Case Studies
COMMERCIAL: Sissy Boy jeans - “Love Yourself”
“The style and vigor of Sissy Boy jeans was brought to life with the creation of a commercial alive with the style and sex-appeal for
which the brand is known. Sissy boy jeans personify independence, moving from generation to generation with vigor whilst maintaining style
and attitude. It is not only a name; it is a brand that oozes confidence and self-respect” says Emma Lundy producer at Ogilvy CT
The lead female character in the commercial was created from reference stills and descriptions supplied by Ogilvy Cape Town.
Masters &
Savant were able to create the exact look their client wanted for her face and hair, something not possible in real life. The absolute
control over how the characters looked was something very new and exciting for Ogilvy.
The Sissy boy character was digital and therefore not subject to model usage fees, so the client was assured that their brand ambassador did
not suddenly appear in campaigns for other brands. Sissy boy now has the ultimate brand ambassador. She is immune to age and scandal - and
therefore timeless.
COMMERCIALS: Design Indaba 9, 10 and 11
Design Indaba 9
Set against the back drop of a South African bank note, and utilising images that one would expect to find on a 50 or a 100 Rand note,
the viewer is taken through a graphical representation of the different stages that a simple idea- in its ambiguity- can impact on and create
opportunity for millions.
Successful collaboration between Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town and Masters & Savant resulted in Design Indaba 9's television commercial
shifting animation in South African advertising in a new and exciting direction.
Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town creative director Joanne
Thomas said, "Design Indaba 9's campaign had to convey one thought across all the communications - that design and creativity have the
ability to become major players in our future economy."
“The real benefit of the ad was that it took the concept of the B2B print campaign and gave it popular appeal - making the concept accessible
to the layman - which is important in the advocacy work we do for design in South Africa." Says Ravi Naidoo, Founder of the Design Indaba
Design Indaba 10
Like all inventions, which turned into products, these began their life as a clever idea born out of necessity. The Design Indaba 10
commercials depicted how an idea might live in its creators mind, and finally evolve to be a useful and profitable product once realised.
Once again, success was realised with the award winning collaboration of Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town and Masters & Savant. Jupiter
Drawing Room Cape Town creative director duo Joanne Thomas & Livio Tronchin explained that Design Indaba 10's campaign had to convey the
message that "before it (the invention) was a product, it was an idea.” The team used the creative direction of how an idea might be born
within the fantastical imagination of the inventor and then demonstrated how this often ‘science fiction’ thought might be translated into a
manufactured product.
This campaign’s success rested on the use of real and successful South African ideas to illustrate how a simple yet
brilliant idea can influence both the economy and the way we live.
"We knew that Masters & Savant was fully capable of executing such an ambitious board due the great success of DI9's campaign" Ravi Naidoo
of Interactive Media said. “We at Indaba want our brand to always be associated with excellence. We are so proud of the ground breaking work
Masters & Savant have produced for Design Indaba over the last 2 years.”
Design Indaba 11
With the requirement to communicate the message of how design directly impacts on the South African economy, Design Indaba 11 once again
turned to Cape Town based companies, The Jupiter Drawing Room CT and Masters & Savant Worldwide CT, to produce their event promo. This will
be the third consecutive year the companies have partnered to produce the commercials for the highly anticipated conference.
“Both the purpose and message of Design Indaba stays the same; to clearly demonstrate the beneficial impact exceptional levels of
creativity and design have on the South African economy;” says Design Indaba CEO Ravi Naidoo. “It aims to promote design and designers, and
indeed, the entire creative industry - and to grow its influence in creating jobs and adding to the economy.
We really believe that the
‘creative industry’ is the sleeper in the SA economy, and has the potential to be as large a contributor as tourism or the automobile
industry. Its a delicious concept to take high art/design or technology as a solution to the problems of a developing economy.”
“With this in mind, we must advance the understanding every year that the Design Indaba not only recognized the highest level of design and
creative talent, but also reflects these. The event promos aired on national television promote the message of Design Indaba, but also
reflect the image of the conference through the creative interpretation of the message. The Jupiter Drawing Room and Masters & Savant have
successfully achieved this again this year,” says Naidoo.
COMMERCIALS: Foschini Campaign
The new Foschini campaign (and fourth one produced by Masters & Savant Worldwide for the retailer) aired at the end of 2007. The fresh new
look was designed to put the fashion brand on top of the retail chain.
