Beyond the Brief: How Sunday Gravy crafted DiDi’s wonderfully chaotic universe with ‘Yes I DiDi’
For its latest campaign with ride-share brand DiDi, independent creative agency Sunday Gravy set out to make a splash – and delivered it in the form of Nudgy, a flute-playing, hip-thrusting mascot with just the right amount of chaos. In this edition of Beyond the Brief, Sunday Gravy Creative Directors Max Kennedy and Sam Whatley and Head of Creative Production Karolina Bozajkovska unpack how Nudgy came to life, the method behind the madness, and why client bravery made all the difference.
Let’s go back to the beginning, what was the initial challenge or opportunity DiDi came to you with?
Max Kennedy: “People don’t care about the journey, they care about the destination. We get you to the destination cheaper, so you can do more when you’re there”. DiDi’s challenge was simple. They’re aware that their competition is used as a verb – so knew they needed to make a splash creatively. It was a big challenge, but an exciting one.
How did you land on such a wonderfully weird tone, and what conversations did that spark internally and with the client?
Sam Whatley: Yes, I DiDi was the platform we won the pitch on – but executionally it took a bit of development to find the right articulation of it. Something we kept bumping up against was the typical depiction of what “out” looks like in advertising. What we latched onto was that often, reflecting on a night out, is almost better than the night itself. The peculiar characters that you come across, the bizarre interactions that make sense in the context of the moment, but make none later. The tone fell out of that – the memory of a big night out.
There’s something about Nudgy that instantly reminded me of Iggy Pop or maybe something out of The Mighty Boosh, who or what were the key references that shaped him?
Max: There was a lot we went through that was wrong before we found what was the right balance. We wanted him to be likeable and charming, but also have something pretty cheeky about him – like he had been partying since the 80s/90. David Lee Roth and Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) were names we referred to a lot. And when we saw the actors audition, we really were able to lean into that stylistically, to create something iconic.
Sam: Boosh may have been in the back of our minds in the sense that we wanted it to feel hand made. There’s some obvious CGI moments in there, but we tried to be as sparing as possible. Doing stuff in camera helped us make sure both Nudgy and the world he lives in felt grounded by something.
Nudgy’s moves are oddly hypnotic – who’s to thank for the choreography, and is the hope for them to go viral?
Karolina Bozajkovska: The Choreographer was Vanessa Marian Varghese, she spent a bit of time in rehearsals with Nudgy and our group of friends, she did such an amazing job given none of the cast had any previous dancing ability. You’d never know. Watch this space for a Tik Tok instructional video for all to learn.
The flute track is unreasonably catchy. How did it come together, and what kind of brief did you give the composer?
Sam: We had some specific pieces of reference, and really invited the composers to treat this like it wasn’t the score to an ad – rather an intoxicating banger for people to get excited by. We needed there to be a relentless repetitiveness to the track in order to keep the energy up while suggesting that this night may just never end… Electric Sheep nailed it in one of their first demos – it didn’t change much from the first listen.
What convinced you Jim Hosking was the right kind of unhinged to direct Nudgy’s world?
Max: Jim’s treatment was the perfect elevation of what we had, while staying true to the idea. After our initial conversations with him, it became clear very quickly we were on the same page. His distinct tone fit the world we wanted to create perfectly.
Before launch, unbranded footage of Nudgy went viral and racked up over 50 million views, how did that moment shape your confidence in the work before it even hit media?
Sam: The overwhelming positivity of the comments that were shouting the strategy was nice. It was also a good reminder that we had designed this whole campaign to fit into people’s feeds and algorithms.
What are the advantages of working with a brave client like DiDi – and how does that bravery show up on a project like this?
Karolina: The advantage is trust. There were so many moments in preproduction that you’d expect a client to go, “okay, now you’ve pushed it too far”, but every time DiDi just smiled and said, “can’t wait”. There was a moment in the casting presentation where we turned to them for approval on two, grey haired, half naked people gyrating to crazy flute music. Tim, our amazing client, paused and said, “… I don’t know what you want me to say?”.
Sam: Say Yes, I DiDi.
Max: Say it!
Creative Agency: Sunday Gravy
Production Company: Hooves
Director: Jim Hosking
Producer: Renae Begent
Executive Producer: John Pace
DOP: Jeremy Rouse
Editor: Mark Burnett / The Editors
Casting Director: Natalie Jane Harvie / Citizen Jane Casting
Costume Design: Liv Simpson
Art Director: Sam Lukins
Prosthetics, Hair and Makeup Design: Odd Studio, Anastasia Pappas
Grade: Fergus Rotherham
Online: Eugene Richards
Music & Sound Design: Electric Sheep
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