Saatchi & Saatchi and Paralympics NZ launch new TVC featuring Paralympians that’s for sale
Saatchi & Saatchi and Paralympics New Zealand have created a new TV commercial that they’ve put up for sale.
The commercial – which features four New Zealand Paralympians, Scott Martlew, Nikita Howarth, Anna Grimaldi and Corey Peters – is filmed in a beautifully gritty style reminiscent of many high-end sports brand commercials.
However, the catch is that it’s not often that you would see Paralympians in such advertising campaigns for big brands in Aotearoa – because disabled athletes are often overlooked for brand endorsements in favour of their non-disabled peers.
Paralympics New Zealand hopes the ad inspires Kiwi businesses to consider more disability diversity in their advertising campaigns and sport sponsorship choices.
Says Steve Cochran, CCO, Saatchi & Saatchi: “We set out to make an ad for Paralympics New Zealand, by replicating the type of brand commercial we’re all familiar with, showing high performance athletes fully focussed on their training programme – their goal in sight.
“In the process we saw these athletes train. Heard their stories of challenges. We witnessed an athleticism and attitude that is truly inspiring. We realised we’d made an ad that any number of brands would be proud to use. And we thought, why not offer it for sale?”
Says Jenifer Hunt, commercial manager at Paralympics New Zealand: “Paralympians find it difficult to get enough financial backing and often struggle to secure personal sponsorship contracts too. Asking companies and marketers to consider buying this TV commercial for their brand is a way to seed the idea of what Paralympians could add to their business and marketing strategies.
“A brand could purchase and use the commercial in several different ways. It could be adapted for many products or brand messages or re-edited to suit a particular brand message. It could also be included in a broader commercial partnership with Paralympics New Zealand.”
The ad will be running for the next few weeks thanks to TVNZ. It is also being promoted in out-of-home with the support of JCDecaux.
Paralympics New Zealand is open to chat about any kind of opportunity for new commercial partnerships for the benefit of current and future Paralympians.
Further information about this opportunity can be found at paralympics.org.nz.
Client: Paralympics NZ
Campaign: Ad for Sale
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi NZ
Director: Fernando Hart
1st AD: Luke Wheeler
DOP: Sebastian Court
1st AC: Viran Ranaweera
Gaffer: Craig McDonald
Art Direction and Set Design: Angus Kerr and Rita Soromenho
Makeup/Wardrobe: Anna Hewlett
Runner: Fraser Ambridge
Editor: Pete Hansen
Grade Artist: Mikee Carpinter
Sound Design: Stefaan Van Leuven/Franklin Road
7 Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbenzs7g6fM
You beat me to it – I was just looking at the Clio entry for that idea last week.
A pity, but I really hope it works for the Olympians.
If there’s one thing the Paralympics taught me was the incredible degree of difficulty those people endure for their sport.
The swimming especially. It left me gobsmacked.
I think those campaigns are different enough. Although this one is quite similar to Jon Lajoie’s ‘Please Use This Song’
https://open.spotify.com/album/5YVNGs5kxdA3ROpV70LMTy?si=l-JS8A9AQ3qdccz1Morn_g&dl_branch=1
But I guess a bunch of ads are inspired by things that aren’t ads, and it’s fine. Regardless, I think it’s fine having the same ‘help them get sponsors’ idea if the execution is different enough? Also, kind of like that this one is from the Paralympians and not their sponsor asking for sponsors just so they can claim a few awards.
I’m with you @Impressed. Yes, the insight might have already been done, but we need to have this discrepancy pointed out. I do hope it works and this country can get away with constantly always insisting only an All Black can be a spokesperson. And it shouldn’t stop here, if you look at the results on paper the women’s national rugby team is actually the best in the world by a country mile. But we never see them on the telly as brand ambassadors. So good work and hopefully it’ll be a turning point in sports sponsorship progression.
I think it’s a pretty different execution, Budweiser created a marketplace of things they could sponsor….like beer. These guys created their own ad asking them to use it like stock footage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuQt9N4Dsok&t=179s might have inspired it though. But we all take shit from other places, so I’m cool with that.
This is dope. I’m super jealous.
Different enough in execution and new to the market but core idea too the same for award recognition
Nice to see Saatchis finding ways to innovate, even with these tricky low budget briefs. A good sign.