The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Author

By Katie Deighton | Senior Reporter

October 31, 2017 | 3 min read

Martin Freeman has found himself embarrassed at a wedding and in a criminal mix-up in a car park in his tenure for Vodafone’s ads so far. Now the actor finds himself as the lead role in an epic love story for the telecom brand’s Christmas campaign, which has been built on subtle, self-deprecating humour to win favour with a UK audience.

A Christmas Love Story was created by WPP’s Team Red, creatively led by Ogilvy & Mather London. The saga is told across six pieces of content – two for TV and four for social – and begins with the hapless Freeman bonding with his love interest, Claire, over a love of It’s A Wonderful Life on a train station platform.

A series of communication blunders such as having no pay as you go credit threaten to end the festive romance before it begins, but the story ends happily with a Hollywood-style kiss, all thanks to Vodafone’s breadth of products and services.

The ads were filmed on location in Scotland and were directed by Biscuit’s Jeff Lowe. As well as educating consumers on the benefits of Vodafone’s services, they also aim to highlight two new launches: new pay as you go product PayG 1 and Vodafone Passes, which gives pay monthly customers the chance to use their favourite video, social or chat apps without using up their data.

Freeman, who was no doubt a real talent investment on the brand’s part, was selected for his very British sense of humour.

“We thought that we were losing our relevance a bit as a brand [in the UK],” explained Bilge Cifti, brand director of Vodafone UK. “Together we worked with Team Red to understand how we could bring it back.

“We figured the unique British humour is the right way to do that. We thought that if we can get the British humour right in our adverts, that is going to help us speak the same language with our customers.”

A Christmas Love Story features Vodafone’s new brand identity, which was unveiled globally last month. The spots launch tomorrow (1 November) and will be supported by above the line, social and digital executions.

Creative Christmas Vodafone

Other episodes in the series

Episode 1

Casting the Three (gay) Bears, the stars of Rowse Honey’s hairy pro-porridge cookery show

Rowse Honey’s new content series may have been inspired by the fairytale of The Three Bears, but it's the casting of a jovial trio of modern ‘gay bears’ that the brand hopes will connect with a fun, young consumer.

Episode 3

Directing the 80s in 2017: inside Vaughan & Anthea’s Christmas reunion for House of Fraser

Vaughan Arnell and Anthea Benton, the darling directing duo of the 80s and 90s, went 20 years without speaking after they split in 1996. Now they’re not only back in touch but are working together again, selecting House of Fraser’s Christmas story of sisterhood through the decades as their first spot of the 21st century.

Episode 4

Inside BBC One’s Christmas spot: the CGI/stop-motion success for the Beeb’s in-house creatives

BBC One’s thoroughly British Christmas trail for 2017 has not only impressed (most of) the nation in the festive spot stakes but also proven the creative prowess of the corporation’s in-house agency.

Episode 5

British Red Cross prizes segmentation to create a brand platform rooted in national kindness

The British Red Cross (BRC) is visualising the warming power of small acts of kindness in its latest brand platform, a fresh mobilisation strategy developed after extensive research revealed the need to highlight the ‘British’ in its brand name.

Episode 6

Inside Kopparberg's 'Outside is Ours': a kite flying break from its underground Swedish roots

Kopparberg hopes its latest campaign platform – a sun-kissed depiction of the outdoor festival life – will mark a graduation from niche Swedish cider into an aspirational, mainstream global brand.

Episode 7

How to direct a cow and a Cornish language script, by Kelly's Ice Cream's creative team

Kelly’s of Cornwall has released its second ad spoken entirely in the Cornish language – a challenge only compounded this time by an unpredictable seaside location and the starring appearance of a cow.

Episode 8

The BBC's operatic, embroidered World Cup 2018 film: how it was made

The BBC’s World Cup trailer is an operatic montage of historic and memorable events from football’s biggest tournament, all of which were painstakingly embroidered frame by frame and photographed into a 60-second trailer. The BBC Creative duo behind the spot explained how their idea came to life in The Drum’s latest Anatomy of an Ad.

Episode 9

'Cousins, not twins’ – inside the first united campaigns of Virgin Holidays and Atlantic

Virgin Holidays and Virgin Atlantic have released their first creative work since jointly appointing AMV BBDO, choosing to release two separate campaigns that share a playful ‘visual language’ rather than merging the creative accounts entirely.

Episode 10

Opening up the Royal Opera House: inside the venue’s stroboscopic brand identity

The Royal Opera House has unveiled a new architectural design, one it hopes will open up worlds of ballet and opera to a wider audience both physically and perceptually via a dramatic, photographic campaign.

More from Creative

View all