Bizcommunity.com inspires FNB ad

Why Australia is a winning nation

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It all began, explains Wimpie le Roux, FCB's business unit director for FNB, towards the end of 2006, when Bizcommunity.com ran a column from Moerdyk relating the true life story of an incident he witnessed at Cape Town International, which involved a cynical South African being put in his place by an Australian tourist (Why Australia is a winning nation).

"The creative team saw the story on Bizcommunity and at the time they were busy with conceptualising a television campaign to announce FNB's involvement in and support for the 2010 FIFA World Cup," continues Le Roux. "They then sought and got permission from Chris to 'redo' the... story as part the FNB advertising campaign. The rest is history."

Explains Moerdyk, "I decided to write about [the incident] because it was like manna from heaven for me. That ad is a very accurate reflection of what I personally witnessed. I am extremely positive about 2010 and SA's potential to get it right and it always upsets me when I see these naysayers being so negative about it all.

"So, in spite of the fact that I am not a great fan of the Australians - mainly because I hate losing at rugby and cricket - I decided that this story was really worth telling. That unknown Australian made so much sense and put things into perfect perspective."

The ad began flighting on 23 December 2006 and Le Roux says that response to the commercial has been varied, ranging from people saying that FNB is accusing white South Africans of racism and telling South Africans to stop whining about crime and corruption to very positive feedback. This included a letter of congratulations from Minister Trevor Manuel, who conveyed "'his sincere appreciation and congratulations at First National Bank's creativity and acumen as captured in the FNB advertisement on the hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup'. He continued by calling the advert which 'seeks to influence and shape opinion of the country's capability at the hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup' a 'stroke of genius'".

Says Le Roux, "As a Proudly South African organisation, FNB fully supports nation-building and that is really what the commercial is about. It seeks to engage people on a personal level about their attitude towards 2010 and the incredible opportunity in holds for South Africa. There have been three iconic nation-building occasions (the release of Mandela, South Africa going to the polls and SA winning the Rugby World Cup)...the 2010 FIFA World Cup is the fourth such opportunity to build pride in our nation."

Moerdyk is delighted that FCB and FNB have had the courage to run this true story as an ad. "It is a message that needs to be got through to a lot of South Africans who have the habit of being negative about just about everything... I really do hope that a lot of other big corporations will follow FNB's lead and start running positive examples of what is great about this country. There are hundreds of stories to tell."

The team responsible for the ad are Ashley Bacon, executive group creative director, FCB South Africa; Michael Wilson, creative director; and Connie Powys, creative director.

Enjoy every moment

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On 15 January 2007, morrisjones&co launched the new Wimpy brand campaign using an allegedly never-seen-before experimental television technique: 5000 photographs used to create a 45-second ad about a journey through a Wimpy customer's mind as he remembers moments of his life. The post-production alone took over 500 hours to put together.

"The way you remember stuff is always random and moments tumble over each other in a seamless stream of consciousness," says Rudolph Janse van Rensburg morrisjones&co creative group head. "And that's why we invented a production technique that visually shows what happens in your imagination."

The film was directed by Slim Grippa from Freshwater films and the animation created by Graeme Carr from Bite.

From a technical aspect, each scene shot was made up from hundreds of still photographic shots. The performance by the cast was key, not only to the story, but also to the authenticity of the shot. The team then painstakingly broke down each element of the shot individuals and shot it in front of either a green or black screen (or both), depending upon what effect they wished to give that element. Even all the fireworks and confetti in the Chinese New Year scene were shot individually and put back together, piece by piece, layer by layer by the visual artists at Bite. The Chinese New Year scene alone has over 600 layers, and the shot is less than 4-seconds long.

Carr hopes the ad "will open other directors up to the possibilities that animation can play in creating something completely unique and that animation doesn't have to mean irritating 3d characters or 'Matrix Knockoffs', or even graphic design for that matter."

Packing a punch

Created by Grey Worldwide SA to fulfill the creative brief of creating a concept-driven image-enhancing retail commercial, the tongue-in-cheek Spitz sale campaign sees some glamorous girls readying themselves for a hard day of designer shopping by accessorising with gumguards and boxing glove.

Catherine 'Sjambok' Strydom and Baby 'Bazooka' Kunene are just two of the gals getting 'ready to rumble' at the sale. "We had fun showing the lengths these chic girls will go to in order to get a pair of Spitz Designer shoes - especially when they are on sale!" enthuses Kerry Friend of Grey's Activation Department.

Deal with it

"Women are from earth, men are from earth, deal with it" and "The length of a minute depends on which side of the loo door you're on" are two examples of the Savanna Light campaign by TLC intended to get women chuckling as they build affinity with the brand.

"Savanna Light is the first to make use of our Female Talking Frames option," says Andrew Kramer, MD of TLC. "As well as having an attractive visual message, the campaign is maximised through a 20 second audio clip reiterating the communication."

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