"Sometimes you stumble upon a completely unique experience—Aiwaworld is one of these. I was completely mesmerized by the audiovisual vignettes that while artistically approached are still very accessible. It's spot on for the young target market." —juror Melissa Haworth
"I was instantly drawn in by the surreal welcome page. The content proved to be far more bizarre than I would have expected, but I was never too intimidated by the odd sight to explore—my reward was stunning content." —juror Robert Hodgin
Overview: In lieu of a traditional Web presence, electronics manufacturer Aiwa created a site to inspire creativity through music and visuals. The result is a surreal, topsy-turvy world consisting of hybrid animals and mixed music genres such as Punk/Hawaiian, Folk/Hip Hop, and Techno/Latino.
• Collaboration between 4 agencies
• 3-month development time
• Flash animation with streaming audio
Comments by David Lai, Jose Caballer and Jack Peng:
"Aiwa is an electronics brand centered around audiovisual products for the youth market. In lieu of traditional media, they wanted to create an online community that would inspire creativity in music and visuals.
"This surreal, topsy-turvy world is based on the theme of ‘hybrid music’ and explores unexpected musical fusions such as Punk/Hawaiian, Folk/Hip Hop and Techno/Latino and global content creators, Mumbleboy and Tokyoplastic, who express audiographic creativity through technology.
"The challenge was to create an interface unlike any other that’s been created before. The way you navigate is by simply moving the cursor—in response, the world reacts. It’s a world that is constantly changing—nothing stays the same for very long. There are always surprises. It wasn’t uncommon during the project, to hear comments like, 'The animals won't stop dancing.' It was equally uncommon for anyone to worry much about it.
"The most interesting part of the project was the unusual nature of the global collaborative. Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo fused a new kind of collaborative made up of four independent companies, ranging from ad agencies and Web studios to motion/TV production companies. Each filled distinct core roles and strengths, but came together to create a greater whole. This project is a true hybrid.
"Having so many disciplines involved could easily have presented the biggest challenge, but the reason the results are so amazing is because of the open collaboration and the great people involved. "Above all it was a lot of fun, it was like being a kid again. And the result is audiovisual madness."
