FCB Aotearoa "Did Feel a Bit of Pressure" On Second Instalment Of 'Finding Jade'
One NZ has released the second part in its ‘Finding Jade’ story, with FCB Aotearoa creating a story that spans from New Zealand to Scotland (and back again).
“The highlight would have to be when we recreated the very cheesy early 2000’s Icy Pops ad,” FCB CCO Leisa Wall told LBB. “The corny soundtrack, the OTT dance moves, the bewildered stares of locals walking along the beach. It was pretty surreal for everyone involved.”
In Chapter One from May last year, audiences followed Jade to a mysterious gem shop in the Scottish Highlands where he met a woman who might be his biological mother. In the second installment, Jade’s journey continues with support from his friend Pepper and One NZ – giving audiences just as many questions as answers.
After the reception of “Finding Jade” Part One, Leisa said it was “with a mixture of nervousness and excitement” that the team put the second part out into the world.
“Since the incredible reaction to the first episode, we knew we had a lot to live up to. But, after once again working with our amazing clients, characters and director we felt pretty confident we’d delivered,” he said.
One NZ’s brand lead, Kamran Kazalbash told LBB,”I think it’s fair to say we were all blown away by the reaction to Chapter One of the campaign and how invested New Zealanders are in what’s going to happen in the story and answering some of the questions we left hanging.
“Because of that I think we all did feel a bit of pressure to make sure Chapter Two was just as engaging and entertaining, we were really mindful of answering some questions but also posing a few more to keep the balance right.”
With two parts out and more to come, ‘Finding Jade’ is a campaign Kamran said “is going to go on for several more years yet, so we’re always thinking about how the characters evolve over time and how the story will ultimately play out.”
A long term campaign like this offers some opportunities that shorter, one-off ads may not. For Kamran, it “really allows us to establish and continually reinforce our brand codes over time, in ways that stand-alone or one-off executions don’t allow us to do.”
Another perk is having a team that doesn't need to be briefed from square one.
“We had such a great cast and crew working on Chapter One and so much care went into making it, which I think shows in the finished campaign. For consistency it was really important that we used as many of the same crew for Chapter Two as it gave us a bit of a head start as they understood exactly what we were trying to achieve,” added Kamran.
For Leisa, working on a long-running campaign means “things change, but it's important to have a rough map of where the story will lead – kind of like the typical beginning, middle, end story arc of a stand-alone, but spread over multiple episodes.”
“You also have to be mindful to tell enough of the story to keep people hooked, but without giving too much away, too soon. Another thing to remember is that characters have to develop, they all have back stories and odd eccentricities that we want our audience to learn to love.”
With such a winding narrative, the team at FCB were careful to balance the One NZ’s message of connection with the wider story arc.
“The whole plot is about connection and how it ultimately brings people together. Having said that we’ve been mindful to not over play the product side of things. Sure, tech is important, but at the end of the day it’s the human connection that tech enables that matters,”
