JWT Brazil Builds a Bridge for Santa in Touching New Coca-Cola Christmas Ad

In 2015, Coca-Cola’s Christmas will be marked by the creation of “Caravana Produções”, the imaginary production company that every year will invite screenwriters and film directors to create tales about a Christmas icon, the Illuminated Caravan. 'Caravana Produções' debuted with the short film “Uma Ponte para Noel” (A Bridge for Santa). The film screened yesterday at Kinoplex theaters all over Brazil. 

The screenplay created by author, journalist and moviemaker José Roberto Torero, one of the screenwriters of the short 'Uma história de futebol' (A Football Tale), nominated for the Academy Awards in 2001, tells the saga of Mathias, a boy who dreamed of the day Santa would visit his town. The short is directed by moviemaker and founder of Spray Filmes, Fernando Grostein Andrade, whose works include 'Quebrando o Tabu' and 'Coração Vagabundo'. Italian-born Blasco Giurato, involved in such classics 'Cinema Paradiso' and 'Doctor Zhivago', was in charge of the photography. The soundtrack was created by Lucas Lima and the cast includes Guilherme Ely, as Mathias, and Milhem Cortaz, of “Elite Squad”, as the boy’s father.

“More than a campaign, we conceived this project as an entertainment platform. We want to turn Coca-Cola’s Christmas Caravans into the main character of a story that is retold every year, touching consumers all over Brazil across several platforms,” explains Marcelo Páscoa, Head of Integrated Marketing Communication at Coca-Cola Brazil.

“Our goal was to bring back the magic spirit of Christmas that Coca-Cola’s Christmas Caravans help revive, always inspiring us everywhere they go”, says Ricardo John, J. Walter Thompson Brazil’s CCO.

The story of Mathias will also be retold on the streets of Brazil through the parades of the Illuminated Caravans. This year, the Christmas trucks will feature a new decoration to help present the tale and will play an important role in the major regional efforts by Coca-Cola, such as the Natal Luz in Gramado, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. 

The show “Uma Ponte para Noel” (A Bridge for Santa) will go beyond the movie theaters and the Caravan parades. J. Walter Thompson Brazil, in collaboration with Google, will use technology to bring the magic of the Caravans to the digital world by producing a 360º animation created by Zombie Studio, which also co-produced the commercial for the campaign with Spray Filmes. The tool used is Cardboard, a virtual reality platform developed by Google. Made of cardboard, it works as a mount for smartphones, turning a cellphone into a goggle for virtual reality. "With the Cardboard, Google hopes that this initiative will bring a 3D environment to the general public in a simple and fun way,” says Marcio Garcez, business director at Google Brazil. By looking into Google Cardboard, people will view a 360º scene showing different angles and parallel stories in the form of an animation, starting with the moment that Coca-Cola’s Caravan trucks arrive in the town where Mathias lives.

“It’s been very inspiring to bring together cinema, advertising and entertainment on this platform, an innovative format that mixes time, space and storytelling on TV and the Internet,” says Fernando Grostein of Spray Filmes. Paulo Garcia, co-founder and Chief Creative of Zombie Studio, notes that the project is rich with details and challenges, on a platform that until then had never had much content developed. “We had only seen a few experiments in this segment, but nothing as complex as the scenery that we designed for this huge production, with 40 characters in action, each one of them having an exclusive one-minute animation,” adds Garcia.

After the screening at Kinoplex, the short “Uma Ponte para Noel” will show on cable TV and during an exclusive commercial break on Globo TV Network. The story will then be available online. “Watching the magic of this Christmas tale at Kinoplex will be even more special, for the enchantment and excitement that the cinema provides, combined with state-of-the-art sound and image technology”, says Patricia Cotta, Head of Marketing at the Kinoplex chain.

Full Credits

Agency: J. Walter Thompson Brasil

Advertiser: Coca-Cola

Product: Coca-Cola

CCO: Ricardo John

CSO: Fernand Alphen

Head of Art: Fabio Simões

Head of Digital: Fábio Simões

Creative Director: Gustavo de Lacerda e Gustavo Soares

Script: José Roberto Torero, Ricardo John, Gustavo Soares

Copywriter: Julia Velo, Ana Cavalcanti e Guilherme Nesti

Art Director: Gustavo de Lacerda, Pablo Lobo, Ricardo Kawano, Fernanda Sousa, Ilka Freitas, Peu Coelho, Pedro Ricci

Account Team: Felipe Giacon, Stefano Paduan, Daniel Rybak

Project Management: Thiago Segundo, Richard Wolter, Marina Masiero

Media: João Dabbur, Camila Bertoli, Stella Lopes, Beatriz Luna, Ligia Mattos, Allan Gomes, Juliana Magalhães, Mariana Santos

Planning: Isabella Mulholland, Sara Silva, Gisele Bambace

RTV Director/Artbuyer: Marcia Lacaze

RTV Producer/Artbuyer: Marcia Lacaze, Ana Mello

Digital Production: Maisa Delgado, Sergio Costa

Client Approval: Adriana Knackfuss, Marcelo Pascoa, Bianca Rosenberg, Patricia Pieranti, Vinicius Limoeiro, Andreia Rebello, Carla Dart

Production Company: Spray Filmes

Directer: Fernando Grostein Andrade

Co-Direction: Raoni Rodrigues

Photography Direction: Blasco Giurato

Photography Direction (2nd unit): Bruno Vieira

Executive Production: Luiz Ferriani Nogueira e Roberta Reigado

Account team: Lucia Leite, Daniele Pizzo e Carla Onishi

Art Direction: Claudia Calabi

Editing: Raoni Rodrigues, Caio Saad, Renan Cipriano e Kelvin Freitas

Finishing: Lili Carvalho, Driano Torres, Regina Mimi Yokota

Post-Production: Raoni Santos, Zombie Studio e Dot Cine

Animation Production Company: Zombie Studio

Sound Production Company: B.A.start

Original Soundtrack: Lucas Lima

Mixing and sound finishing: Pedro Lima (WeCanDo Audio Post)

Locutor (Traer): Walker Blaz