The second week of January, ahead of the start of PyeongChang 2018 on 9 February, saw Bridgestone leverage its trio of global and market-specific Olympic sponsorships with linked local campaigns fronted by Australian snowboarder Belle Brockhoff and New Zealand freeskier Beau-James Wells.
The global tyre giant, a Worldwide International Olympic Committee partner, is also a sponsor of both the Australian and New Zealand Olympic teams and to activate these tie-ups it has signed up the two winter athletes as ambassadors and shared their powerful, poignant stories – their return from injury and journeys to the 2018 Winter Games – through medium and short form spots.
Brockhoff and Wells both suffered serious ACL ligament injuries in 2016 and have had to work extraordinarily hard to be ready for the Winter Olympics.
The campaign, developed in tandem with agency via VML Australia, are spearheaded by two 2-minute 30-second films focusing on Brockhoff and Wells chasing Olympic dreams and overcoming obstacles en route.
Both athletes have had to recover from serious injuries to make it to PyeongChang.
The longer videos are further supported by shorter, 15-second cut downs.
“The Olympics have been one of my goals for a very long time. A big goal of mine is to medal, and an even bigger goal is to win. I started skiing when I was three years old. And then I picked up a snowboard when I was 10,” admitted Brockhoff.
“That first day when I picked up a snowboard I knew that I wanted to be the best. At that age you don’t think so much of danger, you just kind of go for it – but you have to be so incredibly present. If you’re not, you’ll really suffer the consequences for it.”
While Wells added: “I’ve dreamt of holding up an Olympic medal ever since I can remember. When we were kids, watching the Games, Dad said ‘someone has to be the best, so why can’t it be you?’ That really fuelled me and it wasn’t long before I hit my first jump. Being told you can’t do what you love for a whole year, to me that’s heartbreaking. But you can turn that pain into a new hunger and now I’m coming back stronger.”
Bridgestone Australia & New Zealand managing director Andrew Moffatt explained that it was the athletes’ determination to chase their dreams despite injury that the brand found so inspirational.
“Every athlete competing in the Olympic Games has their own unique story, but the journeys of Belle Brockhoff and Beau-James Wells highlight the perseverance required to represent your country,” said Moffatt.
“Seeing how focused they both are to achieve greatness is really quite moving, and we’re honoured to be able to share their stories through such evocative clips.”
The VML Australia team was led by creative director Aden Hepburn and included senior art director Louise McQuat, senior copywriter Jack Emery, senior account manager Kiki Jones and producer Mat Barber.
The spots were helmed by Jonathan May, the production company was Flint with local production handled by Two Bearded Men and post production from The Hive.
Comment:
Injury is an apt theme for inspirational Winter Olympic storytelling: after all, winter sports are typically more dangerous and lead to more serious injuries than summer Olympic sports (other current examples include Red Bull’s ‘Back To LIfe’ documentary on freeskier Torin Yater-Wallace.
Bridgestone is a Worldwide International Olympic Committee Partner, as well as an Official Partner of the Australian and New Zealand teams, and these twin campaigns continue its activation approach based around encouraging all athletes to ‘chase their dream’.
This theme was initially unveiled earlier in the year with the UK launch of ‘Chase Your Dream’.
This work rolled out in March 2017 and was led by Team GB stars past and present – including iconic decathlon gold medallist Daley Thompson and golfer Charely Hull (see case study) and has continued with athlete specific campaign phases such as ‘Take The Plunge’ fronted by diver Chris Mears (see case study).
Links:
Bridgestone Aus & NZ
https://www.bridgestonetyres.com.au/
https://www.youtube.com/user/BridgestoneAustralia
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCNiyTL2PAusDOeWAepnEuQ
https://www.facebook.com/BridgestoneAU
VML Australia
