PNC Wealth Management,
run by a guy with an oddly attractive underwater voice, James P Dunigan, is a
Bank from the States, responsible for releasing the annual Christmas Index, a
tradition that has been kept since 1986. That’s a long 28 years. And so far
this is an irrelevant post, but it’s not really, you’re just jumping the gun.
The PNC Index is based
upon the Twelve Days of Christmas, that irritating carol that burns into your
brain with stinking gold rings. The idea is each year the prices are released
of the items within the song and compared to the previous years. The Index has
been appraised and put into practice as an education tool by teachers in more
recent years, and as a result of this PNC have altered their approach in the
yearly delivery of their Index to their specific audience (as seen in the 2011
Making of video).
Both 2010’s release
and 2011’s have been picked up on by FWA, and rightly so. They’re both fucking
incredible. But earlier versions are harder to come across, the facts and
figures contained within the Index are easy as pie to stumble upon, but the
method and media of delivery is a hell of a lot harder to take a peek at.
Despite hours trawling the world wide web, I’ve recovered not a shred of info
past 2008, which is weird considering their ridiculously current and relevant
approaches to their audience, you’d assume there’d be some sort of archive
documenting the way their approach and delivery has evolved, as a way of
enforcing brand identity and a relationship with the audience. But. I’ve got up
till ’08, and I’m sue there’s gonna be something hidden away somewhere. A load
more reading about turtledoves for me.
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| 2008 PNC Christmas Index |
2008’s number was a
website, with a bit of a video, and some Christmas colours. There’s rumours of
an interactive pie chart or graph having been slipped in their somewhere, but
seeing as there’s no definite authentic archive, that’s all been gathered from
a website review.
Oh ATE was the
beginning of the smart phone if I’m reckoning right. I had some shitpeice
Samsung Tocco that lasted about 6 days before back on the Sony Ericsson
walkman. Twitter kicked off, Yahoo and Microsoft nearly had a thing. Barrack
used to youtube to conquer the states, Speedo made the LZR, worlds fastest
swimsuit, Netbooks became a decided product and the iPhone 3 was released. PNC
weren’t incredibly innovative in their approach, but for the time and their
uncertain audience it got the job done.
2009 is the turning
point, where they seemingly redefined their audience due to receiving so much feedback from teachers detailing
how the index was used to educate. PNC took this on board, and gave the whole
thing an overhaul.
The index was a short
film, using children in the style of a Christmas pageant. The short film was
low interactivity, but included children, and an obvious change of approach.
There was the introduction of a typeface that has been continued since giving a
pretty nice brand identity. The styling’s childish and nicely orientated
towards their audience. The kids are pretty cute dressed up as stuff, and Jim
Dunigan’s in it. Accompanying the short film was a live chat, created for
teachers, students and individual children.
 |
| 2010 PNC Christmas Index |
2010 was the year the
FWA took note. Through companies B-reel and Deutsch (who went on to have a
major part in the concept and development of their 2011 Index) They created an
interactive pop up book. The concept was Deutsch, and the 3D rendering, design
and creation B-reel’s work. The used a collaboration of animation and a linear
storyline with room to explore to create this massively successful piece that
pretty much put them on the map not only for releasing the Christmas Index, but
for being a company open to innovation and creation, enhancing their reputation
and taking away from that of a musty bank. They used the same typeface and
continuity as from 2009, but to create a more more developed and informed
piece.
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By this year, they
began exploring with interactivity, the user get’s involved, explores the story
at their own pace, clicking dragging and operating the pop up via books pulls,
tabs twists and page turns via mouse. The development from 09 to ’10 is so
clear to see. They’ve gone for a much more rounded user experience, and got the
folks having a gander thoroughly engaged in the weird 2D 3D mix book they’ve created.
 |
| original concept by Pelle Martin of B-reel |
found at : http://content.pncmc.com/live/pnc/microsite/CPI/2010/index.html
2011’s gone so good !
The making of is a
video you should check out. I’ve watched it about 15 times and it makes my
stomach go weird at how much good stuff there’s the potential to create. The
whole thing oozes’s Christmas juice. It’s set in a store window, with the
intention of appealing to primarily children, of course, but also the childish
and whimsical side of adults. It plays on fantasy and enchantment and all that
Christmas magic that goes floating around come December. I love the way it was
made, it has a beautifully hand crafted approach making use of old techniques
such as sculpture, stop motion and puppeteering but to create an insanely
current and modernized approach. It was made by 3 major design companies, all
with strong backgrounds in different areas. Deutsch again responsible for the
concept, Hornet for the film aspects, and Famous Interactive for the user
experience and games. This year from the previous shows another major
development, the collaboration of not 2 but a hundred different practices and
medias! On the obvious there’s
film, interactive and old school animation, but looking harder they’ve mixed
together a silly amount of techniques and careers and skills to create an
incredibly personal, and quirky experience, still delivering the basic
principle, of the Index.
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| 2011 PNC Christmas Index |
found at: http://content.pncmc.com/live/pnc/microsite/CPI/2011/index.html
 |
| inital sketched and concepts of the train ride |
its hard to say how long thiese links will be live, but with any look, just as the 2010 is now archived and accessible, 2011 will have a different link with arrival of 2012.
Although the index is
not a direct profit, it does nothing to harm the brand identity of PNC, their
basic values of the Index being to educate. They’ve evolved the index to a
thing designers and children galore are excited to explore and engage with. No
doubt 2012 will be something mind blowing, surely not long till its out !
I’ve whacked this on
the blog because its hugely relevant to my context project, which is along the
similar lines of an interactive pop up book for younger children, and its
relevant to research in the same regard.
Seriously take a look
at the past 2 years worth..makes me real excited about what ima doing. Classicly.
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