My Kreepy Teacher strikes funny bone, just right, for Kreepy Krauly

My Kreepy Teacher brought a smile to South Africans around the world with unique SA humour

Ebony+Ivory and Retroviral recently worked in partnership with Kreepy Krauly to produce the viral advertisement, My Kreepy Teacher. The project is proof that it takes an agile brand to get comedic branded content right and a skilled creative team to produce it at speed – and just right.

The idea was to create a parody piece based on the beloved and locally filmed My Octopus Teacher, a trending debut Netflix Original documentary film that got South Africans talking about an unlikely friendship between Craig Foster and a wild octopus. My Octopus Teacher was directed by South Africans Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed.

Kreepy Krauly first dived deeply into parody by wrangling a Kreepy in 2013 with a viral win – Watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn5iDEw_3UU

Seven years after wrangling a Kreepy Krauly with actors Jason Goliath and Glen Biderman-Pam, Glen returned to set for My Kreepy Teacher with Executive Creative Director, Mike Sharman.

The concept was pitched to the Kreepy Krauly team on 18 September 2020 and go ahead was given the same day. The script was drafted in a matter of hours and the production team ramped up overnight to film the next day in a pool in Cape Town. Post production was finalised in just hours whilst the media team activated media strategy moves on 19 September.

My Kreepy Teacher was live on 20 September and hit viral status within 96 hours.

“To strike it viral needed the trust of the client and the team to move swiftly and with knowledge of social media,” said Paul Middleton, Managing Director of Ebony+Ivory. “The scale of audience is much bigger than when we made Kreepy Wrangler and timing has to be spot on but when the impact swells today, it is stronger than ever before,” he said.

To date the parody has gone global, reaching over the five million mark in views and also peaked the interest of the Money Show and 702, who invited Mike Sharman and Retroviral to discuss it on air.

The advertisement was a retail win for Kreepy Krauly as it was shared on the Takealot website, linking the branded content to the range of Kreepy Krauly products available from Ebony+Ivory client, 4Water Pool Solutions.

Comparatively, back in 2013, the viral win for Kreepy Krauly unlocked a sales increase of 143% year-on-year and with R10,000 in YouTube media spend, the branded content secured 77,000 total views in one month. Over 21 blog posts were written about the video and 100% of campaign sentiment was positive.

“What remains constant is the formula for a viral win, which is a great client, great creative team, great speed and great media knowledge,” concluded Middleton.

WATCH IT HERE:

Creditors:
ECD: Mike Sharman
Producer: Taryn Sharman
Director: Glen Biderman-Pam
DoP: Michael Cater
Editor: Declan Manca

About Ebony+Ivory

Ebony+Ivory is an integrated advertising agency with a 50 year story of brand stories that impact possibilities.