Traditional TV advertising campaigns aim to hammer people with the same commercial as many times as possible. Never mind how boring or annoying that becomes.

Anomaly has worked out that hammering might not be the cleverest way to convince people that Freeview is the smart alternative to pay TV.

So the agency has devised a new kind of TV campaign, The Other Way. It’s made up of more than 400 films. These short contextual films, that will run in TV ad breaks, comment on the storylines of programmes being shown or events that have happened that day.

The ads, with their memorable visuals and consistent friendly voice, will talk to the UK in their living rooms in real time – about everything from the reactions to the latest goings on in Coronation Street to the benefits of Freeview Play.

The aim of the simple format is that these little “conversations” will become a recognised part of the British public’s consciousness when it comes to watching and appreciating great TV.

No VFX was used and each film was captured entirely in-camera. 1,000 people, filmed from above, were used to make mesmerising, colourful patterns as they moved in choreographed sequences.

Anomaly’s creative approach allows for the dialling up or dialling down of key messages when needed, using the contextual, always on channel principles usually seen only in online campaigns. MEC brokered spots with the sales teams at ITV and Channel 4, so that the films which comment directly on the storylines viewers have just witnessed will appear first in their breaks.

Live adverts are also planned for later this year. For these, Freeview’s script writers and representatives from Clearcast will work on and broadcast ads directly from the show’s studio.

Owen Jenkinson, marketing director, Freeview explained, “The Other Way helps address two challenges in our market place – salience by being ever present and actively competing with pay TV providers by highlighting the value equation. A very smart campaign by Anomaly, beautifully executed.”

Camilla Harrisson, chief executive officer and partner at Anomaly added, “The Other Way introduces a different approach to advertising on TV that enables us to be incredibly agile and contextual on air and will embed Freeview right at the heart of the nation’s TV viewing experience – exactly where the brand belongs.  It’s an ambitious model, made possible by a progressive and enlightened client team and an amazing amount of trust and collaboration across agencies, partners and broadcasters.”

The ads will be supported by marketing and PR activities created by agency partners.

This is the first campaign Freeview has worked on with Anomaly since it appointed the agency to lead its advertising in April. The campaign’s visuals were designed, directed and produced by DBLG. Audio and video post production was by Envy. Media buying was done by MEC.

Rich Martin, sound designer at Envy, created 20 different soundtracks, each with a unique energy because of the individual crowd sounds. 

“When DBLG invited me for a meeting before the shoot, I was really excited because it doesn’t happen often enough. I suggested that we should try to capture the sound and energy of the cast of 1000, and use that as the backbone of the soundtrack,” he commented.

The huge cast and many mobile components presented unique challenges in terms of the grade. Danny Wood, colourist at Envy, explained, “The Freeview spots are about the overall effect of having 1000 people moving around for real, so the grade was very clean and about separating the colours to bring out the patterns as much as possible. With so many people in a shot at once, dealing with skin tones was a challenge, but we ended up with a nice balance of warmth without pushing too many warm tones into the rest of the image. The overall effect is pretty spectacular, especially when viewed on a large screen or projector.”

Envy flame artist, Kieran Baxter, added, “I’ve really enjoyed working with Anomaly on these spots – they did an amazing job on the shoot and working with the 6K footage was a treat. Each ad is uniquely mesmerising – they will really stand out and I can’t wait to see them on air.”