DEEPER STUDY / Honda / 2015
Paper
A consistent craft device turns a sprawling product history into a single demonstration of inventive thinking.
AI-assisted research and analysis for the SNS Creative Fieldbook
Sources reviewed 6 November 2026
The original campaign creators did not write or endorse this analysis.
Original campaign credits: Director: PES; Advertiser: Honda.
Recognition: No award claim is made in this study.
Launch / edition: 2015. Award years: No award claim.
The problem. The idea. The experience.
Honda sought to express its Power of Dreams philosophy across its range.
How the idea came to life
PES directed paper-flipping animation tracing Honda products and history.
How it reached people
NFL television debut, with shorter edits and digital and social support announced.
Supporting sources: Primary: brand newsroom →
Read the data in context.
The numbers below describe different kinds of outcomes. Their date, scope and reporting source are part of the result.
The launch source supplies no independently measured commercial outcome.
Read the campaign story
A company with cars, motorcycles, engines, robots and aircraft has a storytelling problem: how can its range feel like one brand rather than a catalogue? Honda's 2015 American commercial Paper answered with a shared creative material. Directed by stop-motion filmmaker PES, the two-minute film used thousands of illustrations and an elaborate sequence of hands turning paper. It moved through Honda's history and products, from an early motorised bicycle to contemporary vehicles and other machines.
Honda said the animation was photographed in-camera, with some scenes joined to produce a continuous journey. The campaign launched during CBS's NFL coverage on September 20. A making-of film explained the production, while the launch plan also included shorter edits, social snippets and an interactive online version that would let viewers investigate individual products. The central film therefore had both a broad emotional role and routes into more detailed product history.
The useful strategic reading is that the production method performs the brand idea. Rather than simply announcing inventiveness, the advertisement asks viewers to watch ordinary materials become surprising machines. Every transition provides a reason to keep looking, while the repeated paper treatment makes disparate categories feel related. For a smaller business, the transferable move is not the animation budget. It is choosing one organising visual rule that can connect many offerings without reducing the story to a list. Behind-the-scenes material can then explain the care that the polished execution deliberately makes look effortless.
Unify the range
Choose one visual transformation that can connect your product range before scripting individual product appearances.
Provide a deeper route
Give interested viewers a clear route from the emotional film to specific product information.
Document the craft
Plan production documentation early so the making-of adds evidence rather than merely repeating the advertisement.
A small test for another brief
A small manufacturer uses one consistent paper or tabletop transition to explain three real products, with a separate page for specifications and process photographs.
Compare correct understanding of the product range and visits to relevant specifications against a catalogue-style video.
Stop if transitions obscure what the products actually do or production claims cannot be demonstrated.
- Choose one visual transformation that can connect your product range before scripting individual product appearances.
- Give interested viewers a clear route from the emotional film to specific product information.
- Agree on one outcome, a reasonable comparison and the stop condition before release.
Sources & further reading.
These are educational analyses of external campaigns, not SNS client projects. Source-backed campaign details, editorial interpretation and proposed tests are distinguished. Brand and campaign-entry reports are not independent causal audits.
- Honda announces Paper →Primary: brand newsroom · Supports: September 20, 2015 debut; PES; paper-animation production; featured product history; planned interactive and social extensions.