Cards, community, crowdfunding.

Housing a collection of luxurious playing cards, intricate puzzles and curious objects, Art of Play were on the heels of a new ambitious product launch. Erudite Pictures were there to assist with direction and development creating a campaign film atypical to conventional crowdfunding videos resulting in a literal overnight success.

The Challenge

With Art of Play’s existing demographic comprised of mostly male teenagers, the campaign objective was more than just to achieve funding, but to introduce this genre to a new audience, a female demographic. The product is designed by an artisan in folk craft creating intricate traditional pieces – this was about as out of left field from its typical product range and target as it could get.

Erudite Pictures were tasked in developing and shaping the campaign film with messaging that opens the doors for a new audience to discover the brand and esoteric hobby.

The Concept

The niche of the custom playing card market is built upon community, so we wanted to present a story of an artist’s intricate craft as the focus of the film, as opposed to simply promoting the deck and ostensibly selling features as typical crowdfunding videos are. The video needed to be a departure from the standard way playing cards are promoted.

Selling the artist,
not the art.

We created an aesthetic that was charming, inviting and visually delightful to pull audiences in to discover a new community. Rather than positioning it as a typical for-sale trade off, it was to build intrigue around the expert craft of the artist, and the deck was a serendipitous result that you could own.