Puma cast its five footballers as heroes of their own video games

A star-packed boot launch that had to feel like play rather than another football ad, announcing the SS19 Puma One and Future designs.

Each star becomes a video-game protagonist in a genre matched to his persona: Griezmann fights a giant-goalkeeper end boss, Reus an FPS, Lukaku a zombie beat-'em-up.

Creative agency Knas and Sehsucht director Hans-Christoph Schultheiss built the animated games with the players on set; production, design, VFX and animation by Sehsucht Hamburg, launched globally on Puma's social channels in January 2019.

No results reported; the campaign announced the SS19 Puma One and Future boots across Puma's global social channels.

LBB reported on 2019-01-22 that Puma teamed with creative agency Knas and Sehsucht director Hans-Christoph Schultheiss on 'Unlock New Levels', announcing the SS19 designs for the Puma One and Future football boots. Inspired by the competitive and tactical world of gaming, it stars Luis Suárez, Sergio Agüero, Antoine Griezmann, Marco Reus and Romelu Lukaku as characters in a video game who must defeat opponents and overcome deadly challenges with their weapon of choice: their boots.

The animated games were designed so each player faces his personal nemesis: Griezmann's 'Giant Goalkeeper' is the classic final end-boss of an epic adventure game; Reus plays a first-person shooter built on his speed and shooting accuracy; Suárez is the wild gunslinger, known for deadly shots and an explosive temper; dribbler-scorer Agüero gets a jump'n'run of falling records; and Lukaku — driven by determination against the doubters — lands in a Street Fighter-like beat-'em-up against zombie defenders.

Schultheiss said football and video games had been huge parts of his life, and that working with the players on set cemented Puma's position 'as one of the leading sports brands in the current market'. Production, design, VFX and animation came from Sehsucht Hamburg, with the campaign launching globally on Puma's social channels.

Gaming is the shared language of the boot-buying generation, so the boots were framed as power-ups rather than products.

Matching each player to a game genre turns five signings into five stories, each one true to how that star is actually discussed by fans.

Animation freed the footballers from stadium realism, letting a boot launch borrow the visual scale of a blockbuster game.

Personalisation beats ensemble casting: build each star's segment from his public persona, and each fan base gets its own bespoke hero moment.

As of the January 2019 report, 'Unlock New Levels' was live on Puma's social channels globally, carrying the SS19 Puma One and Future launches.