The creation of a “block” stage that transforms into a magical cat walk populated by women dressed in Foschini’s new summer range of
fabulous clothing enhanced the emotion behind the advertising message - “Foschini clothing makes women feel confident, fashionable and free
to be themselves.”
The brand is after-all synonymous with ‘easy to wear fashion” says Louise Mouton Foschini Marketing Manager.
The television campaign received great feedback due to it’s focus on the more social aspects of the Foschini brand and certainly improved
brand visibility and awareness on SABC 1,2and 3.
BRANDING AND PROMOTION: Tube
It is imperative to be at the forefront of animation when your target audience are children as they are very perceptive and want what they
watch to be appealing. The brief was to produce a promo that would communicate the rights of children to the Channel’s viewers – children
aged between 4 and 11. A sequence of three promos was produced and has received high praise from children, parents and social groups
The creative solution to the reinvigoration of “DUB” was to present him as a rapper. Masters & Savant’s access to wholly owned Motion
capture technology allowed Dub to remain recognizable as his character while enabling him to have movements created with the exact body
language of a rapper.
Nivasha Naidoo, brand manager for SABC 2 tube says “Masters & Savant were able to engage children’s perspectives with the new images which
are amiable, engaging and posh at the same time and as a result we are keeping up with trends and staying relevant all the time. The new tube
imaging has been a great makeover for the tube brand, with a significant recorded increase in viewer ratings and closer affinity to the
brand.
BRANDING AND PROMOTION: SABC Mobile Branding and Promotion
The rationale of the commercial was to entrench SABC mobile as a lifestyle brand and build the MZuzu60 sub-brand as a brand icon for
SABC mobile within the total viewer group of SABC. The creative strategy was to create a tool box of graphic elements to package SABC Mobile
promo’s under the banner of Mzuzu60.The graphic elements were animated characters developed to appeal across age groups and have no race –
thereby ensuring a design that represented the constantly evolving technology and services on offer. In addition, a library of character
action was created to be intercut into the promos as text and video holding devices.
The result is a flexible and instantly recognisable toolkit that remains fresh and exciting regardless of change.
“Winning a gold Promax award has made more people aware of the Mzuzu60 brand. We are seeing an increase in repeat visits to the WAP portal
and the number of WAP hits since the WAP portal went live (15000) is 3 times more than the number of new registrations (5000). There was
noticeable growth in awareness of the brand during the roll out of the competition campaign across all SABC stations” says Riekie Enkerwitz
SABC mobile Brand Manager.
EXPERIENTIAL: Johnny Walker “Inkblot” Plasma Screens
The objective was to create animated competition promos designed for plasma screens used at an event, which need to be orientated
sideways. Johnnie Walker® Red Label® held their promos at various events and bars throughout Johannesburg and where giving away prizes such
as tot glasses, iPods and Musica vouchers.
"The brief was to create a new association towards the Johnnie Walker® Red Label® brand through the use of an unusual and creative animated
promotional approach.
"Having won two golds at the 2007 Loeries for work in this category, this was an ideal opportunity for us to flex our 'experiential' muscles.
One technique we employed was the use of time ramping for dramatic purposes - playing with acceleration and deceleration in a zero g
environment," says Roger Smythe co-founder of Masters & Savant. "Animation allowed us to actually use the whiskey to state the message -
something that non-animated commercials are not able to achieve. In this case, whiskey becomes the new ink."
He continues, "Using the concept of a golden Rorschach Test, the whiskey 'blots' reveal themselves as the Johnnie Walker® Red Label® icons -
the walking man, tumbler and the distinctive square bottle.
The process of liquid stimulation is very intensive and required a battery of
more than 30 CPU's to calculate into sections and required massive computing power."
Using animation at places where television's orientation can be controlled, such as at events or for experiential purposes, is an additional
benefit associated with this approach and results in animation - once again - engaging people in innovative, new and impactful ways. Enjoy
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EXPERIENTIAL: Stickman AV for Grey Worldwide
While AV's generally tend to still be dominated by live action, often talking heads and generic footage, the use of alternative formats,
such as animation is able to inject new life, excitement and interest into an old format.
To tell the story of Grey Worldwide and its search for a motto that would 'find the edge' for the agency, the Masters & Savant team set out
to create a stickmen world that would represent the ideal world of the Agency.
Masters & Savant created an AV that stands out from the rest, not through the use of large scale visual effects and expensive film shoots,
but rather through the simplicity of a well constructed idea interpreted in a visually appealing manner” said Mike Barnwell, Creative
Director of Grey Worldwide
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