Official UK UEFA Euro 2020 co-broadcaster ITV rolled out its tournament promo in late May which sees England striker and Arsenal legend turned pundit Ian Wright restore some colour to a drab world.
The in-house campaign, by agency IUITV Creative, aims to build anticipation and excitement ahead of the delayed Euro 2020, which kicks off on 11 June – a whole year behind schedule and a pandemic-enforced delay.
Debuting on air from 28 May, the campaign is led by a spearhead ‘The Good Times Start Here’ television spot which is supported by simultaneous messaging across out-of-home, digital and social channels.
The hero 40-second ad, helmed by Claire Norowzian, sees a bowler hat wearing Wright plays a pied-piper type role as he begins to walk through a gritty, monochrome housing estate and draws people out of their homes and onto the football pitch where the screen explodes in a riot of animated colour culminating in a psychedelic rainbow riot.
The idea is that ad represents the joy that the beautiful game can bring to fans – especially after such a long wait and for fans confined to their homes for so long due to the Covid-19 lockdown and it closes with the copy: “Wrighty’s ready to bring the joy! UEFA Euro 2020, 11 June – 11 July on ITV and @ITVHub.”
The film was shot on location at Wanstead Flats in North East London and combines live-action with hand-drawn animation by Grizzle into a creative mash-up that seeks to convey the euphoria associated with the end of lockdown and the fiesta of top-flight international football.
Rachel King, creative director at ITV Creative, said:
“With this campaign, we wanted to connect authentically with fans and look forward to things to come. The fact we have waited for over a year for this tournament means that fans have lots of pent-up excitement to share and we wanted to tap into that,” commented ITV Creative Creative Director Rachel King. “Ian Wright is the perfect embodiment of joy. His passion for the game is what we wanted to communicate from the screen to fans, and Claire and the team at Grizzle made this stand out on screen in an original way aesthetically.”
Grizzle Animation Director Freddie Littlewood added: “We’re especially proud of the sequence with the animals leaping out of the phone, which was nothing but pure frame-by-frame animation. It was a mammoth undertaking, especially as we were working at the full 25 frames per second to help the animation live in the same world as the filmed footage.”
Comment:
This artfully shot ad is an alternative approach to the BBC’s player-led ‘The Wait Is Over’ animation – but both focus on the theme of waiting. While France.tv takes a more highbrow art-led approach in its ‘Taiko Tokyo / Sumo’ promo film.
It also follows on from UEFA Euro 2020 sponsor TikTok’s recent consumer-created ‘Where The People Play’ mash-up of famous tournament moments recreated by fans and fellow sponsor Heineken’s ‘Enjoy the Rivalry’.
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