McCann Erickson's TVC and viral campaign for YOG shows what the youth can do

Youth, a period between childhood and becoming adult is often associated with inexperience and immaturity but also with freshness, vigour and energy. Youth Olympics Games (YOG), the very first international event to be hosted in Singapore, aims to bring to light the achievements by this inexperienced, yet immensely talented group.

Creative agency, McCann Erickson Singapore was tasked to create a TVC as well as a viral campaign to generate awareness about the YOG as well as to nurture the sporting culture among Singaporeans.

Farrokh Madon, the ECD behind this campaign said that he wanted to highlight what the youth can do as opposed to tell them what they can't or shouldn’t do.

“Youngsters are always told by adults what they shouldn’t do, or can’t do, somewhat pigeonholing them. The campaign we designed was aimed at overcoming this commonly held perception,” Madon explains.

In addition to the TVC, a viral campaign was also started in April this year to reach the youth through social media networking. The video in the campaign features a young boy who wants to prove to Asafa Powell, the Jamaican athlete, that he can run faster than him. To do this, he runs off with Powell’s backpack chased by the sprinter, who eventually fails to nab him. The video ends with the teenager setting down the bag and disappearing through the crowd, with Powell catching the writing on his T-shirt stating '2010 was my year'.

"The video in the viral is poorly shot, which was intentional as we wanted to catch the viewers by surprise in the same manner as Powell was,” says Madon.

“The video was uploaded on You Tube and through the assistance of our network we recruited a blogger who wrote about shooting this amateur video and writing about it. The network then helped us spread the work about this blog site and the video through their friends."

Credits:

Agency:  McCann Erickson Singapore
Executive Creative Director - Farrokh Madon
Senior Copywriter - Parixit Bhattacharya
Art Directors -Goh Wee Kim, Ang Sheng Jin
Agency Producer -  Charmaine Wong
Account Servicing : Pim Pritsangkul, Hoong Yun Peng, Lena Liew, Ellen Tan
Director - Desmond Tan (Salt Films)
Producer - Michelle Tan  ( Salt Films)
Executive Producer: Koh Say Chong (Salt Films)
Music  - Ben Rosen (The Gunnery)
Sound Design/Arrangement – Evan Roberts (The Gunnery)
Post Production – Black Magic Design
Editor: Pang Wei Fong (Black Magic Design)
Director of Photography:  Chin Kin Fong
Animation: Freddie Coles (Black Magic Design)