The Mill have just completed the post on the refreshing new Orange campaign for four new Pay-As-You-Go Tariffs. Directed by Simon Ratigan for HLA through Mother, the new campaign showcases the new packages called ‘Dolphin’, ‘Racoon’, ‘Canary’ and ‘Panther’, with the underlying theme that ‘from a distance we all look the same, but up close everyone is different’.

Throwing traditional advertising formats out of the window, the agency decided to stage an event to showcase the ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§personalities’s of the 4 new tariffs. Through an online message and SMS campaign, members of the public were invited to audition for a mysterious project in a hot location. Six thousand people replied, from whom 300 were chosen. Those 300 people were taken to a remote location in the Spanish countryside and split into four groups with personality types corresponding to Orange’s four new phone packages: raccoon, dolphin, panther and canary. All were then given the same, completely unscripted task – to erect four, 45 ft inflatable sculptures of the four animals.

The results were filmed and photographed by HLA’s Simon Ratigan, and the participants were also given cameras to record themselves. The spots will be preceded by an introductory 60-second execution, followed by a series of 30-second spots showing what happened on the day. A blog and online scrapbook of the event will appear online, showcasing the experiences of the participants on Orange World and highlighting the brand’s internet service offer.

Mother creative Sam Walker explained the idea: “The Animals packages are about observing how different people do things differently so we wanted to do something about the way people behave that wasn’t contrived or set up. Many ads feature ‘real’ people but they’re almost always actors. We wanted to create something that would challenge people, take effort, and ultimately be a collective rewarding experience. This was about creating and capturing genuine emotion and experience.”

Walker added: “The way we shot it was of huge importance to us. It featured real people and all we did was record how they were reacting. The whole idea lives or dies on the credibility of the footage. We knew that if we manipulated the situation and cast actors the entire project would crumble very quickly – the integrity of the project is its reality. It is also a very democratic approach to advertising; we just wanted to document what was happening and the journey people were going on.”

The Mill Barnsley attended the shoot in Spain and was Lead Flame back in London. During the shoot the four 45 ft high orange inflatable and transparent ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§animal’s balloons were transported from their workshop in Leicester, to an arid landscape near a lake/reservoir in a National Park one hour North of Marbella, Spain. Over the course of 3 days each ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§animal’s balloon was lifted up onto a 15 foot plinth by the 300 Orange competition winners and inflated.

Barnsley original brief was to consider how to make the balloons appear even bigger, but as they were inflated it was clear that they were going to be big enough. The second concern was the erratic and often strong Sirocco winds which risked damaging the balloons beyond repair. There were occasions when it was just too windy to erect them. Numerous stills and plates were filmed as soon as the balloons were inflated, as a fail safe, “just in case”.

However, it was an unexpected problem that caused the most concern. Although the balloon plinths were erected “next to” and “in” the water of the reservoir, nobody took into account the thirsty holiday makers one hundred miles away on the Costa Del Sol. Every afternoon the reservoir sloosh gates opened, dramatically reducing the water levels. By the last shoot day, the water bound Dolphin had been moved more than 100 feet from its original position. One solution to disguise this problem and help with the final composition was to shoot the balloons in two halves and from two positions. This involved wading through the waist high water and mud pushing a boat containing camera equipment and trying to avoid some hungry crawfish.

View the Spot here!

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