It’s about that time of year when industry eyes will again be focused on France. Indeed the Cannes International Advertising Festival is fast approaching. (For a full preview on prospects for the ’05 Cannes Fest, see this week’s page one story authored by Kristin Wilcha, SHOOT senior editor/creative & production.)
Among the French industry artisans playing prominent roles at Cannes will be Film Jury member Bertrand Suchet, president of DDB Paris, Cyber Lions judge Christine Santarelli, co-president, Duke, Paris, Daniel Fohr, co-president/executive creative director of Leo Burnett, Paris, and Titanium judge Mercedes Erra, president of BETC Euro RSCG, Paris. Earlier this year, SHOOT touched base with Erra’s BETC Euro RSCG, Paris, colleague, Fabrice Brovelli, head of TV production, while he was visiting Los Angeles. We hearken back to that interview with Brovelli to get a perspective on the French advertising market and the industry as a whole.
Perhaps most notably Brovelli expressed enthusiasm over new-media opportunities, particularly a series of short films BETC Euro RSCG is developing in conjunction with media agency MPG, Paris, and a French TV channel on behalf of department store client Carrefour.
In France, explained Brovelli, department stores are not permitted to run commercials on TV, a restriction that will be lifted next year. So the quandary for Carrefour is how to make a significant impact on television sans spots. Brovelli said the answer is a series of short stories about people in everyday life and how Carrefour helps them in some way. The shorts will run before select TV programs–not during the advertising journal block segments. Though he wasn’t at liberty to publicly discuss project specifics, Brovelli described the films as “image pieces” that he hopes will offer a fresh new dynamic for the branded content space in France.
“This kind of work is just beginning to emerge,” related Brovelli, noting that there’s a major movement in France generally to reduce the number of ads on television. Thus even advertisers who don’t have spot restrictions like those placed on Carrefour are grappling with what to do outside the commercialmaking realm in order to build their brands and business.
In this vein, Brovelli has been deemed by some industry observers as a head of production to watch given his involvement in the Evian “Voices” commercial. That spot triggered an advertainment initiative that included a successful CD release and a Water Boy character that realized icon status through a popular music video.
The starting point was indeed Evian’s international commercial “Voices,” directed by Pedro Romhanyi via Bandit, Paris. (Romhanyi is repped in the U.S. by Oil Factory Films, Beverly Hills.) The ad shows adults singing in children’s voices the famous Queen song, “We Will Rock You.” The tagline was that Evian “helps you feel young at heart.”
After having clearly associated the music with the brand, BETC Euro RSCG produced a CD single of children’s “Voices” in partnership with Universal Music. The CD cover was conceived by the agency without an Evian logo. The assumption was that consumers did not always need to see a brand’s logo in order to recognize the identity of the sponsor. The CD cover instead had an image of a microphone hovering above a glass of water, an Evian symbol.
This in turn spawned a music video in which an animated character, Water Boy, emerges from the glass. The character became a youthful icon for Evian, and the video clip–with animation directed by So and Sau via French studio Quad Productions–gained heavy airplay and popularity.
From the video clip came an album with other songs (“I Love Rock ‘n Roll,” “Forever Young”) sung by children. The Water Boy character was on the CD cover.
The original CD single became a hit, attaining gold disc status after four weeks and later reaching platinum. The album also earned a gold disc. The rotations of the music on radio and the video on TV were equivalent to huge media buys. Last year’s Gunn Report ranked the BETC Euro RSCG work as the sixth most awarded TV commercial/campaign in the world, with recognition from such competitions as Cannes (’04 Gold Lion), Clio (two Silvers), the New York Art Directors Club (gold), D&AD, New York Festivals, Eurobest ’05, the Cresta Awards, the Mobius Awards and Grand Prix Strategies.
At BETC Euro RSCG, Brovelli oversees a department of 30 people, including nine producers. He joined the agency seven years ago as its head of production.
Among the shop’s high-profile TV and/or cinema spot campaigns are Air France’s “Flight” and “Cloud” directed by Michel Gondry, Peugeot 607 helmed by Fredric Planchon, Hollywood Chewing Gum directed by Tim Burton, Orange helmed by Wong Kar Wai, and BNP Paribas directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Known as a supporter of young, up-and-coming directors, Brovelli has also worked over the years with then emerging talent such as Neil Harris, Guillaume Canet, Antoine Bardou-Jacquet and Antony Antanasio.