Motion Theory enjoyed a close-knit collaboration with the Black Eyed Peas and Interscope Records to produce the entire branding campaign for The E.N.D., including a viral marketing effort, print ads, album artwork and the music video for “Boom Boom Pow,” the first single. The E.N.D. stands for “The Energy Never Dies” and explores the band’s transformation from analog to digital. Each piece of the campaign celebrates a different aspect of this theme, with the “Boom Boom Pow” video fusing choreography, technology, movement, emotion, ideas and the Peas themselves. These concepts are interwoven into the print and viral campaigns, launching a new kind of virus that turns everything into its musical digital version and creates a whole system of iconography and ideas.

For the music video, Motion Theory directors Mathew Cullen and Mark Kudsi, working with designers, programmers, visual-effects artists and facial-animation company Image Metrics, innovated new animation techniques to blur the line between reality and digital reality. Dancers embody beats of the song, delicate animations scan and log the emotions of the performance, and code wraps the Peas into beautiful cocoons, setting the stage for a dramatic metamorphosis. All along the way, seemingly ominous icons (e.g., weapons, radioactive warnings, gas masks) transform into their musical counterparts, reinforcing the concept that The E.N.D. is not the ending—it is merely a transformation into a new digital form. These icons were reinforced on guerilla-style posters, echoing the feeling of a new technological movement. Motion Theory creative and production staff worked closely with Interscope to develop, plan and execute the integrated global campaign to launch the album.

“Boom Boom Pow” combines unimaginable amounts of technical pre-processing seamlessly into a high-energy whole.