Beats by Dr Dre: Meet the Pills - Iain Robson

— Beats by Dr Dre:
Meet the Pills

— Campaign Creative Director EMEA
R/GA London

'We're speakers, we're supposed to be loud, dummy!'

To stand out in a crowded wireless speaker market, Beats by Dr Dre invented The Beats Pills: tiny, trash-talking characters with big personalities and even bigger mouths.

Brought to life with animation from Framestore and voiced by Chris Rock, Eminem, Tichina Arnold and Mike Skinner. From Miley’s 'Wrecking Ball' to Pharell’s ‘Happy' music video, The Pills would provide outspoken comment on every important moment in Pop Culture. All content produced was contextual and therefore sensitive to time, place and channel. Most notable at the VMAs with a world's first responsive TV commercial where the characters commented on Miley Cyrus and Robin Thick’s explosive live performance.

With the tagline ‘Small But Loud’, Beats Pills discovered a powerful voice that resonated deeply with their audience. By November that year, Pills sales were number one in the wireless speaker category, and the Pills became the must-have holiday gift of the year.

As Creative Director at R/GA London, I was creative lead for the roll-out of the European campaign.

Awards
Cannes Lions 2014: Gold Media Lion

Meet the Pills TVC

Introducing the Beats Pills by Dr Dre, voiced by Eminem, Chris Rock, Tichina Arnold and Corey Holcomb. Made by Beats, R/GA and Framestore.

Small But Loud Show

As part of the Beats by Dr Dre Pills European campaign, we gave the Pills their own TV show. The Pills talked trash with the likes of Tinie Tempah, Rio Ferdinand, Benga, Lukas Podolski, James Haskell, Harley from Rizzle Kicks, Sam Tomkins & Josh Charnley, Kaaris, Ilkay Gündogan and more.

Framestore’s Unity real-time animation system allowed us to bring the Pills to life in real-time, enabling us to make content when and where the stars were available.

It was critical for the European markets that the Pills spoke in local accents. We cast British, French and German voiceover talent according to the defined personality traits of the US pills.

UK VO talent:
Mike Skinner from 'The Streets', Michelle de Swarte, Richie Campbell and Jordan 'Rizzle' Stephens.
French VO talent:
Willaxxx, Justine Fraioli & Nader BIoussandel.
German VO talent:
Max Gstettenbauer & Fahri Ogün Yardım.