Cannes Lions
DDB, Paris / UBISOFT / 2023
Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
We are at a turning point for Just Dance and Ubisoft needed to sum up in films what the game was about to become : the dance platform for those who do not want to stop dancing. We needed an hinge on those dancers to represent this new platform and create something faithful to the license but unexpected in terms of message and execution so the campaign doesn’t feel like another Just Dance ad.
Idea
In this campaign the endless dancers are highlighted. Indeed, we all have that friend who asks the DJ one more song or continue his moonwalk while the music shuts down. The new JD game is perfect for them with the endless content. We wanted to pay homage to them with a simple and minimalistic execution, because dancing is a natural and everyday life activity. The directors have made a tremendous job to make things funny and relatable in each scene, to make everyone want to play Just Dance.
Strategy
We were at a turning point for Just Dance : after numerous years of success, the sales plunged, partly because the rise of Tik Tok. So Ubisoft decided to turn the game into an always-on connected dancing platform with monthly updates (new maps, new songs, new ways to play). Our challenge was to find a human and emotionally engaging way to talk about this new gaming model.
Execution
We all have that friend who asks the DJ one more song or continue his moonwalk while the music shuts down : we call them the endless dancers, and those films are a tribute to them. We chose to have a simple and minimalistic execution, because dancing is a natural and everyday life activity, and showed real life dancing situation, the kind we all experienced one day.
Outcome
The game was well received by critics, averaging 77% favorable reviews on Metacritic compared to 72% for the previous iteration.
In a difficult market context for many publishers, sales were equivalent to those of the 2022 edition.
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