Knowing how to extend a campaign is important.

Godfrey Dadich Partners had landed a successful formula for Adyen with their “Business. Not Boundaries.” campaign. It featured an elegant and clean setup, with a split-screen where the border was eventually crossed thanks to the product benefit. I was part of the team tasked with keeping the spots fresh in the third year of the work, so we decided that having the scenes be connected in actuality, rather than comped together in post, would allow us to capture a bit more action around and across that boundary. In other words, we wanted to shoot it practically. And after a thorough search found a directing pair who did a solid job even though it must be said they revealed themselves to be deeply unimpressive as people ostensibly in charge of a set.

Here’s a look at all four :15s in one reel.

I’m not really one for spilling tea, but this is my site and this next fact baffles me to this day: immediately after shooting these spots for us, these directors (who showed up on set well after the crew and even after the clients arrived, and who missed a pre-pre-pro call because they were doing mushrooms in Joshua Tree or something) used the exact same treatment for another client. Did they not think we’d notice? The internet exists! People make the strangest choices.

But the spots worked. The in-camera effects are smooth and just noticeable enough. The “boundaries” are walls built to a forced perspective, and they were hand-pulled backward as the scenes progressed so the actors could move freely across the now-unified locales, to land the Adyen campaign messaging.

Plus, thanks to the inspiring and meticulous art direction of Joy Scull, the styling was on point and the color palettes were gorgeous as hell. As for the scripts, they added hits of relatability to all the above moving parts, and managed to deliver full arcs with concise takeaways within the span of fifteen seconds.