The Woolmark Company launches new global ‘Live&Breathe’ campaign via TBWA\Sydney
For the first time in over seven years, The Woolmark Company, the global authority on wool, is launching a global consumer awareness campaign via TBWA\Sydney to educate a new generation of consumers on the performance benefits of Australian Merino wool, focusing on breathable wool performance and athleisure wear.
The athleisure/activewear market is the fastest growing sector of the $1.7 trillion global textile business, and 90% of the world’s apparel wool is produced in Australia.
The campaign takes aim at the global tensions around our new obsession with synthetics and seeks to remind people that Merino wool’s natural qualities – breathability, odour control, moisture management – make it the original performance fibre.
The centrepiece of the campaign is a film that tells the story of a synthetic world that has forgotten how to live naturally. Instead of embracing natural fabrics, its people wear artificial, stifling clothing made from the coats of a strange new breed of synthetic sheep. Frustrated with this suffocating, fake world, the story’s heroine seeks out the natural world hiding just beyond the smoggy horizon.
The film will launch across New York, San Francisco, London, Shanghai and Tokyo and will be supported by large format and street OOH in all but one of these metro cities.
Activations will include influencer-led fitness classes and Merino wool capsule collection launches from brand partners, including P.E Nation and Erin Snow, highlighting ‘breathability’.
Says Stuart McCullough, managing director, The Woolmark Company: “A new generation of consumers are now expecting more from their purchases and Merino wool’s combined performance properties and eco credentials are primed to meet this expectation. Our global campaign reminds consumers of wool’s natural benefits, which cannot be matched by any other fibre.”
Says Andy DiLallo, CCO, TBWA\Sydney: “‘Live&Breathe’ is a big platform idea that can inspire innovation and communication for years to come.”
Says Paul Bradbury, CEO, TBWA\Australia: “It’s not often we have the opportunity to produce global campaigns based in Sydney, we are very proud that we will play a part in promoting Australian Merino wool to a new generation of global consumers.”
The campaign is also featured on the cover of the latest issue of Campaign Brief – together with an in-depth article. The issue also includes annual reports on TVC Post Production and Sound+Music. SUBSCRIBE NOW for only $44 per year.
The Woolmark Company
Managing Director – Stuart McCullough
Global Communications Manager – Laura Armstrong
Global Content and Creative Manager – Mitchell Oakley Smith
Senior Communications Manager – Anna McLeod
Junior Editor – Sophie Joy Wright
Creative Agency – TBWA Sydney
Chief Executive Officer – Paul Bradbury
Chief Creative Officer – Andy DiLallo
Chief Strategy Officer – Matt Springate
Creative Director – Kat Alvarez-Jarratt
Creative Director – Doug Hamilton
Pete Citroni – Art Director
Head of Production – Lisa Brown
Head of Design – Chris Mawson
Client Partner – Camilla Stapley
Business Director – Sarah Cornish
Producer – Madeleine White
Designer – Paul Hughes
Digital Designer – Razif Djamaluddin
Production Company – Goodoil Films
Director – Nathan Price
Executive Producers – Sam Long and Juliet Bishop
Art Director – David Mark Lee
DOP – Ginny Loane
Music – Squeak E Clean Productions LA
Sound Design – Beau Silvester TBWA\Sydney
Post Production – Alt.VFX
VFX Supervisor: Jay Hawkins
Executive Producer: Aborah Buick
VFX Coordinator: Jayce Attewell
Head of 2D: Matthew Chance
Editor – Peter Sciberras
Edit House – ARC EDIT
Assistant Editors – Damien Magee & Lucas Baynes
Editorial Producer – Olivia Carolan
Production Assistant – Raphaëlle Saïd
Executive Producer – Joseph Perkins
Colourist: Trish Cahill
47 Comments
Great stuff. Well done.
Super smart strategy, epic execution
Nicely done
Truly world class. Next level production.
introducing sheerrunner…
the classic shakespearean story of a woman given some wool who then runs in straight line unopposed to some sheep.
who needs character arcs, conflict and storytelling? when we have dystopian sheepshaggers.
Brilliant!!!
Truly world class nice one.
It’s as if Blade Runner and Fifth Element had a baby. Looks awesome! Must have been fun to make.
Very long and very dull
Wow. Great spot. Feels cinematic and very timely message with everything going on at the moment.
Incredible. I got chills.
Well done.
Powerful. Beautiful. Nailed it.
WOW. This is epic! Beautifully executed from all involved.
