Go on a laid-back journey with Corona Extra

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Screen shot 2010-09-24 at 10.42.50 AM.pngHow do you sell a brand to the most laid-back target market in the world? You take them on a journey.

Today,brewer Carlton and United Breweries (CUB) and Clemenger BBDO Melbournewill release a short film, ‘The Journey’ for Corona Extra. Shot bylegendary surf film maker, Taylor Steele, The Journey follows fivefriends, including surfers Jarrad Howse, Dave Frim and Marlon Gerber,as they travel up the west coast of Mexico in a ’76 WinnebagoChieftain.

Photographer Chris ‘Hollywood’ Searl (founder of Monster ChildrenMagazine) came along for the trip and his amazing stills will form partof the campaign. The three-minute movie has also been cut down into aseries of 16 TVCs, which will go to air on October 1. In true Coronastyle, they are not about pushing a hard sell, more about living theCorona ethos of being ‘From where you’d rather be’.

Using American born, Bali-based Taylor Steele to shoot the series was a bit of a gamble, as he had never made an ad before.

“This was a very unorthodox project from the start,” explains PaulMcMillan, group account director at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. “We knewwe couldn’t capture these truly effortless moments on a traditionalfilm set, so we needed to treat this differently. Driving throughMexico for weeks with a surf filmmaker, a few friends and some roughsketches was definitely a new approach for all of us. The risks takenon this project reflect the great trust between CUB and the agency, aswell as a deep collective understanding of the Corona brand”.

And in case you’re thinking it sounds like the dream assignment, you won’t be hearing any disagreement from the crew.

Professional surfer Jarrad Howse (who, don’t forget, gets to go to places like this for a

living) said this was one of the most amazing experiences he’d everhad: “After surfing all day at an un-crowded right point with all thecrew sitting down with a Corona watching perfect waves roll through thepalm tree lined point, I realised that it was exactly where I wanted tobe!”

Anna Vitali, one of the stars of the film said one of her favourite memories was the night

they had a bonfire on the beach: “We swam, played football on the beachwith some locals kids then watched the sun set and drank Coronas aroundthe fire,” she said.

The campaign encompasses the movie, 1 x 45 sec, 11 x 30 sec and 4 x 15 sec TVCs(to be aired on pay TV), cinema, outdoor, magazine and digital.