EPIC NEW BT BRANDING CAMPAIGN

BT’s major new brand advertising campaign is in the form of an epic 90-second commercial featuring a cast of millions.
The spot was created by St Luke’s and was directed by Jake Scott through RSA Films with special visual effects and post-production by Smoke & Mirrors and Lola. Set in a gigantic amphitheatre, the ad depicts a series of individuals posing questions to a crowd of millions, from children, policemen and pregnant women to Buddhist monks, business people and fly fishermen.
The commercial is a metaphor for the way modern communications are working today. It aims to show how BT is helping people to discover new possibilities in their businesses, their relationships and their lives through being universally connected. It marks St Luke’s first corporate work for BT since landing the brief for repositioning the brand last October, and represents a tour de force in cutting-edge visual effects.
Commenting on the campaign Amanda Mackenzie, Director of Marketing Services at BT, said: “This visionary campaign powerfully demonstrates that this exciting new communications society is open to people from all walks of life – and that BT is at the heart of it, hosting it, creating the technology and leading the way. Above all it promotes the fact that the more connections we make, the more possibilities we have.”
The commercial was written by Andy Drugan and art directed by Simon Friedberg at St Luke’s. It will run for three weeks across terrestrial and satellite television in 90-second and 60-second formats and will be complemented by a national press campaign and an on-line drive, both of which develop the same idea of a stadium full of people.
Post production was done at Smoke & Mirrors and Lola, two of London’s leading post production companies. The visual effects were completed by Sean Broughton and Rob Moggach at Smoke & Mirrors, working in collaboration with Grahame Andrew and Oscar-winner Rob Harvey from Lola who provided on-set supervision and 3-D computer graphics.
Filming of the commercial took place over one week in Cape Town, South Africa, with a specially-built set and hundreds of extras cast locally. The director of photography John Mathieson, the first assistant director Brian Cook, and Rob Harvey from Lola, one of the key visual effects supervisors, all worked on the movie Gladiator, triggering incorrect press speculation that the ad was in fact based on the movie.
Media planning for the campaign is through New PHD. TV buying is through The Allmond Partnership with press buying by Zenith Media. (CD)