The Brief for Tecno
Tecno Mobile is the largest smartphone manufacturer for Africa. It serves sixty countries worldwide and has a global partnership deal with Premier League football club, Manchester City.
Our challenge was to create a fantastical TV commercial and stills campaign that could run around the world. It had to focus on two critical technical functions of the phone: its incredible zoom capacity and the ability to take photographs in the dark.
The creative was set by Tecno’s advertising agency, based in Shanghai. It featured a La La Land-like couple going on a magical, romantic journey culminating in an extraordinary marriage proposal.
However, filming had to take place less than a fortnight from receiving the brief and required us to film inside a restaurant and a hot air balloon…
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Our Approach
At RD, we have worked extensively with sports stars; in particular football players. We understand how to create incredible sports content in an extremely limited time frame.
To produce a complex commercial like this for Tecno mobile, with only an hour of the player’s time, would require all of our production know how.
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The time frame and location issues meant that the shoot would have to take place in a studio. We worked closely with our friends at The Sharp Project to find the perfect space for the Tecno shoot.
Building a restaurant, from structure through to interior fittings, in a couple of days is one of the most difficult tasks we’ve had to undertake. Collosal effort, long days (and nights) and incredible lighting carried us over the line.
Capturing a stills and moving image campaign in such a condensed window of time, requires military planning and precision.
We performed eight filmed scenes, three wardrobe, hair and makeup changes and captured a stills campaign…in less than 60 minutes for Tecno.
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