The Qatar Football Association (QFA) has commissioned Red Dot Films to create a promotional film for the Qatar national team’s new 2022 FIFA World Cup kits, emphasising the importance of not identifying the model wearing the kit and providing close-ups of its details, pattern, and distinguishing features.
The concept of the ad is about revealing the kits worn by an unknown silhouette player out of a cloud of smoke. The director, Shadab Khan, found that the best way to create the scene is by putting a light in the back and smoke in front of it to make the mood generally more sporty.” Indeed, if there is no light hitting the smoke, the mood will turn soft.
(World Cup kits for Qatar 2022)
Smoke is a valuable tool. “It is dreamy, gives cold feeling and nice look”, khan described. He added, “Smoke diffuses the background more than lenses diffuse.” Clearly, in the QFA kit’s ad, the smoke diffuses the light used in the background.
Eventually, other shots of the kits unworn were interwoven, showing more details, such as the embroidered stripes, the word ‘Qatar’ on the back of the collar, and an overlaid pattern on the away white shirt.
When it comes to World Cup kit designs, the association wants to keep things simple. The home kit is Maroon with centralised logos and cuff detail inspired by the country’s flag, and the entire shirt is embroidered with dunes-inspired stripes.
Qatar’s away shirt is laid out slightly differently from their home strip, with the nation’s badge and Nike swoosh moved out of the centre into more familiar positions. The kit combines gold, beige and white in a unique design dominated by an overlaid walnut seed pattern that reflects the country’s culture.
QFA is aware that most of its audience are smartphone users and that vertical orientation is more engaging for social media users. Unfortunately, the ads posted on the QFA social network sites are cropped versions of the original ones.
The main reason for making horizontal videos is the horizontal alignment of human eyes; therefore, movies and TV are horizontal. However, according to Olivia Slade-Silovic, “mobile owners hold their phones upright 94% of the time, and they want to consume content without having to rotate their phones 90 degrees.”
In addition, Shaina Weisinger said, “Vertical videos have a 90% higher completion rate than horizontal videos. A Snapchat report found that video ad completion rates were 9x higher for vertical videos than horizontal ones.”
This cropping process emphasises the importance of planning the entire concept of the shoot from the beginning, taking into account the vertical frame composition. By comparing the horizontal and vertical versions, it appears that many shots were ruined after the cropping process.
The kits are currently available on Nike’s website for 74 pounds (300 Qatari Riyals) in different sizes for men, women and children.
