We first discovered Guillaume Blanchet’s work through Laïka, stop-motion short film about the first earthling in Space. Alongside his creative animation work, Blanchet works for the Montreal-based advertising agency Bleublancrouge, which has worked with clients such as Toyota, WWF-Canada and the Vancouver Olympics. The agency’s latest campaign with Toyota Canada encourages not only better transportation habits but also leads the way in developing more responsible businesses and consumers. In the following Q&A, Guillaume tells us about his neighborhood in Montreal, discovery of animation and work in commercial advertising.

EM: Occupation and Position

French Copywriter for Bleublancrouge, Montreal.

EM: What neighborhood do you closely identify with? What makes your community so unique?

I live on the Plateau, a neighborhood that is renown [sic] to be one of the greatest concentration of “artists” in North America. The building I live in is filled with famous musicians, architects, painters or photographs. What I love about this place is that despite their obvious talents, people are eager to share their passion, to discover others and to work together. Priceless.

EM: Describe your creative and commercial work, as well as any upcoming projects.

I work in a team. Since the beginning of 2009, my Art Director partner has been Sebastien Deland. Together, we’ve been working on various projects such as Scores (TV campaign), One Life (web, print and billboards campaign to fight AIDS that is currently being displayed in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal). We are now working on a Toyota campaign.

EM: Tell us about the successful Toyota advertising campaign your agency put out in the past year. How does this effort go beyond just “green” packaging and rebranding?

Here is a copy/paste of the 2008 Toyota case :

While the rest of Canada talks about car prices going down we created green pricing: a low price for a fuel-efficient car.

Turn the industry‘s red-tag sale in a green-tag event. The message: It’s easy being green. We started liquidating the environment – save at the pumps and save on emissions. It’s a counter hit on the competition as gas prices continue to spike. We invite consumers to buy cars they’ll use less because we know it’s not only about the car you buy, but how you use it.

EM: Stop-motion animation, text-based ads and commercial shorts all make up Bleublancrouge’s work. What are some inspirations for your agency’s visual style?

Our inspiration comes from two sources : our clients and their clients. Our first goal is to change the course of things by developing great ideas. Afterwards, we determine, based on a set brief, which medium and formats will best allow us to achieve our goal. Our visual style depends on the audience because we are spokesperson [sic] on their behalf.

EM: How does your agency define the language of advertising and marketing?

Advertising is disruption. If we are to justify the interruption, we must develop truly great ideas that can change the course of things for our clients.

EM: Tell us about your background.

I was born and raised in the south of France. To make it short, it took me a whole while to find the right path as I studied business and realized at the age of 25 that I loved advertising much more. So I started from scratch and worked my way through French agencies (DDB, Publicis). I arrived in Montreal in 2003. I worked for Cossette, TAXI and Bleublancrouge.

As for where my “animations-on-the-side” started, the origin is simple: being an ocean apart from my friends, we decided we would meet once a year somewhere to travel and catch up. We went to Cuba, Arizona, Mexico and Costa Rica. And every time, I felt those memories had to be remembered through a film. And when something funny had not been caught on tape, I would recreate it using Playmobils, the cheapest actors in town. I had just discovered the power of stop-motion.

EM: How much does the city of Montreal inform your work, if at all?

The Laïka video was presented by Grafika (visual arts magazine) on their weekly web newsletter. Same thing with Infopresse (advertising magazine). I also did an interview for them for the July issue.

EM: If you could interview one unsung hero, who would it be? Why?

Life is about daring. I would interview the Iraqi journalist who threw both of his shoes at George W. Bush. Question No. 1: Did he know the legal consequences of his action? Question No. 2: How did he feel about missing? It was soooo close, it must have been a real frustration.

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http://www.bleublancrouge.ca/

Guillaume Blaunchet on Vimeo