The Rio Olympics are one month away. Athletes are trending. That’s very handy for BBH. Usain Bolt has been the brand ambassador for Virgin Media over the past four years in its advertising, promoting the speed of its broadband.
This time, to make the point that speed is the difference Virgin Media provides, BBH presents what 9.58 seconds feels like – in 10 x 9.58 second clips across a 100 second commercial.
Each sequence provides a different perspective of what 9.58 seconds means to Bolt. Sometimes that means having the support of the whole world behind him. Sometimes that means being wracked with pain.
The opening sequence provides a real-time dramatisation of Bolt’s 9.58 second record-breaking run, mimicking the distance and speed at which he ran it, but across the Jamaican locations in which he grew up as a boy. Another turns 9.58 seconds into a video-game like scenario. A third is an animated version in which he’s a superhero.
The film ends with the campaign line, “Are you ready to be moved?”.
It combines footage shot in Jamaica by Academy director, Seb Edwards, stock footage of Bolt and his fans and some original animation and graphics. It’s narrated by world 400m record holder, Michael Johnson, who has been a mentor to Bolt.
Nick Gill, executive creative director of BBH London commented, “When Usain Bolt broke the world 100m record he did it in an incredible 9.58 seconds. This film re-creates the experience, over and over again and with increasing excitement. It describes the feeling of running at such speed from different and varied perspectives.
The film is running throughout summer in the UK on TV, in cinemas and social media, supported with outdoor and digital out of home, social, press, and digital display.
Kerris Bright, Chief Marketing Officer at Virgin Media commented, “This campaign is about the power and emotion of speed, creating an emotive story around Bolt and our brand. All at a time he is hoping to make history, but in a way that connected to our core attribution of speed.”
Credits:
Agency: BBH London
Executive creative director: Nick Gill
Managing partner & head of production: Davud Karbassioun
Strategy director: Elle Graham-Dixon
Strategist: Alana King
Business lead: Zoe Verrion
Production company: Academy Films
Director: Seb Edwards
Client: Virgin Media
Chief marketing officer: Kerris Bright
Head of advertising and sponsoring: Ellie Tory
