Director Johnny Hopkins teams up with Fallon for the love of Wispa
When iconic chocolate bar Wispa was brought back at the behest of impassioned Facebook groups, it was inevitable that any advertising campaign would involve a healthy dose of people power.
The popular chocolate bar was retired by makers Cadbury in 2003, but after being barraged with petitions and protests, they brought it back in late 2008. And so Fallon creatives Nils-Petter Lovgren , Matt Keon and Ali Alvarez dreamt up For the Love of Wispa, a campaign that was to capitalise on the goodwill felt towards the brand.
Buses up and down the country were emblazoned with ads requesting everything from marching bands to belly dancers - all the while the team had to keep their fingers crossed that the public would respond. And they did. In 25 days a staggering 2,281 people got in touch.
They recruited young director Jonathan Hopkins from production company Between the Eyes to oversee it. It was a big jump for the director whose previous work has been on a much smaller scale - including the award-winning short about a genteel painter and his clown nemesis, Goodbye Mr Snuggles.
When Wispa originally launched back in 1983 it was with a teaser campaign featuring actors like Peter Cooke and Victoria Wood, and stars from TV series Dad's Army including Arthur Lowe and John LeMesurier.
Unsurprisingly, the task of curating and organising all of the pledges was something of a headache, with the agency and production company cooperating closely. "It was a shared cooperative. Fallon and Between the Eyes had several people working flat out in contacting the thousands of pledges and we were in close and continual communication - it had to be handled like a military operation," explains Hopkins. "It was my job, as directors, to ring the most promising candidates and vet them on the phone and via any YouTube links or videos they sent."
The team spent five anxious weeks filtering through the pledges, recruiting people, finding a location and figuring out just how big the spot would eventually be.
"Normally in ads and filmmaking, everything is meticulously planned - this spot had so many things that could wrong," explains Hopkins. Fortunately he had the help of level headed agency producers Nicky Barnes and Orlando Wood.
Shooting took place at Alexandra Palace, where over 350 fans gathered to take part in the shoot. A cursory glance at the call sheet reveals 33 cheerleaders, 16 rugby players, three wrestlers, 11 mod scooters, two belly dancers, four Irish dancers, one opera singer, two marching bands, eight hoola-hoopers, two knights, one choir, five BMXers, one barbershop quartet, 17 drummers, five stilt walkers, one hovercraft, three jugglers and one open-top bus. On top of that the team had commissioned pyrotechnic experts to create a firework-display in the shape of a blue and red Wispa bar.
"The atmosphere was electric," recalls Hopkins. "People had come from all over the country and we were unsure what kind of mood they'd be in considering they were all doing it unpaid and on the back of a brief night's sleep. When everyone arrived with big smiles and bundles of energy, the mood instantly lifted and when we started rolling camera and people began laughing and enjoying the show, everyone got into the swing. By the end of the day I got the impression that the performers had had a real hoot."
Despite the convivial atmosphere and sense of community, the shoot was still pretty challenging. A ringmaster in the centre of a bustling circus, Hopkins had to make sure his vast cast kept to the tight schedule. The music from the marching band was also recorded live on the day, which added its own set of difficulties too.
But the preparation and planning had paid off. Hopkins is full of praise for his DOP Ed Wild and first AD Ben Howarth, who managed to keep the energy high throughout the day, as well as producers Ben Pugh and Hayley Williams.
So having completed the most vast and complex - not to mention most high profile - job of his career so far, how did Hopkins feel the morning after? "Very weary, and after viewing the rushes, very relieved. It was character building project for a young director such as myself."
