Beyond the Brief: How Thinkerbell used CGI, AI and Human Craft to Launch the GWM Cannon Alpha

CB Exclusive: In the latest edition of Beyond the Brief, Thinkerbell Head Creative Tinker Sean McNicholas and Lead Creative Tinker AJ McLaughlin give Campaign Brief readers the exclusive first look at the new ‘Effortless’ campaign for the GWM Cannon Alpha – a launch powered by CGI, AI and good old-fashioned human craft.

Okay folks, brief us in.

The GWM Cannon Alpha was released in a new Plug-in Hybrid electric  (PHEV) variant. A new power-train isn’t always big news, but this ute is a ripper – it’s the first PHEV ute with the power to match it with the old-school petrol players in the category. So GWM and Thinkerbell thought it was worthy of some lofty thinking.

So you have a cool ute, what was the creative idea behind it?

The ute category in Australia is all about rough-and-tough stuff. Toil, effort, engine-revving hard-yakking adventure. But the truth is, when something truly powerful does the hard stuff, it doesn’t feel hard at all. This sparked our idea – Effortless. It’s the feeling you get when driving the Cannon Alpha PHEV, with its class-leading, quiet, calm and bloody powerful hybrid-electric engine.

So how did that idea lead you to… balloons?

Yep – up, up, up we went. To cut through in the ute category, we needed to flip the story – rather than dialling up the hardness of the job, the balloons let us dial up the ease with which it’s performed in the Alpha PHEV.

It’s such a simple idea, how did you bring it to life?

Like most presos these days, it first came to life as a gen AI mockup. And from the moment we shared it, everyone was on board – we had to make it.

We used gen AI to work through a heap of iterations, some of which you’ll see below, shaping the idea together with GWM. Together we worked through everything from the reference objects for our balloons, to the right locations, to the exact tone of the sky. All before we even got to briefing a single supplier.

So when it came time to actually make it, we weren’t starting from scratch – we were building something we’d already all seen, loved, and knew was right. We just had to beat the robots now.

And how did you improve on your AI scamps?

Well, we kind of teamed up with them. This one was a sum of all the classic disciplines, and a few newer ones. Creativity, a bold client, quality photography plus CGI-meets-AI-meets-human-craft.

We worked with Limehouse and Jeremy Shaw to shoot three regional NSW locations, capturing an authentic taste of rural Australia. Mood was everything for this, so we chased drama – looking for light breaks and big clouds. This made sure the detail was real-world right – real fences, real roads, real dust. Then James Lucas, our retoucher, made the plates feel tougher, more dramatic, and cinematic.

Next, the balloons. I hated blowing them up as a kid, and CGI’s not much easier. First we worked with the client to land on the right 3.5 tonne objects to represent for the market. Then Chris Andrews, our CGI artist, crossed them with a kiddie’s bouncy castle. What looks light and effortless took weeks of finessing, and an integrative mindset, to get right. Every curve and shadow needed to feel like it belonged in the real world and the Limehouse team felt like an extension of the project squad we’d established.  Finally came the ute itself. Chris helped us bed a digital clay into the environments, giving them epic, effortless presence in frame.

Wow, a bit going on there!

Yes indeed. It’s one of the reasons we love concepting hand-in-hand with AI – it helps you imagine things you might not without the platforms. You then have a clear vision of what you’re aiming for, and you can plot these unusual paths to make it real. It’s the way our way-of-work will be forever moving forward – this hybrid human/AI process that produces a level of output that neither person nor machine can do alone.

It’s a different look for the Aussie ute, quite a brave move?

At Thinkerbell, our work hits the intersection of marketing science and hardcore creatively. We’ll always be brave – but the bravery is backed by a belief we are doing the right things for the brief and for the client. So, in a category where mud and non-inflatable caravans get a whole heap of air time – we had to find a way to be distinctive, and we are proud of where we landed.

What’s the next car we’ll see coming out of the Thinkerbell/GWM garage?

We always have a load on the go with GWM, and they push us all the way to make work that’s distinctive and playful and good for the brand. We can’t talk models now, but yep – there will be more of this fun kinda stuff floating into the world from the team soon.