Vodafone shows Kiwis the power of 5G in latest campaign via DDB New Zealand
On 1 August, Vodafone New Zealand announced it would be switching on its 5G network in December. To mark the occasion, they teamed up with DDB New Zealand to create Huxley, a powerful commercial demonstrating the incredible everyday possibilities this transformative technology will help New Zealanders to realise.
The debut spot features two minutes of emotive storytelling, giving the audience a glimpse into two very different worlds. It tells the tale of a bereaved widower and the love for his dog Huxley, juxtaposed against the life of a Japanese veterinary surgeon in Tokyo. The two lives play out in parallel on opposite sides of the world, eventually coming together through remote surgery – enabled by the power of 5G.
In launching 5G, the challenge Vodafone New Zealand and DDB New Zealand faced is that many people don’t fully understand what 5G is, let alone what it will enable. The Huxley campaign is designed to show Kiwis how this leap in network technology will change the world as we know it. With infinite new opportunities due to higher speeds and lower latency, Huxley grounds the multitude of possibilities presented by this new tool in a simple emotive story and makes it relatable to Kiwis.
Damon Stapleton, DDB Regional Chief Creative Officer Australia & New Zealand, says the interesting thing about this campaign was the task of getting people emotionally invested in what could be seen as just a technological upgrade.
“This was a big task. We had to make people feel something for an intangible gift. We consciously decided not too go to crazy futuristic – we wanted this grounded in a human truth,” says Stapleton. “That’s part of the reason for the 120’ spot. We needed to spend the time to connect the dots between 5G and a better life.”
Nileema Allerston, Vodafone New Zealand’s Masterbrand Manager, says Vodafone is excited to see how New Zealand thrives with the 5G network up and running
“We are beyond excited to bring a world-class 5G network to New Zealanders. We’ve been so inspired by the 5G transformations in our other markets – including the first remote surgeries. After seeing this first release of the Huxley campaign, I think people will begin to realise how 5G can genuinely change how we connect.”
The debut Huxley TVC will roll out in 120”, 60”, 30” and 15” formats.
Agency: DDB New Zealand
Chief Creative Officer: Damon Stapleton
Executive Creative Director: Gary Steele
Creative Director: Matt Williams
Creative Director: Freddie Coltart
Lead Business Partner: Karla Fisher
Business Partner: Natalie Pierpoint
Senior Business Director: Jaheb Barnett
Business Manager: Toni Guy
Chief Strategy Officer: Rupert Price
Planning Director: Thinza Mon
Senior Integrated Producer: Nigel Sutton
Agency Producer: Esther Watkins
Agency Producer: Charlotte Glennon
Production Company: The Sweet Shop
Executive Producer: Ben Dailey
Executive Producer: Kate Roydhouse
Producer: Andy Mauger
Director: Mark Albiston
DOP: Ziga Zupancic
DOP: Marty Williams
Editor: Luke Haigh
Soundtrack/composer/Music: Cam Ballantyne
Stills Photography: Steve Boniface
Nileema Allerston, Manager Masterbrand
James Mason, Brand Lead, Masterbrand
Louise Kuegler, Brand, Advertising & Customer Insights COE Lead
Carolyn Luey, Consumer Director
41 Comments
In the Spark ad, they use death and the twin storyline technique to resolve.
In this Vodafone ad, they use a dogs supposed almost death and the twin storyline technique to resolve.
Come on 2degrees, three makes a campaign.
This is so contrived and such a shamelessly manipulative play. It’s the bad version of everything Spark has been doing for years. No wonder Vodafone is coming a distant second. Beautifully shot though. Nice work, Sweetshop.
How do you know that ‘Vodafone is coming a distant second’? Your ads for Spark have been OK but this Vodafone piece takes the centre stage.
Be gracious in defeat.
Can we please not behave like this? It’s the worst part of this industry. Hope your day improves from here.
You need to calm down.
How is it manipulative? It’s based on a real event from January this year.
Great work DDB. Beautiful storytelling.
2 mins of pure emotion. Saw it on TV last night and it stopped me getting up off the couch to go do something. I have a dog too so it got me right where it should.
Wow you dickheads got me good.
Tears in front of colleagues are never ideal…
Beautiful story, beautifully shot. Good stuff.
