Creative Brief

To promote Panini’s Adrenalyn XL Official Premier League trading cards, Dark Horses and Curious Productions developed a vibrant TV and social campaign built around real kids and their excitement when opening packs. Little Shadow was brought on to create the motion graphics, environmental FX, and character transformations that amplify card openings into magical, match-day moments.

The campaign launched in 2020 and was updated in 2022 with new footage, cards, and layered animation.

Our Approach

We created custom animated graphics that burst around the children as they revealed their favourite players, translating excitement into visual energy. Our work included:

• Surround FX: Card stats and power-ups appearing around the children like holographic overlays, styled with bold, football-inspired motion language. 
• Character VFX: In one key moment, we turned a child completely golden, requiring frame-by-frame rotoscoping, texturing, and glow FX to create a trophy-like transformation. 
• Environment refresh: For the 2022 iteration, we reused select live-action footage from the original campaign but reworked all graphical environments and overlays to match the updated Adrenalyn XL card designs. 
• Card motion design: Animated highlights for key player cards, with glowing borders, swipe trails, and attributes revealed on-screen, adding dynamic product presence without straying from the youthful tone. 

All assets were formatted for TVC, online, and social deployment, including 16:9, square, and vertical adaptations.

The Results

The campaign captured the energy and imagination that fuels football fandom among young collectors, helping make Panini’s Adrenalyn XL cards feel like more than collectables. With every flash of animation and golden glow, kids weren’t just opening cards-they were stepping into the game.