these ads in OXM, PTOM, Antenna, Complex, Vice, XLR8R, Shonen Jump, and WWE magazines.  If you're coming to Wondercon, we're giving away 24"x36" posters of these ads...a different design each day!

Tomorrow I'll have the awesome TV spot to show you which takes this artistic graphic design to full animation along with all-new original music...it's hype and time to Blaze on!

-Grant