Pablo teams with Thundercat to turn Candy Crush into a playable music video

In a world where music culture risks becoming overly polished, and formulaic, Candy Crush Saga® is doubling down on its mission of delivering fun to every player, everywhere with the 2025 Candy Crush Music Season campaign.

For King, this campaign reflects their passion for surprising and delighting players in unexpected ways. Candy Crush loves creating moments that bring joy and connection, whether that’s through new in-game experiences, fresh collaborations, or playful twists that celebrate the power of music and creativity. It’s all about keeping the experience fresh, fun, and unmistakably Candy!

The month-long campaign aims to attract new players to the brand through a vibrant celebration of creativity and play.

The soundtrack to this year's Music Season is an original 4-minute cover version of the 1970's Diana Ross classic, 'Upside Down', by U.S global artist Thundercat. Created exclusively for Candy Crush Saga, Thundercat, represented by independent record label Ninja Tunes, is a key collaborator for many artists and is on the cusp of releasing his first album in over five years.

The playable music video experience was written and directed by x2 Emmy nominated director Fx Goby with Nexus Studios, global award-winning industry leaders in film and experience design. Through an interactive iOS, Android and desktop experience, you don’t just watch the story unfold, you swipe your way through with a groundbreaking way to affect live action film. Without pausing the narrative, this is a new way of using cutting edge technologies to allow playful interactions, whilst retaining the film’s fluidity for maximum engagement and enjoyment.

Using the same interaction as you would playing Candy Crush Saga, when you match three of the same, in order to progress to the next scene, you swipe and turn the protagonist's world ‘upside down’. If you miss it, and don’t participate, the player ends up in a U-turn, where in-film characters playfully encourage you to play on. At the end players are served a score, as well as being given options around playing again or sharing.

Fx Goby, Director at Nexus Studios says: "As a director I’m always trying to choose the exact medium that honors the story’s soul. For Candy Crush x Thundercat’s cover of Upside Down, I wanted human hands, heat, weight, texture, all the things practical filmmaking gives you. This is a playable music video… but the magic is that it’s still cinema."

The look and feel of the music video world takes direct inspiration from the Candy Kingdom. It tells the story of a man innocently getting a pedicure done before noticing that all is not what it seems at the nail bar. When he sees the outfits of three women in the nail bar mirror change colour, after initial confusion, he sees that there are thrills to be had, enjoying his glitter-filled journey.

Through a deeply collaborative production process between partners and client, Pablo London worked closely with both to extract and re-express Candy Crush cues at every touchpoint. Re-channelling the Candy Crush IP in both obvious and subtle ways was an exciting opportunity at every touchpoint. From in-game characters such as Tiffi, to iconic Candies such as the Color Bomb, Pablo’s Design Studio designed elements from the sushi restaurant menus to the tarot cards that we see in the music video imbuing every frame with rich detail. Illustrator and designer Jess Ebsworth also created the single artwork, a dreamy rendering of the project in her distinctive style.

Ray Shaughnessy & Dan Norris, ECDs at Pablo say: "Creating ‘a campaign you can play with’ for Candy Crush has been a glitter-filled rollercoaster of a ride. With its magical mix of tech, humanity and craft, we genuinely haven't worked in a more agile and collaborative way than we have with Nexus Studios, collapsing lots of the usual barriers to create a tight creative working group - joyous.'

The track is being launched like any other music track would be, teasing it across social media in the run up to the release to ensure that we're creating an earworm before dropping the track across all channels. These digital-first efforts will be amplified by traditional media, from TV, cinema to radio, announcing that Music Season and this fully playable music video have arrived.

The musical fun is turned-up in-game too, with new Candy Crush expeditions, on iOS or Android, that allow players to join themed challenges and offer colorful rewards. The fun starts from November 6th, right through to the 7th December.

Go to candycrushupsidedown.com to play.

CREDITS

Client: Candy Crush Saga, King Games

Luken Aragon, VP Marketing, Candy Crush Saga

Roberto Kusabbi, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Candy Crush Saga

Helen Sporrong, Senior Director, Marketing Communications

Amy Kilty, Brand Director

Ellie Stitcher, Senior Brand Marketing Manager

Johno Fagan, Senior Brand Marketing Manager

Rachel Ramezani, Associate Director Brand Communications

Creative Agency: Pablo

Chief Creative Officer: Dan Watts

Executive Creative Directors: Ray Shaughnessy & Dan Norris

Creatives: Bex Conyngham-Hynes & Dan Scott

Chief Strategy Officer: Mark Sng

Planning Director: Summer Taylor

Managing Director: Hannah Penn

Senior Account Director: Katie Gorrod

Senior Account Manager: Madeleine Huxley

Project Manager: Kelly Watts

Designers: Mark Harrison, Harry Richards & Nate Castilho Mills

Executive TV Producer: Sasha Mantel

Production Assistant: Alisha Harrison

Social editor: Charlie Robins

Music House: THE HOGAN

Music Supervisor: Sean Hogan

Thundercat for Ninja Tune: Martin Dobson

Directed by Fx Goby

Production Company: Nexus Studios

Production Company: Nexus Studios

Executive Producer: Anthony Austin

Senior Producer: Rebecca Archer

Live Action Producer: Luke Tierney

Senior Production Manager: Ruyi Meer

Production Coordinator: Sarah McDonald

VFX Supervisor: Sacha Danjou

VFX Consultant: Paul Round

Director of Photography: Diana Olifirova

1st AD: Robert Thorpe

Choreographers: I Could Never Be A Dancer

Stylist: Celia Arias

Stylist Assistants: Rocco Marin, Leonor Carvalho, Eloy Melero González

Grillz: London Grillz

Lead Compositor: Sacha Danjou

Compositors: Alexandre Gaudiano, Zsolt Sebok, Can Cangor, Navid Bagherzadeh, Chiara Feriani, Jan Kanta, Bethany Levy, Olly Johnson

Colourboards: Melanie Climent

Designer: Bethany Levy, Olly Johnson

Storyboards: Adam Beer storyboards, Jonathan Djob Nkondo

Animatic Editor: Kuba Sobieski

VFX Editors: Andrea Zantiras, Zaki Fulford

Resource Manager: Indiana Wilson

Talent Acquisition Manager: Sophia Whyte

Head of Resourcing: Natalie Busuttil

Creative Pitch Coordinator: Jessie Francis

Head of Marketing & PR: Bruce Bigg

NEXUS EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Executive Producer: Ali Proctor-Walsh

Producer: Ashley Cohen

Executive Creative Director: Deborah Casswell

Creative Technical Director: David Crawford

Technical Build: Reflektor Digital

Chief Technical Officer: Max Rusan

Senior Producer: Ryan Kelly

Lead Developer: Shiqi Wu

SERVICE COMPANY: SOLENT FILM

Edit: Trim

Edit Studio: Trim

Editor: Matt Newman

Edit Assists: Keira Hay & Holly Thomson

Edit Producer: Claudia Celeste

Sound: String and Tins

Audio Post Production - String and Tins

Sound Design and Mix - Adam Smyth

Sound Design - Kaspar Broyd r, Nigel Manington

Foley - Cobblestone

Audio Producer - Alina Miroshnichenko,, Eimear Ní Ghuaire

Grade: Black Kite Studios

Colour: Black Kite Studios

Colourist: George K at Black Kite Studios

Colour Producer: Jamie McCubbin

Media agency: OMD

PR agency: Manifest

Creator agency: Billion Dollar Boy

Single artwork: Jess Ebsworth