One giant leap: TVC look back over its 10 most memorable campaigns

In May 2011, the Louvre opened its doors to exhibit 17 of Ralph Lauren’s cars in a standalone, four-month show. Most of the cars were rare, limited edition models or one-of-a-kind vintage race cars. It was a real twist on the usual fashion show formula and gave a glimpse into the life of this notoriously private individual. It attracted a LOT of media attention.

The Olympic handover

We worked with Visa on the Olympic handover from Beijing to London and what really stands out is the party in The Mall to mark the handover of the Olympic flag to London during the closing ceremony for the Beijing Games. It was logistically one of the most challenging events I’ve worked on – juggling tourists, lots of stakeholders, sports personalities, athletes, media and royalty.

Martini

Following Martini’s historic return to motor racing as title sponsor of Williams Martini Racing, we were tasked with amplifying the multi-year partnership and ensuring the Martini personality dominated global lifestyle and F1 media. I’m a big Formula 1 fan and seeing Martini get back involved in racing with Williams, it seemed like such a natural collaboration. It was really exciting to retell their story and help write a new chapter in the history of motorsport.

O2

Ahead of the Rugby World Cup kick off in 2015 and as part of O2’s #WearTheRose campaign, we were called in to amplify a monumental stunt to highlight O2’s partnership with England Rugby. The O2 was transformed into a spectacular canvas for 3-D projection mapping light shows, and Laura Wright performed Jerusalem from the roof of the iconic venue. From a technical point of view it was very challenging: we used jibs, steadicams and helicopter cameras to ensure we captured the projection in all its glory. We only had one take to get it right and we needed to make sure we did this record-breaking projection justice.

Costa Book Awards

We’ve worked on the Costa Book Awards for 15 years, creating stand out for the literary event of the year in a saturated awards market. As anyone who works on an annual event knows, topping what you did the previous year is always a challenge! But we’ve managed to do it year after year, putting Costa at the top of the news agenda with reams of coverage.

Greene King

During the last Ashes, we created a UK campaign for brewer Greene King, the official beer of the Barmy Army, with Ashes legend Darren Gough, to highlight the moments of connection during sporting events. We landed prime BBC Breakfast coverage, a first ever for Greene King. It thrust them into the spotlight and showed them the power of broadcast.

The Economist

As part of The Economist’s year-long #openfuture initiative to mark its 175th anniversary, we were brought on board as UK comms partner for the London Open Future Festival in September just gone. It was a such powerful reminder of The Economist’s influence and it was incredible to watch editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes in action.

Coca-Cola

We helped make music history with Coca-Cola and Maroon 5 recording a new song from scratch in 24 hours. For one epic session, fans had a virtual all-access pass to the recording studio and were able to interact with the band to lend their creative inspiration to lyrics, riffs and rhythms for the new song. We shot for 72 hours straight – I don’t think I got more than a few hours’ sleep.

Otis

I had never really thought twice about lifts (who does?) until we started working with 165-year-old elevator company Otis. Tasked with helping Otis stand out in a very competitive market, we came up with a creative platform, Made to Move You, an emotive brand film which looked behind the elevator doors and uncovered stories of love, friendship and new beginnings. We’ve picked up several awards for this work, including two coveted Brand Film Festival gongs and we’re still telling the Otis story through new campaigns.

Red Bull

No list would be complete without including Red Bull Stratos and Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the edge of space. We were the global comms partner on the campaign for five years. Our focus was to make the unbelievable feel possible by documenting key milestones along the journey to the big event. Felix’s jump is still the most watched livestream of all time – watched by 8.3 million live on YouTube. Not to mention it secured 8,000+ pieces of TV coverage in the week of the jump! Within six hours we’d put together a mini-documentary of the jump and it’s still being viewed today. One of our proudest moments!

Dani Bassin, director client services, TVC Group