Optus launches Open Network with blockbuster animation commercial via M&C Saatchi, Sydney
Optus will go to air this Sunday with a major commercial created by M&C Saatchi, Sydney that features some of the most sophisticated animation ever seen in an Australian TVC to launch its Open Network.
Renowned animation company BUF Paris produced two celebratory TVCs featuring the Optus animals appearing in a massive stage production.
The commercials were created entirely in CG. All animals werepainstakingly conceived from scratch with crocodiles, flamingos, flyingsquirrels and even fireflies researched and rebuilt in CG.
Theresult is a celebration of the Optus mobile network and of the”anything is possible” positioning to deliver the Open Network – themobile network with real possibilities.
The new brand namefollows the $2 billion investment Optus has made in its mobile networkover the past five years, with more than 1,000 new mobile siteslaunched since 2008.
The commercial is described by its famedEuropean director Thierry Poiraud as a “magical journey throughexquisite environments.”
M&C Saatchi, Sydney copywriter AndyFlemming and art director Shane Gibson couldn’t be happier with theresult: “Thierry brings a love of animation mixed with an incredibleunderstanding of light, colour and magic. We’ve watched the commercialbuild frame by frame over months and the crew simply never stoppedworking,” the creative duo said in a joint statement.
“We’dget shots in the middle of the night where the guys had just come upwith an idea and then worked through to the morning to get it right.”
Executivecreative director Ben Welsh was equally excited: “This commercial isthe result of trust. A client trusting an agency. An agency trusting ateam. A team trusting a director.”
Outdoor, print and online executions will follow the TVC launch on Sunday.
Ben Welsh (Executive Creative Director)
Andy Flemming (Writer and Creative Group Head)
Shane Gibson (Art Director and Creative Group Head)
Paul Carpenter (Art Director)
Group Account Director: Christine Gardner
Account Directors: Renee Marie Hyde, Craig Page, Sarah Borenstein
Account Manager: Gina Xiradis
Planning: Colin Jowell
Agency Producer: Loren August
Production Companies: Rods Films, Paris / The Feds, Sydney
Director: Thierry Poiraud
Producer: Alex Richardot
CG / Post: BUF, Paris
Music: Tchaikovsky, Nigel Crowley @ Stellar
OUTDOOR & ONLINE
Shane Gibson (Art Director and Creative Group Head)
Matt Weston (Digital Writer)
Jason Woefl (Art Director)
Shane Kruger (Designer)
Steve Farkas (Online Art Director)
Media: MPG
43 Comments
That’s pretty spectacular stuff.
Nice one guys. Tough client too.
M&C definitely does some pretty fucking major TVCs. This is really good.
“The result is a celebration of the Optus mobile network and of the “anything is possible” positioning to deliver the Open Network – the mobile network with real possibilities.”
Er no it isn’t. It’s a load of animated animals flapping around with absolutely no reference to the product or brand except that inferred from previous work. This is like the advertising equivalent of the Last days of Rome
Nice one Carpo; instead of a trip to Africa this year, you wangled time in Paris? Pretty sweet, man!
Jake
expensive doesn’t mean great. rubbish.
Well, seeing as most of the agencies in town are Telstra rostered, it’s no real surprise that any Telco brave enough to stick something up gets panned.
But hey, it’s the blog.It’s not real life. My Award school student told me he plasters the blog every day and he’s never had a job so yeah. Go for it.
(By the way, Kudos for something that doesn’t involve ‘just using some Facebook kids yeah?’ You know who you are).
I like it. Not sure if I could have done much better with the mandatories they have over there and a product that is, essentially, an unseen entity. Still they’re all top lads over there so well done for the trip.
I like optus work. Doesn’t take itself so seriously. Well done Fleming. Thought you’d left carpo.
Wow!
Not sure what it’s saying (we’re huge in the pants department?) but it’s beautifully done.
Fantasia comes to life.
Fuck off haters. The work in this is quite spectacular.
Will it sell the network?
Depends on the network really.
This works better as a radio ad.
Andy, I doffs me cap (again).
As you know I’m a fan of nice animation.
But nice animation done in Paris?
Genius.
Wow. There’s a new Singleton’s in town. It’s called M&C Saatchi. Atrocious stuff for clients with big pockets and small imaginations.
Visually spectacular, sure. And that’s more than half the battle already won. But what’s the consumer benefit? I take out there’s shitloads of people slowing down the Optus Network.
I also like sprint’s work from goodby. The Award winning version of this campaign. You know, the one that was done by the new ECD at mojo in Melbourne, Franklin.
Their campaign was for the ‘now network’ m&c’s is for the ‘open network’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImAD8BOBOhw&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Ps. Not a hater. Just too many ‘similarities’ to be a lover.
i like how they’ve got separate credits for outdoor and online.
Cheers Doddsy.
Always nice to see someone you know at a public lynching. Especially when it’s you standing on the wobbly chair.
I’ll presumably see you at the cricketers at some point.
I’ll see everyone else on here next week when part two comes out.
Can’t wait.
11.42pm
Pretty close to Grrrr in both execution and defense
There’s a magic in Disney’s Fantasia that’s missing here.
Done better in 1940.
Sorry.
I’m sure Andy Flemming is a really nice chap, and an amazing creative, but I don’t think he’d feel comfortable with his fanclub congratulating him on a stellar solo performance.There’s obviously (judging be the credits) a very large team of people who contributed it some way, right down to the caterers. Unfortunately we can’t thank them in the credits, but you get my gist.
Secondly, for those fanboys who think it’s great that he simply got a trip to Paris out of it, I’d pull my heads in because this anonymous poster could in fact be a client, colleague or employer.
