ABOUT

BRIEF

Global campaign for Mastercard
(You can watch the finished ads in my interactive CV, downloadable here)

CONCEPT

I was contracted by McCann Singapore to write the scripts for a five minute long 'Dr Seuss' inspired film featuring Mastercard's Brand Ambassador, Hugh Jackman. The concept I was given was 'Free To Dream.' The campaign was intended to promote Mastercard's global 'Safety and security' features, showing users that they could live as freely as they wanted, knowing that even if things didn't go according to plan, Mastercard would keep them safe. The film I was briefed to create would be produced as a singular five minute film, which could also be cut down into seperate 1 minute, 2 minute and 30 second ads. In total there were approximately ten scripts I had to present as part of the four million dollar campaign.

Before I began the work, McCann Singapore gave the brief to a number of other writers, and several scripts were produced for presentation. All these scripts were negatively received and rejected, so that by the time I was approached, the agency had less than a week left to get the campaign approved, and there were no ads to present. The agency was in a panic because it was a very big campaign.

I agreed to produce the scripts very quickly, just a few days before Christmas. I was well suited to the project, given that I had previously worked as an award-winning lyricist and stand-up comedic musician. The scripts I was briefed to create, were intended to be long-form poetic, comedic monologues, in rhyming pantameter, which could be performed in real time by Hugh. Getting a lyricist to write the scripts was probably a great shift in direction for the agency.

I wrote the campaign in less than a week. My scripts were immediately approved in Singapore. I was then asked to present the scripts in a live reading to the global Mastercard team in New York, which I did. The global team were thrilled with my scripts, and the Singapore agency won the project.

EXECUTION
We began storyboarding the film immediately. The narrative I had written involved Hugh Jackman taking a magical journey through colourful sets full of monkeys, floodwaters, runaway circus performers and the like. It was a very exciting script, and The creative Director of the agency had managed to get several A list Hollywood directors pitching to direct the film. However, the project hit a snag when Hugh began going through the scripts, and suddenly announced he didn't 'do' poetry and wouldn't like to do a 'Dr Seuss' style film. We went into negotiations with his management, but got a hard no. So I rewrote the scripts, again. I took out all the lyrical pentameter, changed the timing, wording and styling, and made new storyboards. The agency, the client, and Hugh's management were all extremely happy with the rewrite. The project was approved, and began entering the early stages of production. However it was a few weeks later, that the global CEO of Mastercard was suddenly replaced. The new CEO immediately looked at the upcoming campaign, and decided he didn't want a magical ad campaign about dreams and adventures. He wanted something completely different. So the New York office suddenly announced that the whole campaign concept would need to change (again). 'Free to Dream' was cancelled as the campaign concept, and the Singapore office were asked to rewrite the whole campaign (again) using the same ideas and wording, but with a different film concept. It would no longer be a series of films about dreaming. It would be a campaign about real-life, gritty situations where things could go wrong. On the third rewrite, the scripts were approved and went ahead. From this stage onwards, I had no involvement in the project as it was handed back to the agency.

RESULTS

The final ads were VERY different to what I had initially been briefed to create, but the client, Hugh's management, and the agency were all very happy with all the work I presented, and the Singapore agency would not have won the 4 million dollar campaign without my scripts. The campaign was a good series of ads in the end. It had a big viral impact. I would say it was a successful project, even though (much like the brief itself) nothing went according to plan!!