Goodbye cool dudes, procrastination-solving and TikTok-style madness. Welcome back bugs (yes, V Energy’s bugs from the early 2000s) and Wham. That feel good anthem, Wake Me Up Before You Go-go, underlines a new campaign by Clemenger BBDO Sydney that is a huge dose of positive feels – which is exactly what the world needs right now, is it not?

The campaign could not be further from the usual themes of energy drinks and extreme sports, and by usual, we mean ubiquitous. The tagline, Can you feel it?, may or may not be meant to evoke the Jackson 5 (like Wake Me Up, it was released in the ‘80s), but it is certainly meant to evoke an upbeat mood.   

The V Energy bugs, Muzza, Kaz, Roz and Pook, are now human-sized and personify energy, social connection and fun.

So what triggered this new road that’s nothing like the road before? Darren Wright, ECD at Clemenger and Jonny Croft, head of energy at Fructor took The Stable behind the bugs.

First, here’s the commercial. (Turn the sound up):

• Jonny Croft, head of energy at Fructor narrated the brand’s campaign story for The Stable:

The Stable: This is a major departure for energy drinks. What was the thinking behind it? 

Jonny Croft: We want to grow the category and that meant thinking a bit differently. We don’t just want to appeal to energy drinkers, we also need to appeal to new drinkers to essentially broaden the appeal of V. Working closely with our agency partner, Clemenger BBDO Sydney, we had to get really close to consumers (both current and potential) and understand what the most compelling benefits are and how to communicate these in a way that overcomes some of the barriers around energy drinks and invites in everyone.

TS: Drinks have become a massively complex, competitive sector – What is the background (marketing & sales) environment that determined this campaign? 

JC: Energy drinks are a fairly low penetration category and they really struggled to increase penetration for a number of years. It was a category that was facing some macro headwinds. It also wasn’t doing itself a lot a favours in terms of how it was showing up in culture and starting to lose relevance with younger adults. We saw a category with a huge amount of headroom that had to think about how to become more culturally relevant with younger consumers and appeal more broadly.

TS: What do you hope your audience will take from the new campaign?

JC: That we can all do with some positive energy in everyday moments and V is a great way to add a bit of fun, energy and good vibes to your day.

• Darren Wright, executive creative director at Clemenger, told the agency’s campaign story to The Stable:

The Stable: This sets V off on a new path. Where did the idea come from?

Well we knew we wanted to try and make people ‘feel’ the positive energy that V can ignite and not just say it.  Not sure what came first, the suggestion of bringing back the bugs, the road trip narrative or someone just playing Wham at full blast.  But when it all combined on paper, it was the exact feeling we were looking for.

TS: You are leaving the procrastination zone (and TikTok style) behind. Why? What are you trying to tap into in your audience’s psyche/culture. What are the campaign’s aims?

DW: The aim of the campaign is to broaden the appeal of V and to reframe the category. The procrastination zone was all about the energy to get things done. Can you feel it is all about the positive energy to fuel good times.

TS: What do the bugs bring to the campaign?

DW: Well, apart from a little nod back to some of V’s most loved ads, the bugs gave us a chance to develop characters that people could relate to, without holding up a mirror. And I think just the vibrancy and fun of the animation helps to capture the feeling we were trying to bring to life far better than live action could.

TS: What do you want your audience to take from the campaign?

DW: That V is a small green can of delicious positive energy (and Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go is the ultimate road trip car karaoke song).

Psyop’s best-in-class expertise helped to blur the lines between advertising and entertainment, fulfilling a goal for the campaign.

TS: Tell me about working with Psyop?

DW: The crew at Psyop was incrediblE to work with. They’re amazing storytellers, their craft is breath taking and they’re brilliantly collaborative. We were so lucky to have Todd [Mueller] and Kylie [Matulick] as our directors and their entire team on this job. We’d catch up daily, they were always having ideas, pushing things, their attention to detail was insane.  It was an absolute dream partnership.

The campaign has launched (July 23) across TV, cinema, digital/social and radio, to be followed by a TikTok campaign for Gen Z.

Credits

Client: Frucor Suntory
Director of Energy & Transformation: Allison Yorston
Head of Energy: Jonny Croft
V Energy Senior Brand Manager: Chris Henbrey
Senior Media & Content Manager: Ryan Smith
Assistant Media and Content Manager: Kaan Kocabay

Creative Agency: Clemenger BBDO Sydney 
Executive Creative Directors: Darren Wright & Brendan Willenberg
Senior Art Director: Miguel Gadea
Senior Copywriter: Nathan Moraza
Senior Producer: Jo Howlett
Chief Strategy Officer; Lilian Sor
Group Business Director: John Kim
Senior Business Director: Rachel Robinson
Senior Account Manager: Gina Talboys
Planning Director: Graham Sweet

Production Company: Psyop
Directors: Kylie Matulick & Todd Mueller
Senior Producer: Andrew Gilson

Production Company: Sedona Productions 
Managing Director & Executive Producer: Kim Wildenburg
Animation & CG Partner: Milford
Senior Sound Designer: Andrew Stevenson @ We Love Jam 
Music Supervision: Level Two