Integrity. Respect. Responsibility. Few words to keep in mind when posting.
Yes, there were many, many people who took over a year to get this off the ground.
And much as we would loved to have spent a couple of heady weeks in Paris watching Squirrel fur get lit, we actually did the whole thing from Sydney.
As the entire thing was CG, we just needed to be sent quicktimes every few days and call the French when they got up.
As long as you don’t mind doing a conference call from the middle of the London Hotel or, indeed, miss out on Paris it works out pretty well.
It looked good on the TV screen last night. It is really well done.
i saw this come on last night. didn’t stand out any more than the rest of optus’ crap with the animals. especially with that music. the CGI or 3D or whatever you want to call it wasn’t that impressive. it’s not bad, i just don’t know what all the fuss is about.
Looks like an ad for the Animation company, not Optus.
The visuals don’t actually mean anything. It’s as bad as that Toyota Hybrid ad with the multi-coloured gymnasts, a pointless, empty celebration of joy and happyness, devoid of any creativity or idea.
Why is everyone on here back slapping and saying well done, have standards for this category stooped this low?
If you watch the ad and listen to the VO as opposed to just blindly lashing out, you’ll see that every line links to an animal action.
Try and do an expensive telco ad, with animals, that looks as good as this.
And yes, I work at M&C but didn’t do this one.
isn’t this just a rip off of Sprint NOW..with some animals??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImAD8BOBOhw
I’ve worked for the (cough cough) competition. And I have to say that Optus are, undoubtedly, the best brand out there in the marketplace. By far. The ads are always a delight. The in-store is amazing and they’ve kept a distinct look and feel. Always. Well done all. Everyone else on here probably works for the cretins I did.
‘Try and do an expensive telco ad, with animals, that looks as good as this.’
I think you’ve expressed my point better than I could ever have done.
2.08PM In what world do you think people listen to endless, wall to wall, voice overs?
Just another ad fighting in a packed space with others that shout at you from the telly.
Hey 2.08PM, no one’s saying making ads is easy. It ain’t. It’s hard.
But don’t defend average work either. You don’t get plaudits just for making stuff for a difficult client.
That’s why we have awards, to celebrate work that’s clever and unique.
This is neither.
Jeez, it’s alright.
But I’d save the whole “client trusting its balls, agency trusting a team, team trusting its sack blah blah blah” speech for when you do something better than a 6 out of 10.
But hey this is post GFC Australian advertising, and it is M&C.
2:45
We have awards to backslap Indian teams who carefully remove computer store logos and enter Apple ads into Cannes.
Oh, and those bubblegum ads that pour out of Australia every time they can think of a new one.
And let’s not forget Earth Hour. They won for a radio station that nobody ever heard and was seemingly discontinued just before the award deadlines.
I wouldn’t put much stock in Awards anymore mate. Any fucker can get one and the best CDs look at the big stuff, not the scam.
Nice rant 4.06pm
Can someone else translate for the rest of us?
The animals mandate is becoming an albatross.
Old CD. I would have thought that you of all people would understand the concept of a brand property.
After all, you were ranting about VB losing theirs.
The animals are distinctly Optus.
Can anyone tell me what Telstra stands for? Vodaphone?
Fragmented work, no matter how occasionally great (great wall, Alexander Graham Bell’s head in a jar from the Monkeys) does not a great brand make.
M&C have one of the toughest properties to deal with. I think they handle it extremely well.
Whoah, just caught up with the blog and only 4 days after this spot was posted. Lots of vitrIol for a nice looking ad that I’m guessing the public will like. Remember them? They’re the people that buy our client’s products, who in turn pay our salaries which allow us to live a better than average lifestyle. The last i heard, Optus were doing well selling their wares and M&C doing equally well winning new business.
Is it award winning? Don’t ask me.
I did some award winning rubber glove ads once. Didn’t sell many gloves.
(Maybe they were in the 28% of award winning work that isn’t effective?)
i also did some ads with raccoons and ostriches which didn’t win any awards, (apart from a few overseas animation awards), but sold a shed load of mobile phone plans.
Anyhow, the guys at M&C were kind enough to credit me on the above ad even though it is 200% better than when i was loosely involved and that’s integrity, respect and responsibility.
Thanks guys.
Paul
Optus brand recognition must be the best around, They don’t even
need to show the logo. Anyone else got a campaign that’s lasted
over 14 years?
Congratulations to the French economy.
Alright, let me put it another way. The need to incorporate the animal theme is, in this case, obscuring the message. It’s always a tricky balancing act when you’re juggling two elements – both the brand property and the individual proposition in this case, in the one ad. This is an example of a lopsided balance, in which spectacular production values devoted to the brand property overwhelm the message being communicated. ‘Whalesong’ was, on the other hand a very good, very well-produced use of the theme, but then again, the message on that occasion – one of communication and nothing more – was much simpler. The creative challenge for Optus is, if the animals theme is to be persevered with, to find cleverer and cleverer (ie: more creative) ways of getting the balance right, and that mightn’t necessarily involve spending ever-greater amounts of money on production.
There is nothing sadder than a top 10 agency rising to the bait on here. Keep off off the blog guys. And keep your integrity.
I’ll tell you what’s sadder, 6.46PM
Producing work like this.
And if you’re proud enough to put it up on the blog, prepare to be shot down.
From customer point, when i saw this ad, i was bit overwhelmed of flashing, dashing animation and music flying all around, but didn’t remember anything the voice has said.
This ad is bit of Moulin Rouge way, the only thing missing is the lap dancing. Overall, it’s a not bad one.