This is good. No people getting on here talking up some crap thing they worked on. Proper good. The industry here needs to make work like this to justify itself and keep going. Bring back the big ad.
That was epic!
when the world zigs, zag
Great stuff, shame about the music, never really gels..plus the folksy girl singer electronica thing is v tired.
Very jealous, killer work!
Two thumbs up!
This is truly world class work. BOOM
I used to work at TBWA Sydney. If this is the level of what we can expect from them in the future I wish i’d stayed.
Well done guys. Very very well done
This is more like it! Nice!
I used to work at TBWA Sydney and I’m very glad I left.
Glad I left too
Great piece.
It’s beautiful and will win a ton of awards… let’s hope it maintains the attention of the fickle public past the usual 6 second dwell time… they’re not advertising creatives after all.
‘The campaign set out to remind people that Merino wool’s natural qualities – breathability, odour control, moisture management – make it the original performance fibre.’
But the ad does none of the above.
very engaging, the best work I’ve seen in a long time.
It’s big mass audience advertising that makes me feel like we’ve so often lost our way these days.
I have to disagree with most… It’s so far up its own arse I can’t even tell what it’s about. Advertising wank at its worst.
very engaging, the best work I’ve seen in a long time.
It’s big mass audience advertising that makes me feel like we’ve so often lost our way these days.
The time of this is perfect, with advertising so lost at the moment, what a great reminder of the power of crafted story telling. We need more of this Australia please.
Beaut.
I miss big, long, emotional, story-telling ads….so bored of the shitty kitschy ads out at the moment that spoonfeed the viewer such a direct message it leaves no room for imagination – all because Facebook and Instagram say so. Need more of this!
Really lovely piece of work, well done team
This campaign is a positive for all creative agencies in Australia – get behind – even the jealous guys – it might just help to keep you employed
Do androids wank to plastic sheep?
high production wank fest. wanted to make your Hollywood film break? Didn’t quite make the cut.
Workd class
The first 2:15 secs are a waste of time.
So much time is spent on establishing the negative I doubt if anyone, apart from ad people, will have the patience to wait for the pay-off at the end.
The set-up is the ad land’s equivalent of listening to Rob Oakshott telling the Australian people why he was going to support Julia Gillard – excruciatingly boring and ten times as long as it needed to be.
In truth – you’d probably have a more successful campaign if you just ran the last 15 secs as a standalone.
Slaps the pants off anything I’ve seen from
here in a while
Great strategy, amazing craft, average creative idea. A lot of people congratulating their own work and that’s fair, it’s great to be proud of your work, but let’s be realistic.
Admire the effort and the craft but largely feels like an overblown wank.
if you can accept that this storytelling construct of a product breaking us free from a dystopian or mundane existence is a well trodden and overused addy formula, then this is great.
Being a creative in advertising was about learning the skill of being concise.
This isn’t that.
It is beautiful but boring.
It lost me.
I don’t know anything more about wool for having (nearly) watched it.
Wankfest / up its own arse. What does that mean? Too conceptual for you…? If you don’t like something, thats OK. If you don’t like the company, thats OK too. But at least try and critique something properly. Its a shame much of the negative comments are clearly from bitter creatives, who cant really put into words what they don’t like about it, which is probably why they cant get a writing job.
Shhhh.
Ok.
Everyone here needs to realise, that clients read this blog too. Clients who invest a crap-tonne of money into spots like this. Maybe even this client.
Now. Is it perfect? Hell no. Nothing is.
Does it stand out? Yes. Absolutely.
Does it sell? I think it does. It’s wool vs a world of polyester girl active-wear.
Does it have a truth? Absolutely. You sweat more in acrylics than wool.
Is it a cool story? I think so. And told very well.
Now, if you’re a client listening – look at the sales results this brings in. I think it’s a winner. If you’re a creative listening – just hold your criticism for a moment. Because while it’s not 190% perfect (and btw – nothing ever is), I’d much prefer my next client coming in and saying ‘I want something like the wool ad’ than saying ‘I want something like that kmart jingle’.
Get it?
Yes but I think the general tone is that this been created in an old school way.
People have pointed to the length, the pace of the edit, the reveal at the end of the story.
This is not how modern storytelling exists. I just checked YouTube and it has less than 500 views.
So if we are going to talk about effectiveness – all of that is going to need to be paid for with media, not earned.
I think people are coming down on both sides because this was so close to being amazing but old habits have held it back.
Looks great, but doesn’t make me want to buy wool. The PVC future looks really cool.