T-Mobile gets regal with latest ‘Kate and Wills Wedding’ web film via Saatchi & Saatchi, London
Saatchi & Saatchi, London’s ‘celebratory Royal wedding dance’ featuring Kate and Wills and the rest of the Royal family’ for T-Mobile is set to become a YouTube hit, with over 2,500,000 views since Friday.
The 2 minute film clip features 15 royal lookalikes who have been selected to match actual members of the Royal family known to be attending Kate & Wills’ big day. It is the fourth chapter in T-Mobile’s “Life’s For Sharing‟ brand campaign.
Inspired by the growing trend of online wedding dance videos and in what is the first move of its kind from the brand, the film is being released exclusively online. Previous ads from T-Mobile, which have won awards across the globe, have become among the most watched in the world, viewed online by over 50 million people.
Welcome Back, which was shot in Heathrow last year, recently scooped the accolade of best TV commercial of the year at the British Arrows Awards. It sees T-Mobile win the award for the second year running.
Says Spencer McHugh, director of brand at T-Mobile: “T-Mobile is famous for creating adverts that are entertaining and also give people something they want to share with others. We’re seeing the trend for people to video choreographed wedding dances turning into a real online phenomenon across the globe and with Royal wedding fever sweeping the nation we decided to combine the two and create T-mobile’s very own version. It’s a congratulatory message to William and Kate, as well as a way of capturing the nation‟s mood of celebration and jubilation in true T-mobile style and in a digital format that will allow people to share it with their family, friends and online communities immediately.”
Developed by T-Mobile‟s ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, the 2 minute film clip, titled The T – Mobile Royal Wedding, features 15 royal lookalikes who have been selected to match actual members of the Royal family known to be attending Kate & Wills‟ big day.
The members of the royal wedding party dance their way down the aisle in front of a packed congregation in a routine choreographed to the 1990s top ten track House of Love by East 17.
Lookalikes were handpicked from hundreds of hopefuls across the country to ensure the closest match and Kate is featured in a dress made by designer to the stars, Elie Saab.
In keeping with previous T-Mobile ads, the footage captures the reaction of members of the public and T-Mobile staff who are among the 130 wedding guests featured in the ad. Invited to the church by T-Mobile, the guests were selected from hundreds of applications received by the brand after it posted an invite on its Facebook page for fans to take part in its next ad.
The ad was filmed in secret at St Bartholomew Church in London, which has been featured in numerous films including Four Weddings and A Funeral and Shakespeare in Love. In keeping with the myriad online wedding dance videos, the footage was deliberately shot from a single camera positioned within the audience to give an amateurish quality to the final edit. Shot on Tuesday, the footage was captured and edited in under 48 hours before being released exclusively online through T-Mobile‟s YouTube and Facebook channels.
Says Paul Silburn, creative partner, Saatchi & Saatchi, London: “We wanted to capitalise on the excitement around the royal wedding. It’s the ultimate Life’s for Sharing moment of the year.”
A teaser video posted by the brand on Tuesday morning had received 170,000 views within 24 hours.
Adds McHugh: “We think we‟ve tapped into the feeling of the nation with something that can’t help but raise a smile and something that people will want to share immediately, which is why we’re launching this ad online.”
T-Mobile has become famous for its previous award winning guerrilla style advertisements, which now world renowned, were designed by the mobile network to create moments worth sharing. Its ‘Welcome Back’ ad in October last year saw the brand make history when it organised the first ever flashmob at a UK airport. Earlier ads include ‘Dance’ in January 2009 that showed dancers spontaneously break into a routine at London’s Liverpool Street station and ‘Sing’, filmed in May 2009, which saw popstar Pink lead thousands of people in a karaoke singalong in Trafalgar Square.
TITLE: The T-Mobile Wedding
CLIENT: Spencer McHugh – Brand Marketing Director Everything Everywhere Kelly Engstrom – Senior Advertising Manager T-Mobile
ADVERTISING AGENCY: Saatchi & Saatchi, London
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Paul Silburn
CREATIVE: Lovisa Almgren-Falken
COPYWRITER: Paul Silburn
ART DIRECTOR: Lovisa Almgren-Falken
ACCOUNT HANDLERS: Laura Mills, Sarah Campbell, Charles Pym
PRODUCER: James Faupel
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Gorgeous
DIRECTOR: Chris Palmer
EDITOR: Paul Watts @ The Quarry
PRODUCER: Michaela Johnson
POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: The Mill
AUDIO POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: Ben Leeves @ Grand Central
MEDIA BUYING AGENCY: Mediacom
MEDIA PLANNER: Anna Berry
10 Comments
No.
T-Mobile Welcome Back: 28,353 likes, 486 dislikes
T-Mobile Dance: 49,974 likes, 1,233 dislikes
T-Mobile Royal Wedding: 10,384 likes, 2,089 dislikes
Enough said.
I wish i could make an ad that thousands of people would care enough about to dislike.
Yeah yeah…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0
This one’s funny tho. I like it, think it will be a hit.
I wonder when someone sits down and says, oh, I’ll just completely rip off something that’s already popular.
This is embarrassing. The original video was charming and real – that’s why it worked.
This however is extremely contrived and a classic example of adland feeding off others. The track doesn’t work either.
JUST BAD – lost a bit of respect for Saatchis London
Hey 9pm, 4.7 million views and counting….i guess you could say its working…
A rip-off of this, the cunts: http://copycunts.blogspot.com/2011/04/paul-silburn-louisa-almgren-and-chris.html
5.28am
I wonder how much each of those clicks cost T-mobile, given the expense of hiring Saatchis (creative) M&C Saatchi (PR) and MBA (Social Media). Not to mention the additional cost of the paid-for video seeding and blogger outreach.
Then look at the finished work. Objectively. And ask yourself. Was it really worth it?
I love the fact that there is now a grassroots social media campaign afoot to get T(hief) Mobile to match the $34,600 donated the Sheila Wellstone Institute by the fans of the original ripped-off wedding video. They probably spent more than that on the seeding and paid blog. Let’s hope they pay up.