Wow. You got me good guys. So good to see the TVC is still alive and well in NZ. A beautifully told story for what no doubt was a curly brief. PS. Ignore the hate DDB. This a good one.
🐶☠️😢🤥🐩😀
An excellent example of putting emotion and meaning into a tech that not many of us understand. Nice work DDB folk.
Like a good Somerset Maugham story, this ad twisted and turned in all the right ways. I was sure the dog was toast until the tech turned up. Well done, DDB. I’m convinced.
Pats and belly rubs all round.
Nice one DDB. Bloody love this. Who’s cutting onions in here?
Throw in a ‘pet about to die’ storyline…have some dog eye contact and job done. First quitline…now this. Too easy.
Dogs are great.
Bloody nice work DDB. Best Vodafone spot I’ve seen in a while.
2️⃣degrees 👴❤️🐶💔🤖👍😍
You got me, I was meowing. Nice work.
Rug pull to the kind of surgery which has been done the world over for 5+ years? Sounds good.
5+ years? Not even close… Best not to weigh in on tech you know nothing about…
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/5g-surgery-could-transform-healthcare-industry-2019-8?r=US&IR=T
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UBLjdtwxag
The only thing more pathetic than trolling work, is blatantly complimenting your own work under a fake name. Work on your writing lads.
Couldn’t agree more. Common DDB theme.
I hate this ad. Why would a vet in Tokyo need to perform a surgery via robotic arm to a dog in New Zealand? No. Colonoscopy in Dunedin being controlled in Auckland; there’s your ad.
It doesn’t matter how many DDB and Vodafone staff you get on here to say it’s a good ad. It ain’t. Don’t put out a clumsily-written ad with an unoriginal storyline and complain when people criticise it.
The only thing more insecure than complimenting your own work under a fake name is claiming that any complimentary comments are being made under a fake name.
Got me right in the goolies, this did. Beautifully shot.
The most basic IP tracking software shows that the majority of the above positive comments come from a single source. Along with numerous defamatory comments about work from other agencies. Feel insecure at all?
these comments are making me wish I was actually getting put down.
You all realise clients read this right? And with these sorts of comments it perpetuates the worst things they think about agencies and agency people, whilst at the time undermining the power of creativity. Win win.
It’s a great ad. Nice story. Humanises tech and the future. Well produced. Lovely audio. Get’s you in the feels.
Sorry let me rephrase. The only thing more insecure than complimenting your own work under a fake name isn’t claiming that any complimentary comments are being made under a fake name. It’s running an IP tracker to track the IP of comments you disagree with on a blog site.
Without these comments his blog wouldn’t exist (the comments are better than the ads) and any client who takes these comments seriously would be pretty inexperienced and probably not very good.
Aside from that in amongst the long list of great dog ads, it’d be at least top 5. Definitely better than the cancer dog from last week, probably on par with the Lotto dog who found his way home from India but nowhere near Bugger.
Reads all the comments, I still think it’s too similar to the technique Spark used.
But hey, won’t the usual suspects wank on about ‘storytelling’ or some other bullshit on their LinkedIn profile?
Aside from all that, my beef is that Vodafone has the worst service levels of all the telco’s, and no matter how much advertising they do, they will struggle to get me (and my corporate account) back to them. I’ve been burnt too often.
Just tell me what you are doing better, making my life easier, providing better services.
Instead, you’ve served up an ad for a scenario that could’ve been done over wifi.
First the pig, now a dog. Not sure which ad is the pig…
1. It’s a nice ad, non-advertising people like it.
2. Spark did not invent emotional storytelling
3. My non-industry-at-home-watching self choked up at this ad and the Father’s day one from Spark. Well done to the creators of both.
There are many aspects of this ad that bug me, for a start the vet team is obviously Thai not from Tokyo as the article suggests, but that’s besides the point, is there some kind of rare disease that only foreign vets can cure online? I thought our kiwi vets were pretty good… We pay enough for our mutts
This ad has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WITH 5G.
Did they use 5G modem to connect the endpoints? If so, it would require FIBRE OPTIC connectivity in close proximity!
D-Uh!
Emotional manipulation. I’m not stupid. Ads like this are terrible. You don’t convince someone they need something by manipulating their emotions.