by MarkLives (@marklives) This week we feature insight into the brief, creative idea, production challenges and results of the “#ThisIsGlugGlug” campaign for Sasol from FCB Joburg.
View all the #Campaigns at a glance on our #Campaigns Pinterest board!
Watch our #Campaigns and #CampaignRadar playlists on YouTube! Client: Sasol
Ad agency: FCB Joburg
Title: #ThisIsGlugGlug
Information supplied by FCB Joburg.
Brief
The South African retail trading climate has evolved at a swift rate over the last 10 years. With increased urbanisation, digitalisation and globalisation, a high and sophisticated level of competitiveness and increased consumer power of choice has been established.
The retail fuel forecourts and convenience channels are operating in an extremely competitive landscape. Switching costs from one fuel station to another is low for the customer expecting high levels of service and offerings, leading to a very low loyalty threshold for fuel brands. Low switching costs and high expectations gave rise to exclusive grocery/food partnerships with fuel retailers. Competitor activity is symptomatic of the increased number of well-established partnerships between oil companies and retailers.
Recognising that the country’s fuel market has moved toward the introduction of more stringent clean-fuel standards, through its technology innovation hub, Sasol Energy employs its technological knowledge to develop products for a constantly changing market and has been successful at producing world-standard products fit-for-use in the market place.
Creative summary
It was no small task for FCB Joburg to develop a campaign for a global brand such as Sasol. With a tip of the hat to the advertising legends of decades gone by, FCB Joburg borrowed some of the magic that it had brought to life for Sasol in 1991 from a commercial with a little boy, his dog and a toy sports car… Glug-Glug.
Sasol has so many technical attributes that make it a superior fuel. Today, we remind people who know us about the magic of Glug-Glug and we introduce Glug-Glug to a new generation of South Africans. It is hugely exciting and a massive privilege to be part of this story. — Ahmed Tilly, FCB Joburg chief creative officer.
Resources
Start: 3 April 2019, to run for three months.
Media:
- DStv, SABC, ENCA, e.tv
- Sasol social media
- Outdoor – billboards and street poles
Production
Star Films
“When we saw the script, it was love at first sight — a delightful story about a little girl who believes in the power of magic,” says Ashley Kadish, Star Films producer. “The biggest challenge for us was finding the perfect little girl. We needed someone who was young enough to still believe in magic, to be endearing and enchanting, but at the same time she needed to have insight into what the commercial was all about and to understand the deeper mechanics of the script. It was to be a challenge to expect a seven-year-old to be able to perform consistently over three days. We got lucky and found the perfect little diva. By the end of the three days, she had us all eating out of the palm of her hand.
“Time was also a big concern for us. According to South African labour laws, we could only have our lead little girl on set for a certain amount of hours and, as she was in every scene, we needed to have worked out each scenario in exact detail before the shoot even began.”
Continues Kadish: “Another challenge for us was the availability of the Bayana Bayana team [South Africa women’s national football team, sponsored by Sasol — ed-at-large] and, as they were not available for our shoot dates, we set up a studio shoot prior to the actual shoot to capture the strikers in position interacting with the little girl and the crowds. Obviously this was done ‘in the cold’ and the director once again needed to work out exactly how the action would play out on the final shoot day at FNB Stadium. The Bayana Bayana team were filmed against a green background in a studio, with very little to play off. Once we got to post-production, we recreated the stadium in 3D and married the two separate shots seamlessly together. We shot 75 people in the actual stadium and then, in post production, layered them, along with 3D people to make the stadium look full and alive.”
“With the help of an amazing post-production team, the commercial looks seamless and effortless. We had a lot of fun working on this project, and are very excited to see the final product up on our screens.”
Left Post Productions
“I enjoyed working on Sasol, particularly because I enjoy working with Tebza [Tebogo Malope],” says Saki Bergh, Left Post Productions senior film editor and owner . “He really understands filmmaking and what you need to shoot to tell a story. He collaborates well, so we started talking about the ad long before it was shot so, by the time I started editing, I was not catching up.
“An added bonus on this project was a trailer that Tebza shot on 16mm film of the little girl in the main TVC to show how big an imagination she has — working with film again that had such a unique look was great. I had to frame-cut to help make it even more magical and imaginative.
“Working with a creative director with such integrity and talent like Ahmed made the process a pleasure and enjoyable,” concludes Bergh.
Credits
Client
Sasol
Sasol retail marketing
Energy retail VP: Mohamed Carrim
Marketing & sales services manager: Audrey Jones
Marketing & communication specialist: Tracy Roberts
Communication & stakeholder specialist: Leonilda Koster
Agency
FCB Joburg
Business unit director: Struan de Bellelay-Bourquin
Account director: Leandra Rajcoomar
Chief creative officer: Ahmed Tilly
Associate creative director: Bonginkosi Luvuno
Copywriters: Yenani Madikwa, Nhlanhla Ngcobo
Art director: Fezi Mpembe
Strategic planner: Kabelo Lehlongwane
TV producer: Iolanthe Grobler
Production
Production company: Star Films
Director: Tebogo Malope
Producer: Ashley Kadish
Executive producers: Adam Thal, Ksenija Strydom
DOP: Adam Bentel
Art director: Dimitri Repanis
Editor: Saki Bergh
Post-production: Left Post Production, Geppetto’s Workshop
#Campaigns is the new weekly MarkLives column featuring insight into the brief, creative idea, production challenges and results of South African communication campaigns, both ongoing and recent. Have a campaign worthy of being featured in #Campaigns? Submit a short motivation to 
and we may well be in touch. Please include links to campaign material, when it ran/is running and why you believe it should be featured.
— One subscription form, three newsletters: sign up now for the MarkLives newsletter, including Ramify headlines; The Interlocker, our new monthly comms-focused mailer; and Brands & Branding, launching soon!