Face to Face with... Darren Wright

Grey London hit us up with a brilliant new TV spot for Lucozade’s YES campaign this week and having been tickled by the 30-second lyrical masterpiece, we had to find out more from the agency’s creative director at the helm, Darren Wright.

The commercial, which is directed by Caviar Content’s Keith Schofield, focuses on creating physical and emotional energy, rather than just selling it and does so by introducing a brilliant new ambassador for the campaign, Dan, who is seen in all sorts of life scenarios doing different activities communicating the benefits of Lucozade energy.

Below, former Wieden + Kennedy talent, Wright, tells us about the new character, how the spot grew from a smaller national project and why he could never star in it himself.

What was the brief from Lucozade and how did the idea for the film come about?

Despite the fact the spot’s now a global one; it originally began life as a brief just for South Africa, who asked us to show how the glucose in Lucozade could energise your everyday life. We briefed the creative department and the very talented creative duo of Ben Beale and Rory Forrest had the idea of a spokesman explaining the type of energy you got when you drank a bottle. The lyrical language and the concept they developed as a whole enabled us to really have some fun with the scenarios – we even got humour into some of the more ‘mundane’ activities like hedge trimming. The mix of ordinary and extraordinary worked really well and we had a lot of fun putting it together. 

Why do you think Schofield was the right fit for the job?

Keith is just an amazingly funny guy. His reel is one of the best out there at the moment but it was when we first met him that we really knew he was the man for the job. He came into the room with so many ideas and it instantly became a genuine collaboration. Far from just being bloody funny though, he’s also incredibly clever. By this point we knew that the ad was going to go into more markets than just South Africa, and each market had different needs, different cultures and different things that made them laugh. So we decided to film far more situations than we’d ever need for one ad, and piece them together as required to form boutique little edits for each market.  Keith came to the table with a treatment that allowed us to be flexible in the edit without compromising on the comedy. Smart!

How hard was it to select all the scenarios for the spot? Did it take a lot of narrowing down?

Pretty difficult to be honest; firstly, because we ended up with so many to choose from, but also because we had to achieve a balance between the ordinary and extraordinary. We didn’t want to make an ad that was just full of crazy shit because the audience just wouldn’t have related to it; neither did we want to merely hold up a mirror to people’s everyday lives. So it took a lot of to-ing and fro-ing to make sure we got that balance right. I think it’s that juxtaposition that makes it so funny.

What’s your favourite scene from the commercial?

I love the ending, when we cut back to Dan and he’s just standing there in the same office, in a wetsuit, with no explanation. It’s just a bit surreal and unexpected. Funnily enough – and this is partly why I like it so much – it wasn’t scripted like that originally. We were just going to cut back to Dan in the office in his suit, but the client really pushed us to make that last scene funnier. So Keith and I were sitting there, having a chat between takes, and the wetsuit idea popped up. And within a few hours we were filming it.

It’s a funny spot, but was the shoot/production equally as amusing and did anything interesting happen you can tell us about?

Well apart from jet packs, crocodiles, and real-life explosions it was all pretty uneventful really! To be honest, we were really lucky that we had such a great crew. We had so much to do in such little time – two days’ worth of shooting in total – and how we managed to get everything in the can was amazing really. The only not-so-nice thing to happen was our producer Jess getting really sick on day one of the shoot and having to spend the rest of the time in Sunny South Africa locked away in a hotel room.

If you could make the commercial again, with different scenes from your own life, what activities/things would be included?

It’s already pretty much autobiographical as it is, to be honest. I spent a few years in the outback wrestling crocs before moving to LA where I was a stuntman specialising in explosives, so it wasn’t particularly hard to conceptualise the ad. All of which of course isn’t true. I’m incredibly boring. I’m not sure, but I don’t think reading Batman comics and collecting Nike trainers would’ve made the final cut.

The campaign is about creating physical and mental energy. Besides glucose, what motivates or stimulates you to get into gear either at work or home?

I think energy is infectious and when you’re surrounded by passionate people it’s hard not to be motivated by them. It’s great when young teams are really excited by an idea they’ve had, or if someone’s seen a new movie, director, a bit of tech that they’re buzzing about. My wife is a producer, also in advertising, and she’s always asking me if I’ve seen this new ad or telling me to check out this new director or listen to this new band. When people are passionate about things it’s impossible not to be motivated.

How did you cast Dan? Was it a long process and what was you looking for in the character?

It was so important to get the character of Dan right. We needed someone who was the epitome of good energy. Cool, but not suave. Positive but not cheesy. Confident but not arrogant. And because his delivery was always intended to be quite dead pan, we needed a little sparkle in his eye as to not come across too serious. It was a tough brief but as soon as we saw Anthony Welsh in the casting tapes we knew we had found the perfect guy.

Are we going to be seeing more of Dan in the future and if so can you give us any clues about what to expect?

I hope so. We think he’s a great character with a lot of comedic potential and there are lots of places we could take him. And that is all I’m allowed to say!