If advertising’s hot thing this year is authenticity, Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand has laid claim to it. The agency actually – not virtually, not photographically, not with special effects – char-smoked a billboard to launch Sealord’s new range of hot smoked salmon.
In Sealord’s words, “We thought the best way to show how we smoke our salmon the traditional way, is to show you. No fancy tricks, just good ol’ Manuka wood that’s left to smoulder to give off a mouth-watering real smoky flavour.”
The hoarding was built with real Manuka wood branches and later set ablaze on a private farm in Clevedon to replicate the traditional smokehouse process used by Sealord.
Saatchi & Saatchi’s executive creative director, Antonio Navas, explained, “When we learned about the wonderful artisan techniques involved in the creation of this delicious salmon, we were inspired to try and find a way to make this process the hero.”
The now-charred billboard is at Ponsonby Central in Auckland. The campaign also includes an online film showing the creation of the burning billboard, pre-rolls and digital banners.
Saatchi & Saatchi worked with Gyro and Gorgeous Films to create and capture the burn.
The salmon is produced with brothers, Joe and Gavin Kouwenhoven, who have been smoking seafood the old fashioned way in their kilns in West Auckland since 2000. It is the only nationally available traditionally smoked salmon range in the country.
Creative credits:
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand
Executive creative director: Antonio Navas
Creative group heads: Cory Bellringer, Matt Sellars
Senior agency producer: Anna Kennedy
Designer: Rob Flynn
Production Company: Gorgeous Films
Director: Rowan Webb
Executive producer: Edwina Monaghan
DOP: Kent Belcher
