Over the next few months the delicious and charming Burt Waikiki is strolling
across digital platforms, with the Kauai message of how to live a full and
balanced island life, a campaign made even more engaging by the free spirited,
washboard ab-adorning “guru of goodness’.
When Ground Glass director Janette de Villiers was approached by leading
global marketing firm McCann Digital to come up with various spots around the
character, she had no idea she would end up with a queue of studs in Speedos
at the in-house casting!
“Aidan Whytock was my favourite from the minute he walked in to cast – he just
got Burt – but we had quite a bit of convincing to do with client and eventually
put in hair extensions and sent him of for a Caribbean tan to really give him the
island guru look!’ says de Villiers, who was given an enormous amount of
freedom in developing the stories and Burt’s character.
The campaign is being pushed on YouTube and social media platforms in an
initiative to breathe new energy into the brand, breach crowded traditional
mediums and create engaging conversations with consumers.
Burt, a personal trainer, promotes living the Kauai life, which means he finds a
healthy balance between mind, body and soul, and sets aside time to exercise
and relax and enjoy life to the fullest. Kauai is also giving away a trip to Kauai,
Hawaii as part of the campaign.
The video was shot on Llandudno Beach in Cape Town over two days in
November and aside from having to creatively work with a small budget, which
meant cleverly utilising very few props, the crew faced challenges when the
region’s notoriously unpredictable weather turned nasty.
“Our first shoot day was one of the most miserable days of the year – so trying
to achieve the look and feel of a tropical island in thick fog with everyone’s hair
starting to frizz, was not easy! We shot five spots over two days and all the
scripts were long – so we really had to move it. We also lost a good three hours
on our first day due to weather,’ adds de Villiers.
The clips are written by Alexis Christidolou and shot by George Loxton with
music composed by Gerdus Oosthuizen and post-production done by the Stylus
Group.
Says de Villiers: “We shot on the Black Magic, which is a great camera as it
shoots 4k and we wanted to give these films a nice grade – but is not easy to
shoot with and hard for a DP to look at what he is shooting.’
De Villiers says that the project was a great collaboration between all involved,
and that the team had a lot of fun developing Burt’s character and personality
throughout the process. She concludes: “The campaign will be released over the
next couple of months and we’re really hoping that people like him (Burt)
enough to convince the client to shoot more (ads).’
