A new television commercial by bookie William Hill focuses on the nerves and the drama of elite jump racing as it racks up the excitement and drives betting in the lead up to the 2021 Cheltenham Festival.
The campaign, which was helmed through FAMILIA’s Francis Wallis (director) and Toby Walsham (producer), highlights the grit, toil, and pre-start nerves of a big race day through a cinematic take on the Cheltenham experience
Briefed to reflect not just the excitement of the Olympics of jump racing, but also to offer up an authentic insight into the festival, the project’s shoot schedule was adapted around the genuine schedule of the professional jockeys and thoroughbred racehorses who front the ad.
“There are few spectacles as dynamic, compelling, and even emotive as galloping horses, and from a directorial perspective this was something that I was drawn to from the beginning,” explained Director Wallis. “The William Hill team, led by Head Of Global Creative Angus Gordon were great in the manner in which they let me approach this project. I knew from the start that we would be best served through a deeply cinematic approach. I drew comparisons with films like Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator’ in terms of capturing tension and nerves that the gladiators or in this instance Jockeys had to go through before each race.”
The film also portrays the bond and brotherhood between the groups of people involved in horse racing: featuring the punters, the experts, the owners and the jockeys themselves.
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